All of Me: A Small Town Romance (The Bridesmaids Club Book 1)

Chapter 24

Tess handed Molly a bowl of Chinese takeout and sat on the sofa. They'd just watched the six o'clock evening news. Senator Gibson had made national headlines for two nights in a row. His thirty seconds of fame had evolved into forty-eight hours of political turmoil, and interest was still running high.

Tess' hour-long interview with Mitch Maderson had been sliced to twenty seconds, but the message was clear. Senator Gibson was a predator and needed to be held accountable for his actions.

"I did the right thing," Tess said.

Molly speared a slice of chicken with her chopstick. "Of course, you did."

"I couldn't hide in my café forever. I had to tell everyone what happened to Evie."

"You did a good job. Mitch's interview was perfect. Even the edited version on NBC had a powerful message."

When Molly arrived at Tess' apartment, Tess had been watching Marcie Gibson being interviewed on CBS. According to the report, Marcie had been swamped with reporters and television crews all trying to get a sound bite from the pretty socialite.

The senator's ex-wife had known exactly how to use the media. She carefully avoided the questions she didn't want to answer and focused on her ex-husband's drug dealing habits. Pictures of the women he'd had affairs with had flicked across the screen.

Tess felt sick thinking her friend Evie had been part of the senator's life. Evie believed the lies he'd told her because she didn't have a choice. The senator had fed her addiction in the same way he'd fed everyone else's. Carefully.

"I want to show you something." Molly left her bowl on the table and opened her laptop case. "I had another look at the photos in the newspaper. Someone's carefully edited them."

"What do you mean?"

"They're my photos."

Tess looked at Molly. "You mean Logan didn't take them with his cell phone?"

Molly shook her head. "Whoever gave the images to the newspaper knew what they were doing. Just to check, I called the Chronicle and asked to see the original files."

"And they let you?"

"I know someone who works there." Molly opened two documents and put them side by side on her laptop screen. "Look at this. The one on the left is the image of Annie and Sally that appeared in the newspaper. The one on the right is the one sitting on my computer at home."

Tess compared the photos. Someone had cropped the newspaper image, changed the lighting and added some kind of filter. Instead of being as clear as Molly's copy, it was slightly grainy, as if a low resolution camera had taken the shot.

Molly glanced at the screen. "I couldn't figure out how someone had copied them. They're still sitting on my computer, waiting for me to finish the catalog. Then I re-read the story that appeared in the Chronicle. What does the reporter, Jilly Cresswell, look like?"

Tess frowned. "Short with dark brown, shoulder-length hair and blue eyes."

"And a dimple when she smiles?"

Tess thought back to when she'd seen her. She'd been so shocked that Logan had brought her into the café, that it was hard to remember exactly what she looked like. "I think so."

Molly pushed her laptop away and picked up her dinner. "The morning after Logan's big story came out, I had a phone call from someone. She'd read the article about Connie's wedding and wanted to know if we could help her friend. I didn't have anything booked for that morning so I invited her around to my apartment. I didn't think anyone would mind."