Easy Innocence by Libby Fischer Hellmann Page B

“visit”? What would that do to Kelly? Or Cam? She’d screwed up. Big time.
    She cut across to Green Bay Road and parked at the Jewel. Inside she pushed her grocery cart through the aisles. Although food was the last thing on her mind, she grabbed milk, lettuce, bread, and eggs. Then she browsed the pre-cooked foods and threw a pizza in her cart. She didn’t want to go out, and she certainly didn’t have the energy to go to Mickey’s. She paid for her groceries, headed back to her car, and threw the bags in the back seat.
    The liquor store was only a block away. This had been one shitty day. Maybe she should stop in.
    She was steering the cart into the cart corral when she felt a presence at her back. Her senses went on alert. It was practically dark, and the shadows in and around the parking lot were deep enough to shelter someone. Great. Getting mugged would be a fitting end to this day. Then instinct kicked in. Pretending not to notice anything, she tightened her grip on the cart’s handlebar. With any luck, the attacker would hold off long enough for her to swing the cart out of the corral and launch it toward his groin. Then she would run like hell. Slowly, she started to back the cart out of the corral.
    “Hey!” A voice said.
    Georgia whipped the cart around, her hands curled into fists, prepared to let the cart fly.
    “Wait! No. Don’t!” A girl’s voice.
    Georgia froze.
    Lauren Walcher emerged from the shadows, waving her arms.
    Georgia took a deep breath. Her stomach slowly descended to its proper place. “What—what the hell are you doing here?”
    “I followed you.”
    “All the way from Glencoe? Why?”
    “I want to talk.”
    She steered the car back into the corral. “Do your parents know you’re here?”
    “Of course not.”
    Georgia loosened her grip on the cart. The adrenaline flowing through her began to ebb. “You realize they’d probably lock you up if they found out.”
    “No, they wouldn’t.” She shrugged. “I’d just tell them that you waited for me outside the house and forced me go with you.”
    Georgia gazed at Lauren. This girl had balls.
    Lauren shot Georgia a condescending smile, trotted over to her Land Rover, and levered herself up on the hood. “Here’s the thing. Sara was my friend. If that psycho didn’t do it, I want to know who did.”
    Georgia had gotten nothing from Lauren at her house. Her presence here was a gift. Matt used to say never look a gift horse in the mouth— just be careful it’s not a Trojan. She followed Lauren to the Land Rover. “What makes you think he didn’t do it?”
    “You tell me.” Lauren crossed one leg over the other.
    A sodium vapor light high above them crackled and buzzed. “Why don’t you tell me about Sara’s problems with her friends?”
    “What problems?”
    “No more games,” Georgia said. “What did Sara want to talk to you about in the Forest Preserve?”
    “What are you talking about?” Lauren asked uneasily.
    “Come on, Lauren. Her mother told me she was coming to the Forest Preserve to see you. Why?”
    The girl shrugged but didn’t say anything.
    Georgia forced herself to stay patient. “She didn’t leave a message on your cell? Or text message?”
    Lauren jiggled her foot. “No.”
    Georgia couldn’t tell if she was lying. “So you have no idea what she wanted?”
    “Nope.” Lauren’s foot continued to jiggle.
    “You sure it had nothing to do with her... activities?”
    She looked up. Her foot stopped jiggling. “What activities?”
    “Claire Tennenbaum told me that Sara had a tendency to—well, let’s say she was very curious about other people’s business.”
    “Oh, that.” Lauren’s shoulders relaxed. “Claire couldn’t keep anything straight if her life depended on it.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Claire is sweet, but she’s as dumb as a plate.”
    “So what she said isn’t true?”
    “I never saw Sara do anything like that.” But she wouldn’t meet Georgia’s