Detective Vicki Cruz stared at the woman in front of her incredulously. "What did you say?"

"He's trying to kill me," Lucy repeated. "And before you think it, I'm not some basket case. I'm telling the truth. He threw a brick into my window last night with a note that said, 'I found you.' He knows I have his diary and he wants it back."

Vicki cleared her throat and opened the green leather journal. In it she found numerous entries from someone named O.

"This is insane," Vicki whispered.

"That's what I thought too." Lucy agreed, her fingers wrangling with one another in front of her.

Vicki scrunched her eyebrows together in thought. "You said he's after you because he knows you have his diary. If that's so, how could he possibly have found that out?"

Lucy looked away. "I don't know. The only thing I can think of is that I bought this desk at a rummage sale. It's a small town. There were a lot of people. Someone may have seen me. This journal was hidden in the desk."

"How long have you had this...diary?" Vicki asked as she continued to scan the pages of the journal.

Lucy took a step back. "I just found it the other day. I wasn't sure what it was until I started looking through it."

"And all of a sudden he found you?" Vicki asked, her disbelief evident in her tone.

"Why would I lie about something like this?" Lucy asked defensively.

"I'm not saying you're lying. This is just a lot of information to take in. So, let's start from the beginning."

Lucy took a deep breath and began explaining how she bought the desk at the rummage sale. Then she repeated her lie and said she found the journal recently as she was cleaning the desk. Someone broke her window and so she called the cops.

"That's quite a story," Vicki murmured.

"It's not a story. It's real. This is his journal."

"I believe you." Vicki stood up from the sofa and asked Lucy for a plastic baggie to put the journal in. "We'll take a look at the journal and see if we can pull any prints from it."

"What about my prints? My prints are probably on it since I've touched it. Do you need a copy of them?"

Vicki shook her head. "Not necessary Ms. Hanson."

"Why not? You're not lying to me, are you? You're going to check for prints, right?"

"I am. But getting your prints isn't necessary since they're already in our database."

Lucy gave her a puzzled expression and Vicki reminded her, "Your DWI, remember?"

Lucy blushed in embarrassment. How could she have forgotten?

"There's something else I'm curious about," Vicki said as she walked towards the door. "Why me?"

Lucy tilted her head to one side. "What do you mean?"

"Why ask me to come? I thought you and Detective Lahr had been in touch. He mentioned you knowing Donna."

Lucy looked away. "I just felt better talking to someone I didn't know very well. To stop the look."

"The look?"

"Yeah. The look. It's the look you get when someone you know finds something out about you that's disappointing. They give you this look and then it's followed by them telling you how disappointed they are in you. I know Holden. I mean Detective Lahr has been searching for O. I've had this diary for a few days. I should've turned it in right away when I realized what it was."

Vicki slowly nodded. She'd taken Lucy's official statement so there was no reason to take her down to the station. For some reason, she felt like Lucy was holding something back. "Did you read all of it?"

Lucy looked up surprised. "No!"

Vicki laughed. "Really? I would have read it in one sitting."

Lucy shook her head. "No. I couldn't do that. He's so sad. It'd be too hard to take."

Vicki's brows lifted. "Alright, well thank you for turning this in to me. I'll have officers do regular drives around this neighborhood until we find him."

"You will?" Lucy asked, surprised.

Vicki shrugged. "Even if this turns out not to be O's, it's never a bad thing to be careful."

Lucy saw Vicki out and leaned against the door, wondering if she had done the right thing. She locked the door and set the new alarm. She walked back to her bedroom and opened up a drawer that held a folder she put together earlier. Inside were scanned copies of O's journal. There was also a torn entry from the journal. It was the one discussing the dead body in the trunk of the car at Apollo's junkyard. She couldn't let the cops know she had been lying about just finding the journal. That would seem too suspicious.

10/26

Salutations my dear friend,

It has been seven hours since my last entry. I am fine. I am accepting the events of the night prior. The beast will not let me do otherwise. Some may wonder if I feel guilt for what I have done because of the beast. I cannot say that I do. I have longed to escape the beast and what has it brought me?

False hope.

To live life without hope is better than to taste it only to discover you shall never have the flavor of it again. I accept the beast. He is me and I am him. We must learn to coexist to survive. I can no longer deny our joining. To condemn him is to condemn myself.

Do not feel pity for me my dear friend. I could not stand it if I were the object of pity. If you pitied me, I would be forced to destroy this journal and then I would truly be alone. For now, I will take a deep breath and exist. I shall keep the beast hidden while company is about. He has no choice but to agree if he wishes to survive.

The beast needs me to clean up after him. He must listen to my wishes. If you wonder about me finding someone new...think again. Grace let us down. She betrayed us. I do not believe I shall ever find someone whom I can trust the secret of the beast. Oh how this thought saddens me. I shall stop writing for today.

Yours until death, O

Lucy put the copies back in the folder and beneath her clothes in her drawer. She was feeling stifled and anxious, so she changed into a swimsuit and walked outside to the pool. She quickly dived in and let the cool water envelop her. She let the water wash off her worries and mentally told herself that the police would figure things out. They had to. She was so engrossed in her swimming that she didn't realize what was happening outside the swimming pool.

