“Once he was gone, I tried to reason with her. I hadn’t meant to offend her and I apologized for any misunderstanding. She seemed to calm down. I hoped that would be the end of it, but I couldn’t be sure. I was in a sticky position. I couldn’t go to Foley and tell him what she’d said. If she never mentioned it herself, I’d only be opening up a can of worms. He’d either take issue with me for rejecting her, or else he’d accuse her of screwing around and she’d deny everything, claiming I’d raped her. In that case, I’d end up looking like my only interest was in covering my tracks. At any rate, I thought it best to keep quiet and that’s the last I heard of it until tonight. Clearly, she did what she’d threatened. She must have told him I’d pushed her into something against her will and that’s what he believed.”

Daisy was quiet. I could see her testing his story in the same way I was. “I don’t know what to say. Dad and I haven’t talked about any of this. He’s a mess right now and I’m sure he’s ashamed of himself for getting drunk. I do understand your wanting to set the record straight. If you like, I’ll tell him what you said.”

“I leave that to your judgment. At least now you know my side of it. You can believe it or not. And your dad, when he sobers up, can do with it what he wants. I don’t mean any disrespect to Violet, but he knows how capable she was of turning things around. If he’d stop and think about it, he might be willing to concede the point. As for me, I’m sorry for any part I played. I never meant to cause him any grief.”

“I appreciate that, Jake. Is there anything else?”

“No, that’s it. I’ve had my say. I know it’s late and I won’t keep you.”

The two of them went through a bit of conversational back-and-forth before Jake finally said his good-nights and returned to his car. Once he’d left, I waited half a minute and said, “What do you think?”

“I’ve got no proof, but offhand I’d say the man is a lying sack of shit.”

24

Tom

Thursday, July 2, 1953