“Grandma, what the fuck?”
I drop the takeout containers on the table and turn to face my grandmother, who is sprawled out on the couch in the center of her tiny house, watching one of the Avengers movies.
She blinks at me with wide-eyed innocence. “What?”
“You sent me to the diner because you knew that podcaster bastard was there.”
“Well … yes.”
“Please…” I pause, closing my eyes briefly as I gather myself. “Please tell me that you didn’t plan this entire party just to get me here to talk to that podcaster.”
“I don’t know why you’re asking. It’s pretty obvious that’s exactly what I did.”
“Oh my god.” I drop into a chair and put a hand on my forehead. “Why would … what in … Why?”
She stands, adjusting the bun that’s wobbling on the top of her head. She walks over to the table and pulls the food out of the bag. “Have you seen him?”
“You sold me out to a podcaster because he’s cute?”
“He’s not just cute. My god. He even looks better than that—that guy, who is that?”
I drop my hand from my forehead to see her pointing at the television. “Chris Evans.” I roll my eyes. “He is not cuter than Chris Evans.”
“Well, agree to disagree.” She puts my burger and fries down in front of me. “But, no. I did not sell you out because he’s cute. I’m just saying that it might have helped when he showed up at my door with that smile.”
“Smug smile,” I mutter.
“Oh yes, very smug. That boy is extremely impressed with himself.” She laughs and walks to her minifridge. Her loose green dress swishes around her calves. “Do you want a beer?”
“No, thank you.”
She cracks one open for herself and then sits down at the table. She pops a fry into her mouth. “I think that he’s your best shot.”
“Best shot at what?”
“At figuring out who killed Savannah. We spoke for a long time, and he was very straightforward with me. He wants to find out the truth, not just hang you out to dry like everyone else.”
I take a bite of my burger to avoid having to reply to that. I don’t want to tell her that the idea of Ben finding the truth terrifies me.
She points at me. Her fingernails are bright pink, the color chipped at the ends like she’s been picking at it. “Don’t get that look.”
“What look?”
“Like you’ve decided you’re guilty and have something to hide.” “Let’s kill—”
I take another bite of my burger.
“I told him I’d convince you to let him interview you,” she says. “Bold of you to think you could actually do that.”
“Lucy, let’s not pretend that you’re not going to do this for me.” She pats my hand.
Dammit.
“You need him,” she continues. “I do not need that idiot.”
“Yes, you do. People believe men. Especially men who look like that. If he says you didn’t do it—if he even casts enough doubt—people will actually believe him. Look at that Ronan Farrow fellow. No one believed that movie man assaulted all those girls until he said it was true.”
I sigh, because she’s right.
Of course, that also means that if Ben decides I did it, I’m extra fucked. “He solved a cold case on the first season of the podcast,” Grandma
says. “He’s going to figure this out, and you’re going to help him.”
“The Harpers hired three different PIs and came up empty. How is Ben going to suddenly solve this?”
“He said he was going to find information that no one else had.” I grab a fry. “How exactly is he going to do that?”
“Well, for one, you’re going to help him. And two, he already has.” I stop with my mouth half-open, ready to take a bite. “What?” “Colin didn’t go straight home from the wedding.”
Listen for the Lie Podcast with Ben Owens
EPISODE THREE—“MATT WAS TOO GOOD FOR HER”
Colin Dunn had been dating Savannah for a few months when she was killed. I’ll let him introduce himself, in his own words.
Colin: I was a real shithead. [laughter] Yeah, man, I was just not into that whole small-town life. I hated every second of it, and I hated myself for not being brave enough to just hop a bus out of there. I sort of took that out on Savvy a lot.
Ben: Took it out on her? How?
Colin: I wasn’t that nice to her. I know I probably shouldn’t admit that, or I should, like, try to make myself look good, but, whatever, man. I just feel like I should be honest about it.
Ben: Take me back a bit. How’d you guys meet?
Colin: At the bar where she worked. I wasn’t old enough to drink but I had a fake ID—yo, can I say that? Am I like admitting to a crime?
Ben: You’re fine.
