by Ally Vance
Lucy was his perfect partner in crime.
Murray caught his breath, holding Lucy tight as he pulled out of her.
He never imagined he’d do it in the morgue, especially not with a body present. Lucy could be mighty persuasive when she set her mind to it.
Murray was still pulling up his pants when Lucy wandered over to the autopsy table, dressed in nothing but heels. She pulled the sheet back.
Tallulah had done a good job on the kid. You couldn’t tell he’d hung in his closet for hours before being discovered by his unsuspecting mother. He just looked like a rosy-cheeked man-child, asleep on the couch after overindulging on Thanksgiving dinner.
“Does it ever get to you?” Lucy sounded childlike, timid. “Seeing things like this day in and day out?”
Murray pondered. “I don’t know any different.”
“That’s not an answer.” She didn’t even turn around when she said it.
“This is all I’ve got. I’m too old to start over.”
“You’re not old.” She turned and wrapped her arms around his neck. “If you could do anything, what would you do?”
He brushed the tip of his nose against hers. “You.”
Just then the lights flipped on, and Murray heard a tray of instruments clatter onto the concrete floor. He didn’t want to turn around, but he made himself. If looks could kill, Lucy and Murray would have been as dead as the kid behind them.
“Out!” Tallulah shouted, her voice echoing off the floor and the steel wall of drawers that had Lucy’s handprints and ass prints all over them. Rage emanated off Tallulah in palpable waves.
Murray froze, blocking Lucy’s nude body from her view. He heard her scrambling for her clothes. “Tall—”
Tallulah marched past them and whipped the cover back in place. When she spoke again, it was through gritted teeth. “Leave now, Murray. Get out of my sight.”
The inevitable happened the following week. Murray was surprised it had taken that long for Tallulah to muster the courage and rally Townes. They finally summoned him to the church Wednesday night after youth group let out. He knew this was their makeshift “intervention.” Townes had undoubtedly spilled everything to his sister after she’d narc’d him out for the naked romp in the back of the house.
Townes droned on, voicing concerns that Murray was still working through his recovery and shouldn’t be seeing anyone. He wanted Murray to go to some rehab in upstate New York. The change of scenery might do him good.
Tallulah then took the baton, concerned that Murray wasn’t recovering at all. She wanted forensic reconstruction of where he’d lost money, as well as control of the books. She wanted him to “take a break” from Lucy, who demonstrated her own “serious lack of judgment.” Tallulah wanted a lot more things. Murray wanted her to shut up.
Finally, there was a break in the tag team lecture, and Murray raised his hand.
“Do either of you give a damn about what I want?” Murray pointed a finger at Townes. “I want you to stay out of my business. You’ll go along with anything Tallulah says if you think it’ll get you into her pants. She’s not the one that got away, Townes, you never had her.”
He turned on Tallulah. “And you! Quit projecting your shit onto me because you lack coping skills. I’m sorry for what you went through in Black Mountain, but I do not have to forgo happiness because you’re a miserable old maid and don’t want to live alone with Mother and Father’s ghosts!”
Townes stepped in front of her, but it was too little too late. Tallulah’s lip quivered, and tears stood unshed in her eyes.
“You’re a dick, Murray. Get out of here before I kick your ass.” Murray had never seen Townes so pissed. Tallulah’s knowing gaze never wavered from her brother’s.
“Is that what Jesus would do, Rev?” Murray stormed out, flipping them both the bird as he left. He needed to find Lucy or a game, whichever he stumbled upon first.
Remembering what day it was, Murray drove across town the newer, sleek funeral home of his longtime rival, Rusty Wallace. “Black Wednesday” was not the highest stakes poker game in town, but it had the best bragging rights. Not only would he clean out every mortician he knew, he’d remind them he was Asheville’s golden boy.
Rusty answered the door and nearly dropped his cigar when he saw Murray on his stoop. “Look who’s here… Double Down Murray. How’s it hangin’, high roller?”
