suicide pact

The suicide pact between Lula Landry and Guy Somé was an agreement that either would call the other if they were seriously contemplating suicide. Somé invokes it when asked why he is sure that Lula’s death was not a suicide, making the promise a personal basis for his confidence in her state of mind.

The Agreement

Somé describes the pact as an explicit mutual undertaking: if either of them was thinking seriously about killing themselves, they would contact the other. He compares their arrangement to Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift, presenting it as a promise grounded in the expectation that the other person would reach out in a crisis.

Somé’s Reasoning

When asked whether Lula’s history of mental-health problems could mean she had died by suicide, Somé acknowledges that she had had such problems but argues that the pact makes that explanation unlikely. In his view, if Lula had been seriously suicidal, she would have called him. His certainty therefore rests not on a claim that she had never struggled, but on the confidence that their agreement would have guided her actions.

The Last Contact

Somé says Lula phoned him on Wednesday while he was in Tokyo. Because he had his phone muted at two in the morning, he did not answer; Lula left a message. Somé says that the message did not sound suicidal and offers it as further support for his assessment. The pact thus gives his interpretation of that final contact its force, while the missed call leaves him relying on the message rather than a conversation.