She had told them two versions of the same murderous tale, and now she told them the third and final version, and this one they accepted as the truth, even though there had been some truth in the previous two versions as well. It was this final truth, however, that could set her brother free and send Patricia to jail for life. They listened attentively. The stenographer took down every word. Carella conducted the interrogation. Patricia’s voice was barely audible. She sat shivering throughout, hugging herself with both arms.
CARELLA: Do you want to tell us what happened?
PATRICIA: I’ve already told you what happened.
CARELLA: But you weren’t telling the truth.
PATRICIA: That was only the first time. I told you the truth later. Don’t you remember? I came to the station house and I told you the truth.
CARELLA: You came to the station house the first time, too.
PATRICIA: Yes, but—
CARELLA: And you lied.
PATRICIA: Yes, but not the second time. I told you the truth that time. My brother killed her.
CARELLA: Patricia, you said you would talk to us. Your lawyer here has no objection to your telling us the truth, so why don’t you tell us what really happened?
PATRICIA: I just hate to have to go over this again and again and again. You took it all down the first time, and then I said it on tape the second time, now you want it again. I mean, how many times do I have to tell you the same damn thing?
CARELLA: Just this last time, and that’ll be it.
PATRICIA: It’s freezing in here. Can’t someone turn up the heat a little?
CARELLA: Mr. Hudd?
HUDD: I’ll get it.
CARELLA: Patricia, why don’t you just start from the beginning?
PATRICIA: The party, do you mean?
CARELLA: Wherever the beginning was.
PATRICIA: Well, that was the beginning.
CARELLA: Okay, what happened?
PATRICIA: I took the knife.
CARELLA: Why?
PATRICIA: Because Muriel and I had to walk home alone, why do you think? So I spied the knife on the kitchen rack and I just slipped it into my bag.
CARELLA: Then what?
PATRICIA: Then we started walking home.
CARELLA: What time was that?
PATRICIA: I told you all this already, I don’t know why I have to tell you again.
CARELLA: This is the first time you told us about the knife.
PATRICIA: You just don’t listen.
CARELLA: You took the knife from the rack. Where was the rack?
PATRICIA: In the kitchen. Paul Gaddis’s kitchen. That’s where the knife was. In the kitchen. I heard them when I came in.
CARELLA: Heard who?
PATRICIA: I went in the kitchen, you see, to get myself a glass of milk, and that’s when I heard them.
CARELLA: I don’t understand.
PATRICIA: Because you don’t listen.
CARELLA: I’m listening, but I don’t understand who you mean. You say you heard them — Who did you hear?
PATRICIA: Muriel and Andy.
CARELLA: In Paul Gaddis’s kitchen?
PATRICIA: No, no. In the bedroom.
CARELLA: Patricia—
PATRICIA: They were in Andy’s bedroom; what’s so difficult to understand about that?
CARELLA: What were they doing in the bedroom, Patricia?
PATRICIA: How should I know? Ask my darling brother what they were doing. Ask Muriel.
CARELLA: Muriel is dead, Patricia.
PATRICIA: Don’t I know it? He killed her.
CARELLA: Who did?
PATRICIA: My brother. Stuck it into her. I told her, don’t think I didn’t tell her. When it started raining so hard, and we ran to the building, and the ceiling looked pregnant, the ceiling overhead where we were standing, it was ugly and bloated, it looked pregnant. I said to her, I had the knife in my handbag, you see, so I wasn’t afraid anybody would attack us or anything, I was quite calm in the hallway there, I said to her she must have been terribly frightened that time, and she asked me what time did I mean and I said, Why, when you thought you were pregnant, Muriel. There was light shining from the streetlamp, I could see her very clearly, the rain was falling so hard, so hard, she looked at me, and I could see the surprise on her face, and she said, You read my diary, didn’t you, you’re the one who read my diary, and I said, Yes, Muriel, I’m the one who read your diary, and she said, Why’d you do that, Patricia? I’m freezing to death here, aren’t there any blankets in here?
CARELLA: Could someone get her a blanket, please? Go ahead, Patricia.
PATRICIA: Freeze to death in here.
CARELLA: What’d you say when she asked you why you’d read the diary?
PATRICIA: Oh, what could I say, use your head. Could I tell her I knew all about her and my darling brother, knew from when I’d come home from the library and heard them in the bedroom, you can hear everything in that house. They didn’t know I was home, the television was on, I guess the noise of the television drowned out my coming in — but it didn’t drown out what they were doing in that bedroom, oh no. Forcing her to get on her knees, and telling her to take it, and her doing it, God, the noises she made! I hated her from that minute, I wanted to kill her right then, I would have killed her if I had the nerve. But I was afraid he’d turn on me, you see, I was afraid he’d force me to do the same thing, because... well... he’s always loved me, you see, I know he loves me more than Muriel, so he probably would have forced me to do the same thing. So I ran outside again, and then I rang the doorbell and pretended I’d forgotten my key — Is someone getting a blanket?
CARELLA: Yes, Patricia.
PATRICIA: Because it really is freezing in here, you know.
CARELLA: She wanted to know why you’d read the diary—
PATRICIA: Yes, and I told her I’d read it because I’d heard them in Andy’s room, and I couldn’t believe what I’d heard, so I read the diary to find out if it was true, and it was true. Do you deny it? I said. Do you deny it? And she said, No, I don’t deny it, and that was when I took the knife out of my bag and stabbed her. I don’t know how many times I stabbed her. I finally ripped her pantyhose around the crotch and stuck the knife inside her. Then I just stood there in the hall, she was lying on the floor, I said, Muriel, what’s the matter with you? and I realized she was dead, I knew I had killed her. So I ripped my own dress with the knife, and cut the palms of my hands to make it seem somebody had tried to kill me, too, and I cut my own cheek, and then I ran out of the building and threw the knife down the sewer and went to the station house.
CARELLA: Why did you describe the killer as a man with dark hair and blue eyes?
PATRICIA: I don’t know. I guess it was... well, I really don’t know. I guess because of what I read in the diary. About what was happening with her and the man at the bank. I guess I got confused there. I guess... I guess I figured she’d do the same thing with him that she’d already done with Andy, yes, maybe that was it. She probably would have done the same thing, don’t you think? If somebody hadn’t killed her? Don’t you think?
CARELLA: Why did you later tell us—?