Once she stepped out of the pool, she wrapped a towel around her, feeling much better. She walked toward the glass double doors that led inside her house and froze. Written in red paint were the words, "I shall not condemn you."

Lucy didn't go back into the house. Instead, she called the police from outside. Twenty minutes later, the police joined her outside to look at the vandalism. Also present was Detective Lahr.

"What are you doing here?" Lucy asked him.

"I was on my way to see you since you called my partner," he answered.

Lucy fidgeted, feeling uncomfortable in just her swimsuit and towel. "Did she tell you what I wanted?"

"Not yet. I haven't seen her. Why?"

"Nothing. Listen, I appreciate you coming over but the other officers are here. You should go."

"Lucy, what's going on?" Holden asked.

Lucy was shaking and not just because of the cold. It was O. She knew it because of the handwriting.

"Can you just leave me alone? I don't want to talk about it!" Lucy walked inside with the other officers.

"No one is inside ma'am. Are you sure you didn't notice anything while you were swimming?" one of the officers skeptically asked her.

Lucy shook her head.

"This is the second act of vandalism you've had in the past two days. Are you sure there's no one you've made an enemy of?"

"Second act of vandalism? What the hell is going on Lucy?" Holden asked. "You can wipe that look off of your face right now. Donna would kill me if I didn't help you."

Lucy sighed. "Someone threw a brick into my window and today they wrote on my doors."

"Does your boyfriend know?"

Lucy shook her head. "Not about today's incident."

"Are you going to call him?"

"What for? What can he do? I've already called the cops. We had an alarm installed. I can't believe I was so stupid. I didn't even notice him."

Holden stepped forward as though he was going to hug her but she stepped away. "I'm sorry officer, but is it possible for the police to do regular drives through this neighborhood? Detective Vicki Cruz said she was going to ask."

The officer nodded. "Of course, we can. Especially since someone is targeting you for vandalism. It's a good thing he didn't harm you when you were swimming."

A chill ran through Lucy. The words said, "I shall not condemn you." What did that mean? Was he forgiving her? Did he want his diary back? She already gave it to Vicki.

The officer stepped away for a moment and Holden asked Lucy again, "Are you not going to tell me what's going on?"

Lucy exhaled slowly. "Fine. I'll tell you but save whatever advice you feel like giving afterward to yourself. Okay?"

Holden crossed his arms and nodded.

"I found a diary in an old desk I bought at a rummage sale. It had a bunch of entries in it from someone named O."

"Hell," Holden whispered.

"Hell is right," Lucy muttered. "I feel like I'm there. Anyway, I think he found out I had it and now he's after me. Detective Cruz has the diary now."

"How long did you have it?"

Lucy looked down at her painted toenails. "A few days."

"And you didn't tell me?"

"I told Detective Cruz," she said weakly.

Holden cursed. "Why would you hide this from me? If it's real, do you know how dangerous this is?"

"This is exactly why I didn't tell you. I didn't want to hear this from you. You're not my father, my brother, or my boyfriend. I shouldn't have to listen to this from you."

"No, you're right. I'm none of those things. But I am an officer working the O case. I'm also your friend. At least I thought I was. We made cupcakes together, remember?" Holden took a deep breath to stop himself from continuing and Lucy heard him call himself an idiot. He walked away without saying another word to her. He advised the officers to keep him updated as he made a call to Vicki.

After confirming what Lucy had said, he had some officers come in to try and get prints from Lucy's glass doors and the desk Lucy bought at the rummage sale. Detective Cruz showed up a little later and gave Lucy a sympathetic look when she saw her.

No one was paying attention to her as she walked back outside. Lucy was upset and tried calling Jake. Her call went straight to voicemail. She tried calling his friend George who worked with him. She hadn't spoken with George since her accident a month ago.

"Lucy, it's been a long time. What's up?" George's scratchy voice from too much smoking echoed in her ear.

"Hey, George. I'm sorry to bother you but Jake said he had to go back to the rig early because of some accident. I was hoping you could tell him to call me. My calls keep going to voicemail."

"Accident?" George asked.

"Yeah, an accident." Lucy could feel her body tensing with apprehension. "Didn't you also get a phone call about going back to work early?"

George began coughing. "Uh...yeah of course. I'll tell Jake as soon as I see him. Listen, I have to go, Lucy. I'll make sure Jake calls you, okay?"

Lucy tried to stop him from hanging up but he disconnected from the call. Lucy couldn't move. She felt like her world was tumbling down around her. George didn't know anything about an accident. Jake had lied to her. Why? More importantly, where was he?

Lucy wiped a tear from her cheek and sat down at the edge of her pool. Was this what O felt like when he discovered Grace lied to him? Lucy felt like she couldn't breathe anymore. She slowly slipped into the water and let her head sink below the surface, thinking that perhaps if she stayed down long enough all of her problems would disappear.