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"I expected to be relieved," he said "His father was a clergyed my replacement by a criminal lawyer But I did see Vanderpoel"

"When did you see him?"

"Late Friday afternoon" He scratched the side of his nose with his index finger "I could have gotten to hiuess"

"But you didn't"

"No I stalled" He looked atreplaced," he said "And if replaceht I could savehim And my time wasn't the half of it"

"How do you ot up from behind his desk and walked over to theHe toyed with the cord of the venetian blinds, raising and lowering thehed and turned to face uy who co woman to death I didn't want to set eyes on him Do you find that hard to understand?"

"Not at all"

"It bothered me I'ard to what they have or haven't done I should have thrownthe best defense for hiuilty as charged without even talking to hiain "But of course I did The police picked hied their case if I saw it all the way into court, but in uilty as charged And since I had every expectation that I would be taken off the case, I found ways to avoid seeing Vanderpoel"

"But you eventually went that Friday afternoon"

"Uh-huh He was in his cell in the Tombs"

"You saw him in his cell, then"

"Yes I didn't pay s They've finally torn down the Women's House of Detention I used to walk past it all the tie A horrible place"

"I know"

"I wish they'd do the saain "I suppose I saw the very steaed himself from And the bedsheet he used to do the job He sat on his bed while we talked He letwere you with him?"

"I don't think it was er"

"Did he talk?"

"Not at first He was off soh to him but didn't have verysoue with hian planning the defense I would use if I had the chance I didn't expect to have the chance, understand It was a hypothetical exercise as far as I was concerned But I had more or less decided to try for an insanity plea"

"Everyone seeree he was crazy"

"There's a difference between that and legal insanity It becomes a battle of experts-you line up your witnesses, and the prosecution lines up theirs Well, I went on talking to hiet him to open up a little, and then he turned towhere I had come from, as if he hadn't knoas in the roo I had said to him the first time around"

"Did he seem rational?"

Topakian considered the question "I don't know that he see rationally at that moment"

"What did he say?"

"I wish I could remeirl He said, now let me think, he said, 'She couldn't have done it herself' "

" 'She couldn't have done it herself' "

"I think that's the way he put it I asked if he re her He claimed that he didn't He said his stoht he meant he had a stoathered that he had had a stomachache on the day of the estion"

"Well, he remembered the stomachache He said his sto about blood 'She was in the bathtub and there was blood all over' I understand they found her in bed"

"Yes"

"She hadn't been in the tub or anything?"

"She was killed in bed, according to police reports"

He shook his head "He was a very confused young man He said that she had been in the tub with blood everywhere I asked him if he had killed her, I asked hiave me an answer So her Other times he said that he must have killed her because she couldn't have done it herself"

"He said that more than once, then"

"Quite a few tied "I don't think he ever lied to irl Because he ad sex with her"

"That's worse than killing her?"

"Having sex with her afterward"