it was 1995, after he was dumped from the company, 13 years after kathy disappeared. bob walked into the office of local real estate broker gene davenport. >> he told me he was a writer for "the wall street journal." he said he wanted to have a place with an ocean view. >> reporter: bob forked over nearly $400,000 in cash for a big family house in the town of trinidad, overlooking the pacific, where he lived like a hermit. >> nobody really seen him around. he never really had contact or didn't really have any best friends. >> reporter: in that personal account of his, he explained why. "i hated to have more than a brief conversation with someone because i immediately found myself being asked, "what do you do?" the true answer was "nothing, i live off the family estate." which was true enough, but he wasn't exactly idle, either, said author matt birkbeck, who's been following the durst case