Putting the mirror down, Lisa pulled a tissue from the box by the bed and wiped away Chelsea's tears. "That's it, let the tears out; no good keeping them in. You keep crying them, and I'll keep wiping them away." She pulled Chelsea's hair away from her eyes, then found a hairbrush and brushed Chelsea's hair as best she could without moving Chelsea's head. "There's a girl a couple of rooms down from mine who's good at doing hair; maybe she could do yours. She did Molly's hair for the costume party."
Lisa's thoughts kept going back to Chelsea's comments about her honesty. Should she go ahead and tell Chelsea the truth? She was likely to find out anyway when the Coast Guard got there. "Um, Chelsea, when the Coast Guard gets here...I, uh..."
Lisa had been on the verge of telling Chelsea about the killings and her secret life, but just as she had been about to spill it, she felt her courage slipping away. "That is, they're probably going to fly you back to the mainland, and I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to visit you once I get back to my real life, but I want to come as soon as I can, and I want to keep in touch. Could you give me your address or phone number or something? I'm afraid if the Coast Guard gets here and I'm not with you at the time, they'll take you away and I'll lose my chance to get that information."
All of which was true, and it was a convenient way out. It just didn't say that the visit would probably only take place after Lisa had spent years in prison. Assuming of course that Chelsea even wanted to see her after that.