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No more fatigue in her eyes. Talking about frightening things can do that.
I said, “Caspian didn’t talk about himself much. Did Cordi?”
“Oh yeah, all the time. But not about being afraid of anyone. I have to say, to me she always came across pretty frickin’ fearless.” She looked away. “Guess that wasn’t the best approach.”
I said, “Fearless as in risk-taking?”
“I can’t tell you anything specific, it’s just a feeling I had. Like she wanted to conquer the world and would do what it takes.”
“What about her dating life?”
“I never heard about one. She never got personal, it was all about her career, how excited she was about her videos, why she wanted a specific look. Like, check me out today, I’m a professor type. That kind of thing.”
“She had serious professional goals.”
“Oh, definitely. She thought she’d found the perfect way with her videos. But that’s risky, isn’t it? Put yourself out there and talk about emotional issues to a world of strangers? It’s bound to attract at least some crazies.”
I nodded. “Did she ever mention anyone bothering her?”
“No, she was always up. Full of positive energy.”
“How about guys in the past? Someone she’d cut off.”
“Hmm,” she said. “She did hint around about when she was younger she’d made mistakes. Tied it in with her mom, who she said had a total thing for wrong guys.”
“What else did she say about her mom?”
“It was pretty clear they had issues,” she said. “I mean it’s not like her mom came up as a frequent topic. But when Cordi did mention her it was to point out the wrong thing to do. It’s something she was planning to do in a video.”
“Talk about her mom.”
“Yes, but she said she wasn’t ready.”
“Afraid of causing conflict with her mom?”
“I guess.”
“Did she mention any other family members?”
Shari Benedetto thought. “Not to me. And when her mom did come up it was basically pre-shoot talk. Caspian’s blow-drying her and she’s like ‘My mom had low self-esteem so she gravitated’—that was a favorite word of Cordi’s, gravitated, gravitational pull—‘she gravitated toward losers. And that’s what I’m going to discuss today.’ ”
I said, “She used her mother as source material but didn’t mention her.”
“Exactly.”
“And she told you when she was younger, she’d made some of the same mistakes.”
Emphatic nod. “That was a topic on one of the videos I worked on. How to get away from old patterns. Cordi was a very wise person.”
Milo said, “No hint someone from her past had reappeared.”
Shari Benedetto’s dark eyes widened. “That would be scary, wouldn’t it? Like one of those slasher movies?” Her voice caught. “This isn’t a movie. This is frickin’ real.”
CHAPTER
21
We sat with Shari Benedetto awhile longer, rephrasing questions we’d already asked in a way that wouldn’t seem repetitive or manipulative.
