morning and called it “supporting law enforcement.”
Buck had also locked Lily out of her mother’s trailer that afternoon, sold the furniture by sunset, and told everyone she had stolen from him.
The lie spread faster than the storm.
By six o’clock, people who had known Lily since she was a skinny girl selling raffle tickets outside the church looked away when she passed.
By seven, the church basement suddenly had “no available beds.”
By eight, Sheriff Mercer was standing over her in the alley behind Miller’s Pharmacy, telling her
