Real Bad Things(63)
“Are you a lesbian?” James shoved forward. Rude. And hateful the way he said it. Like it was a dirty word, something someone should be ashamed of. Maybe if people like James didn’t say it that way, people wouldn’t be so afraid all the time.
“Of course not.” Not a lie. She wasn’t a lesbian, technically speaking.
“That’s what Let’s Talk About Maud is reporting this morning,” the student reporter said.
“Yes, I’ve seen. Along with the absurd and unfounded speculation of some vast and detailed crime when the perpetrator has clearly confessed,” Georgia Lee said. “I support the police in their pursuit of justice and will do everything in my power to assist them should they find additional evidence in relation to the existing crime, which I don’t believe they have.” Dear Lord, let there be no evidence.
James wouldn’t let up. “What does your husband have to say about this?”
Katrina had lost interest and wandered away to check her phone. That’s when Georgia Lee noticed Bollinger standing next to his car, arms crossed, a pleased look on his face. He wiggled his fingers to wave. Of course. He’d set this all up, no doubt. But how’d he get the photos? Or did he simply know about their impending release? Either way, she would not let him get one over on her. She returned her attention to James.
“This unsubstantiated claim by a couple of mechanics in a garage?” she asked. “You care more about that than the fact that a murderer is walking our streets and the police have done nothing to arrest her?” A low blow. The quip immediately festered in her stomach, but she was an animal, backed into a corner. She promised to retract it later.
Who cared about crime when you had two women doing something people thought they ought not do? Perhaps she should feel shame, like people were wont to do when they were confronted with the indiscretions of the past. But she didn’t feel shame. She had been young, and she had been in love. She had been happy, and it showed. She’d been aglow with something rare. What everyone wanted but few found, the absence of which made people bitter or complacent or maybe both. She’d had it, and then it had slipped away. But this—this was a reminder of what she’d once felt, who she’d been, who she might be again. The thought alternately thrilled and terrified her.
She put on a big smile and ignored further questions as she made her way toward her car. Before she shut the door and all of them behind her, she yelled out, “Don’t forget to vote!”
Nineteen
GEORGIA LEE
Georgia Lee drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. She couldn’t go home. She couldn’t face Rusty. The boys. The video of her in the pharmacy parking lot with a salacious headline running over and over as the sole enticement to watch the five o’clock news.
Those waves of thrill and terror, calm and chaos from earlier in the day continued. She sat in the parking lot of the Walmart for a while before sitting in the parking lot of the Taco Bell awhile longer after going through the drive-through. She downed the emergency bottle of wine she kept in the trunk. No point in worrying about anyone seeing now. The election, all but lost.
Involved in a murder? She might have a chance. Making out with another woman? Not in Maud.
She’d been too frazzled by the photo to read the full details from Let’s Talk About Maud. She pulled up the post to assess the damage.
SECRET LOVERS. YEAH, THAT’S WHAT THEY ARE!
Is that Holier Than Thou City Council Member Georgia Lee Liar
getting down with a girl? But not just any girl.
That’s the infamous Lezzie Borden, aka
Jane Mooney, stepdaughter of Warren Ingram,
the man who went missing 25 years ago and turned up all dancing skeletons
down at the Lock and Dam a month ago.
Like y’all needed the reminder. Lol.
We’d of never thunk it.
But our secret source Lovelace claims it’s the God Honest truth.
(Georgia Lee would probably sue us if we agreed.)
Lovelace wouldn’t say where or how he or she (gotdam y’all,
we’re gonna have to use THEY) came upon these photos, but THEY sure as shit are
convinced the Headless Girl in them there pics is our very own
Georgia Lee Lesbian.
SAY WUT?!?
We didn’t believe it at first, but
with that gal back in town, eating pizza with a certain city councilor we know,
we gotta accept the facts where they lead.
(That tip came free of charge from the great gals down at Tommy’s Pizza!)
Could Georgia Lee be a person of interest, NAY an ACCOMPLICE, in a . . .
(insert an image of a lady in a floofy gown gasping right here, folks)
MURDER?!
We ain’t saying she is. But we ain’t saying she ain’t.
Georgia Lee Lane, you got some ’splaining to do!
#OhShitYall #MaudMurderMystery #LesbiansLesbiansLesbians #SinnerSinnerChickenDinner
She scrolled through the comments even though she knew better. They contained a mix of shock and vicious glee and out-of-context Bible verses condemning her alleged sin.
After sitting there awhile to let the food settle and to make the inside of the car stop spinning from all the wine, she wound up at Jane’s door, lips still buzzing from her overindulgence. She knew better than to drive toward that doomed part of town in her intoxicated state. She knew she shouldn’t be standing in front of the door of the woman whose hands had been all over her in those photos. How compromised she would look. How they’d laugh. Anyone—John, Benjamin, KMSM, Katrina, even the college reporter—could show up at any time.