QUESTION:Can you tell me the name of the insurance company he works for?
ANSWER:I’m afraid I cannot.
QUESTION:Are you saying you do not know the name of your husband’s employer?
ANSWER:He likes keeping his work separate from his life at home, and that’s fine by me.
QUESTION:I see. Mrs. Hocking, I need to ask you a very important question now. A man matching your husband’s description was seen leaving San Rafaela twenty miles south ofhere late on the evening of April 17—that is, of course, the night before the earthquake. Your husband’s automobile was found six miles north of San Rafaela on the morning of April 18, the day of the quake. The automobile had run out of gasoline on the road to San Francisco. I’m thinking he had to walk the rest of the way home, which would have him arriving here sometime during the early-morning hours. That being the case, I’m wondering if there’s anything about your earlier statement you’d like to revise.
Interviewee doesn’t respond.
QUESTION:Mrs. Hocking, do you want to revise your statement?
ANSWER:What do you mean by revise my statement?
QUESTION:I mean specifically did you in fact see your husband the morning of the earthquake?
Interviewee doesn’t respond.
QUESTION:Your revised statement will help us make sense of your husband’s activities and, more importantly, clear you of any knowledge of them.
ANSWER:What activities? What has Martin done?
QUESTION:No need to alarm yourself just yet, Mrs. Hocking. We are still in the process of gathering information, which is why your being forthright with me will be helpful. I need to know what happened on the day of the earthquake.Withholding information from me will not help you, Mrs. Hocking. Not in the least. Did you see your husband that morning?
ANSWER:I’ve already said I didn’t.
QUESTION:But you did have a houseguest the night previous, did you not? Did that person see him?
ANSWER:What do you mean?
QUESTION:There was someone else in the house with you and your stepdaughter the morning of the earthquake, wasn’t there? A woman by the name of Belinda Bigelow?
Interviewee doesn’t respond.
QUESTION:Mrs. Hocking?
ANSWER:Sir, why are you asking me questions that you seem to already know the answers to?
QUESTION:But I don’t know all the answers. How do you know Belinda Bigelow? Why was she at your house on the morning of the earthquake?
ANSWER:She came to me the day before. She thought I could help her find her husband. He hadn’t come home and she was worried about him.
QUESTION:Her husband being one Mr. James Bigelow?
ANSWER:Yes.
QUESTION:Did she know you? Did you know her?
ANSWER:No.
QUESTION:Can you please tell me, then, why she came to you for help?
ANSWER:Why does it matter?
QUESTION:I assume you have become aware that your husband, under the name James Bigelow, married this woman four months after having married you. Am I right about that? You know this to be true?
Interviewee doesn’t respond.
