Matt is waiting for me outside the hospital.
I look like absolute shit—a black eye, three stitches in my eyebrow, a bruise starting to form on my chin. Luckily my nose isn’t broken, but my entire face is vibrating in pain.
“Oh my god.” Matt rushes over to me. I see my parents, not far behind him. Ben left a while ago, because I was tired of his hovering. I told him I didn’t need him to call anyone for me, but I can see that my request was ignored.
“I’m going to kill Emmett,” Matt says.
My parents stop not far behind him. Dad’s chest is rising and falling too quickly. Mom’s eyes are red, and she won’t look at me.
“You saw him that night,” I say. Matt has the decency to look embarrassed.
“After you,” he says. “You ran away, and then Emmett appeared a second later, crying and saying he’d seen you kill her.”
“And you just believed him.”
“You said—you said…” He clenches both fists in frustration, and I instinctively take a step back. “You were covered in blood, mumbling something about killing! And you said she deserved it, and ‘Savvy tried to.’ What was I supposed to think?”
“She tried to save me,” I say. “That was the end of that sentence. Savvy tried to save me, and he killed her.”
“Oh, Lucy,” Mom says, and moves like she’s going to hug me. I step back, shaking my head.
“The cops want to talk to you,” I say.
Dad gapes at me. I thought that I was too exhausted to feel even more annoyed, but apparently I’m not. I don’t know where he finds the nerve to look surprised.
“You lied to them. Hid evidence. Good luck with that.” Mom’s mouth drops open.
“We were protecting you,” Matt says. “You have to understand. Me, your parents—we thought we were protecting you.”
“No, you didn’t,” I snap. “You protected yourself, Matt. You knew what would happen if I started telling people the truth. You knew what would come out.”
Matt’s face reddens. Both my parents are statues, tears streaming down Mom’s face.
I step away from them. “The only person who ever protected me was Savvy.”
Listen for the Lie Podcast with Ben Owens
FINAL EPISODE
Police have charged Emmett Chapman with Savannah Harper’s murder. Matt, Kathleen, and Don have been charged with withholding evidence.
I spoke with some of the people of Plumpton a few days after the news broke. First, let’s hear
from Beverly, Lucy’s grandma.
Beverly: Well, it’s a lot to deal with, if you want to know the truth. I always knew she didn’t do it. I knew it when Lucy didn’t know it. I just wish that other people would have had more faith in her.
Ben: Kathleen and Don never shared with you what Matt told them? That he saw Lucy the night Savannah died?
Beverly: They sure didn’t. If they had, I would have screamed it to the whole town. How do you believe that man over your child? How did Matt believe Emmett over his own wife?
Ben: It does seem strange.
Beverly: Well, not strange, exactly. Typical. Men always believe each other. I also talked to Ivy, Savannah’s mother.
Ivy: We’re still processing it all. There are still questions to be answered.
Ben: What kind of questions?
Ivy: Just … we don’t want to rush to judgment. Ben: Because that’s what happened with Lucy? Ivy: We’re done talking about this.
And I talked to Joanna.
Joanna: Emmett’s saying he didn’t do it. He says that Lucy created a new memory. He says it’s not even her fault. He’s being really nice about it.
Ben: You don’t believe Lucy, then?
Joanna: Hon, I’m just confused. She’s created memories before, right? She admitted it. And now suddenly, five years later, she remembers everything and can very conveniently pin it on someone? It’s suspicious.
Ben: What do you make of Matt and the Chases withholding important information about
the case?
Joanna: Obviously they shouldn’t have done that. But they were covering for Lucy. You can’t blame the Chases for protecting their daughter.
Ben: Did you know I was there when Emmett tried to kill Lucy again? I heard him yelling
about killing Savvy.
Joanna: Wait, you did?
Ben: Sure did.
Joanna: I … I didn’t know that. Well …
Lucy was generous enough to talk to me one last time to answer a few lingering questions.
Ben: Do you regret not going back to Plumpton sooner?
Lucy: Yes. I regret a lot of things. I wish I hadn’t let my parents and Matt get into my head. I think that if they hadn’t immediately acted like I did it, I would have been better equipped to deal with everything. I could have pieced it all together sooner.
Ben: Speaking of piecing it all together, I do have a few lingering questions. First of all, did you ever get your memory back of the time after Savannah’s death? The hours you were wandering?
Lucy: No. The head injury erased most of that for good, I think.
Ben: You don’t know why you left her body? Or why you had that bloody tree branch when Matt saw you?
Lucy: No. My guess is, some part of my brain was thinking I needed it for self-defense.
Ben: Emmett is claiming he’s innocent, and a lot of people still don’t believe you. They say you’re still hiding something.
Lucy: I could explain all day and these people will never believe me. Most of us don’t change our minds once we’ve settled on a version of events. Everyone has made their mind up about me, and it’s not changing, no matter what.
Ben: Does that bother you?
Lucy: Sort of. I don’t think it’s too much to ask, that everyone not think the absolute worst of me all the time. But I’m not all that concerned about it anymore. I am not responsible for the fake version of me you created in your head.
Ben: One of the biggest questions I’ve been getting is this—Why would your husband believe Emmett over you? Matt very quickly put the blame on you. Why was that?
Lucy: Well, Matt saw me that night, and it admittedly didn’t look great. I think the only way I
can explain it is to say that Matt never gave me the benefit of the doubt about anything. Just like most of the people listening to this podcast, he thought the worst of me. And to be fair, he saw the worst of me. We had a very bad marriage—which I’m not going to go into here—and when you already hate your spouse as much as he hated me at the time, thinking I murdered my best friend isn’t a huge leap.
Ben: Still, it’s weird, isn’t it? Shouldn’t Matt have questioned Emmett’s version more, given how injured you were?
Lucy: Sure, he should have. But Emmett actually had a whole plausible story and I had
nothing. Matt, like most men I’ve known, is always more inclined to believe the guy’s version of events.
Ben: And your parents? They were convinced you murdered Savannah, because of what Matt told them. Why do you think they were willing to make that leap?
Lucy: Matt didn’t tell them about Emmett being there. I’d like to think that they would have been more skeptical if he had.
Ben: That’s a generous way of looking at things. You don’t feel angry that they also didn’t give you the benefit of the doubt?
Lucy: Sure, I do. I’m not all that surprised, though.
Ben: What do you think Savannah would say, if she were here?
Lucy: I think she’d be happy I was okay. She died trying to protect me. She saved me. We were a team, me and Savvy, right up until the end.
