Neighbor 2

Wayne says that in Leander, people do two things. Wave to each other and then mind their business. At least Wayne did. Then, in 2022, that's when these new neighbors moved there, right across the street.

And there was something else about his new neighbors.

Tall, thin, gorgeous, right out of the latest Victoria's Secret fashion show. I mean, I'm super gay, and even I can see it. And it wasn't just having a house full of gorgeous Brazilian women in a nondescript American suburb that was unusual. One day, he just stopped seeing them. The house was empty. The women were gone. Eventually, a rental company came to clear the house.

They put out the girl stuff in the front yard for anyone to take, which was interesting.

One of the women was a social media influencer famous in Brazil with more than a million followers. I was there because, well, I'm kind of an influencer myself. But that was basically an accident. I'm a journalist first, and I've made a name for myself investigating stories in Brazil where things aren't quite what they seem.

And that's what brought me to Texas, because the woman who lived there, Cat Torres, seemed like she had a picture-perfect life online. Wayne told me the more he looked through the stuff the women left behind, the more questions he had about them.

And that was in all.

Wayne started to wonder if he had been getting a little carried away. But soon he would see reports of what was really going on in that house, and he would realize that maybe he was right to have been suspicious. Because there was something troubling going on. Something dark. Dangerous, even.

I'm not the first Brazilian to set foot in Leander, Texas. And the Brazilian women who came and lived here before me made quite the impression on their neighbors. Wayne Murray lived across the street from them.