Page 9

DAPHNE:Well, she’d always been frail. People used to die different back then. It happened all the time.
RUTH:What happened to the preacher? Was he sent to prison?
DAPHNE:Nothing happened to him. He was so refined, and he had the support of the town; this was just a rumor among the poor folks. Besides, the wife was from the city. No one cared much about wives back then anyways, but especially not for ones who weren’t local.
RUTH:What do you think this story says about people? What are you trying to explain to the listeners?
DAPHNE:Well, shit, I don’t know, Ruth. You wanted me to talk about my childhood, the storms outside the house and the storms inside as well. What does any of it mean? It’s just a memory.
Reddit: r/MurdersofDaphneStClairPodcast
u/Automoderator: Hello and welcome to r/MurdersofDaphneStClairPodcast! This subreddit is dedicated to discussing the newest podcast sensationThe Murders of Daphne St Clair, which is already storming the charts even though it has only published its first episode! This is the place to discuss the podcast, the life of Daphne St Clair, theories about the crimes she committed and the places she lived!
ShockAndBlah:
Okayyy how obsessed are we already with this podcast? One episode and it’s made me forget aboutSerial,Casefile, andMy Favorite Murder!!
StopDropAndTroll:
Basic bitch choices. Listen to something less mainstream. LikeLast Podcast on the Left.
ShockAndBlah:
I didn’t ask for your opinion about podcasts. I want to talk about THIS podcast.
BurntheBookBurnerz:
Oh, sweetie, but he’s not done mansplaining to you yet. AndLast Podcastis just as mainstream, but he’s an edgelord. He wants to show everyone how hardcore he is.
PreyAllDay:
Was the Dust Bowl really that bad in Canada? Wasn’t it in Oklahoma?
BurntheBookBurnerz:
I think it was all over. I did a quick Google and Saskatchewan (fuck that’s hard to spell, thank you, autocorrect!) seemed to be the worst bit of it in Canada. And those grasshoppers, man. . . disgusting.
StopDropAndTroll:
But it was a protein source. You’ll never starve if you can live off the land. That was the problem with these people—they weren’t prepping.
BurntheBookBurnerz:
Stop with the prepper bullshit, seriously.
PreyAllDay:
FFS if I grew up in a hot-ass dust storm full of bugs and poison I’d be a serial killer too!
Chapter Six
Ruth was setting up her equipment for recording episode two when Daphne walked behind her. Ruth’s laptop screensaver was a selection of photos from Ruth’s life: pictures of her visiting her best friend Chelsea in New York, cuddled on the couch with her mother as a little girl, old pictures of her grandmother, her father, her college graduation, all endlessly shuffling past the screen. There were even some shots of Jenn that made her chest tighten and Ruth made a mental note to remove those from the carousel.
“Are you doing research on me?” Daphne asked suddenly.
“What do you mean?” Ruth asked in surprise.
“That man, he just looks familiar, is all,” Daphne replied. She was frowning, as if trying to access a long-buried file from a very full hard drive. Ruth’s stomach lurched and she resisted the urge to close the laptop, although she did turn the screen slightly away from Daphne. She didn’t want Daphne to look at pictures of her family, didn’t want them contaminated with her presence.