Gone Girl

railroading him.
    B: The diary is very, very concerning. The diary alleges abuse and your fears that Nick didn’t want the baby, that he might want to kill you.
    A: I really do wish that diary had burned. (Pause.) Let me be honest: The diary includes some of Nick’s and my struggles these past few years. It doesn’t paint the greatest picture of our marriage or of Nick, but I have to admit: I never wrote in the diary unless I was super-happy, or I was really, really unhappy and wanted to vent and then … I can get a little dramatic when it’s just me stewing on things. I mean, a lot of that is the ugly truth – he did shove me once, and he didn’t want a baby, and he did have money problems. But me being afraid of him? I have to admit, it pains me to admit, but that’s my dramatic streak. I think the problem is, I’ve been stalked several times – it’s been a lifelong issue – people getting obsessed with me – and so I get a little paranoid.
    B: You tried to buy a gun.
    A: I get a lot paranoid, okay? I’m sorry. If you had my history, you’d understand.
    B: There’s an entry about a night of drinks when you suffered from what sounds like textbook antifreeze poisoning.
    A: (Long silence.) That’s bizarre. Yes, I did get ill.
    B: Okay, back to the treasure hunt. You did hide the Punch and Judy dolls in the woodshed?
    A: I did.
    B: A lot of our case has focused on Nick’s debt, some extensive credit-card purchases, and our discovery of all those items hidden in the woodshed. What did you think when you opened the woodshed and saw all this stuff?
    A: I was on Go’s property, and Go and I aren’t especially close, so mostly, I felt like I was nosing around in something that wasn’t my business. I remember thinking at the time that it must have been her stuff from New York. And then I saw on the news – Desi made me watch everything – that it corresponded with Nick’s purchases, and … I knew Nick had some money troubles, he was a spender. I think he was probably embarrassed. Impulse purchases he couldn’t undo, so he hid them from me until he could sell them online.
    B: The Punch and Judy puppets, they seem a little ominous for an anniversary present.
    A: I know! Now I know. I didn’t remember the whole backstory of Punch and Judy. I was just seeing a husband and wife and a baby, and they were made of wood, and I was pregnant. I scanned the Internet and saw Punch’s line: That’s the way to do it! And I thought it was cute – I didn’t know what it meant.
    B: So you were hog-tied. How did Desi get you to the car?
    A: He pulled the car into the garage and lowered the garage door, dragged me in, threw me in the trunk, and drove away.
    B: And did you yell then?
    A: Yes, I fucking yelled. I am a complete coward. And if I’d known that, every night for the next month, Desi was going to rape me, then snuggle in next to me with a martini and a sleeping pill so he wouldn’t be awakened by my sobbing , and that the police were going to actually interview him and still not have a clue, still sit around with their thumbs up their asses, I might have yelled harder. Yes, I might have.
    B: Again, my apologies. Can we get Ms Dunne some tissues, please? And where’s her coff—Thank you. Okay, where did you go from there, Amy?
    A: We drove toward St. Louis, and I remember on the way there he stopped at Hannibal – I heard the steamboat whistle. He threw my purse out. It was the one other thing he did so it would look like foul play.
    B: This is so interesting. There seem to be so many strange coincidences in this case. Like, that Desi would happen to toss out the purse right at Hannibal, where your clue would make Nick go – and we in turn would believe that Nick tossed the purse there. Or how you decided to hide a present in the very place where Nick was hiding goods he’d bought on secret credit cards.
    A: Really? I have to tell you, none of this sounds like coincidence to me. It sounds like a bunch of cops who got hung up on my husband being guilty, and now that I am alive and he’s clearly not guilty, they look like giant idiots, and they’re scrambling to cover their asses. Instead of accepting responsibility for the fact that, if this case had been left in your extremely fucking incompetent hands, Nick would be on death row and I’d be chained to a bed, being raped every day from now until I died.
    B: I’m sorry, it’s—
    A: I saved myself, which saved Nick, which saved your sorry