Listen for the Lie(16)

Ben:???????????????But?

Joanna:??????????Well, I guess you don’t have to be nice when you look like that, do you?

Ben:???????????????She had a lot of friends, though? By all accounts, she was pretty social.

Joanna:??????????I guess.

I also spoke with Nina Garcia, who was one of Lucy’s best friends in high school. Nina is a nurse at a nearby hospital, and she’s still wearing her pink scrubs when I arrive at her home, her dark hair falling out of a clip.

Nina:?????????????Sorry, twelve-hour shift. I’m scattered. What were you saying?

Ben:???????????????Were you surprised when Lucy moved back after college?

Nina:??????????????No, not at all. Lucy’s family, on her mom’s side, has been here for like … ever. Like I think they were one of the original families who settled here. And even though she wasn’t the cheerleader type like Savvy, she still embraced small-town life. She said we were a cool small town, like Stars Hollow.

Ben:???????????????I don’t know Stars Hollow. Where is that?

Nina:?????????????From Gilmore Girls, Ben. You need to brush up on your early-2000s television.

Ben:???????????????I will get right on that.

Nina:?????????????Except with more wine. We’re Stars Hollow, but with more wine and cowboy boots. Anyway, Lucy and I grew apart a little in college—we went to different ones—but I was excited when she texted me that she was moving back with Matt after the wedding. She said he’d fallen in love with the town when they visited her parents, and he wanted to open a brewery/restaurant thing. Thought it would be perfect, since we have so many tourists. Figured he could get the husbands who weren’t into wine. Didn’t work out, I guess. It was only open a few years.

Ben:???????????????So, you two reconnected when she moved back?

Nina:?????????????Ehhh … sort of? I mean, that was the plan. But we had both changed, and it was kind of hard. I was about to give birth to my first, and she wasn’t even thinking about kids yet, so we didn’t really have a lot in common. And my ex was … well, he preferred for me to be home. And then Lucy started hanging out with Savvy and some of the women in her neighborhood. The friendship just fizzled. High school friendships don’t always transfer to adulthood, you know?

Ben:???????????????Sure.

Nina:?????????????And Lucy and Savvy … they had one of those intense, obsession-like friendships, you know?

Ben:???????????????I don’t.

Nina:?????????????I guess it’s mostly women who do it. But sometimes you meet a girl who is just, like, your soulmate. Not in a romantic way, but in a friend way. Which can almost be more intense. You could tell that Savvy and Lucy were in one of those intense friend-soulmate relationships.

Ben:???????????????An intense relationship usually has pretty serious ups and downs. Did they fight?

Nina:?????????????I don’t really know. I didn’t hang out with them much.

Ben:???????????????I’ve heard that Lucy has a temper. Did you ever see that?

Nina:?????????????I mean … I don’t know. Would people say she had a temper if she was a man? They’d say she stood up for herself when it was needed.

So that’s what I’m going with. Lucy wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself.





CHAPTER NINE


LUCY




I don’t realize it’s Saturday until I step into the grocery store. I have no sense of time without a job.

But, apparently, it’s Saturday, so the entire town of Plumpton is out shopping for groceries. There are two large grocery stores in town, but the other one is shitty and gets whatever produce was left over.

Still, I should have gone there.

Because, from the moment I walk in, I can tell that people recognize me.

No one in Los Angeles has ever recognized me. Pre-podcast, I was only famous to a tiny murder-obsessed corner of the internet. There are far more exciting people to see in Los Angeles. A guy from one of the cop shows shops at the grocery store near my house. No one is going to notice a maybe-murderer when the dude who has been looking mildly annoyed by his gorgeous partner for eight seasons is squeezing avocados in the produce section.

But there are no avocado-fondling actors in Plumpton. I am the biggest celebrity in town.

I push my cart past a large bin of toilet paper, trying to pretend that a woman with a helmet of gray hair isn’t openly gawking at me. I wonder whether I should know who she is. I’ve tried my very best to block out all my memories of the people in this town, except for Savvy. Savvy is the only memory I want, ironically.

Mom made a list—some general stuff they need like eggs and bread, plus a few things for the party. I push my cart through the aisles as fast as I can. Mom didn’t put buttermilk on the list, but I grab it anyway, hoping it will encourage Dad to make biscuits. And chocolate sheet cake. If I have to be here, I’m at least going to eat some of Dad’s food.

I pile the food into my cart, grab several bags of candy (sugar is my main weakness, unless you count my inability to stop murdering people in my head), and make my way to the very long checkout lines.

“Lucy?” The baffled, familiar voice rings out loud enough for at least half the store to hear.

I try not to wince as I turn to find the source. Nina Garcia stands in the next checkout line over, her mouth literally hanging open.

“Wow. Hi.” She plants her hands on her hips, which are a bit wider than last time I saw her. She’s curvier all over, actually. She’s the sort of woman who looks nice in those dresses that cinch at the waist. I look terrible in those dresses. Like a stick wearing a sack.