Rusty, called so because he had more freckles than brains, had always been a smarmy piece of shit. Nothing that wasn’t his idea was a good idea, and he’d never said a positive word in his life.
“Can you deal me in?” Murray asked, and everyone present murmured their agreement.
“So where’ve you been hiding yourself, Layhe? It’s been forever since you joined us.”
“I’ve been spending time with my girl.”
“Oh, yeah?” Paul Brown, the nicest of the lot of them tapped his cigar on the ashtray. “Who’s the lucky lady?”
“She’s a student, you wouldn’t know her.”
“What’s her name?”
“Lucy Fagan.”
Rusty, who had just taken a drink, sprayed booze all over the cards. No one seemed to notice but Murray. Instead, they all gaped at him, open-mouthed.
“Loosey Lucy!” Rusty was red-faced and howling with laughter. No one else seemed amused. “Where’d you meet her? Let me guess. A funeral!”
“You know Lucy.” Murray felt a strange calm come over him as he made the statement of confirmation.
“Oh, we all know Lucy. She has been to all our funeral homes. A real groupie. Did she blow you in the hearse? Cause she blew Paul in the hearse.”
Murray found he suddenly didn’t like Paul as much. Paul held his hands up like Murray was holding a gun on him. “It was a long time ago, Murray. I had no idea she was serious! The wife was thirty feet away in the kitchen making grilled cheese, for Christ sake.”
“I fucked her in a coffin. The Executive model.” Rusty topped off his glass and held it out, as if to toast. “Turned around and sold it two days later. Didn’t tell ’em it was used.”
“I gotta go.” Murray pushed his chair back and walked on trembling legs toward the door.
“Tell Lucy we all said ‘hi’!” Rusty called after him. The sounds of his laughter followed Murray out into the twilight. His head throbbed, and he stumbled a bit. He gripped his head in both hands and pressed inward, as if trying to keep his brain from exploding.
The next thing he knew he was driving. When he saw the flames in his rearview, he squinted for a better look.
Don’t sweat it, Murray. I had your back.
Lucy felt a sense of dread as she pounded on the front door of Layhe and Sons. Tallulah had begged her to come. She said Murray was in trouble. Lucy had tried to press her for details, and when she couldn’t or wouldn’t give any, Lucy went to hang up.
“Lucy.” Townes was on the other end of the line then.
“What’s wrong with Murray, Townes? Did something happen to him?”
“Not that I know of, but we need to talk. This isn’t the kind of stuff you say over the phone.”
Lucy knocked again, louder this time. Townes appeared, opening the door for her.
“Tallulah caught a surprise client. She’s meeting them in the parlor. She said we should wait for her in the office.”
“Start talking, Townes. I’m not waiting for that woman to get an explanation.”
“I understand. Have a seat.”
Lucy sat behind the desk and Townes sat across from her. Her heart ached to look at him. He was the first man she’d ever thought she’d loved, and he’d destroyed her. She’d gone on one hell of a bender afterward, fucking anyone who’d look at her sideways. If she hadn’t been trying to win Townes back, she’d have never met Murray in the first place.
If a man of God couldn’t love her, no one could.
“Where do I start…” Townes muttered to himself. Lucy sighed.
“Just spit i
t out.”
He raked his hand through his hair. “Shit, okay. Murray is ill.”
“Oh?”
“You know the headaches he has?”
“Oh my God. Does he have a tumor?” Lucy imagined Murray losing his beautiful head of hair due to chemo and her eyes started to sting.
“It’s not that simple.” Townes scooted forward. “Did Murray tell you how his parents died?”
Lucy pulled a face, then shook her head. “Some sort of accident?”
“Carbon monoxide poisoning. Here. In this house. They inspected the furnace after. It worked fine. Then the police investigated Tallulah.”
“Why?” Lucy blinked, trying to connect the dots.
“The hearse was left running in the garage and a neighbor thought they saw her leaving the garage that night.”
“What does this have to do with Murray?”
“Tallulah was in Orlando at a mortuary arts conference. She presented. Solid alibi.”
Lucy waited for the other shoe to drop. Townes didn’t disappoint.
