That evening, after Curtis Dunaway drove off in Eunice's new Toronado, Eunice took some pots and pans off the stove and got ready to leave with her parents.  They were going to the store, to pick out the recliner for Mr. Edwards, and then to church.  He gave her a set of keys that was identical to the one he carried at his belt, except that it included the ignition key for his pickup truck.  He showed her the key for the front door of the furniture store.

Q: Were the Edwardses visiting you for the holidays?

A: Yes, sir.

Q: Was this your mother- and father-in-law?

A: Yes, it is.

Q: How did you feel about them, Mr. Zeigler?

A: I liked them.

Q: Did you get along with them okay?

A: Yes, sir.

Zeigler said that after Eunice left with her mother and father, he called next door to his parents' house, but nobody answered.

He got ready to meet Edward Williams: their appointment was for 7:00.  At about five or ten minutes after 7:00, he walked through the house turning off lights, then went out to see whether Williams had arrived.

But Williams was not there, Zeigler said.  So he went to his pickup and wrote Williams a note at his truck desk.  The note read, "Edward, I'll be back in ten minutes," and he signed it "TZ."  Then he left in Curtis Dunaway's car.  He started to drive to the local package store for two fifths of bourbon to take to the Van Deventers' party.

He was agitated, he said: "Everything was going wrong, Edward was late, it was going to make me late, I wasn't going to be ready when Eunice came back from the church to go over to the Van Deventer party."

He turned back before he got to the store.  Getting the bourbon would only put him farther behind.  He would have Williams stop by the liquor store when they finished delivering the three gifts: the gas grill for his father, the recliner, and the large potted plant for Rita Ficke.

He turned around near the end of Bay Street, which was the road that ran east, past Temple Grove, to the center of town.  Anyone coming from the east side of Winter Garden would probably use Bay Street.  He did not see Edward Williams coming the other way, yet when he got back to the house, Williams was there in the driveway, and his brake lights were on.

Zeigler said that he parked Dunaway's car in the garage and closed the garage door with the remote control in his pickup truck.  He left the keys in the car.  He did not wipe the car; he did not carry a bag into Williams’s truck.