Ben:???????????????And her opinion of Matt didn’t change over the next couple years?
Maya:?????????????Nope. But even if it had, she never would have slept with her friend’s husband. She wasn’t like that. Savvy loved Lucy, and she never would have hurt her.
Ben:???????????????What makes you think that Savvy never warmed up to Matt? She talked to you about him?
Maya:?????????????She said some things. She’d mention him offhand occasionally, like, “She couldn’t get rid of Matt, so I had to have dinner with him too.” Stuff like that. And she … well, this is just my interpretation, but I think Savvy thought that something was going on with Lucy and Matt.
Ben:???????????????Going on?
Maya:?????????????Like … something abusive? I don’t know. Maybe I got it wrong. But not long before she died, we were watching this show together, and there was a story line about an abusive husband. And I looked over at one point and she was rolling her eyes, and I was like, “What?” She said that they were portraying the guy to be this total monster, and that wasn’t what those guys are usually like.
And I got kind of concerned, and I was like, “How do you know what those guys are like?” And she goes, “Oh, not me, not me. But I know someone. And the guy … a lot of people like him.”
I didn’t ask if it was Lucy. But it had to be. Savvy wasn’t close friends with anyone else at that point. And she said know, not knew. “I know someone.” I’d always wondered why Savvy had this, like, burning hatred of Matt when everyone else seemed to love him. It made sense suddenly.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
LUCY
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.
* * *
Maya Harper doesn’t live in Plumpton, and I wish I had better things to do than take a five-hour round-trip drive to Austin to see Savvy’s sister, but I don’t. So I go.
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.”
LUCY
FIVE YEARS AGO
Savvy was still staring at me expectantly, waiting for me to take her up on her offer to murder my husband.
“Even if we wanted to kill him,” I began slowly, “I think we’d be in way over our heads. Seeing as how neither of us has actually ever murdered someone before.”
“Speak for yourself.”
I barked out another laugh, but she didn’t crack a smile. Her demeanor shifted, something dark and serious flashing across her eyes.
“Wait, you…” I trailed off, my breath catching in my throat.
She lowered her gaze from mine and nodded, once.
I stared at her, my heart in my throat. “Seriously?”
“Yes.” The word was a whisper, but then she straightened, shaking her head like she wanted to clear it of bad thoughts.
“Yes, seriously,” she said, her tone now with a hard edge to it. “I killed a dude and I’m not sorry. He fucking deserved it.”
“Savvy.” I grabbed her hand. I didn’t think I believed her about not being sorry.