Yeah this is one of those games either you like how intertwined this game is or you find it annoying. I personally like it if the payoff is good when revelations happens cause im a sucker for reveals. About the Childhood friend yeah she is an engima for me she is someone I should straight up dislike but I can't and afraid for her as I get a feeling she is going to get arrested or hurt and I don't want either to happen. Tho I have a feeling her sabotaging is not really to stall the MC or the police but rather just to keep the bad guys from suspecting her. As I think she is waiting to make her move against them somehow. That and probably doesn't want the MC involved and risk him getting killed. Which is something I do not like. It feels to illogical for he to do everything alone when she can rely on him for help. Unless of course she actually turns out to be a bad guy later and just doesn't want him to get hurt but for now I get a feeling she isn't.
Yeah, I mean it did catch me offguard but I don't currently dislike how intertwined things are. There are a few games I've played that have done something similar and the dev seems to be doing a proper job of it aswell since most things are pretty straight-forward but it isn't necessarily outright told to the player so there's a bit of ambiguity and mystery about it nonetheless, which works.
As for the childhood friend, who knows, her perhaps waiting to make a move against them could be the reason but if that was the case, I don't see why she shouldn't have atleast tried to get help from her previous friend and also the best detective in the entire state that
also is working on trying to bring the crime family down.
That and the sabotage are the main reasons as to why it feels like she's working far more for them than anything else, and who knows there might be a reason for that, but given that the main bad guy yokel said something along the lines of "I've been taking care of her since the incident with her mom", I'm guessing that her mom died and she's now viewing them as more of a family than anything.
Basically, I think there'll be a LOT of drama with her and as it stands right now, she seems more with them than anything else.