The first was that he didn’t know what she was talking about.

The second was that Emily had been having “episodes” and had fallen against the corner of the bed frame in the bedroom.

The third — after Michael asked, mildly, how a fall against a bed frame produces marks on both sides of the neck — was that they had been “having some issues” and had had “a physical argument” a week earlier that had “gotten out of hand on both sides,” and that he had been ashamed and had not mentioned it.

He said all three of those in the same twenty minutes, to the same person, without being confronted with any evidence.

“He talked himself into a homicide investigation,” Michael said afterward.

“I have never in twenty-two years watched anybody do it that fast.”