...And Never Let HerGo

told both Gerry and Debby he would protect them. “I would assume the burden. Legal protection—emotional, mental protection,” he said, half smiling at the jurors. “I didn’t want them to have to live with the same horrible feelings that I live with.”
    Continuing his testimony, Tom said that on Saturday morning, he and Debby had slept late and “made love,” and then he had gone off to Air Base Carpets to buy a new rug for the great room. “I told her I was going to buy a new rug that would not go under the kitchen table so it would [not] get food stains on it.”
    Colm Connolly sat at the prosecution table, listening, jotting down notes. He would remember every single word Tom was saying. It seemed odd to him that Tom would say he told Debby a lie about the replacement rug. If, as Tom insisted, Debby had been the one who shot Anne Marie and helped him give CPR to her bloodied corpse, would she not have
known
why it was necessary to buy a new rug?
    Tom testified about the weekend and how annoying it had been to have investigators shadowing him, “hiding outside my children’s home,” searching his house. It had been a terribly busy weekend for him. His girls were with him on Saturday night—and he spoke at length about that. Then on Sunday, June 30, Tom said, he had had to reassure Debby often, speak to Louie and “Kimmie,” and have dinner with Kay. And several jurors blinked slightly when he added that he had also been “due to see a young lady.”
    “I told her I was running late,” Tom said, “and then I went to where she was living. She was not in particularly good shape [due to an ankle injury]. I mean, she was barely mobile, a very stubborn type of person: ‘I don’t need help—I can take care of myself.’ And I stayed with her for a couple of hours and, you know, tried to get her something to eat . . . she was on the first floor when I arrived, and Igot her upstairs in bed and I left . . .” Tom saw Oteri’s look and trailed off, “. . . and I’ll stop.”
    So far the jury and the gallery had heard about Susan Louth, Debby, Anne Marie, and Tom’s estranged wife, Kay, and now he had mentioned a mystery woman. And Connolly and Wharton were still looking for a way to bring in Linda Marandola, yet another woman, to testify. The man was apparently indefatigable.
    Tom spoke of his anxiety when he realized the federal government had inserted itself into the investigation. Not only had he been concerned about coming forward at that point with all the force of the feds against him, but he had agonized over discussing Anne Marie’s personal affairs.
    “Directing your attention to early February 1996,” Oteri asked, “did you have occasion to acquire cash?” [Oteri had to find a way to explain IRS agent Ron Poplos’s discovery that Tom had withdrawn $25,000 in cash in three segments around Valentine’s Day 1996.]
    Tom explained that he had. He had cashed checks on two consecutive days for $8,000 and $9,000. “It just seemed kind of showy,” he said, “to go back a third time—so that’s why I asked Gerry if he could loan me the $8,000 in cash.”
    Tom said he needed $25,000 near Valentine’s Day in 1996—to help Anne Marie. He said he’d begged her to let him pay for in-patient care for her in a clinic for eating disorders. He wanted her to see how serious he was about wanting to help her by showing her the actual cash. But she had thrown it back in his face.
    T HIS would be the last day in court before Christmas. Joe Oteri had a mountain of inflammatory testimony to neutralize before Colm Connolly cross-examined Tom, and he plodded gamely ahead. “In February 1998, you learned that Deborah MacIntyre did something, is that correct?”
    “I learned that she had agreed to become a witness for the government.”
    “Subsequent to learning that, did you go to anyone and tell them the story you’ve told here?”
    “No one who wasn’t privileged.”
    “Is there a reason—tell the jury the reason,” Oteri urged, “why you didn’t tell anyone this story prior to trial.”
    “Well, I’m kind of a confidential person,” Tom began. “You know, it would just sound like sour grapes at the time. I mean, she—not she, but the slickster from Philadelphia [Tom Bergstrom,Debby’s lawyer], who outwitted us. . . . And I never—to this day—I still can’t believe that Debby would lie so much. I mean, that’s not really Debby who came in here. So—”
    “But, sir,” Oteri