PUHL: Greg, we should… (inaudible) Okay, Ms. Bentley, so you invite Paula, or Chris as you know her, to your home. How did this happen, exactly? Did you give her your address?

BENTLEY: Well, yeah, and we were sitting just a few buildings down, so I was able to point it out. Weird thing is, I gave her my phone number and asked her to text me hers, but like I told you before, she never did. I thought it was just an oversight. I was a little surprised when she actually showed up for the dinner, but I’m not one to make a scene.

PUHL: What happened when she arrived?

BENTLEY: Everything was okay at first. You can ask anyone there. I mean, she was at dinner with a bunch of people she didn’t know, so she was a little quiet. I thought it was just that. But then she started to drink. A lot. We all were: me, Meggie, Bev, Andrew, Patrick, and Joshua, and we were all having a good time, but Chris—she was going down fast. At some point, I remember wanting to ask her to leave, but you know, I didn’t want to make her feel bad.

Then she pulled me aside and started asking me all these questions about Beverly. If I knew if she was seeing anyone else, had I seen anyone around here that looked like Ryan Hooks. Thing is, I knew Bev was seeing him. I’d seen him around the building whenever he was in town. Bev all but told me that it was more than just a professional relationship without ever using the words.

But I wasn’t going to tell Chris that, so I just kind of ignored her. Then she sat down on the couch and started dozing off. I went out to the deck where everyone was smoking to try to get a few people to help me get her outside and down the block, but when we came back, she was gone.

PUHL: But you don’t think she was gone, was she?

(Silence)

PUHL: Ms. Bentley?

BENTLEY: No. After talking to some of my neighbors over the last couple of days, I realize that nobody actually saw her leave. And that she may have been in my apartment still when I went to sleep. After Patrick and Meggie left, I knocked out. I don’t know. I was really out of it. I guess in a way (inaudible) it was my fault.

PUHL: How so?

BENTLEY: Because I let a stranger into my home, and then I was so drunk, I didn’t recognize that she was still there when I went to bed. That’s what the video showed. That’s what she’s trying to erase. It showed that she left my apartment much later than she originally said. After Bev was killed, not before.

(Tape stopped)

(Tape resumed)