Free The Accused by Jana DeLeon Page B

was a great plan—but she could no longer ignore the thought. Maybe she’d been too hasty with her career. She could have sucked it up and stayed where she was while putting out feelers for positions with other firms. Sure, Peterson, Winstrom and Wilson was the most prestigious in Baton Rouge, but it wasn’t as if she had ties to that city. New Orleans had always been fun to visit. She could have moved there, or out of state...maybe back to New England, where her law school friends had settled into successful careers.
    She blew out a breath. All of that was hindsight, which didn’t do her any good. She had to face the situation in front of her and decide if she wanted to chuck it all now. At least she would only have lost a couple of days. Not to mention leaving now would likely improve her health. Living in Calais was certain to cause her high blood pressure, maybe even a heart attack.
    A bit of relief coursed through her when she saw the lit Open sign in the café window. A small building with lights and people was exactly what she needed to get her back to normal. When she wasn’t panicked, she could make decisions.
    A pretty, young waitress greeted her when she walked into the otherwise-empty café. “Take a seat anywhere. The cook’s late as usual, but I’ve got a fresh pot of coffee almost ready. You interested?”
    “Absolutely,” she said and slipped onto a stool at a bar in front of the grill, wanting to be near the only other person in the room.
    The waitress smiled and poured her a cup of the steaming liquid. “You must be Alaina,” she said as she set the coffee in front of her. “My name’s Connie.”
    Alaina stared at her for a moment.
    “Small town,” Connie explained. “Your arrival is big news and even if everyone in here yesterday wasn’t talking about it, I would know you weren’t from here anyway. I know everyone in Calais. Took me all of four days to meet the whole town when I first moved here.”
    Alaina smiled. “Four whole days?”
    “The Johnsons were on vacation or it would have been faster.”
    Alaina laughed, feeling more at ease in the company of this pleasant woman. “I guess I haven’t settled into the small-town role yet.”
    “I have to admit it took a bit of getting used to. I’ve lived mostly in cities, where you can get robbed on the street in broad daylight and everyone will pretend they didn’t see. In Calais, a new haircut is worth at least thirty minutes of breakfast conversation.”
    “Then I guess I’ll disappoint everyone. I had a haircut right before I left.”
    Connie poured herself a cup of coffee and took a big sip, then leaned on the counter in front of Alaina. “How was your first night in the house?”
    Alaina felt her stomach clench. “It was fine,” she said, hoping her voice sounded normal.
    Connie stared at her for a moment. “You sure?”
    “Why do you ask?”
    “Because when you came in here, you looked like you’d seen a ghost.”
    Alaina set her coffee cup down too hard and coffee sloshed over the edge of the cup and splashed onto her hand.
    “Oh!” Connie turned around and scooped a piece of ice out of the cooler behind her. She wrapped it in a thin dishrag and handed it to Alaina. “I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
    Alaina placed the cool rag against the red spot on the back of her hand and instantly felt some of the pain dissipate. “It’s not your fault,” she assured the clearly distraught waitress. “I might have exaggerated my comfort level with the house just a bit.”
    “We have some ointment in the back and some bandages.”
    Alaina lifted the cloth to inspect her hand. “It’s fine.” She held up her hand toward Connie to show her that the tiny pink spot was all that was left.
    “Thank goodness,” Connie said as she studied Alaina’s hand. “Burns are nasty and will bother you at the most inconvenient times.”
    “I’ve been fortunate to only have the occasional hair-implement burn, but then