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101. they took a closer look at the victim's boyfriend paul. and there was a curious moment in that police interview the day of the fire when paul admitted he wasn't always the best sort of boyfriend. >> me and my girlfriend were broke up, and thanks to palo alto pd, put a restraining order on me because they said paul threatened me, blah, blah, blah. i said, no, she came to the cafe and broke the door. we always have problems like this. i never touched a girl in my life. you can see the police reports. >> suspicious? sure. but as they asked around among the couple's friends, police learned a ...

Three times. and we were able to prove that he lied to us by the hard evidence that we had with the phone records and with the video surveillance and those items. and i just -- to me that hurt him very badly. >> if he hadn't testified, i can't say for sure, i don't think i could have convicted him. >> at his sentencing, an angry paul zumot again protested his innocence. but he was sent away for 25 to life for murder. plus eight years for arson. after the fire, the palo alto cottage was repaired. new love perhaps growing in there. young people were still coming into the cafe to socialize and sm...

My job is to talk to you and find out what exactly you know because you probably know more than me at this point. >> no. no. >> so, together, police and zumot talked about the hours before the fire. where had she been? what had she and paul been doing? >> well, yesterday was my birthday. we went out and everything was fine, you know. >> who's "we"? >> me and her and all of our friends. >> who is her? >> jennifer. >> your girlfriend? >> yes. >> paul explained that he spent the afternoon at an appointment in san jose and just got back in time for the cafe to open in the evening. >> there was tra...

Before, paul told police some guys in a truck tried to follow jennifer home. >> she had broken her heel and she says somebody was stalking her. it's fine. it's okay with me but we had people stalking us in the past, okay? i don't know what's going on. i believe that's what caused the fire. i believe somebody was threatening us. >> reporter: so was paul zumot on to something? detectives went to talk to the brothers and, of course, checked to see where both men were the day of the fire. and there was no doubt they were nowhere near the fire. they had alibis. >> at the time of the fire, we know e...

>> reporter: as police gathered evidence, bit by bit, asking around about paul, one of them noticed something a little odd. paul told a friend, also a policeman, by the way, two slightly different stories about his whereabouts the day of the fire. first conversation, day of the fire, reported the cop friend, paul said he wasn't home all day. then, second conversation, next day, paul said he stopped briefly at home en route to his hookah cafe. as we say, odd. but people's memories can be tricky. was that one little difference enough to add up to suspicion of murder? police apparently thought so...