“Would you please explain your thought process?” I said.

The man’s taken notice of the cop standing in the corner of the room. He’s sitting just a meter away from me and staring right at me. He doesn’t blink, and no matter how long I look, I can’t spot any emotion. I can see bare eyes, like they’re part of a corpse. He’s only doing this to gloat.

“It needed to change about twenty-three years ago. I was the hoarder. I was taking up too much space; I was the one to bring bodies; Yes, I was the one to bring bodies. I would tell myself. Just a little bit more until I get her. She was going to be the perfect partner. Not now. I was morphing her to serve me. I’d feed her mother often. It was important she came out healthy. At first her mother cried a lot. She cried all the time, but she dulled like all.”

“Dulled?”

“She stopped crying. It happens to most. I pushed until she lost all hope. She found despair. It made things a lot easier for me. A lot. Thankfully. She fed her baby without problem. She didn’t ask me why I wanted her to do so. The baby would become a partner in crime. Yes, the perfect too. We weren’t blood related, you know? I’d tell myself, we weren’t blood related. We weren’t connected. She thought I loved her, but she was just an object in my eyes. She was like a hammer. I never named her.”

“I made her nibble on a finger at first. She threw up. I was patient. I made her eat the finger. I held her mouth shut until she swallowed. I told myself, she’s not blood-related to me. She really isn’t blood related to me. Eventually I killed her mother. I didn’t show her the corpse. You know, humans have an illogical connection to their parents. I hid her somewhere else. It wasn’t always perfect, but I kept telling myself, when she grows big and fat, I’d have the perfect partner in crime. I’d have my own little pig.”

“Why didn’t you get a pig?”

“It looked too wierd, too wierd. People like normal. They see a pig and they think, that’s a pig. Not good. They see a daughter and there’s no problem. She was the perfect partner. I hadn’t expected it to be so easy. I put the arm in front of her. I didn’t even need to hurt her. She jumped on it. It was really strange I’d tell myself, really strange.”

“What changed about her?”

“I knew her. She didn’t really know me, but I knew her. I’d look at her and tell her, I know you. I really do. Once I found her nibbling on her own fingers. She bit and pulled. You know, strange stuff. She’d completely lost it. I had to tie her down, but she just wouldn’t stop struggling. Strange stuff.”