Page 77 of Home Body
“As for her own baby, in the special tonight she’ll say she had a baby in that clinic and believes it was stolen and sold. She won’t say, at least not yet, that she knows for sure that her baby was sold. My article only talks about working with Dr. Crow.”
Dalia nodded. “Thank you. That’s best for now.”
“It surely is,” Mamie agreed. “But you know what else?” She tapped the table with a forefinger. “I think it’s perfect that you’re the one to break the story and your mom is following up. You know why?”
“Because Llayne is right to say this is going to break no matter what,” Brody noted. “Now that the FBI is there this is going to be national news. There isn’t any hiding it.”
“And Amberton is going to be swamped with reporters from all over,” Dalia added.
“Right,” Mamie said. “It’s better that someone we trust is controlling the breaking story. Someone with heart. Someone with soul. That’s you, Kenyon.”
“Oh, whew. What a relief.” Kenyon’s chest caved in with a whoosh of breath. “I was terrified you’d think I was taking advantage of our friendship – well, our family connection now. Our friendship means more to me than a job.”
Dalia couldn’t help but tease. “Are you sure? That’s your dream job.”
“Well, yeah. There is that. But the sheriff said basically everything you just said. The case is out of his hands now, so he and his meager staff are gearing up for a stampede of reporters. He’s giving a press conference this evening at six. Well, I’d better get this article to the paper.” Kenyon stood up and snatched two cookies for the road.
They all stood, and Brody said, “Kenyon, you can’t drive into that part of the city this time of night alone in the dark. I’ll take you.”
“I’m coming, too.” Dalia grabbed a napkin full of cookies, too, ready to go.
The three of them piled into the wide front seat of Brody’s truck and took off. On the way, Dalia and Brody told Kenyon their wedding plans and she absolutely insisted that Dalia wear her wedding dress.
“You must!” She trilled. “It’ll be beautiful on you. And Rose loves it. You’ll make her so happy. And it isn’t like I’m going to wear it to my nonexistent wedding.”
Dalia eventually demurred, ever so grateful for the offer.
In the city, they drove right past Babette’s Gentlemen’s Club. “Sorry,” Brody said. “This is the quickest way to the newspaper.”
Dalia squinted. “Oh my god, that damned flashing neon sign. My stomach always did a flip the minute it came into view.”
They gawked out the window as the obnoxious blinking red light hit them, smothering them in its depravity.
“I don’t actually remember it,” Kenyon confessed. “I was too drunk. But think about this: as horrible as that was for me…” Brody turned a corner and the club disappeared from view “…without Chad the Cad cheating on me, we never would have met.”
“That’s true. And I still might’ve looked for my birth mother but without your investigative skills, I wouldn’t have got anywhere.”
“Well, thank you Chad the Cad!” Brody declared.
The women looked at each other and shook their heads. “Nooothanks!” they chirped.
With the article delivered on time and the excitement of the day pressing in, Dalia and Kenyon dozed while Brody drove home. But he woke them up as they approached Farmdale.
“Girls, you have to see this.”
He’d pulled over and stopped. The women blinked sleepily to try to focus on the billboard on the side of the road. There, in bold red paint, Chad’s giant advertisement had once again been graffitied. Where it had said, “Chad Damon, your A-1 choice,” it now said, “Chad the Cad Demon, your Ass Hole choice.”
Kenyon’s titter broke into a full-blown wail of laughter. Catching her breath and pointing, she sputtered, “My brother Zach. His last mischievous act of a twelve-year-old boy before going away to the Air Force to become a man.”
Dalia cocked her head to study it. “I like it. Thank him for me.”
Brody said, “I’m just going to pretend I have no idea what you’re talking about so I don’t have to arrest anybody.”
He drove them back to the farm so they could all go home and get some sleep.
CHAPTER 45
At five-twenty-seven in the morning Kenyon stood on the corner in the center of Farmdale waiting for the daily batch of newspapers to be delivered to the machine in front of the bank. She didn’t recall ever being out of bed this time of day and felt invigorated by the beauty of the sun rising at the end of Main Street, casting a golden glow all the way through town. Shadows on buildings crawled into oblivion as the structures themselves woke up to the day.
