Crouching in the shrubbery behind her house, her arms and legs poked and scraped by branches, was not an ordinary day in Alexis Jordan’s life. But since Evan Palmer had told people they were having an affair, nothing had been ordinary. Far from it. Her life had been hell, and it was a hell that was on-going and seemed to be getting worse.

Hard to believe, as she hid here, surrounded by the earthy scents of spring, knees damp from the grass seeping through her pants, that only a few short weeks ago, her life had been so normal. Prepping for the classes she would teach, grading papers, clearing her garden beds for the new growing season—everything had followed the same routine she’d followed for years.

True, there had been hints of trouble in paradise, at least in her own little domestic island. Her husband’s more frequent absences and secretive phone calls had alerted her to the possibility that he might be cheating. He’d denied it of course. But he would. And yet she’d thought they were happy. Content in their marriage. Busy with their careers and caring for their house. Until she’d overheard him on the phone telling another woman he loved her.

It had been a crushing blow and she was bracing herself to confront him when this far greater and more terrible blow landed: Evan’s declaration of love immediately followed by an assault he believed she welcomed. All her attempts to make it clear that no relationship between teacher and pupil was possible had had the opposite effect. The obsessed teen, told that he couldn’t have what he wanted, had turned into a vengeful monster.

That vengeful monster was the reason she was hiding in her own back yard, hoping the press in front of her house, salivating to catch a glimpse of her following her arrest, would go away and she could finally seek the sanctuary of her home.

She’d parked on an adjacent street and made her way through her neighbor’s yard. Now, perhaps twenty feet from her back door, something was holding her back from crossing that last patch of open ground. It wasn’t something obvious. There were no strangers out here that she could see. But her instinct said there was someone out here besides herself.

So she lingered there, keeping her breath shallow so she could listen. The sounds were so faint she might have imagined them. Yet she was sure there was someone else hiding in the bushes nearby, someone whose breathing and shifting movements were louder than hers. Possibly Evan. Possibly a reporter. Possibly a trick of her overwrought imagination? After the day she’d had, that humiliating photo in the local paper with the headline labeling her a predator? She’d been dressed for a race in shorts and a tank top. Suitable for running on a hot day but in the picture, she looked nearly naked. With that splashed across the paper, she didn’t have to imagine she was a target or that her world was dangerous.

Alexis was exhausted. She needed the security of her home. A shower. Soft, clean clothes. Some sleep. It was all only twenty feet away. And then, perhaps ten feet away, someone shifted in the bushes and coughed.

Teach Her a Lesson
Genre: Psychological Suspense
Release: May 2023
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link

What do you do when you’re accused of an unspeakable crime and know you’re innocent, but the evidence against you is so compelling? After six years as a high school English teacher, Alexis Jordan thinks her biggest problems are a case of burnout and her suspicion that her husband is having an affair.

Then things take a sudden, unexpected turn that threatens to end her marriage, wreck her career, and destroy her life when the student she’s coaching for the school play makes a pass at her and she turns him down. Alexis doesn’t realize that he is obsessed with her and has been building toward this moment for months. Nor that when he’s rejected, he will set out to destroy her with his version of their “affair”-which is terrifyingly plausible.

About the author
Kate Flora’s fascination with people’s criminal tendencies began in the Maine attorney general’s office. Deadbeat dads, people who hurt their kids, and employers’ discrimination aroused her curiosity about human behavior. The author of twenty-five books and many short stories, Flora’s been a finalist for the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, and Derringer awards. She won the Public Safety Writers Association award for nonfiction and twice won the Maine Literary Award for crime fiction. Flora is a founding member of the New England Crime Bake and the Maine Crime Wave conferences and runs the blog Maine Crime Writers. She divides her time between Massachusetts and Maine.

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