(urth) The Ziggurat and the "petite" lie

[Dave Tallman]

There's something very strange at the end of "The Ziggurat." Emery is 
trying to lie his way out of trouble and he tells the police that 
"Tamar" is an exchange student who is staying with them. A little later 
he says:

"My wife calls her petite." The lie came easily, unbidden.

What's going on here? He's telling a lie his wife can contradict. That 
might make sense if they had a loving relationship and could collude 
beforehand, but they are adversaries in a divorce case. Another possible 
explanation is that he knows his wife and kids are dead. So do we need 
to dust off the Maximum Delusion theory I've seen in the archives?