Serena Davis sat at her table, idly flipping through notes and listening to recorded interviews. She felt like the spider weaving her web, and that any second now, the fly would be approaching.

Without looking up, she knew the precise second the woman entered the Mermaid. That pause, that fraction of a heartbeat, when all conversation in a noisy pub stops in reverence. She'd seen this woman only once before, but she had had the same effect then as she did now; standing just inside the door, scanning the room and pushing her sunglasses to the top of her head. The woman spotted Serena and walked over slowly, giving the both of them ample opportunity to size each other up. Serena saw the woman stop one of the plastic waitresses and order a drink. Her hair hung loose over her shoulders, and her neat linen travel suit looked like she had been born for it. She finished with the waitress, and turned back towards the table, locking eyes with Serena.

She reached the booth, and tossed her purse to the bench before she casually removed her jacket. She sat down, never once breaking the glance. Her bare arms and legs had been kissed bronze by the sun, and if it weren't for the dainty child-like string of sea-shells at her throat, she would have looked like she'd just walked off the cover of a magazine.
"Well, what a pleasant surprise..." smile Serena "I honestly wasn't sure that you'd come..."
"You didn't leave me much choice now, did you?" said the woman, leaning forward to rest her arms on the table.
"I don't know what you mean.."
"You know precisely what I mean." snapped the woman, "The letters, the phone messages, the pathetic attempts at subtle threats... Just what the hell do you want?"
"I want the story." said Serena

The woman leaned back, taking her elbows off the table as the waitress brought her her drink. "Well, you've decided that you think you can get it from me, is that it?"
"Oh, one way or the other, you'll talk. To me, or to the judge, it's your choice." As she said this, Serena pulled out her cell phone and slowly started punching in numbers.
"Who are you calling?"
"Oh, this detective I recently heard about, he might be able to help..."
The woman snatched the phone from Serena's hand, and scouting for the 'end' button- hit it hard. "You leave him alone." she hissed as she slid the phone across the table.

"Well, if I were him, I'd want to know if someone like you were to show up..." Serena started
"You can forget that little idea right there," said the woman, "You're wasting your valuable long-distance minutes... He already knows. I saw him in the hospital just before I left."
"Yeah," said Serena, leaning forward, "But how much of what he remembers from that night is 'you' and how much is drugs and dreamland? I'm sure he'd be thrilled to find you in town, not to mention back from the dead. Maybe you can sit next to each other at the trial...and maybe you can sit next to each other in prison." she pushed the mini-recorder towards the woman and said "Care to start talking?"
"Not here, and not now." the woman glared at her, "I need some time first, and there are some people I have to see. I have your number, I'll call you." She stood up and gathered her things, "I wish I could say this has been a pleasure..." then Lucky Day turned and walked back out onto the sunlit streets of town.