Grace clears her throat. “Well, she’s isolated herself and doesn’t date, for starters.”
“Do you think that’s because she feels guilty?”
“I don’t know if my cousin is guilty of anything,” says Grace, speaking sense for a brief beautiful moment. “It could all just be an understandable reaction to the horrible things that happened to her.”
“No shit,” grumbles Muriel from the passenger seat.
“How else has it affected her?” asks the interviewer in his deathly serious voice.
“She’s obsessed with true crime,” says Grace. “Has books about it all over her house.”
“Oh, come on.” My fingers squeeze the steering wheel. “There were like a couple on the dining room table.”
Hana winces. “And then there’s your library in the study.”
“Yeah, but she didn’t see that, so it doesn’t count.”
“True.”
The dog gives an almighty huff from the backseat of the Subaru. I take it to be in support of me. Hana is giving him ear scratches, another thing he approves of mightily.
“What are her feelings regarding the documentary?” asks the interviewer. “When we set out to do this project, it was important to us to represent all sides of this story. With respectfor the victim or possible victims coming first and foremost, of course. We’ve tried contacting Sidney numerous times and never received a reply. And when we knocked on her door recently, she was extremely hostile.”
“That was surprising,” interjects another dude. “The violence of her reaction was almost unhinged. How many times did she kick you? Three? Four?”
“Go fuck yourself.” I shake my head. “You tried to invade my home and then stopped me from shutting the door.”
Muriel just sighs.
“Yeah. I agree, Steve,” says the first guy. “It’s as if she wants to stop us and suppress this story for some reason. To hide the truth and the careful and balanced reporting we’re working so hard to reveal to the authorities, the general public, and of course you—our loyal listening audience. If you’re new to our show, don’t forget to hit that subscribe button. Updates about this case are coming in all the time and you don’t want to miss out!”
“You sure don’t. We appreciate you being here today, Grace,” says Steve. “What else can you tell us?”
My cousin sighs. The woe is real. “Sidney can be secretive and hard to read. We’re very close. So close. But like I said before, while my cousin used to be outgoing, these days she’s more of a private person. Someone who finds it hard to trust. Even me.”
“Things really changed inside of her during those late teen years, didn’t they? Around the time when she started college and met Ryan. It’s as if who she was as a person was somehow altered, and not for the better. Did she perhaps experience an event that turned her to the dark side?”
“I don’t know about that. But her ease with violence certainly surprised me,” answers Grace. “Having a punching bag in the house and all. We weren’t raised to be aggressive like that. Imean, she has calluses on her hands from hitting things, for goodness’ sake.”
Grandma bought me my first pepper spray. But whatever.
“Were you ever frightened in your cousin’s presence?” asks the first interviewer. The one whose name we don’t know. “Scared for your safety?”
“I want to say no,” answers my cousin with a waver in her voice. “But it would be a lie.”
“It’s okay, Grace. Take your time. We know this must be upsetting for you.”
Hana scoffs. “Is this lying traitorous hyperbolic bitch actually crying?”
“She was a theatre kid for a while,” I say.
“What I think is important here is that I believe Sidney is looking for the bodies of the other missing women,” continues Grace.
Shit.
“Why do you think that?” asks Steve.
“On her dining table, I saw a printout of an article about cadaver dogs. How they’re able to detect dead bodies and then signal to their trainers. Stuff like that.”