Colin: Yeah, so I was nineteen or twenty or whatever, and I had a fake ID. I don’t think Savvy knew it was fake. No, she definitely didn’t know. I always felt like I was a bad influence on her. She was just the nicest, sweetest girl, and I was not the nicest guy. I think if I had met her a few years later, I could have been a better guy for her, but … well, she got murdered. Which is a bummer.
Ben: It is indeed a bummer.
Colin: Anyways, we met at the bar, and hit it off right away.
Ben: This was when?
Colin: That was early in the year, like January. So, like four months before she died.
Ben: And you dated up until she was killed?
Colin: I mean … I don’t know if dated was the word. We weren’t … uh, yeah, you know, let’s just say we dated. Yeah. Savvy was a nice girl. Nicer than me, that’s for sure.
Ben: Did you know her friends?
Colin: Uh, sort of? Some of them?
Ben: Did you know Lucy? Had you met her before the wedding?
Colin: Yeah, I’d met her once or twice. She was in the bar once, and she’d been over at Savvy’s place once when I dropped by. So, I knew who she was, but like … we weren’t buddies.
Ben: Did you have any particular impression of her?
Colin: Uh … she was hot?
Ben: Anything else?
Colin: Not really.
Ben: Did you know Matt?
Colin: Not until the wedding.
Ben: And you hung out with him and Lucy at the wedding?
Colin: Yeah. We were at the same table.
Ben: What did you think of them?
Colin: Lucy didn’t really talk to me. Not in a rude way, just in a “we have nothing in common” way. Matt and I talked about basketball some—it was during the NBA finals. Matt was a good time. He came to have fun at that wedding. Well, you’ve heard.
Ben: And you saw that?
Colin: Oh yeah. He was definitely wasted.
Ben: How was he acting? Was he a happy drunk, was he angry…?
Colin: Pretty happy drunk, from what I remember. He was dancing a lot, laughing … completely ignoring Lucy, who seemed pissed about something.
Ben: At him?
Colin: I don’t know, man. I asked Savvy about it and she said Lucy was fine. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. Like it was none of my business. And it wasn’t. I didn’t really care.
Ben: Savvy drove you to the wedding, but she left without you. What happened there?
Colin: Lucy and Matt had a fight, I think. I don’t know what it was about. But Savvy seemed upset about it, and she asked her brother—Keaton—to take me home. I didn’t go with him, though. I didn’t live far, so I just walked.
Ben: You walked straight home?
Colin: Yeah.
Ben: By yourself?
Colin: I … yeah.
Ben: A guest at that wedding says she saw you getting into a car with a woman.
Colin: What guest?
Ben: Just someone who wishes they’d spoke up earlier. Did you get in anyone’s car that night?
Colin: I … um … look. I sort of … started talking to someone after Savvy left and one thing led to another …
Ben: And you left with her?
Colin: Yeah.
Ben: So, your alibi, that you told the police. That you went home and were there all night.
That wasn’t true?
Colin: I mean … I was home by like three a.m.
Ben: The coroner put Savvy’s death somewhere between midnight and three a.m. So you were actually out and about during the time she was killed.
Colin: It sounds bad when you put it like that. I wasn’t out and about. I was with this woman, and then I went home.
Ben: She could vouch for you?
Colin: Not … I mean, she wouldn’t.
Ben: Why not?
Colin: She wasn’t exactly … single.
Ben: She was in a relationship.
Colin: Yes.
Ben: You went to her house?
Colin: No …
Ben: Where’d you go?
Colin: Just her car. She drove it a little bit down the road and we just … I don’t think anyone at the wedding even noticed we were gone. They definitely didn’t notice I was gone,
anyway. If her husband was suspicious, I don’t know.
Ben: And then she drove you home?
Colin: No, I walked. She had to get home.
Ben: You walked home, alone, at what? One a.m.? Two? In the rain?
Colin: It’s a safe town, man.
Ben: I’m just trying to clarify the timeline here. You were out, alone, during the time Savvy was killed. But you lied to the police and said you walked home right after she left.
Colin: I didn’t kill her.
Ben: But this is the correct timeline now?
Colin: I didn’t kill her.
Yo, can we start again? I feel like I messed this up.
