Ed McBain - Goldilocks

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.

Q: Miss Purchase, you know we have a signed confession from your brother, don’t you?

A: Yes, but he was lying. He didn’t kill them.

Q: How do we know you’re not lying to protect him ?

A: I’m not.

Q: How do we know this isn’t a false confession, Miss Purchase?

A: Because I know where the knife is.

I had not been back to Jacaranda since the night of the murders.

Now, at a little past noon, it looked drowsy and peaceful. Many homeowners up and down the street, tired of the constant struggle against browning grass, had seeded their lawns with pebbles, giving them the serene appearance of Japanese gardens strewn with oases of cactus and palm. The sunlight was dazzling on the dappled stones. We drove up the street slowly, almost like a cortege, the car from the State’s Attorney’s office in the lead, the unmarked Police Department car following.

I was in the car with Bensell and Karin; she had insisted that I hear every word. She told us again how she had backed out of the driveway and turned in the wrong direction, driving away from where she really wanted to go. We were moving west toward the pine forest bordering the beach. She pointed out a pair of sewers ahead, one on either side of the road. She said that on Sunday night she had stopped her car, and thrown the knife in the sewer there on the right. We pulled to the curb. Car doors slammed; the street echoed with sound and then was still again. Ehrenberg and Di Luca came walking over from the second car.

“This is where she says she threw the knife,” Bensell said. “Down the sewer here.”