Page 87 of The Secrets We Hide
Emmy finally looked down at Jude. She was waiting for more.
“Tanya was my age. We weren’t friends so much as we had something in common. Celia and I used to do lines of coke with her in the bathroom.”
Emmy looked into the street again. The damning detail had taken away some of her skepticism, but Jude knew she would weigh every syllable.
“All the kids from school would go to the bar on the weekends. The drinking age was still eighteen. Not that Penley made us show IDs. We’d all get hammered, then drag race on the interstate.”
“Come on.” Emmy’s skepticism roared back. “My parents were born in the 1940s. You think I don’t know the plot toRebel Without a Cause?”
“Then you can guess how it ended. My car T-boned Lee’s truck. Tommy and I were okay, but—”
“Tommy was with you?”
Jude couldn’t stop for questions. “Lee hit the concrete barrier. Flipped at least half a dozen times. Landed upside down on the opposite side of the interstate. They had to cut him out of the truck. He was Life Flighted to Grady Hospital in Atlanta. He nearly lost his arm. You saw it. He still doesn’t have full use.”
Emmy slowly sat down beside her on the bench. “That’s a felony charge. Serious Injury by Vehicle. Up to fifteen years in prison. Plus whatever the going rate was for a DUI.”
“It was the early eighties. White teenagers from good families didn’t get in trouble for DUIs.”
“It’s hard to get them in trouble now.”
“Helps when your father is the sheriff.” Jude realized she was gripping the arm of the bench. She forced her hand to relax. “But the car accident crossed a line. Dad was getting pressure to charge me.”
“From the Rawleys?”
“Rawleys don’t go to the law. If they’d wanted me hurt, they would’ve used their hands.”
Emmy nodded her understanding. “That’s what Lee meant when he said he can’t abide a girl being punished for something that’s not her fault.”
Jude was usually proud of Emmy’s recall, but now it felt like a loaded weapon pointed at her head. “Lee was speeding, too. It could’ve just as easily been my car that flipped. Even criminals have a sense of fair play.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Emmy drummed her fingers on the metal bench. She was looking for holes. “If the Rawleys didn’t force you to leave, why did you have to go?”
Jude felt like her toes were dangling over a steep cliff. “The town turned against me. North Falls people.”
Emmy nodded again. She had likely seen the same scenario play out her entire life. “What about Tommy?”
“He supported me, but he had to go back to college. I was the easy target. And it’s not like I had a good reputation to begin with. I was an obnoxious brat. I dated around. Sang in a rock band. Smoked like a chimney. Drank like a fish. Dressed like a hippie. Every cliché you can think of. They were ready to stoneme before the accident. Afterward, there was a wall of hate everywhere I went.” Jude couldn’t believe that all these years later, she still felt the sharp sting of rejection. “So I boosted Millie’s Caddie and I left town.”
“You stole Millie’s car?” Emmy gave a surprised laugh. “Is that why she’s so pissed off at you?”
“One of the many reasons.”
“Okay.” Emmy gave the same nod as before. “That’s why you never came back home.”
“It’s complicated,” Jude said, which was another deflection, because they both knew the statute of limitation on most felonies was four years, not forty. Jude had been in the clear long ago. If the Rawleys hadn’t been after her, the only reason not to go home was because she didn’t think she had a home to go to.
“I’m gonna say something awful.” Emmy looked across the street. “I don’t understand Mom and Dad just letting you go like that.”
Jude looked across the street, too.
“Forty years,” Emmy said. “I feel like a knife is twisting in my heart when Cole takes a long vacation. I track him when he goes fishing on the river. You couldn’t pry him away from me.”
“You wouldn’t have liked the person I used to be.” Jude wasn’t going to let herself cry. “Martha Clifton taught me a lot, but it came at a cost.”
Emmy turned toward her. “You’ve been diminishing yourself since you got here.”
Jude was laid bare by the observation.
