Hiding The Truth

Unexpected

Driving home from the Greasy Spoon lost in thought, Lila wondered what the working for the Organization would be like. The slim file folder Doug had given her included train tickets to some town called Shadow Holler in the eastern mountains of Limestone, the state just north of Cotton, where she lived. Nita and her daddy were from Limestone and Lila had lived there as a child, but in the western half, nowhere near her destination. It also contained a packing list that requested she bring only the barest minimum of personal items, claiming everything she needed would be provided, and something called a Non Disclosure Agreement. She had never heard of such a thing, but it didn't look like an agreement at all. It looked like pages of harsh cautions against discussing almost any details of her new position and laid out harsh penalties for failure to comply. That gave her a moment's pause, but Lila had never been a deep thinker, so she had shaken off her brief feelings of trepidation and signed it with a flourish.

And what was this Campbell Stuart about, suddenly sitting in her section after months of eating with the breakfast crowd at their lively table wreathed in the ubiquitous cigarette smoke and Arsenal project chatter? He wasn't conventionally attractive by any means, but he was unique in a way that was honestly stunning with his barely-tamed red curls, fair complexion, and of course those shocking green eyes. And his smile! His whole face lit up when he grinned. It made her stomach do flip-flops. She didn't know what to make of him, but she surely intended to find out if she could. She considered herself neither a saint nor a slut, but Cam's handshake alone could make a nun question her vows.

"Stop, thief!" A man's voice, shouting, jerked her attention from her musing and back to the road in front of her. A Black man was running into the intersection, an Enforcer in hot pursuit, pistol in hand. Lila jammed her foot onto the brake pedal, but the grease-coated rubber was slick and slid off just as the Black man stepped off the curb and the car lurched, barely slowing. Time seemed to slow down as she watched the Enforcer aim his weapon and pull the trigger. Almost simultaneously, her Chevy slammed into the fleeing man's midsection, spinning him to face her. Blood poured from his mouth and he made wild, desperate eye contact with her for what must have been a fraction of a second but felt like an eternity before his head exploded in a spray of gore.

"Did I kill him?" Lila whispered. "I killed him." She knew what she had seen. She closed her eyes, totally overwhelmed, and her mind went wild with racing thoughts. Would the Enforcers take her away? Would Junior and her mother survive without her if she was arrested? Would she be charged with murder? Was this the end of her opportunity with the Organization? What would Douglas Reever think?

"Miss? Miss, please open the door? Miss, are you alright?" The Enforcer called. Lila looked out her driver's side window, trying to compose herself. She saw past the officer and straight into the hypnotic green eyes of Campbell Stuart.

Cam stood on the sidewalk across from her with a notepad in hand, a pencil tucked behind his ear and peeking out of his shaggy red curls, and a huge camera bag over his arm, the camera itself slung around his neck. The long, unwieldy lens jutted from his chest as if it had sprouted there sometime in the few hours since she had last seen him at the diner.

Looking up at the Enforcer standing beside her, she didn't know what to say. It didn't matter because he was talking enough for the both of them.

"I'm so sorry you had to see that, Miss. I just need to ask you a few questions and then we'll get you on your way. Are you hurt?" He seemed sympathetic. Maybe the Enforcers weren't all as bad as Nita thought, after all.

"No, no, I don't think I am hurt. I'm ok. What just happened?" Lila fumbled, her mind and body still screaming with adrenaline.

"You just assisted with the apprehension of a dangerous thief. You've done our city a great service. Normally, of course, we don't like White women to be exposed to such ugliness, but you're a very brave girl for recognizing the danger these degenerate Blacks represent to our society and taking action." The Enforcer said, his chest puffed out.

Lila was entirely confused, but it didn't seem she was about to be arrested, and that bolstered her. She answered the Enforcer's questions, giving her name and other details while looking over his shoulder and hoping for another glimpse of Cam. She wasn't sure why he was there, but with the camera and notepad she assumed he must work with the Enforcers somehow. He hadn't been wearing a uniform at the diner and he wasn't wearing one on the sidewalk, but she supposed that might not matter. She didn't know much about how policing worked.

Cam, on the other hand, was only a few feet away, taking pictures of the dead man and the minimal damage to Lila's car, and he bristled when he heard the Enforcer speak.

"'Degenerates Blacks'" he scoffed in narrowly veiled fury, "Are you judge and jury now, Enforcer?"

"Watch your step, newsboy," the Enforcer growled. "The nig-"

Cam cut him short with a sharp look and the Enforcer cleared his throat. "The colored man had stolen a work truck and fled the scene when I pulled him over. He was armed and dangerous! If it hadn't been for Miss Hunt here, he might have gotten away to wreak more havoc on the peaceful citizens of Progress."

"Oh spare me," Cam muttered.

"What was that, newsboy?" The Enforcer growled, moving his hand down to rest on the butt of his still-warm gun. The threat in his body language was not lost on Campbell Stuart or Lila.

Cam put on a saccharine smile, "It's a good thing you were present to 'protect and serve' then, isn't it? That is the Enforcer motto, after all."

The Enforcer excused himself to prepare the dead man's body for the coroner, and as he did, Lila could have sworn she saw him drop a large knife into the limp hand, but it happened so fast she couldn't be sure.

*click* She would learn later that cameras didn't lie, even when everyone else did.