Summary

Chapter 4

Duncan decided that they should question the Lairds together. The Judge remained reluctant for him and his wife to have to repeat their accounts but Duncan persisted. Elise told the detectives that she suffered from insomnia and went downstairs to the kitchen around 12:30. She heard a noise – like footfalls – coming from the study. Earlier, Elise had been distracted and hadn’t set the alarm system. She retrieved a handgun from a drawer and moved slowly to the study. She turned the wrong light on, illuminating herself instead of the intruder. The man stood frozen at the desk in the dark study. The man fired his gun then she fired at him. She felt bad that she had killed a man. Judge Laird ended the interview. They had all they needed to prove self-defense, he proclaimed.

Duncan reminded the judge that this was his...