“If you think there’s a chance I did it, aren’t you’re worried I’ll kill you too?”
Something sparks in his eyes. “Not really, no.”
“Not really?” I drain my drink, which is a terrible idea. No one needs to be drunk right now. Certainly not me. “This isn’t, like, part of the podcast, is it? You’re going to end it by telling everyone how we slept together?”
“God, no, that makes me look awful.”
“Oh, it makes you look awful.” I laugh, without humor.
“And I wouldn’t do that to you,” he adds with sincerity. I’m still not sure I believe him.
There’s a knife on the counter, where he was cutting limes. I imagine grabbing it and sticking it in his chest. In and out, in and out.
“Fucking Exorcist style!” Savvy shouts gleefully.
The lamp in the corner is heavy enough to do some damage against his head. The pen near my fingers could probably go in his throat, if I put some muscle behind it.
Or I could just put a pillow over his head while he’s sleeping tonight.
“Bo-ring,” Savvy sings.
“Lucy.” Ben leans forward, peering at me. “What are you thinking about, when you do that?”
I snap.
“I’m thinking about killing you,” I say.
Listen for the Lie Podcast with Ben Owens EPISODE 7—“THE TRUTH ABOUT LUCY”
The first time I met Lucy Chase was at the Plumpton diner. I was waiting for her. She was clearly surprised to see me.
Her grandmother had set this up. I’d offered to go over to her house, let Lucy meet us there, but she said the diner would be better.
Beverly:?????????Let’s not ambush her at my house. The diner is public; she’ll have the option to just flip you off and get back in her car, if she wants.
She didn’t do that. In fact, she came right over and sat down and was … well, I wouldn’t say she was friendly, exactly. But she wasn’t hostile, which was what I’d been expecting.
I was nervous the first time we met, and I think she could tell. I didn’t think I was going to be, but when she walked into the diner, she just wasn’t what I was expecting.
She looked mostly the same as she did in the pictures. Her features are a little sharper now, and she smiles more than all the photos that circulated online would suggest, but I easily recognized her the moment she walked in.
It was her presence that I think I wasn’t expecting. She’s tall, and she walks into a room like she knows everyone is looking at her. That’s how she walked into the diner. Like she knew people were going to stare, and she didn’t care.
I have no idea if she actually cares that people always stare at her. I imagine they always have, given how she looks, but it certainly must be different now.
It’s hard to know what Lucy is thinking about this—or anything—because she is very, very guarded. She often takes a couple seconds to answer questions, like she’s rehearsing the answer in her head first.
She hasn’t done a single interview, ever. She didn’t speak to the press immediately after Savannah’s death, and she certainly didn’t speak to them after people in Plumpton started to pin the murder on her. I know for a fact that many journalists have reached out to her over the past five years, hoping to do a piece on her and Savannah, and her response was always no. Or it was simply silence. I reached out to her repeatedly, for months, and got no response.
I don’t know why she changed her mind. Beverly says it’s simply because she asked her to.
But here it is. Lucy Chase’s version of events, for the first time.
Ben:???????????????You look extremely suspicious.
Lucy:??????????????I think my face is just showing how I always feel about you, Ben.
I want to jump in here to note that Lucy is extremely sarcastic, and comes off as flip at times, even about serious things.
But what she just said is true—she is clearly always suspicious of me. Of everyone, I think, but most definitely of me.
Ben:???????????????You’ve been back in Plumpton now for what? A week?
Lucy:?????????????Yeah.
Ben:???????????????How is it?
Lucy:?????????????Terrible.
Ben:???????????????Why is that?
Lucy:?????????????It’s hot. And everyone here thinks I killed my friend. Actually, I guess everyone everywhere thinks I killed Savvy now, but people actually recognize me out on the street here.
Ben:???????????????Will you take us through that day? Everything you remember?
Lucy:?????????????Yeah. It was a Saturday, and I woke up early because Matt was in a bad mood. He was stomping around, making a bunch of noise.