Kisscut

Lena snapped the phone closed as he asked for her to return his call so they could reschedule. She would let Jeffrey deal with that. She was not in the habit of letting herself think too far ahead, but the meeting with Fine had been something she had settled her mind on as something to do tonight. In a flash, she saw herself going back to her empty house, being alone. Panic enveloped her.

She put her hand to her chest, feeling her heart pounding against her rib cage. She was sweating, she noticed, and the back of her knees felt hot and sticky. She wanted to hear Hank's message again, to see if there was a nuance in his voice she had missed. Maybe he had left an opening. Maybe he was playing some kind of game to make her say that she wanted him there.

The final bell rang, a loud, piercing tone that vibrated in Lena 's ears. She looked around the empty hallway, forgetting for a moment exactly where she was and why. As if out of a dream, she saw the image of a woman walking toward her. Lena 's eyes felt like they blurred for a moment, then with a start she realized that she was in Je

"Shit," Lena mumbled, looking down at her cell phone, willing it to ring. She flipped it open like she might make a call, but it was too late. Dottie Weaver was less than ten feet away holding a heavy-looking textbook in her hands.

Weaver stopped in the hallway, her mouth an angry straight line. Her eyes were bloodshot, like she had been crying for the last year. Red splotches were all over her face.

"Mrs. Weaver," Lena said, flipping her phone closed.

Dottie shook her head, like she was too angry to say anything.

"We're just talking to some classmates and teachers to see if they can shed any light on-"

"Why can't you just leave her alone?" Dottie begged. "Why can't you just let her rest in peace?"

"I'm sorry," Lena told the woman, and she meant it.

"She was my baby."

"I know that," Lena answered, looking down at her phone.

"You're here raking her name over the coals, trying to make her out to be a bad person."

"That's not my goal."

"Liar!" Dottie screamed, throwing the book at Lena. Lena dropped her phone to catch it, but missed. The spine slammed into her stomach and she winced as it dropped to the floor.

"Mrs. Weaver," Lena began, stooping to retrieve the textbook.

"The school wanted her book back," Dottie said, her bottom lip trembling. "Take it. Take it and tell them all they can go to hell."

Lena tried to close the book without damaging the pages. She picked up her phone, which didn't seem to be broken.

Dottie dabbed her eyes with some tissue, then blew her nose. She did not leave, though, which Lena could not understand until she spoke again.

"Je

Lena thought now was as good a time as any to get this out of the way. "Was she seeing anybody, Mrs. Weaver?"

Dottie shook her head. "A psychiatrist?" she asked.

"A boy," Lena clarified. "Was she seeing any boys?"

"No," Dottie snapped. "Of course not. She was just a child."

Lena nodded, feeling an encroaching dread. "Some of the girls said she was."

"Which girls?" Dottie asked, looking around as if they might be there.

"Just girls," Lena answered. "Friends from school."

"She didn't have friends," Dottie told her, narrowing her eyes, sensing some kind of trick. "What are they saying about my daughter?"

Lena tried to think of a way to say it. "That she…"

"That she what?" Dottie demanded.

Lena said, "That she saw a lot of boys. That she was with a lot of boys."

The slap came suddenly, and stung so much that after a few seconds the right side of Lena 's face went numb. Before Lena could think to respond, let alone react, she was looking at the back of Dottie Weaver as the woman left the school.

The library door bumped open, and Brad stood there, holding the door for the group of teachers he had been interviewing. They looked tired, and a bit irritated, but this was pretty normal from Lena 's recollection of teachers around lunchtime. One of them looked at Lena, and she could tell from the way the woman assessed her that she sensed something was wrong. The teacher raised an eyebrow as if to invite conversation, but Lena was too shocked to speak.

" Lena?" Brad prompted. She nodded that she was okay, wondering if her face was red where Dottie had slapped her.

Brad introduced all of the teachers, whose names Lena promptly forgot. He said, "They know about the rumor."

Lena blinked, not understanding.

"The rumor about Je

"None of us believed it," one of the teachers said, her voice indicating that she had resigned herself a long time ago to the fact that there were things that went on in the school that no teacher would ever know about.

"She was a good student," another teacher said. "Very quiet, turned her work in on time. Her mother was involved."

The other teachers nodded, and Lena duplicated the gesture, still too shocked to offer anything of consequence.

"Thank you for your time," Brad said, moving things along. He shook hands with each of them in turn, and to the last one they gave him an encouraging look.

"I'm sorry we couldn't help more," one said.

Another told him, "If we think of anything, we'll call you."

The woman who had looked at Lena was last, and she told Brad, "You did an excellent job, Bradley. I'm very impressed."

Brad beamed. "Thank you, ma'am," he said, tucking his head down like a happy puppy. He waited until the teachers were gone before asking Lena, "Whose book?"

"Je

"How'd you get it?"

Lena could not answer him. "Here," she said, handing him the book. "Take it to the front office, then meet me in the car."

The parking lot of Suddy's was pretty empty, even at eight o'clock. If Sibyl and Nan 's life had been any indication, probably most of the lesbians in town were at home, watching sitcoms. Not that Sibyl could watch them, she was blind, but she liked to listen sometimes, and Nan would narrate what was happening.

Lena crossed her arms, thinking about Sibyl, and how she had looked the last time Lena had seen her; not the time in the morgue, but the day before she had died. As usual, Sibyl had been full of energy, and laughing at something that had happened in one of her classes. Above everything, Sibyl loved teaching, and she had taken great joy from being in front of a classroom. Maybe that was why Lena had had such a negative reaction to being at the school today.

Before she could stop herself, Lena got out of the car. Suddy's was nice by most bar standards. Compared to the Hut, Hank's bar over in Reece, it was a palace. Outside, the decor was spare, probably because a place like this would not want to draw attention to itself. Other than a Budweiser sign with a neon rainbow flag incorporated into the logo, the building was pretty nondescript.

The interior was more festive, but the lights were down low, making the room a little too intimate for Lena. Something soft played on the jukebox, and a spi