were listening in. even so, he stuck to his story that pegye's death was a terrible accident. >> i was there. i know what happened. i tried so hard to understand that people can think anything else. >> you never said hey, look, man, i don't know what the [ bleep ] you guys are talking about. i'm innocent. you never said anything about anything. >> i have so. do i have to say it every week? >> reporter: kobe tried again. >> i protected you. i basically made you look like a saint in the interview i had with the detectives. >> reporter: a dead end. but detectives were now convinced that eric killed his wife. >> even though it didn't lead to anything, that conversation with kobe, that got you from suspicion to knowing? >> yeah, it moved it all the way over. we knew we had a homicide. >> reporter: but knowing it and proving it were two very different things. you didn't get to process that boat as a crime scene for almost a week. >> right.