Chapter 18 #2
"Besides," Hannah continued, "it wasn't my story to tell. If Lori wanted people to know about her relationship issues, she would have told them herself. Look, we were all young. People make mistakes.”
"This doesn't sound like Lori at all," Kelly said, her voice cracking slightly. "I guess I didn’t really know her. I thought she loved Cal."
"Maybe she did love him at one time, but it wasn’t enough for forever. It wasn’t going to last. There wasn’t going to be a fairytale ending. People are complicated. Even Lori."
Ben had remained silent throughout the exchange, his eyes moving between the two women. Kelly could feel the weight of his attention, knew he was cataloging every detail, fitting this new puzzle piece into place alongside what they'd learned from Mrs. Whitfield.
“I need to get back to work," Hannah said, sliding out of the booth. "It’s lunchtime, and it’s always crazy in here. Listen, I’m sorry that you learned that about Lori. Where did you learn it, by the way? Did she tell someone else?"
Kelly didn’t know how to reply, and she didn’t need to. Someone from the kitchen was waving wildly at Hannah, beckoning her to come quickly. Hannah apologized and raced away, calling out to her employee that she would be right there.
As Hannah weaved through the tables toward the kitchen, Kelly turned to Ben, finding his eyes already on her.
"What do you think?" she asked quietly.
"I think we just found a very significant lead," he replied, his voice equally low. "If Lori was seeing someone else and that person got her pregnant..."
"They might have had a powerful motive to keep her quiet," Kelly finished. “And it would explain why Cal didn’t seem to know or suspect anything.”
They sat in silence for a moment, both processing the implications. Kelly watched an elderly couple at a nearby table, their comfortable silence born of decades together. They likely knew every secret, every story the other had to tell. She'd thought she and Lori had been like that, too.
"I don’t think Hannah’s revelation has changed anything," Ben said. "We still need to talk to Cal again. See if he had any suspicions back then."
"Do we tell him about the pregnancy?" Kelly asked.
"Not yet. Not until we know more about who she might have been seeing."
"I'm not sure we can tell anyone about what we know," she whispered. "Not until we understand what it means."
"Agreed," Ben said. nodding in agreement. “Bergen has kept enough secrets. Let's not add to them until we have to."
Kelly's mind scrolled through faces from the past. Boys who had admired Lori from afar. Men who had been suspiciously friendly. Teachers, coaches, and older brothers of friends. The possibilities seemed endless and exhausting.
"Whoever it was," she said quietly, "they were important enough for her to risk everything with Cal. Important enough that she thought they wanted what she wanted."
"We'll find them," he promised.
“You can’t know that.”
“Two days ago, we didn’t know all of this. Anything can happen. Let’s believe.”
Lori had kept secrets from her, but Kelly wouldn't let that stand in the way of justice.
“So we talk to Cal again,” Ben said. “Anyone else come to mind?”
She knew exactly who she wanted to talk to.
Keith Caldwell. He had been their English teacher back in high school. He’d also been inordinately interested in Lori.
Just what did he have to say for himself?
Kelly sank onto the couch as soon as they entered the condo, her limbs heavy with the weight of revelation.
The drive back from The End Zone had passed in near silence, both of them processing Hannah's casual bombshell.
Lori cheating on Cal. Lori pregnant. Lori keeping secrets from her best friend.
These fragments kept circling in Kelly's head like vultures over a carcass.
Ben closed the door and followed her into the living room, sitting close but not touching.
The clock on the wall ticked steadily, marking time in a world that suddenly felt unfamiliar.
Outside, cars passed on the street below, the sounds filtering through the windows along with the afternoon sunlight.
"I feel like my entire friendship with Lori was a lie," Kelly finally said, her voice flat. Her hands trembled slightly as she clasped them in her lap. "My best friend was pregnant and seeing someone else, and I had no idea. None. Nada. Zip."
Ben leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Kelly—"
"Do not try to make me feel better," she said with a definitive shake of her head. She was in no mood to hear that people were complicated and that life was weird. "Do not tell me that teenage girls keep secrets or that it was a different time or any of that. Just don't."
"I won't. What you're feeling is valid. I would be upset, too."
The simple acknowledgment of her pain loosened something in her chest. At least one person on this planet understood.
"I just keep wondering what else I missed," Kelly continued. "What other signs were there that I was too self-absorbed to see?"
"You were seventeen," Ben pointed out. "We're all self-absorbed at seventeen. It's practically a requirement."
"Maybe. But I thought we told each other everything, but clearly I was way wrong. Now I learn she was seeing someone else behind Cal's back? Someone who might have gotten her pregnant?"
"It actually makes sense when you think about it," Ben said.
"Hannah mentioned that Lori had been acting strange, canceling plans, and being secretive.
