“I’m trying to identify your father’s killer,” I said, tamping down my frustration. “Brett’s girlfriend is the logical place to start.”

“Do you even hear yourself? Why would his girlfriend want to hurt him?”

And just like that, I had confirmation Russell Loming was telling the truth. Brett and Cheryl had been an item. But the fact that Crissy knew this was troubling.

“What’s going on here?” I said. “I just came from your mom’s place, and she claims she had no idea Brett and Cheryl were dating. If you knew, why keep it a secret from Felicia?”

She laughed derisively. “If she found out about the two of them, she would have murdered Brett.”

Her choice of words made me wince. Did Crissy ever call him Dad anymore? I wondered if this was her way of staying emotionally disconnected from the horror surrounding his death. If so, it didn’t seem to be working.

“If Felicia didn’t know about Cheryl,” I said, “then how did you?” I had no recollection of Abe mentioning his father had a girlfriend, and he confided in me about everything. Crissy let my question hang in the air a long time before answering.

“They didn’t exactly advertise it. I found out from Robbie.”

I’d been steadily sinking into my cousin’s too-soft couch since sitting down, and when I straightened my back in surprise, my knees almost touched my nose. It wasn’t a professional pose, but I liked my proximity to Crissy, hoped she’d be easier to read up close. “Hold on,” I said. In my mind, I sorted through the tangle of wending threads that linked Brett to Cheryl, Cheryl to Suze, Suze to Crissy, Crissy to Robbie. “That means your dad was dating your ex-boyfriend’s mom? That’s—”

“Gross,” she supplied. “Believe me, I know. Thank God Robbie and I had broken up by then. We only dated freshman year, and they didn’t get together until I was a sophomore.”

“Was it serious?” I asked. If so, Cheryl couldn’t have been too happy to learn Brett was leaving.

Crissy folded her arms. “I don’t want to talk about this.”

“The only way to figure out what happened to him is by learning as much as possible about his life back then. You and your mom deserve to know the truth.”

Crissy’s face went crimson. “My mom scared the living shit out of us as kids. She could have gotten help, but she didn’t, and Abe and I were the ones who had to suffer. When I finally made it out of that house, all I asked was for her to leave me alone, and she went and bought a place on the same damn block. And now? Now I have to see her every day, standing on her lawn mooning over my boys like a stalker. My mother doesn’t deserve a thing.”

I cast about for something to say. I knew Crissy and Felicia weren’t close, but I was shocked by the intensity of my cousin’s loathing. After years of being imprisoned by her mother’s senseless rules, Crissy hadn’t just broken out: she’d set the jailhouse on fire.