Chapter Twenty-Nine: Lucy

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINELUCY

I text Ben when I finish listening.

Can you cut out everything she says after "Savvy loved Lucy, and she never would have hurt her"?

I walk downstairs to toss the rest of my bagel in the trash as I wait nervously for him to reply. It comes as I’m walking back up the stairs.

Yes. No problem.

I blow out a breath. My hands are shaking a little.

Out of curiosity, do you want me to cut it because it’s not true, or because it is?

I stare at the question for a long time before typing a response.

The truth doesn’t matter.

I don’t tell her I’m coming, because she hates me and will probably call the cops. Ambushing her so that I have at least fifteen minutes before the cops arrive seems like the best option.

I have no idea where she lives, and even if Ben does, I can’t bring myself to ask him. I don’t want him to know that I’m going to see her. He already knows too much.

But I do know where Maya works. She’s an assistant at an accounting firm, which has their hours listed on their website. They’re in a half-empty strip mall between an employment agency and an empty storefront with a For Rent sign in the grimy window. I park my car at the back of the small lot by four thirty and wait.

“He fucking deserved it,” Savvy sings in my ear.

I close my eyes, my heart pounding. I don’t want to think about this, but I’m sitting here waiting for the only other person in the world who knows Savvy’s darkest secret.

“I killed—”

Savvy appears next to me, both feet up on the dash, blue toenail polish chipped. She flashes me a grin. “Want to know a secret?”

I nod.

“I killed a dude and I’m not sorry. He fucking deserved it.”