“Tallulah found him at the cabin a few days later. He claimed he’d been there all week.”
“Okay…”
“She found some of her clothes in his suitcase.”
“You’re telling me Murray killed his parents and then he tried to frame Tallulah…”
“Not exactly.”
“Dammit, Townes!” Lucy sat back with a huff and dug in her purse for her smokes. “If you’re going drag this out half the night, I’m gonna have a smoke.”
She pulled out the pack but couldn’t find her lighter. Hoping for some matches, Lucy slid open the center desk drawer.
A tube of lipstick rolled at her and she brushed it aside. She found matches and lit one. By the light of the flame, she saw a smudge on the lipstick tube, the exact shade of red from her window.
Heart in her throat, she opened the drawer farther. With trembling fingers, she pulled out a copy of Vogue, addressed to Tallulah Layhe.
The letter O was missing from the cover. Lucy flipped through the magazine, barely cognizant that Townes was speaking, her heart hammered so loudly in her ears.
“He’s broken, Lucy. A patchwork version of who he used to be.”
The door swung open.
“Sorry,” Tallulah hurried into the room. “They got diverted from Sacred Heart. The place is on fire, evidently. They think Rusty might still be—”
“You conniving bitch.” Lucy tossed the magazine at Tallulah, followed by the lipstick. Tallulah caught the copy of Vogue, but Townes reached down and picked up the lipstick from the floor.
“I don’t understand…”
“You think you can toy with me? How dare you threaten me?”
“Luc—” Townes started, but she cut him off.
“And you! With your bullshit stories about Murray?”
“It’s not bullshit.” Tallulah’s deadpan expression made Lucy want to take her cigarette to her haughty face.
“You don’t want Murray with white trash. I get that. But you…” Lucy turned to Townes, a tear slipping from her angry eyes before she could stop it. “I wasn’t good enough for you and now I’m not good enough for your friend.”
Tallulah dropped the magazine and gripped Lucy by the upper arms. “You need to hear me, now. Murray is unstable. He’s mentally ill.”
“He warned me about you. Said your friends ditched you and got you gang raped. He said you won’t get help.”
“All of those things are true except one,” Tallulah said, then the lights went out.
“Shit.” Townes spat. “I’ll go check the fuse box.
Lucy turned suspicious eyes back to Tallulah, but the taller woman was staring past her, out the window into the darkness. Somewhere outside, Townes cried out, and a scuffle ensued. By the light of the full moon, Lucy could see fear in Tallullah’s gaze.
“He’s here,” Tallulah whispered.
“Who?” But Lucy feared she already knew.
“I wasn’t kicked out of that car on Black Mountain. And I wasn’t beaten and raped.”
Something caught Lucy’s eye in the window behind Talullah. It was a figure. She’d mistaken it for Tallulah’s shadow, but as the seconds passed, it was swelling in size.
Talullah shook her once, hard, and Lucy’s eyes were drawn back to the woman in front of her. “Those things happened to Murray!”
Glass shattered around them, and the room fell into chaos.
Lucy startled awake, throat throbbing, mouth dry. Her head lolled to her left. Murray was driving, dressed in Tallulah’s clothes. He had a long wig on, and it might have been funny, what with the facial hair. Even then, the resemblance was astonishing.
They were in the hearse. Lucy turned in her seat and saw two tarps lying in the back. She heard a soft moan. Tallulah. She assumed the other tarp held Townes.
“Murray?” Lucy croaked, and he whipped his head to face her. His eyes glittered with madness. How had she not known he had this in him?
“It’s Tally, dear girl. I know we’re twins, but I hardly think we look that much alike.” Murray spoke in a high-pitched affectation of his sister. Lucy flinched back against the door, terrified at the sound of him.
“Where are you taking us?” But making out the surrounding landmarks, Lucy suspected she already knew.
“Why Riverside Cemetery, of course. I know how much being near Thomas Wolfe means to you.”
“How do you know that?” She wanted to keep him talking. She needed to think.
