He Called Every Truth a Lie novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: Twelve Steps
The Fairmount Garden Club sat at the top of a hill, with twelve wide stone steps up to its white front doors.
I had been up those steps for a hundred luncheons.
On Sunday morning I went up them with Ethan on one side and the detective on the other, and two officers behind.
Inside, the main hall smelled of lilies.
Sixty women sat in rows of folding chairs, and at the front a woman with a gavel was speaking.
"Nominations for chair of the Fairmount Garden Club are now open."
Inez sat in the front row.
She had put on a fresh cream cardigan, and her pearls, and she held her purse in her lap.
Her hair was set and her face was rested.
"I nominate Inez Nordin," said a thin voice from the back.
The room waited.
"Seconded," said someone else, much lower.
"Any other nominations?"
"I have one," said a woman in a gray coat.
She was one of the two who had walked out of the gala the night before.
She stood.
"I nominate nobody. I move that we close the nominations and ask Mrs. Nordin to step down."
A hush went through the rows.
"Second," said the woman beside her.
"Third," said another.
Inez stood up slowly.
"Ladies, you've been misled by a hysterical girl and a drunken man. I have chaired this club for twenty-two years. I've sat with your husbands in the hospital. I've held your hands at funerals."
"You've held mine at a few," someone muttered.
"Is there any other business?" Inez said, turning.
She saw me in the doorway.
Her face did not change at all.
"Mrs. Nordin." The detective walked up the aisle with the paper out. "I'm sorry to do this in front of your friends, but you left the hotel last night before we could finish."
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