Chapter 5: The Garden Club Screen

The Klamath Falls Garden Club met on Tuesdays at noon, and Sheila Tolland had never missed one in nineteen years.

I got there at ten to twelve.

I wore the green dress again, because it was the only thing I owned that had survived the trip.

I had my phone in one hand and a borrowed charging cable in the other.

The hall was the same hall where the lanterns had hung two nights ago.

Somebody had taken the lanterns down and set out forty chairs and a long table of lemon cake.

Forty women sat with their purses on their laps.

Sheila stood at the front beside a projector screen, in a lavender cardigan, tapping a little silver bell.

She saw me in the doorway and her smile did not move at all.

"June, dear," Sheila said. "What a surprise."

"Hello, Sheila."

"Are you here to apologize? The ladies have all heard how upset you were."

"I'm here to show something to the club."

Every head turned.

I walked down the middle aisle and stopped at the little AV table beside the screen.

The projector cable was still plugged in from the anniversary party.

I connected my phone, and the screen behind Sheila lit up blue.

"June, this is a private lunch," Sheila said, and her voice had a crack in it for the first time.

"It's a public hall," I said. "Brett's party was too. Sixty people filmed it, and I'd like the rest of the town to see the whole thing."

I pressed play.

The cloakroom door filled the screen, ten feet tall.

The women gasped at the same moment.

Brett's hands were in Kendra's hair.

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