Page 10 of 2 Sisters Murder Investigations

“That’s an oddly specific way of describing it,” Rhonda said.

“Well, the cops have asked me that same exact question a hundred ways.” Troy sighed. “I’ve had some time to think about it.”

“Where did the glass come from?”

“It was one of our water glasses,” Troy said. “I recognized it from the hexagonal bottom. The police have it now.”

“Was it cracked? Was it in half? Was it shattered everywhere?”

“Shattered everywhere.”

“Any water or other liquids on the floor?”

“None that I saw.”

Baby went to the cupboard beside the fridge. The doors were propped open. More Tupperware. She looked at the next one. Four wineglasses, three water glasses, all spotless.

“Why did you clean up the glass and the blood?” Rhonda asked.

“Because that’s what you do with blood and broken glass,” Troy said. “You clean it up.”

“Come on.”

“Look, at that point, I didn’t know anything was wrong.” Baby heard Troy heave a huge sigh. “Daisy works from home — she’s a nutritionist and has a lot of followers on social media, so she has to do her Instagram postings and so forth — but she’s usually at the gym when I get back from work. So when I got home and saw the mess, I just thought,Looks like Daisy dropped a glass and cut herself. She must be here somewhere. I walked around the house looking for her and calling her name, but she wasn’t here. And her car wasn’t here either.”

“What kind of car does she drive?”

“A Honda Civic. A little red one.”

“Okay. So then what did you think?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“There wasn’t anything to think,” Troy said. “Daisy somehow broke a glass and cut herself. And then, apparently, she went out without cleaning it up. That’s all I knew.”

“You weren’t concerned, even though she was obviously hurt? You didn’t wonder why she hadn’t cleaned the mess up herself?”

“Well, sure, it seemed a little inconsiderate to leave it like that, but it didn’t seem serious, as far as I could tell. You never hear about people dying from water-glass injuries. I just figured she’d gotten distracted and she was probably at the gym like usual.”

A pause in the conversation in the other room. Baby kept listening while staring out at the Hansens’ beautiful backyard. She wanted to rush back into the living room and blast Troy for all his weirdness and nonsensical answers. But Rhonda’s warnings lay over her like a blanket. Rhonda was lead. Baby needed to take a back seat, let her sister do the talking.

“So after you came home at six,” Rhonda said, “you stayed in. You didn’t go out looking for Daisy. You didn’t try to contact her.”

“No.”

“Whatdidyou do?”

“I watched TV and then went to bed.”

“It didn’t concern you when Daisy didn’t come home that night?”

Another awkward pause.

“I get it. I get it,” Troy said. “People keep asking me, ‘Why didn’t you text Daisy? Why didn’t you search the neighborhood? Why didn’t you call the police? Why didn’t you preserve the crime scene?’ I didn’t know it was a crime scene! I just came home and saw something weird, that’s all. It’s not like I opened the fridge and found her severed head in there.”

Baby stopped a surprised laugh just as it hit her throat, swallowed it. She leaned against the kitchen doorway and looked across the hall to the living room where Rhonda was sitting on the couch. Baby caught her sister’s eye and raised her eyebrows, but Rhonda didn’t respond.

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