Maya comes out of the office after five. There are only two other cars left in the lot, and I’m guessing hers is the purple hatchback. I lurk next to it.
She stops short when she sees me. Her car key is sticking out from between two fingers, like they always say to do to ward off would-be rapists.
“Lucy.” It comes out as a gasp, like she’s scared.
She probably is, come to think of it.
I raise both my hands in surrender. “I just want to talk.”
She squints at me. She was a teenager last time I saw her—eighteen, just graduating from high school and getting ready to leave for college.
“I shouldn’t have told her.” I can still see Savvy sitting on her bed in her tiny apartment with the sloped ceilings. “Fuck. She’s still a teenager, but…”
“You were a teenager when you killed him?” I’d guessed, and she’d nodded, clearly relieved I understood.
Maya stares at me. She and Savvy never looked much alike. Maya’s hair is lighter, the kind of blond that people usually have to buy from a bottle. Her features are sharper than Savvy’s were—the long nose and pointed chin are different from her sister. She’s wearing a full coral skirt and a button-up white blouse with a rounded collar. It’s a sweet outfit. Savvy didn’t do sweet.
But the eyes are the same. Blue, furious. Sweat trickles down my back.
“Can we go somewhere?” I ask. “It’s hot out here.”
“I don’t have anything to say to you.” She presses the button to unlock her car.
“Please, Maya…” I take a step forward but then trail off, because I don’t know how to start a conversation about this.
She glares at me. “Look, I know that everyone has decided you’re innocent now, but I still don’t want to talk to you.”
Everyone’s decided I’m innocent? That’s news to me.
“It’s not that,” I say. She opens her car door and throws her purse inside. I say my next words in a rush. “I know about Troy.”
She slides into her car seat, gathering her skirt up so it won’t get caught in the door. “I don’t know who that is.”
I grab the door before she can shut it. “The man Savvy killed.”
Her head snaps to me, her face draining of color. She stares at me for a minute.
“Get in the car.”
Maya starts driving, and then seems to think better of taking me wherever she was originally thinking. She pulls into the parking lot of a long-deserted restaurant and parks beneath some trees.
“That was his name?” she asks. “Troy?”
“Yes. She didn’t tell you?” I unbuckle my seat belt so I can face her. I can’t stop noticing how her white shirt is still pristine, even though it’s the end of the workday. I would have spilled my coffee and lunch on it by now.
She chews on her bottom lip and shakes her head. “And I didn’t ask. I don’t think I wanted to know.”
I’d wanted to know. I wanted to know his name and what he looked like and what blood smells like when there’s that much of it.
Maya looks at me quickly. “Do you know his last name? I’ve always wondered if maybe someone knew that it was Savvy and they’re the ones who—” She stops as I shake my head.
“Troy Henderson. I looked into it years ago. Hired a PI, actually.”
I didn’t have the money for it back then, but it was my only solid lead, and I refused to tell the police about him. I wouldn’t betray Savvy like that.
“Nothing?” She already looks crushed.
“No, I’m sorry. His body still hasn’t been found. From what my PI gathered, he’d been known to get wasted and start fights with people. The case is still open, but I don’t think anyone is looking for him all that hard. When the PI talked to his sister, she didn’t even realize he was missing. She thought he’d moved away and never called.”
“Oh.”
“I’m sorry. I should have told you earlier, but…” But she was young, and starting her freshman year of college just having lost her sister. I didn’t want to pop up like, Hi! Remember how your dead big sister murdered someone?
“I wouldn’t have wanted to hear from you back then anyway.”
“Do you want to hear from me now?”
She cocks a blond eyebrow, almost amused. “Good point.”
“I can send you the stuff my PI found, if you want.”
She leans back in her seat, blowing out a long breath. “You really don’t remember that night, do you?”
“No.”
“My mom never believed you, but it doesn’t make much sense to hire a PI to investigate a lead if you killed her yourself.” She turns to meet my eyes. “And then not even tell us about it. That was the best defense you had, you know. Her killing Troy.”
“I know.”
“Would you have told someone, if they’d actually arrested and charged you with her murder?”
I look out the window. “Maybe.” I liked to think I wouldn’t have, but it’s possible that the prospect of a few decades behind bars would have broken my loyalty to Savvy.
I clear my throat and look at her. “As far as I know, Savvy never told anyone except the two of us. Right?”
“She said that only you knew when she told me.”
“I’m not telling Ben,” I say. “Just so you know. No matter what happens, I’m not telling him.”
“You’re really talking to that podcaster? Like, giving him an interview?”
“Yes. We’ve already started.”
“Wow.” She stares out the front window. “I told him some stuff about Matt, but he said he cut it out.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
“He asked me about it. I wouldn’t confirm it, so he cut it. Legal reasons, I think.” I have no idea whether that’s true, but it sounds true. “Matt’s already threatened to sue him.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said it. I regretted it after we hung up.”
I shrug. I wish she hadn’t, but I can’t bring myself to be mad about it. “I’m glad you said something about Savvy and Matt. You’re right that she never would have slept with him.”
She shudders, like just the thought of it grosses her out.
“I just wanted to make sure that we were on the same page,” I say. “About never telling anyone about Troy. Ever.”
“We’re on the same page.”
She reaches for the shifter and then stops, pulling her hand back and meeting my gaze again. “I wish she’d told me that you knew too.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought that you didn’t really know her. Most people didn’t really know Savvy.”
“No, they didn’t.”
“I should have guessed, though. You were different than her other friends. She stopped hating Plumpton so much after you moved back. She was happier.”
I swallow around the lump in my throat. I knew this, but it feels different, coming from Maya. Like it’s actually true, and not just a wild hope. I have to close my eyes and take a breath, because for a moment I miss Savvy so much that it physically hurts.
“I was happier too,” I say quietly.
I look up at Maya to see her roughly wiping away tears. We share a sad smile.
She clears her throat and throws the car in reverse. “Promise me you’ll do everything you can to catch the asshole who did it, okay? Savvy deserves that much.”
“I promise.”