Empty Promises

happened, what to say, and I believed that story. I heard it so often, I really believed it was true.”
    And, according to Dr. Treleaven, she did indeed believe the story she had told the Clackamas County sheriff’s detectives was true. At that time, she had been methodically and thoroughly brainwashed.
    Tom Brown was now in jail. Criminal Investigator Paul Keller spoke with him, and he glibly went through the same story he’d told before. The shooting was an accident, and Robin had seen it. That was all there was to it. If the dead man’s wife backed him up, he couldn’t understand why the police were harassing him. Then, on the advice of his lawyer, Tom stopped talking. He had nothing more to say.
    As Tom Brown’s trial approached, Steve Keutzer and Bob Hamilton acknowledged that they had some problems with their case. They were absolutely convinced that Brown was a merciless killer, but would a jury believe the victim’s widow? The defense would certainly bring up the undependability of her memory. Was the evidence enough? And would a jury understand the gunshot-residue evidence?
    Knowing Brown’s potential for violence, they didn’t want him out on the streets. Could they gamble on a win in court? It might be safer to agree to a plea bargain, allowing him to plead guilty to a lesser charge. That would ensure he was locked up for a little while at least.
    The two state attorneys were conferring with Brown’s defense team about the possibility of reducing the murder charge to negligent homicide when a grinning detective walked up. “Don’t agree to anything,” he whispered. “I’ve got somebody you might like to talk to.”
    At this point in the case, a colorful witness named Wendell Stokeberry* came forward. He had never been known for his cooperation with the police; Stokeberry had a rap sheet that went so far back that even he wasn’t sure just what he’d done and what he hadn’t done—although if he was pinned down, he could usually sort it out. He was bright and silver-tongued, and he would make one of the best—and one of the most flamboyant—witnesses Hamilton and Keutzer had ever brought into a courtroom.
    Wendell Stokeberry was currently a resident of the Clackamas County jail and had recently renewed a friendship with Tom Brown, an old schoolmate from the MacLaren School for Boys. Brown was so positive that he was going to walk free that he had spent hours bragging to Stokeberry about how he had convinced Robin Marcus to go to the police with him.
    Jim Byrnes taped Stokeberry’s statement. Stokeberry wanted little in return. He wanted a simple escape charge erased from his record, and he wanted to be sent to an out-of-state prison after he testified. That wasn’t unreasonable; snitches didn’t live long inside the walls. Jim Byrnes knew Stokeberry was risking more than he might gain. Still, he agreed to give information without any promises being made to him. Even with his many walks on the wrong side of the law, Stokeberry felt Tom Brown was too dangerous to be turned loose on society.
    “I been knowing this cat since the early sixties, even before we went to MacLaren,” Stokeberry said. “Once we got there, we were in the same cottage. We was good friends. So I get booked into jail here, and there he is. I tell him what I’m in for and he tells me he’s in for first-degree murder and a couple of sex things.”
    “Did you ask him any questions?” Byrnes asked.
    “Yeah, about the murder charge.”
    Tom Brown had explained who the Marcuses were but had not given their names. He just told Wendell Stokeberry he’d met them only the day before the killing. “He said they all went fishing and that they had a big collie with them. He said he shot the guy in the face.”
    “Did he say it was an accident?”
    “He said, ‘I killed him,’ but that his story to the police was that it was an accident that happened when guns were being exchanged. He said he had used an odd kind of gun. The casing of the bullets was extra long with a heavier powder charge than usual.”
    “Did he tell you the reason for killing this man?”
    “Later he did. He said he was paid to kill him, and he said the police didn’t have a case against him, because of the girl involved. He says it’s just his word against hers, and he said the girl wasn’t even there. Then he said he just leveled the gun down and blasted the dog. Then he said he got together with the girl for four days. He said he was