Interviewee doesn’t respond.

QUESTION: Mrs. Hocking, do you want to revise your statement?

ANSWER: What do you mean by revise my statement?

QUESTION: I mean specifically did you in fact see your husband the morning of the earthquake?

Interviewee doesn’t respond.

QUESTION: Your revised statement will help us make sense of your husband’s activities and, more importantly, clear you of any knowledge of them.

ANSWER: What activities? What has Martin done?

QUESTION: No need to alarm yourself just yet, Mrs. Hocking. We are still in the process of gathering information, which is why your being forthright with me will be helpful. I need to know what happened on the day of the earthquake. Withholding information from me will not help you, Mrs. Hocking. Not in the least. Did you see your husband that morning?

ANSWER: I’ve already said I didn’t.

QUESTION: But you did have a houseguest the night previous, did you not? Did that person see him?

ANSWER: What do you mean?

QUESTION: There was someone else in the house with you and your stepdaughter the morning of the earthquake, wasn’t there? A woman by the name of Belinda Bigelow?

Interviewee doesn’t respond.

QUESTION: Mrs. Hocking?

ANSWER: Sir, why are you asking me questions that you seem to already know the answers to?

QUESTION: But I don’t know all the answers. How do you know Belinda Bigelow? Why was she at your house on the morning of the earthquake?

ANSWER: She came to me the day before. She thought I could help her find her husband. He hadn’t come home and she was worried about him.

QUESTION: Her husband being one Mr. James Bigelow?

ANSWER: Yes.

QUESTION: Did she know you? Did you know her?

ANSWER: No.

QUESTION: Can you please tell me, then, why she came to you for help?

ANSWER: Why does it matter?

QUESTION: I assume you have become aware that your husband, under the name James Bigelow, married this woman four months after having married you. Am I right about that? You know this to be true?

Interviewee doesn’t respond.

QUESTION: Mrs. Hocking, the sooner we can clear you of having any knowledge of your husband’s unlawful activities, the better for you. Now, I will ask you again. How did Belinda Bigelow know to come to you?

Interviewee doesn’t respond.

QUESTION: Perhaps you don’t understand how serious this situation is. For one thing, your husband’s use of a false identity is a federal offense.

ANSWER: That is not the worst thing he has done.

10

Belinda Bigelow is as still as a statue with my wedding portrait tight in her hands. It’s as if she believes if she stands there unmoving, the nightmare she’s fallen into will dissolve and she will awaken. For a moment I remain motionless as well, wondering if I, too, am in a dream.

But the teakettle is squealing to wake the dead. We’re not dreaming.

I hear myself say to her, “I’m sure your husband merely favors mine in looks, that’s all. Surely you’re mistaken.”