Free Beyond Obsession by Richard; Hammer Page A

problem.’” Sands walked on.
    The door closed. How long they were in that bathroom behind the closed door is a matter of dispute; a few years later it became of critical importance.
    Soon after they entered, Alex Markov approached the door, knocked on it, said, in his thick Russian accent, “Karin, I’d like to talk to you.”
    From behind the door Karin said, “Not right now, Alex.”
    Markov continued to stand by the door, knocked a couple of times more, repeated the request and was met with the same reply.
    What happened in that bathroom, as what happened on other occasions and what was said, depends on who is doing the telling.
    Says Dennis Coleman: “She started asking me questions about the murder. They were the same questions she had asked over the phone from the police station. I couldn’t understand why she was asking those questions when she already knew all the answers. We were in there about five minutes, that’s all.”
    His estimate of the time, at least, is supported by Lori DeLucca and a few others who saw them enter and then saw them depart.
    Says Karin Aparo: “I wanted to tell him what I had seen on my mother, and I wanted to him to explain it all to me. He did. This was the first time Dennis told me the details of how he had murdered my mother, and it took him more than fifteen minutes to do it.”
    Jeff Sands agrees with Karin’s estimate of the time. He saw her disappear into the bathroom, and then he strolled back to the living room. He says that he next saw her emerging from the area around the bathroom fifteen or twenty minutes later.
    However long they were in that bathroom, eventually the door opened and Karin and Dennis emerged. Alex Markov was standing right beside the door. The three of them walked into the living room. There Karin turned to Dennis and said, “Does Denny need a hug?”
    Dennis looked at her and said, “From you?”
    She nodded and said, “I guess so.” Then she put her arms around him and held him close. They moved to the couch and sat next to each other. Karin, says someone who was watching, seemed very warm toward Dennis.
    From across the room Jeff Sands was watching carefully. “Karin looked a little funny,” Sands says, “and I walked by, and she stands up very casually and says, ‘Oh, Jeff, I think I need a breath of fresh air. Would you walk outside with me?’”
    Out in the backyard Karin turned to Sands and said, “Jeff, I know something, and I need help.”
    Sands said, “Anything to do with the murder?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œKarin,” he said, “do you want a criminal attorney?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œOkay. What do you want to talk about?”
    â€œDennis just confessed to me. What should I do?”
    Sands said, “You’ve got to go to the police and tell them. If you don’t, you’re committing a crime, and the police can charge you with being an accessory or obstructing justice or something. So you have to tell them.”
    She offered no argument. They went back into the house to tell Al and Susan Dubois they were leaving, though not why and to find Mike Zaccaro, who was due at a local bank to sign some credit papers on a nursing home Athena was about to open; Sands had promised to drive him to that appointment. Sands took Zaccaro aside and told him that Karin was going with them and that he would explain in the car.
    As they were starting out, Shannon Dubois saw them. She went up to Karin and said, “Where are you going?”
    Karin said, “I’m going to the police.”
    And then, Sands remembers, “Shannon made some reference to loyalty and friendship. It stuck in my mind, like, what in the world is she talking about?”
    On the way to the bank in Glastonbury Zaccaro learned where Karin was going, and why. “She told us,” Zaccaro says, “that Dennis did it because Joyce was preventing