A: Sleeping there in my bed.
Q: Your bed?
A: So I stabbed her. That was it. I stabbed her. Then... then I went out to the living room, and picked up the chair Goldilocks had knocked over, and sat in it and decided I’d better call my brother for help. But there was blood all over my hands, I didn’t want to get blood on the telephone, it was a white telephone. So I went back into the bedroom, her bedroom, and washed my hands in the bathroom there, and dried them on a towel, a green towel. Then I went out to the living room again. There was a phone book on the desk. Two numbers were listed for Pirate’s Cove, one for the restaurant and the other for the marina. I called the marina number and whoever answered the phone said he would get Michael for me. When Michael came to the phone, I told him I was alone there with Goldilocks and the little girls. I told him they were dead, I told him I’d killed them. He told me to wait there, he’d be right there.
Q: Did you wait for him?
A: I waited for ten minutes.
Q: Then what?
A: I got frightened. First I thought I heard one of the little girls moaning in the bedroom, and I went in there to make sure they were dead, and they were. But I kept hearing the moaning. So I went in to look at her again — it seemed like the sounds were coming from her bedroom now — but she was lying there on the floor of the closet, dead, staring up at me, her mouth open... it frightened me. Later, when I had a chance to think about it, I decided that... that the sounds were probably some animal outside. But it sounded like moaning. I thought one of them was moaning. So I ran out of the house.
Q: Weren’t you worried that your brother might later enter the house and be found there by the police?
A: I didn’t think he’d go in. Why would he go in?
Q: Because you told him you’d be waiting there.
A: Yes, but he wouldn’t go in. If he saw my car was gone... if he saw there weren’t any cars in the driveway... well, he’d have to know I didn’t walk there. So he’d know I was gone. He wouldn’t go in. Anyway, it never entered my mind. I figured he’d just come there and see I was gone... it never entered my mind. I was frightened. I didn’t want to stay in that house another moment.
Q: What time was it when you left?
A: Twenty to twelve. I looked at the kitchen clock.
Q: Did you leave by the front door?
A: No. I was afraid someone might see me. I left by the kitchen door.
Q: Did you lock the door behind you?
A: No. How could I lock it?
Q: There are locks you can just twist...
A: Yes, that’s right, I had to... I tried the knob, and it wouldn’t turn, so I twisted the little button on the knob, just as you say. But I didn’t lock it again, I simply went out.
Q: Did you close the door behind you?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you wipe off the doorknob?
A: What?
Q: The doorknob. Did you wipe it clean?
A: No.
Q: Did you wipe off the telephone?
A: No.
Q: Or anything in the house?
A: No, I just... I didn’t think of that. Are you talking about fingerprints?
Q: Yes.
A: I didn’t think of that.
Q: What did you do when you left the house?
A: I backed the car out of the driveway, and made a wrong turn. I was very frightened, I turned in the wrong direction. Instead of the way I’d come. Through the circle there, whatever it’s called. I wanted to go back to the circle. But I was heading in the opposite direction. I made a U-turn at the end of the block, and got myself straightened out. Then I drove back to the motel.
Q: What time did you get back there?
A: At a little past midnight.
Q: What did you do then?
A: I took a shower and went to sleep.
Q: What time did you wake up yesterday?
A: Around noon. I went for breakfast, and then I went back to the motel to pack. I had a reservation on the four-thirty flight.
Q: To New York?
A: Yes.
Q: You were planning to go back to New York?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you try to contact your mother again?
A: No.
Q: Or your brother?
A: No.
Q: Were you aware that he had confessed to the murders?
A: Not until later that afternoon. I didn’t call him because I was afraid the police might be there on the boat questioning him, and they’d want to know who was calling him and all that. I thought... I still had no idea anyone had been arrested for what happened. I thought I could go back to New York and that would be the end of it.
Q: When did you learn he’d confessed?
A: On the way to the airport I heard it on the car radio.
Q: What time was that?
A: It was on the three o’clock news.
Q: So at three o’clock yesterday, you learned that your brother had confessed to the murders?
A: Yes.
Q: What was your reaction?
A: Well, I knew he was doing it to protect me, but I didn’t think he was in serious trouble because I figured he wouldn’t know what to tell them.
Q: Tell who?
A: The police. If he hadn’t done it, then how would he know what to tell them? I figured they’d let him go eventually. But I wasn’t completely sure, so I thought I’d better not go back to New York just yet. Because if for some reason they started believing him... well, I’d just have to tell them what had really happened.
Q: Then you didn’t go to the airport?
A: No. I went back to the motel. The woman there thought I was crazy, checking out, checking in again. I sat in the room watching television all afternoon. At six o’clock the news came on, and the District Attorney or somebody, whatever he’s called down here, said that Michael had thrown the knife in the ocean. That bothered me. I was thinking if he couldn’t tell them what he’d done with the knife, why then they’d have to let him go. But if he told them he’d thrown it in the ocean... well, the ocean is a big place, they’d never be able to find it. They’d just have to take his word for it. So that bothered me.
Q: But still you didn’t go to the police...
A: No. Because I wasn’t sure yet. I still hoped they would let him go. I still hoped they’d think somebody else had done it, some person who just walked in off the street, you read about such people all the time. I went out to dinner at about eight, and while I was eating I decided I’d better do something about, you know, if the police ever got to me, about making sure they didn’t know I’d been in Calusa since the night before. I checked out of the motel again at ten-thirty that night, there was a night clerk on by then, and I moved to the Calusa Bay Hotel. I knew the plane got in at ten, you see, and I figured if I checked in at ten-thirty, then if the police got to me, I’d just say I’d arrived in Calusa that night, and gone straight to the hotel. There’d be a record, you know, of when I checked in. This was when I still thought they’d let Michael go. I was hoping they’d let him go, but at the same time I had to protect myself. He was the only one who knew I was in Calusa, you see, I hadn’t even spoken to my mother. And I knew he wouldn’t... well, he was accepting the guilt for me, so I knew he wouldn’t tell the police anything about me getting there earlier. On Sunday instead of Monday.
Q: When did you decide to go to the police?
A: This morning. I’d spoken to Mr. Hope last night, I’d asked him to come to the hotel so I could show him the letter I received from Michael, I thought if I could convince him, then maybe he’d convince the police as well. But I didn’t seem able to convince him — not about Michael, not about my father either. When I put on the news this morning, and there was nothing about the police letting Michael go, I knew then that he was in serious trouble, that they weren’t going to let him go, that they were going to send him to the electric chair for something I’d done. So I got dressed and I... I came here.