You said yourself she was acting different.
And Cal told us they'd fought about marriage, that she'd wanted to settle down and he didn't, and then she suddenly made a complete turnaround and dropped the subject completely. "
“She met someone who wanted what she wanted,” Kelly said.
"It's possible. And if so, it opens a fresh line of inquiry. It might explain why Cal seemed genuinely surprised by her behavior changes. He wasn't the father."
"But why wouldn't Lori tell me about this other person?" Kelly pressed. "Why keep it a secret from me of all people?"
"Maybe she wasn't ready to admit what she was doing. Hannah said that she didn’t truly admit it to her. She danced around the question, wanting to drop the subject."
Kelly sat with that possibility for a moment, trying to view her friend with adult eyes rather than through the lens of teenage certainty. Had Lori simply found herself in a grown-up situation and having to make those adult decisions while they were still pretty much kids?
“Lori wanted to be done being a teenager,” Kelly admitted. “She wanted to be all grown-up and out from under her parents’ rules. Cal, on the other hand, wasn’t in any hurry whatsoever to grow up. He was looking forward to four more years of being a student at college and having fun.”
“Lori may have found a kindred soul,” Ben replied. “Or maybe she put herself into that position sort of accidentally on purpose. A part of her might have thought that if she were a mother, that would automatically make her a grown-up, someone that should be respected and not questioned.”
It was twisted logic, but Kelly remembered the conversations she and her friend group had been a part of back then.
When I’m in college, I won’t have a curfew anymore.
When I graduate, I’ll get a job and my own place. I’ll tell my parents that it’s my house and my rules.
When I live on my own, I’ll be able to eat ice cream for dinner if I want to.
Silly stuff, and mostly harmless.
“The question is who Lori would have cheated with?” Ben asked. “You said she was pretty and popular.”
“There were lots of guys who would have happily dated her,” Kelly agreed. “She could have pretty much had her pick, except for the guys already dating someone else.”
“Unless they were willing to cheat, too,” Ben said.
"I think Keith Caldwell is still a person of interest," Kelly said. "He always paid special attention to Lori in class, and she would have seen him as a mature man."
"We'll talk to him," Ben agreed. "But lets continue to follow this new thread. If Lori was seeing someone else that summer, who else might it have been? We have Caldwell, but is there anyone else?"
Kelly frowned, her mind working to reconstruct that last summer of Lori's life.
"She spent most of that summer helping her aunt at a coffee shop."
"In Bergen?"
"No," Kelly said, the memory suddenly crystal clear, memories flooding back. "In Westfield, the next town over. Her uncle had broken his leg in a bad car accident, and her aunt needed help running the coffee shop they owned. She told Lori she’d pay her if she came to help. Lori stayed with her aunt almost the whole summer.”
Ben straightened, his expression brightening with interest. "So Lori spent the summer in another town, away from everyone who knew her in Bergen. That's a perfect setup for meeting someone new, and away from the prying eyes of the town. And Cal, of course."
"The perfect setup,” Kelly agreed. “And then when she came back for school, Cal said that they were having problems.”
“Because she’d met someone else. What was her aunt's name?" Ben asked, pulling out his phone.
"Patricia Winters. Jim was her mother's brother."
Ben typed the name into his notes app. "Are they still around?"
"As far as I know. They sold the coffee shop years ago and moved to Florida after Jim retired.”
“We’ll find her,” Ben assured Kelly. “Wait, is this maybe her Facebook page?”
He handed Kelly his phone.
“That looks like her,” Kelly replied. “Let me send her a message and leave her my phone number. Maybe she’ll call me back. I remember her as being friendly and nice.”
"Perfect," Ben said. "Patricia might know who Lori was spending time with that summer. If Lori was helping at the coffee shop, she might have noticed regular customers who paid special attention to her niece."
"And if Lori was cheating on Cal, she might have confided in her aunt rather than friends back home," Kelly added. "Especially if she was trying to keep it quiet in Bergen."
"Exactly," Ben confirmed. "This could be the lead we need."
Kelly felt a small surge of hope amid the confusion and hurt. This was actionable. This was something they could pursue. It was better to do something…anything…rather than sit around and let her thoughts drive her crazy.
"I'll send the message now," she said, reaching for her phone.
"Wait," Ben said. His hand lightly touched her arm, the warmth of his skin a stark contrast to the chill she'd felt since learning about Lori's secrets. "Before you do, let's think about our approach. If Patricia knows something, we don't want to scare her off."
"I’ll keep it casual. No big deal. Back in town and reminiscing. That sort of thing. I’ll tell her that I found a few photos and offer to share them. I do actually have some that Patricia might want."
It wasn’t much, but it was something. A new path, a new direction.
Lori, just what did you do that summer?