In the Company of Liars

THREE DAYS EARLIER
SUNDAY, MARCH 14

This isn’t going to work out, Sam said, sitting behind his desk at the capital, a hand on his forehead, looking into Allison’s eyes.

Mat-Mat’s a friend. You know this is crazy. It always was.

Allison stops her run a half-mile from her house. She can’t shake Sam from her thoughts. When she goes blank during the runs, he visits her. When she tries to sleep, he comes to her in dreams, leaving her breathless with hope before she awakens and crashes even harder.

She ran nine miles today, give or take. She doesn’t time herself or measure the mileage specifically. She doesn’t want to be caught in the trap of wanting to run faster or farther. She wants the freedom of just running for its own sake, releasing the nervous energy that threatens to consume her.

She grabs a large water and Sunday paper and sits outside at a small cafй. She reads quickly through a story on the front page about Flanagan-Maxx. TheWatch has been trickling information about it for around a week now. House Bill 1551, the controversial Divalpro legislation, which garnered plenty of attention and criticism when it was passed last November, is now the focus of a federal investigation. The news first leaked a few days ago, when the clerks of the state House and Senate confirmed that federal agents had subpoenaed the roll calls on the legislation-the lists of who voted how. Once the reporters sunk their teeth in that, it was obvious what the feds were looking at-the three senators who suddenly changed their votes to “aye,” allowing the bill to squeak by and pass to the desk of a supportive governor.

Now, today, theWatch is finally beginning to connect the dots. The principal lobbyist behind the bill was Sam Dillon, and another lobbyist pushing the bill was the ex-husband of Allison Pagone, accused of murdering Sam.

So it’s out now. Her heartbeat kicks up, as much as she tells herself that she knew this was going to happen, sooner or later. It’s going to be tougher now, for Mat and for Jessica.

She looks out at the street, at the cars passing by, the people walking arm-in-arm to brunch. An old man with two schnauzers pretends not to notice when one of his dogs urinates on a parking meter.

Jessica used to beg for a dog, but they never got one. Maybe they should have. Maybe Allison should have been stricter with Jess, should have watched her more closely in high school. Or maybe they should have been more like buddies than mother-daughter. She can’t shake the feeling that she should have known that a high school teacher was preying on her daughter. And more recently, she should have known that Jessica was carrying a torch for Sam Dillon, even if nothing came of that but a girlish crush.

“Allison, I’m not sleeping with Jessica,” Sam swore to her.

She leafs through the newspaper, scanning the headlines, her mind filled with regret. She wishes, so desperately, that she could turn back time and change what happened.

Her eye catches on a headline in the editorial section. An article by Monica Madley, something of a fire-breathing liberal feminist to most, but Allison enjoys her columns. She assumes that Madley puts on her overly provocative persona for its own sake.

THE “WOMAN SCORNED”?