“What did I just say?”
Luna’s shoulders straightened. She turned her back on me. Returned to her desk, then marched right back into chambers with a stack of newspapers clutched to her chest. Which she dumped directly onto my tidy desktop.
“Someone left these right in front of the courtroom, all of them. Ross found them when he unlocked the courtroom door this morning. I promised him I’d show them to you.”
She made a quick exit. Had her hand on my door, ready to shut it. “And yeah—the pictures are on social media, too. Facebook, X, Insta, and TikTok. I checked this morning.”
Before she slammed the door, she stuck her head back in. “I’ll hold your calls.”
I lifted the top newspaper. It was a supermarket tabloid. When I leafed through the stack, I counted a dozen copies.
My picture was on the front page. Sweet Jesus—I saw my face above the fold.
The photo was fairly recent; I wore a sweater I’d ordered online. It was a shot of me and Loucilla sitting at a bar in Montgomery. Loucilla was holding a martini glass. My beverage wasn’t visible. The readers wouldn’t know I’d been drinking iced tea.
But the picture didn’t bother me much. There’s no prohibiting a grown woman from occupying a barstool. Not even in the Black Belt of Alabama.
No, it was the headline that unnerved me. In bold caps, it jumped out at me.
GAY AGENDA IN ALABAMA ABORTION CASE
I felt the preliminary jab of a headache. I slid into my chair, pulled a pair of reading glasses out of my desk drawer.
There wasn’t much of a story. Hell, what could they actually substantiate? After rehashing the facts of Dr. Bria Gaines’s charge, the tabloid detailed my regular dinners with my best friend—whom they described as a “well-known lesbian activist from Montgomery.”
As for me? “Circuit Judge Mary Stone, who has been assigned the criminal trial, is running for reelection on the Democrat ballot. Judge Stone is single, never been married.”
That was all true. Hell, I couldn’t even sue the tabloid for defamation.
I stared at the newsprint littering my desk. Other stories in the tabloid were devoted to actors in rehab; the breakup of a major star’s marriage; a rapper sued for harassment. I wasn’t just a local officeholder anymore. I’d joined that cluster of tabloid fodder.Somehow, I’d become a public figure. The kind of person people could feel free to insult and deride. The object of unbridled speculation and scandal.
Damn, I wasn’t looking for that kind of notoriety when I signed on for this gig. I wanted to dispense justice. Decide cases, resolve conflicts. But here it was. Staring me in the face. Literally.
The shit was getting deeper around here with every day that passed. I had to make a call. Couldn’t sit around feeling sorry for myself. I was not the person most wounded in the scenario. Not by a long shot.
I hit Loucilla’s name in my contacts. She picked right up. Didn’t say hello.
“I’ve already seen it,” she said.
“Damn! I didn’t know you were a subscriber. No wonder you always know all the dirt on everybody.”
“I don’t subscribe,” she said, her voice dry. “I was at the grocery store. In the checkout line. Buying tampons.”
“Girl! You still using tampons?” I asked, sounding impressed.
“Yeah. Just like I’m younger than springtime. Maybe that detail will make the next issue. I could earn a buck that way. You think a well-known lesbian activist can get an endorsement deal from a company that makes feminine hygiene products?”
It wasn’t funny. I could hear that edge in her voice. I know Loucilla. She was shook. Much more troubled than she’d let on.
“I’m sorry, Lou. So sorry to drag you into this.”
“The hell you say? I’m just fine. Maybe I’ll write a book about it. Now that you’ve made me famous, I could get a publisher to respond to a query for a change. What about you, Mary? How are you getting along down there?”
I had to think about it for a minute before I answered.
“I’m fine, too. More than fine, actually. I checked my calendar and a special setting is opening up on my docket. Maybe we can get this case moving, have us a trial.”
The prospect of a speedy trial was sounding better all the time.
