A Murder in Providence: Day Two

Did you hear about the prom dress?

She was wearing a prom dress

They found her floating in a river

In the prom dress

That’s more disturbing than it sounds

I mean, when they actually place a body on your table

And I mean, I’ve seen some stuff

I’ve seen some pretty uncomfortable stuff

But something about a twenty-six year-old woman

In a prom dress

Plus, you know, dead, is just—

But she wasn’t sexually violated

That’s the odd thing

She hadn’t been touched

She was pristine

Like a little doll

Even having been in the water

I mean, she wasn’t in it very long

But still—she shouldn’t have looked

As good as she did

Her make-up was messed up

But sort of—

It was like it was staged

Like she was doing an album cover or something

I remember thinking

She looked like Courtney Love

In the Celebrity Skin video

If that jogs anything for you

If you want to know how she was killed

It was suffocation

Somebody actually choked that woman to death

And if you know anything about

Psychosis or the criminal mind

You know that strangulation

Means you’re messed up

Like, really messed up

Because you have to look at the person

You actually have to look at them

When you’re doing it

You have to look into their eyes

And know that you are in control of them

You are slowly taking away their life

Second by second

And you have to keep doing it

You have to choose to keep going

To keep taking that life

And to either hate someone that much

Or to take such joy out of having that control

Of being able to play God

That…

Well, that’s a dangerous person right there

That’s somebody you have to look out for

I went home that night all messed up

Normally, I’m immune to getting upset

About what I see at work

But something about this—

That girl looked like a ghost, you know?

I mean, I felt like any minute

She was just going to open her eyes

And float right off the table

I walked through my front door

And my husband was sitting in the dining room

Eating dinner

He saw the look on my face

And he knew just what to do

He cleared off the table

Removed his clothing

Down to his underwear

And laid down for me

Just like how we’ve practiced

I walked over to him

And put my hand on his forehead

I said, ‘Thank you, babe

I’m really going to need this tonight’

Then I took my knife out of my bag

And went to work