Free Lake News by Barbara Delinsky Page B

second knock, then crept softly to the peephole. Relieved, she opened the door.
    â€œI knew you hadn’t left,” Elizabeth Davis said straight out. She wore a T-shirt over biking shorts and had herblond hair bunched in a clip. “I wasn’t sure you’d open up, though. How’re you doing?”
    â€œHorrible,” Lily said with a glance at the newpapers folded under Elizabeth’s arm. “Are those today’s?”
    â€œTwo Boston, one New York. Want to see?”
    â€œYou tell me.” She wrapped her arms around her middle. “I’m hoping for a retraction.”
    â€œYou didn’t get one,” Elizabeth warned. Unfolding the papers, she tossed them on the table one by one. “The Post reports that you drive a BMW and bought a slew of expensive furniture when you moved here. Cityside reports that you’re big into Victoria’s Secret shopping. New York reports that you favor upscale restaurants like Biba and Mistral, and that you spent a week last winter at a posh resort in Aruba that you couldn’t possibly have afforded on your own.”
    Lily was too stunned to be angry. “How do they know all that?”
    â€œAny computer buff can get the information in five minutes flat.”
    â€œBut that’s personal stuff!”
    â€œFive minutes flat.”
    â€œBut that’s me. My life. My private information . Where I shop is no one’s business!” She had a chilling thought. “What else can they get?”
    â€œMost anything.”
    Lily swallowed. She had to believe that some things were safe. Her mind began to spin. “I bought the BMW used, I paid off the furniture over two years’ time, I mail-order more from L. L. Bean and J. Crew than Victoria’s Secret, and I booked the place in Aruba on two days’ noticethrough a travel clearinghouse. I’m being misrepresented. This isn’t fair.”
    But Elizabeth wasn’t done. Holding up a hand, she crossed to the small radio on the counter by the stove. Within seconds, Justin Barr’s arrogant tenor filled the room.
    â€œâ€¦ an insult to Catholics everywhere! Why, this woman is an insult to people of every faith. Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Jews—no matter the affiliation, we should all be thinking about the values we hold most dear, the people who embody them, and the ones who try to take them down. Is there any act of disrespect more blatantly offensive than smearing the good name of a beloved leader?”
    â€œMe, smearing a nnn-name?” Lily cried.
    â€œNo, my friends,” Justin Barr ranted, “the question is how a woman like Lily Blake was able to get close enough to a man of the stature of Cardinal Rossetti to spread the stain, even indirectly, and now, Lord help us, she teaches our children. Where does it end? I have Mary from Bridgeport, Connecticut, on the line. Go ahead, Mary, you’re on the air.”
    Elizabeth turned off the radio.
    Lily was stricken. “I don’t believe this.”
    â€œJustin Barr is right-wing.”
    â€œJustin Barr is syndicated. That show goes up and down the East Coast.”
    â€œUh-huh.”
    â€œWhy?” Lily cried, referring not only to Justin Barr but to Terry Sullivan, Paul Rizzo, and all the rest who were keeping the story alive. “Why this? Why me?”
    â€œBecause they smell weakness,” Elizabeth said. “Wolves go after a wounded deer; it’s the nature of the beast. You have to take a stand, Lily. A lawyer would be a great help.”
    â€œI don’t want a lawyer.”
    â€œThen let me give it a try. I’ll get dressed, the two of us will go down there, and I’ll be your spokesperson. What do you say to that?”
    Lily didn’t say a word. She stood silently while Elizabeth read a statement unequivocally denying her romantic involvement with either Governor Dean of New York or Cardinal Rossetti of Boston.
    The statement was