The Hidden Diary of Ophelia Ridley

16

7 July 1988

Dear Diary,

Forgive me for taking so long to write, but I've simply been too scared to do so earlier. The police found Susan's body in a ditch off the side of a highway last night. Everyone's been asking us a lot of questions but Edith and I have stuck with our original story: we went to the ice cream shop that day to pick up our final paychecks. We had no idea Susan was involved with drugs or paid sex. We had never heard of Mike O'Donnell before that night and we certainly didnt know what provoked him to lock us in the ice cream shop and kidnap Susan.

Let me rewind.

Edith and I met up with Susan as planned at the ice cream shop. We had our 600 pounds in our pockets, because we were planning on going to the airport afterwards. It was the stupidest thing we could have done.

Susan let us into the shop and we all sat down and began to talk.

"You guys have to understand. I didnt have a choice, okay? You needed money and I had all these blokes interested in a party. I didn't know they would do that stuff to you. I just knew we would all make some money." Susan was adamant that she didnt mean for us to be assaulted like we were.

I believed her but Edith didnt. They argued for a while.

"If you felt bad, why did you leave us all alone? Why didnt you help us?" Edith asked, on the verge of tears.

"My boss, Mike, he wouldn't have approved of me helping you. He was there at that party and if I helped you, I would have been seen as weak. I would have gotten hurt." Susab claimed.

"Wait. Mike from the first night? The one who bought his wife that silver dress?" I asked. Susan paled.

"Yes. Listen, don't tell anyone about that dress. Well, about any of this, obviously. But really not about that dress." Susan quickly pleaded.

"What?" Edith asked. "Why?"

"Mike and I are on.. rocky ground right now. I took the dress from his house that night. I was drunk, okay? But I wasnt allowed to. If he finds out I was stealing from him, he'll kill me."

"He hasn't figured out you took the dress yet?" I wondered, finding it hard to believe. The way she had fondled that dress clearly showed her love for it.

"Well, no, he does. That's why we're on rocky ground." Susan said. "That and because I took some cocaine from him." She admitted. For the first time, I noticed how paranoid she looked, her head swiveling around the room, making sure no one was watching us through the windows.

"Great, so your pimp wants you dead and now you've dragged us into this?!" Edith pounded her fists on the table.

"No, no." Susan said adamantly "He wants me dead, he doesn't care about you. All he knows is that you wanted extra money, a one time deal. He probably wouldn't even recognize you again."

"If you're worried about him finding you, you should be more careful." I said "If we saw you yesterday, anyone could have." Despite her poor choices leading up to this, I still admired Susan. Her life was at stake but she was brave and stunning in her leopard tank top, and high waisted jeans.

"Speaking of which" Edith said "Why were you with Ophelia's dad anyway?"

Susan looked at me sadly. "He's a good customer, I figured he could help give me some extra cash."

"That's enough." I said. "I dont want to know anymore." I got up from my seat, preparing to leave. "Susan, I think you're a cool person. You've done a lot of cool things and one day I hope I can go on as many adventures as you have. But you also kinda scare me. What you're into, it's way over my head right now."

Edith stood up, too, and began to walk out but before we could we heard a voice tell us to stop moving.

"If you take one more step, I'll kill everyone in here."

That's where it all went wrong.

-O