Ben:???????????????Wow, how old is she here? She looks just like you.
Ivy:?????????????????That’s tenth grade, so about fifteen. We took these after services on Easter Sunday.
The Harper home is the same one that Savannah grew up in. It’s a large, four-bedroom house that’s sparsely furnished, making it seem even bigger. There are pictures of Savannah everywhere—on the walls, in picture frames on the tables, in the slideshow playing on the television.
Ivy and I sit at the round table in the breakfast nook, a bright room just off the kitchen, and she tells me about Savannah. Or Savvy, as everyone in her life called her.
Ivy:?????????????????Savvy was so happy. Her whole life. Even as a teenager! She was the worst baby, just crying all the time, constantly, but about age two she just became as cheerful as could be, and that never let up. She had her days, I guess, but for the most part she was just a really joyful woman. Maybe too joyful.
Ben:???????????????How do you mean?
Ivy:?????????????????Well, I used to tell her to calm down, to think things through. She’d just get so excited about something and want to do it immediately. She was so excited to experience new things, sometimes it was like she wanted to do everything all at once. I wanted her to slow down. I’d tell her she had her whole life. But I guess she knew that wasn’t going to be long.
Ben:???????????????Can you give me an example?
Ivy:?????????????????When she was ten—or maybe eleven—and we were still living in New Orleans, she decided she wanted to try out for this local production of Romeo and Juliet. For the role of Juliet. And I said to her, “Savvy, that role isn’t for a child. Only adults can audition for that role. Maybe a teenager could, but not a ten-year-old.” She was so mad at me. She begged me and begged me to go audition, and I said no, so she just hopped on a city bus after school one day, marched over there, and auditioned all by herself.
Ben:???????????????Did she get it?
Ivy:?????????????????No, but they gave her another small role. But, of course, she didn’t want that one, she wanted Juliet. So she didn’t do it. She did play Juliet eventually, when Plumpton High did a production. She was fifteen then. It was a big commotion when the role went to a sophomore.
Ben:???????????????When did you move to Plumpton? You said you were in New Orleans when Savvy was ten.
Ivy:?????????????????When she was twelve. Keaton—my oldest—was about to start high school, and Jerome and I had always planned to move back to Texas. I grew up in San Antonio, and we both love it here. They were building all these new homes back then for a really good price, so we jumped on it.
Ben:???????????????Did Lucy and Savannah know each other in school?
Ivy:?????????????????Oh, sure, of course. It’s a pretty small town. All the kids knew each other, especially if they were the same age.
Ben:???????????????But they weren’t friends?
Ivy:?????????????????No. They didn’t have anything in common. Savvy was a cheerleader, she was on student council, she was homecoming queen. Lucy was … not … any of those things.
Ben:???????????????When did they become friends?
Ivy:?????????????????After Lucy moved back to town. Savvy was already here … well, you know. She’d been back in Plumpton for a couple years, after college didn’t work out. She came over for Sunday dinner and she said, “Mom, you remember Lucy Chase?” I didn’t, actually. She’d had to remind me. That girl who once got suspended for punching a boy. That’s how Lucy was known back then.
So, she says, “Yeah, she got married to a guy she met at UT”—that’s the University of Texas in Austin, hon—“and they just moved back to town. We got to talking when she came by the Charles.” The Charles is this fancy restaurant downtown—Savvy used to bartend there.
Ben:???????????????So they hit it off then?
Ivy:?????????????????Yeah. Savvy said it was a little weird at first. Lucy immediately asks how Savvy had liked Tulane, and of course Savvy had to tell her that she left after her freshman year. She was … [long sigh]. Savvy was doing this thing then, where she was making light of it and sort of poking fun at herself. Making the joke before someone else can and all that. I didn’t like it.
Ben:???????????????What would she say?
Ivy:?????????????????She would tell people things like, “I majored in partying,” or “I was a terrible college student, but a truly excellent sorority girl.” It just made her sound dumb, and she wasn’t dumb. She’d gotten a scholarship to Tulane. She was her high school salutatorian, for god’s sake! She was just too young. I know plenty of eighteen-year-olds do just fine leaving home, but she didn’t. She was a sweet girl who just wasn’t ready to be on her own. She was finally starting to get her feet under her again when Lucy moved back to town.
Ben:???????????????And you said it was awkward at first? Because of the college thing?
Ivy:?????????????????Savvy said that Lucy looked really uncomfortable at first, and Matt had to jump in and save her. Matt was always doing that. He’s a real charmer. No idea what he saw in Lucy. But I guess Lucy and Savvy got to talking, and they decided to meet up for drinks the next day. I was turned off by the whole thing right away, honestly.
Ben:???????????????Why?
Ivy:?????????????????It just sounded like Lucy was taking pity on Savvy. Lucy had moved back to town with her rich, handsome husband, they’d bought this gorgeous old house, and she was helping her husband open this fancy brewery restaurant thing. And then she comes across the former homecoming queen, who has dropped out of college and is now a bartender? Please. It was so obvious that Lucy liked how the tables had turned.
Ben:???????????????Did Savvy get that impression from Lucy?
Ivy:?????????????????No. Not that she said, anyway. But that girl had blinders on when it came to Lucy. She didn’t see the real woman. Not until it was too late.
CHAPTER SEVEN
LUCY
The bedroom I lived in for the first eighteen years of my life looks nothing like it did when I was younger. Before leaving for Los Angeles, I cleared out the entire room. Took everything off the walls and boxed it all up, emptied the closet and dresser, tossed all the old notebooks and school assignments in my desk.
Mom replaced the furniture at some point—the twin bed is now a queen, and the dresser and desk are new—and so the room is completely different than when it was mine. It’s a relief.
I pull my laptop out of my bag and plop down on the bed, which is hard as a rock. Mom thinks that soft beds are bad for your back, and she won’t be convinced otherwise.
I have a few emails, a couple book-related, one hate-mail-related (“Who did you sleep with to get the charges dropped, you evil bitch?”), and one from my agent, Aubrey. Aubrey Vargas is a perpetually upbeat woman, and she has sent me an email with a lot of exclamation points about how she’s not at all worried about the podcast. “Your real name will be kept under wraps here as usual! I hope you have a great time in Texas!”
Sure, Aubrey. The best time.
I also have a mountain of social media notifications, and I scroll through them quickly. I only have active social media accounts under the Eva Knightley name. I had Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts once upon a time, but I shut them down a long time ago. It felt too risky. I’d just barely skirted beneath the radar of social media for years before this podcast. I never wanted to tempt fate.
Eva Knightley is just a bubbly romance author with lots of (strictly online) friends. No one thinks she’s murdered anyone, with the exception of the occasional fictional character.
I scroll through the comments on my Facebook reader group page, where a few people are discussing Clayton, the evil ex-boyfriend in my last book.