“I tied her knots too tight. And she suffocated.” He forces a jaundiced grin. “That’s it. That’s all I did. I’m basically innocent. I needed her to stay in my basement. I hadn’t even touched her yet. But when I left for school, Laura tried to tip her chair and escape, and the unlucky, one-in-a-million way Mom’s stupid antique chair landed must have constricted her airway. And she asphyxiated on the floor while I was in class. She killed herself, basically.”

