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Conklin turned the pages toward me

“You were arrested for burglary”

“My boyfriend talkedAnyway, I was acquitted,” Kurtz said

“You weren’t acquitted,” said Conklin “You got probation I think you ht? Oh, and then there’s the arson”

“Randy, my husband Randy, was dead I wanted to cuther chest with her fist “I set fire to our house because it was the only way I could see what I felt The bottorief”

I leaned back in my chair I think my mouth may have dropped open Debra Kurtz reacted to the shock on my face

“It was my own house,” she shouted “I didn’t even file an insurance claim I only hurt myself, do you understand? I only hurt myself!”

“Had Steven Meacham broken off your affair?”

“Yes But it eeks ago, and it was mutual”

“You weren’t a little angry?” Conklin asked “Didn’t feel a little bottorief?”

“No, no, whatever you’re thinking, I didn’t set fire to the Meachams’ house I didn’t do it I didn’t do it”

We asked Debra Kurtz where she hen the Malone house burned, and we asked her if she knew her way around Palo Alto She had alibis, and rote eve

rything down What she told us added up to a crazy wo desire to both destroy and self-destruct

It added up, and yet it didn’t add up at all And noas half past five in the

“You have any trips planned, Debra?” Conklin said, in his char way