“What are you doing here?”
Lucy Sky Diamond was nothing like the girl I met at The Pink Flamingo Hotel just a few months ago. Her long, black hair was cut in a bob and dyed a silvery blonde. She wore tinted glasses over her bright eyes, and she appeared to have lost a good twenty pounds, her perfect body seemingly wasting away to nothing.
I'll admit I was a bit startled, but clearly not as startled as she was.
"Lucy," I began, "everyone is looking for you."
She grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me into her apartment from the creaky hallway, then quickly closed and locked the door behind me.
"Are you crazy?" she hissed. "Are you out of your ever-loving mind?"
"I was worried," I offered by way of explanation.
"Worried? You were worried? Good God, now ... oh hell, now ... yes, now you should be worried."
"Lucy," I said as tenderly as I could manage, "I love you."
Suddenly, her stern look began to soften. She sat down on a small divan, put her hands to her face, and began to cry. I stood there sheepishly, waiting ... waiting for what? I had no idea. This was new territory for me.
"No," she moaned. "You can't love me. You simply can't."
"I do love you," I repeated, "I love you with all my heart."
She looked up at me tenderly. She seemed so fragile, and I had the sense that at any minute, she would completely fall apart.
"No one knows I'm here," I offered, "together, we can work this out, move away, find a safe haven."
Her sobs turned to spits of anger, and she snapped at me, "Of course someone knows. She knows. And wherever we go, she'll know."
"Who?"
"Who?" she echoed. "You don't know who? Are you an imbecile?"
"Do you mean Holly?"
"Yes, Holly. Don't you get it? I never murdered that hapless trucker. Sure the guy was pushing the limits, but I was fine. Doing business, when who shows up? Holly. It was Holly who killed him, not me."
"Holly? Why would Holly kill the guy?"
"Why? Who knows why? She's a sociopath, crazy as a loon. She sees herself in her girls, and she hates what we do. That guy ... that poor guy wasn't the first, and he won't be the last."
My head was swimming. I looked around the room, found a chair, and sat down. I wondered if I was going to pass out.
"But I was there, you see," Lucy continued. "I was there and watched her stab that poor sap until he stopped breathing. Blood, God Almighty, there was blood everywhere. I thought I was next, so I bolted out the passenger door and hightailed it around the back of the hotel. I wanted to disappear, wanted to become invisible. I didn't want you to be involved, but I had nowhere else to go, so I crawled through your window."
For a moment, I didn't know what to say. Then a thought dawned on me, so I asked quietly, "Does Holly know where you are?"
Lucy looked at me with an expression of disbelief. "Of course, she does," she blurted. "It was Holly who got me away from The Pink Flamingo, letting the blame for the murder fall on my shoulders, and put me up here."
"I'm sorry. I had no idea," I mumbled.
"Too late now. Too late for sorry. Now that you know, she'll be coming after me. Don't you see? She has connections all over the state. She makes one phone call, and I'm as good as dead."
"No you're not," I snapped. "I'm getting you out of here. Pack a bag, we're leaving."
"It's too late," Lucy moaned. "We're both loose ends. You're just as dead as me."
"Nobody's dying," I insisted, "pack a bag, we're leaving."
Worry Dolls ♫ Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
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