Murray smiled at her, and Lucy wanted to scream. “I know everything Murray knows.”
As they slowed to cross into Riverside, Lucy tried to open the door to jump out, but it was locked.
“No, no. Bad girl.” Murray giggled, and Townes popped up from behind him. Townes wrapped an arm around Murray’s neck. Murray bucked and fought, and the car veered wildly as they struggled. Lucy tried to grab the wheel, and Murray backhanded her. Her head hit the window. Desperate, she tried again for the wheel, but it was too late.
They hurtled directly into a tree.
When she came to again, she was in darkness. Tallulah was half carrying her. Murray walked behind them, dragging a tarp. His face was covered in blood and his wig was missing.
“Townes. Murray hit him with a shovel.” Tallulah’s eyes were lifeless. Lucy made no attempt to hide the tears that followed.
“Over here, ladies.” They turned in time to see Murray unroll the tarp and kick Townes into an open grave. Both women cried out, and Murray turned wild eyes their way.
“This is all your fault.” Pale fingers clenched the shovel, bloody teeth illuminated by moonlight. “Stupid girl. Why couldn’t you listen?”
Murray stumbled toward them.
“Get on your knees.”
They did, and Tallulah held Lucy tighter.
“Say nighty night and kiss me…” Murray sang. He raised his shovel and Lucy closed her eyes. She didn’t want his face to be the last thing she saw.
The clang came, but she felt nothing. Tallulah still gripped her. She let out a joyful exclamation, and Lucy’s eyes flew wide. Murray was face down on the ground before them. Martha the groundskeeper stood over him, wielding a bloody shovel.
“T…Ta..Lullah!” Martha barked. Tallulah released Lucy, bounding into Martha’s arms. They kissed, and Lucy realized quickly that their passion was not a new occurrence. Lucy stared at Murray. He was breathing, but she doubted he’d be getting up anytime soon.
Lucy looked up into the night sky, trying to catch her breath. A moan sounded from nearby, and she realized it had come from the grave below, and Lucy scrambled to the edge.
“Townes?”
“Lucy. Praise God, you’re okay.” He smiled weakly, but he was upright and breathing.
Praise God indeed.
She turned to beg for help. Martha was already on her way with a ladder.
That Martha. Damn, could she save the day!
Murray looked forward to Tallu
lah’s weekly visits. He loved hearing how well the business was doing, and they always played lots of Hearts and Spades. She was a welcome break from his humdrum days and sleepless nights.
Most patients couldn’t have guests for longer than an hour, but the staff let Tallulah stay as long as she liked. Hardly surprising. This entire wing was named after the Layhes, after all.
Tallulah prattled on as they played, about how Martha had taken her to some B and B. She had expected Martha would propose, but she hadn’t.
“Lucy and Townes finally admitted they’re dating.”
Murray felt a familiar twinge behind his sinuses, but his poker face never wavered. “The Episcopalians are cool with that?”
“He’s taking a break from the ministry. Lucy just graduated. They hopped right on a plane. They’re backpacking Europe for a month. I can’t remember where their first stop was…someplace with ‘spectacular architecture.’”
Murray blinked slowly. “I wish them all the luck in the world.”
“I’ll be sure to pass that along.”
“Tallulah? I’ve been craving grape gum. Do you have any?”
“What kind of sister do you take me for?” He waited until she was deep into digging for the Hubba Bubba before he pounced.
Tally straightened her wide-brimmed hat. Thought it had been an upsetting visit, all had worked out in the end. She walked out the front doors of the institution into the sunshine. No one paid her any mind. Flowers bloomed all around the grounds, a new beginning to a new chapter for them all. She blew a huge purple bubble and when it popped on her nose, she grinned.
With one last look at Murray’s prison, she climbed behind the wheel. Starting the car, she dialed the phone.
“I need to book a flight please. I’d like to leave today.” She rubbed her chin, glad she’d taken the time to shave close this morning.
“Casablanca. Yes, I’ll hold.” Her lip curled as she pointed the car in the direction of the airport.