Excerpt from Chasing Lucy


Lucy Keaton stood in Jill Jeffries' office on the second floor of Jill's home, still shivering from the storm. Her dark brown hair was damp, her wispy bangs flat against her forehead. Jill was there with Lucy. In contrast to Lucy she was fair with shoulder length blond hair and startling blue eyes.

Lucy had come over this evening to work with Jill on one of Jill's latest assignments. Lucy was hoping that her flair for design would develop into a career and Jill was instrumental in giving Lucy that confidence. When the two women began to work together they quickly became friends.

Lucy glanced at Jill, and was certain that Jill must be thinking what she was thinking: this was hardly the setting she had envisioned where she would spend the last moments of her life. Lucy stared at the man standing before her. He had dropped by unexpectedly and naturally, Jill let him in. Now he stood there nervously pointing a gun at Lucy's heart.

This isn't happening! She thought. It can't be happening!

Jill was trying to reason with him. "Look," Jill told him, "put the gun away and let's talk about this. Sam's due home any minute!"

He laughed and shook his head, "No, Jill, Sam isn't due home any moment. I already took care of him."

Jill sucked in her breath in fear for her husband's life and glanced at the gun pointed at her friend.

He knew what she was thinking. "No, I'm not stupid enough to kill a cop but I'm afraid the good detective is on a wild goose chase on the other side of the county." He winked at her nervously, "but that was a good try!"

The phone rang, startling him; he jumped in surprise. "Don't answer that!" He screamed.

Lucy slammed her eyes shut expecting to hear the report of the gun in the horrifying instant before she died.

He didn't shoot.

Jill tried to calm him with reassurances that she wouldn't pick up the phone.

Think, Lucy! Think! Think! She screamed in her mind. She knew that it was a matter of moments before they were dead unless she could come up with a plan.

"Okay!" She exclaimed to him, trying to be brave so she wouldn't sound as frightened as she was. "Okay! I'll come with you!" His hands were shaking. He was starting to look more flustered.

Please, God, Lucy prayed, Please let him leave Jill here and please, please let the girls be quiet! Lucy's six year old daughter, Emma, was with Nikki, down the hall and around the corner in Nikki's bedroom.

He read her mind. "I can't leave her out of it, now." He looked at Jill while still holding the gun on Lucy. "I'm sorry, Jill, you and the girls will have to come with us, too. I won't hurt any of you, you have my word."

Lucy and Jill knew that was a lie. Once he started talking to them it hadn't taken either of the women long to realize that he was of course, the one responsible for the murder.

Jill paled. "The girls aren't here. They're staying at my mother's for the weekend."

"I don't believe you! Call the girls out here!"

"No, if you don't believe me, then go ahead and search the house." She stood there defiantly. "Go on," Jill made a sweeping gesture toward the hallway, "search the whole place!"

Lucy prayed that he wouldn't call her bluff.

The phone started to ring again and he stopped talking for a moment so he could think about what to do. He was getting more jittery. He switched the gun to his left hand and ran the fingers of his right through his hair, then wiped the perspiration off his forehead using the sleeve of his overcoat with one sweep of his forearm.

What he couldn't have known was that both women standing before him had already resolved that they would stop him before they allowed him to get to their daughters - or they would die trying.

Jill spoke again. "What's your decision, are we going with you now, or after you search the house?"

He realized time was slipping away but he was sure the girls were here. He could not leave witnesses, he had come too far. He switched the gun back to his right hand and raised it slowly, pointing it directly at Jill's face. "Call Nikki and Emma out here right now."

Jill looked him in the eyes. "No." She replied quietly but with conviction. Her chin trembled in the realization that she was about to die.

"I wasn't talking to you." His upper lip curled back in an ugly sneer. "I was talking to her." He tilted his head in Lucy's direction. "Call the girls out here, Lucy. Jill's life is in your hands." He raised the gun an inch so it was pointing directly between Jill's eyes. Slowly he pulled back the hammer.

"They're not here!" Jill insisted, trying to communicate to Lucy that she'd die before she'd endanger them, as hot tears streamed down her face.

"Shut up!" He screamed at Jill. "Shut up! SHUT UP! Call them, Lucy! Call them or I'll kill her! I swear it! She's got ten seconds to live, Lucy! Ten!" he shouted, his voice hitting a
feverish pitch. "Nine!"

He brought his left hand up to join his trembling right hand and both women wondered if he was actually capable of shooting an unarmed human being. "Eight!..Seven!"

He took a stance there, his legs straight, his feet apart, holding the gun with both hands straight out in front of him, one eye closed as he focused his aim on Jill's forehead.

"SIX.!"

A sob escaped from Jill as she hastily mumbled her prayers.

This can't be happening! Lucy thought frantically. And in the split second that she made her decision one thought raced through her mind: Why was he doing this? WHY!