“But it was self-defense. So, how can you really say that’s murder?” Ruth asked, trying to keep the irritation out of her voice. This death didn’t tell her anything about Daphne, about what she was capable of. This wasn’t the kind of murder she was hoping to find.
Daphne was quiet for a moment. She was scrutinizing Ruth’s face with cold, flat eyes.She’s trying to decide how much truth to give me, Ruth thought.
“It was murder because of how I felt after I did it. I didn’t feel regret. I felt. . . calm. Like I had finally taken control.”
There was a long silence, punctuated finally by Daphne laughing, an angry little snort of a laugh.
“These early episodes are making for grim listening. I wish we didn’t have to go through this laundry list of men who treated me like shit. If I could, I’d just forget the first twenty years or so of my life.” She sighed. “I almost feel embarrassed about how much crap I took.”
“You shouldn’t be,” Ruth said. “You didn’t have a choice.” She wondered if that was what murder represented for Daphne: a choice.
“Well, there you go, now you know how I went from pastoral farm girl to cosmopolitan murderer,” Daphne said, slapping her bony hands against her knees to punctuate her sentence. Ruth nodded. She’d already noticed that Daphne spoke in a strange mixture of colloquialisms, profanity, and five-dollar vocabulary words (occasionally mispronounced as if she’d only seen them in text), the voice of a very well-read person with little formal education.
“Almost a rags-to-riches story,” Ruth said, smiling so Daphne knew it was a joke. Should she be joking with Daphne? It might get Daphne to trust her, to believe that she was on her side.
Daphne snorted. “More like hick to homicide.”
ShockAndBlah:
That’s not murder. He was going to kill her if she didn’t kill him!
PreyAllDay:
When are the real murders gonna start? I hate those podcasts that take twelve episodes to cover one freaking murder!!! You can do a murder in thirty minutes and move on!
ShockAndBlah:
Tough day?
StopDropAndTroll:
This is only if you BELIEVE her! SHE’s the one saying he was abusive. SHE’s the one saying they were fighting that night! Maybe she just pushed him down the stairs to steal his money!!!
PreyAllDay:
But if you think she’s lying about everything why bother listening???
StopDropAndTroll:
Becuz I wanna see her get nailed to the wall.
BurntheBookBurnerz:
Fucking incel.
PreyAllDay:
Do we think Daphne confessed just to become famous?
ShockAndBlah:
Well if she did. . . it’s working!
StopDropAndTroll:
Only idiots want to become famous.
BurntheBookBurnerz: