sat down. “I have to admit, you have me curious. You didn’t really say why you wanted to talk about Lily.”
He sat across from her. “She’s grown important to me since the accident.”
Karla smiled softly. “I could tell there was something going on there.” Then she sobered. “She seemed like such a strong woman when I first met her. I thought she’d do all right going to that parole hearing all by herself, but I could tell it was hard on her afterward.”
There it was, the missing piece. “What parole hearing?”
“Oh … I thought you knew.” Her expression turned worried. The waitress came and he ordered coffee. So did Karla, but in an absentminded way.
“Lily told me she went to the prison to see a friend,” he reminded her when the waitress left.
“Oh,” Karla hedged. “Yes, I remember.”
“I could tell that wasn’t the truth.”
“I see.” She poured sugar into her coffee and stirred. “I thought she’d have told you by now.”
“She hasn’t. I think it’s too difficult for her. I was hoping you could tell me the real reason she was there.”
Stopping her spoon, Karla stared at him, her hesitance etched over her expression. “I’m not sure how much I should tell you. What if she doesn’t want me to?”
“Like I said, she’s grown important to me. I want to help if I can.”
Slowly Karla’s expression smoothed. “That’s very kind of you, Sheriff.”
“If you aren’t comfortable talking to me, you can give me the name of the inmate case manager.”
He watched her process that. He was a sheriff. He had his ways of finding out what he needed with or without her help. Now that he knew Lily had gone to a parole hearing, and what day, he wouldn’t have much trouble tracking down the case manager.
“No, no need for that. Lily’s one of those special victims to me. A real fighter when all’s said and done. I care about what happens to her, and I would love to know that she’s happy. You want to know why she was there that day? She testified at Brandon Gates’s parole hearing. She was the only victim who had the nerve to come forward out of all those women who testified at his trial.”
Wes didn’t like where this was heading. Out of all those women …
“Who is Brandon Gates? What was he in for?” he asked, fearing he already knew.
“Sexual assault.”
“He raped her?” He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised, as wary as Lily was around him, and as reluctant as she was to go out with him. Being with men had to be hard for her. Trusting them even harder.
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