Chapter 5 Lori #2
“That wasn’t me,” Sally said firmly. “I had a friend, Jackie. She came from abusive parents. They were so strict with her. They had very little. Her parents worked many different jobs to make ends meet. Jackie was their future meal ticket. To the point where if her grades weren’t A-plus, she’d come to school with bruises.
Not ones you could see easily. They were marks from canings on her back and legs. ”
“That’s horrible,” Lori breathed.
“There was this group of girls at school. They were terrible bullies. We called them the Nasties. They would get away with everything because of who their parents were. Anyone who stood up to them was painted as the villain. That’s how good both the school and these girls were at covering their tracks. ”
“I think I see where this is going,” Lori said.
“The queen of the Nasties, her father was the governor. According to her, the quarterback, Zac, was her property. Zac had a huge crush on Jackie and asked her to the prom, but she said no. But he kept asking. Queen Nasty didn’t like that one bit.
” Sally’s brows rose, and she shook her head at the memory.
“That couldn’t have made Queen Nasty happy,” Tessa said with a low whistle. “I know, I had a queen nasty in high school too.”
“One day at lunch, Jackie and I were going to sit on the bleachers where we always sat. But as we got there, Queen Nasty and her gang surrounded us. We had our lunch trays. You know the hard metal trays. She told her friends to stand lookout and yell if anyone came. When they left, she pulled out a knife and threatened to carve up Jackie’s face if she didn’t tell Zac she wasn’t interested. ”
Lori and Tessa both gasped in shock.
“Jackie told her she’d tried to tell him no, but Zac wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Queen Nasty didn’t like that. She lunged at Jackie with the knife.
Jackie acted on instinct and lifted her tray.
The knife hit it and bounced off. Then Queen Nasty lunged again in a rage, and Jackie swung the tray and hit Queen Nasty in the head.
It was such a blow that it knocked her out. ”
“The report said you did that,” Tessa corrected.
“I gave Jackie my tray and took the blame,” Sally said, looking directly at Tessa.
“I knew what her parents would do to her if they found out. I knew I could get into another school, as we had the means to get me there. My parents would be angry, but they’d understand eventually.
Jackie’s parents wouldn’t care about the excuse.
And Jackie wouldn’t have been able to get into another school.
Her parents had nothing. They lived in a trailer park.
Jackie wanted to be a doctor her whole life.
If she’d been expelled with that on her record, her whole future would have been destroyed. ”
“You took the blame and got a permanent record for that,” Lori stated, awed by this revelation.
Sally nodded. “My friend Jackie works here now on Nantucket as a doctor. She’s the one who helped patch up the judge’s wife discreetly for us every time she needed a doctor.”
“Dr. Simons?” Tessa sputtered. “Dr. Jackie Simons is the friend?”
Sally nodded, a small smile finally crossing her face.
Lori sat there staring at Sally, her entire perspective of the woman completely transformed.
This wasn’t the calculating, jealous woman she’d thought Sally was.
This was someone who had suffered terribly and still found the strength to protect others.
While there was never an excuse for being horrible to someone, Lori understood Sally’s protective shell.
Before she could stop herself, the question burst out. “Sally, why was Elias Dane in Nantucket?”
“I called Barstow to get him to investigate where the threatening calls were coming from and who was making them,” Sally told them.
“Why was he spying on me and Tessa?” The words kept coming, Lori unable to stop the flood now that it had started.
“What?” Sally’s face fell, all color draining from it.
“No.” Her head shot around, scanning the coffee shop as if seeing it for the first time as a place of danger.
“Why does Mitch have these files?” she asked, tapping the pile now in front of Tessa.
“Why is he, and I presume his friend Marcus, looking into all our backgrounds? Are they or Marcus perhaps working for the Lanes?”
“I don’t think they’re working for the Lanes,” Lori said, standing up and gathering the files. “But let’s go ask them why they have all this information on all of us. And while we’re there, you need to tell Mitch, Marcus, and Ryan everything you’ve just told us.”
“Why? What is going on, Lori?” Sally asked, following her and Tessa.
“We’ll explain everything when we’re at Mitch’s house,” Tessa promised. “I’ll meet you there. I’m just going to get Misty.”
Lori nodded, and they parted at the door of the coffee shop.
As Tessa walked in the opposite direction, a weird chill ran up Lori’s spine.
She felt like they were being watched. Her eyes scanned the perimeter and caught a flash of someone ducking into the grocery store across the road.
She stood staring towards it for a moment.
“Is everything alright, Lori?” Sally asked.
“I’m not sure,” Lori said. “Did you see someone duck into the grocery store?”
“No,” Sally said, shaking her head. Her eyes widened with fear. “Do you think someone is following us?”
“What?” Lori looked at her, startled, and then shook her head. “No. It’s probably just me being a little jumpy. With everything going on and now your story…”
“Well, let’s get to Mitch’s house,” Sally suggested, glancing around wearily. “I think we’ll both feel better when we’re there.”
“Agreed,” Lori said. As they started walking, she glanced over her shoulder and again saw a figure move away from the store’s window.