Here is the thing about that which took me some time to understand.

She was not lying to cover a crime.

Not in those thirty-eight minutes.

A person covering a crime tells one story and sticks to it; that is the entire point of covering something.

What my wife was doing in that window is something I have watched men do in plants for a quarter of a century, which is adjust the account to the audience in front of them.

To me she said the harmless thing.