How do you indicate a question (as in an uncertain statement) mid-sentence? My first thought was:
"That's Fred and his—cousin?—by the punch bowl."
But if you take out the parenthetical, you're left with:
"That's Fred and his by the punch bowl."
Which makes no sense.
I considered this:
"That's Fred and his cousin(?) by the punch bowl."
But I feel like it breaks some sort of grammar rule. (Does it? Is a question mark in brackets allowed?)
I also tried:
"That's Fred and his... cousin, by the punch bowl."
"That's Fred and his... cousin? by the punch bowl."
But the first one gives off the wrong message for me. More like the speaker had to pause to remember their precise relation, rather than that they're unsure if they've got it right.
And the second example brings the issue of not capitalising after the '?'.
I don't know. Is there a good way to show this? (Without just restructuring the sentence—I want to know how to punctuate this specific turn of phrase, not make it a non-issue.)