Free Love, Lies, and Murder by Gary C. King

house?”
    “I don’t recall any rolled-up carpeting in the living area of the house. I’m certain it wouldn’t have been in the living areas of the house. Although it could have been. I just don’t recall it.”
    “In other words, it might have been there and it might have been something that was there every day you were in the house or it might have been brought in just shortly before August fifteenth, but your mind’s completely blank about that; is that right?”
    “No, sir. I think that you’re putting words in my mouth. My testimony here and my answer to you, my truthful answer to you, is I don’t recall any rolled-up carpeting in any living section of the house whatsoever. There may have been remnants of rolled-up carpeting somewhere in my house, either stored in my basement or in some closet, but certainly not in a traffic living area. That I can recall.”
    Perry explained during the lengthy questioning that Janet had requested him to come home early that day. She had called him sometime during the day at the office, which she had often done. When asked if he had ever recorded Janet’s telephone conversations with him, Perry responded that he had, on two or three separate occasions when she had become hysterical or had been in a very upset frame of mind.
    “I would record those conversations to—I would just record them,” Perry said.
    “When you said you did them ‘to,’ and then you stopped. To do what?” Jones asked.
    “At the time I did them, it was to play them back to her to analyze them and go over what it was that she was upset with. Or to—I think on one occasion when Janet was hysterical and I taped it, I gave that tape to Carolyn and Larry Levine to have them listen to it to see if they could help and shed some light on what was the font of her anger. But really that—it was only—I can only recall two occasions I have taped Janet at my office. Both of them for that purpose.”
    “All right. Tell me about those two occasions.”
    “I honestly don’t remember the significance, the substance, or the purpose of the times when Janet was upset on the phone on the two occasions that I taped her. Now, I will say to you it may have been three times, it may have been one time, but I do know that I did tape her on, I think, two occasions with my Dictaphone, standing like this in my office with my eyes rolled up because she was being hysterical on the phone with me.”
    “Have you ever taped Larry Levine?”
    “Never.”
    “Have you ever taped anybody besides Janet?”
    “To the best of my recollection, I have not taped anybody else.”
    “All right. You got home. You said you gave the children a bath. You said you went out shopping. You cooked supper.”
    “I think you have the order reversed, Mr. Jones. I said that I came home and I played with the children and I puttered around. I believe I had some conversations with the cabinet people. And then I went out to the grocery store. I made the children dinner, I gave them baths, and I put them to sleep.”
    “Did Janet eat with you and the children that evening?”
    “No, she did not.”
    “Why?”
    “She was working.”
    “Where was she working?”
    “In her studio.”
    “What was she working on?”
    “A painting.”
    “Did you have any conversation with her about your marriage that evening?”
    “Not until after the children were asleep.”
    Jones grilled Perry repeatedly regarding the time of day that Perry claimed to have put the children to bed, and Perry responded that it was sometime around 7:00 P.M. Jones continued to push Perry into being specific about the time on the evening of August 15, and Perry eventually told him that he took offense at Jones trying to find out the specific time periods of that evening.
    “Why do you take offense to my trying to find out specific times?” Jones asked.
    “I misspoke,” Perry responded. “I do not take offense, but I will correct you because it was not specific in my