Done to Death by Charles Atkins

or if, I’ll drop that dime. And once convicted, you’d be a registered sex offender − that is, after you got out of jail. Now let’s think of what this exciting news − rape, incest and Lenore the lesbian – would have on your precious LPP. I’m thinking you would lose all sponsors, no network would run any of your programming, the magazine would tank … maybe get a last issue for the freak value. So, any ideas you have to lock me away, or get me to abort our child, you need to shut them down right fast. Do you understand?’
    Stunned, he said nothing. He felt a rage and the strong urge to hit her. To wrap his hands around her throat.
    â€˜Oh dear.’ She stared back at him. ‘You know I can actually tell what you’re thinking. You want to hit me? Do it.’ Holding the shoes in one hand she stood still, barely a foot separating them.
    He caught the trace of her smile. And I can read your mind too , he thought. And he did the one thing he knew would hurt her. He turned and, without saying anything, walked out.
    â€˜Get dressed,’ she shouted after him.
    He stopped. ‘Why?’
    â€˜I want to go into town. Wear something somber.’

ELEVEN
    I t felt odd and, if Lil were honest, not great. She stood behind the stone wall of Grenville’s picturesque cemetery and watched Ada, who looked like a chic fifties hostess who’d just left a cocktail party to hang out among the graves. All she needed was a Martini and a cigarette.
    Earlier, they’d asked Lil if she’d wanted to join them in the RV. She’d declined. Ada had given her a look, as though she knew something was off. She’d asked, ‘Your column?’
    Lil had nodded, as though it were true. Face it , she thought, you’re jealous. You’re feeling like a third wheel. And you know what? Get over it. Unobserved, she felt another emotion, pride at how lovely Ada looked and at how natural she seemed in front of the camera. Not just here, but since that first phone conversation with Barry. As though Ada could speak this other language and pitch TV shows, albeit gruesome ones, off the top off her head. Why didn’t I know this about her? Don’t take her for granted. As she watched Ada, she realized this would be her next column. She’d have to be careful not to have it come off as self-serving. But the Grenville antiques industry could get a needed shot in the arm from having a hit reality show filmed in its midst. While the dealers she interviewed on a weekly basis downplayed the soft economy, the fallout had been severe. Sales had tanked across the board, with the notable exception of the very high end. The Grenville Chamber of Commerce had rallied − to the extent possible − around the two hundred plus dealers. But up and down High Street, where most of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century homes had long ago been turned into antique shops, stores had closed and the town’s once bustling center was dotted with for-sale signs. Single dealer businesses, to survive the hard times, had merged into multi-dealer shops and co-ops in efforts to lessen the crushing weight of their overheads.
    Aware of the effect her weekly syndicated column could have on her hometown, Lil did what she could. Like the stock market, it too wasn’t all bad news, and that provided some of her more thought-provoking pieces on the up-and-down nature of antiques. What was hot ten years ago − like Victorian furniture − now gathered dust in the shops. And the Danish modern teak chairs and tables she and Bradley had purchased brand new in the seventies for his office were fetching exorbitant prices.
    As she thought of how she’d work this show into a column, she pulled out her camera. Zooming in on Ada, her breath caught. After all those emotions, jealousy, guilt, came the biggest of all. I love her.
    Searching for an interesting shot, she framed the cameraman and Melanie