Final Vows

by Karen Kingsbury

  What concerned Chuck and Gene was that if the D.A.’s investigators caught Suzan lying about any details of the case, they might disregard her confession entirely. Finally, there was nothing they could do but wait for the official results.

  The investigation came to a close January 14. The investigators notified Gene and Chuck of the results. In their opinion there was no truth whatsoever to Suzan’s statements. They wanted to notify the press immediately.

  Gene took a deep breath and tried to think quickly. Just as he had feared, the district attorney’s investigators had discovered Suzan was lying about certain details so they had dismissed her confession entirely.

  “Do me a favor first,” Gene told the investigators. “Let’s go to Suzan’s house and you tell her your results in person.”

  Suzan was wearing a tank top and shorts when she let them into the run-down house. After they were seated, the investigators from the district attorney’s office told her they thought her confession was a lie.

  Suzan sighed and stared blankly out her apartment window. “Well, fine then,” she said, looking up at them warily. “Wanna know what really happened?”

  The prosecution investigators looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Gene and Chuck began taking notes. “Tell us,” one of them said.

  Suzan took a deep breath. “Those two guys, you know, the ones I said was with us?”

  Suzan pulled a cigarette from her front shirt pocket and reached for a book of matches. After lighting it, she took a deep drag and continued. “Well, they wasn’t with us. Not really. See, what happened was me and Ron was in the house when they came home and, well, you know, it wasn’t me who did it to Carol.”

  Suzan looked defiantly at them. “Ron did it. He got scared and when Carol asked him what he was doing there he just shot her, you know.”

  Gene and Chuck exchanged a knowing glance. Since Carol’s last words were not printed in the papers, how could she have known what was said? “You saw it happen?” Gene asked.

  “You bet. Watched the whole thing.”

  “What happened next?”

  “Well, you know, I was all scared and that’s when Dan comes running in. So, I grabbed him and shot him.”

  At that point, one of the investigators interrupted. “Why don’t you stop right there, Suzan. I’m going to contact the office and see what they want us to do with this latest story.”

  Gene could hear the disgust in the investigator’s voice and he had a bad feeling that the office would recommend that they stop wasting time and money on Suzan Brown.

  “Enough is enough,” Ben Bernard said when the investigators phoned him. “The woman has been lying since she took the stand for the defense. First we hear about the fallen woodpile and the cockamamy Reebok footprint. Then she tells us that’s all a bunch of lies. Truth is Dan’s an innocent man and she and three of her buddies are responsible for Carol’s murder. Now that’s a lie, too.”

  Bernard was unusually angry. In his opinion Suzan must have obtained privileged information from one of the police reports, all of which Chuck and Gene had copies of. By this time, he was tired of Suzan’s lies.

  “Listen. It took the jury seven weeks to reach a conviction. Now some crazy lady has us running circles trying to check out one lie after another. We have to draw the line somewhere. Call a press conference for tomorrow morning. Let’s tell them the results.”

  On the morning of January 16 Ben Bernard walked into his office and found the front lobby littered with reporters excited about learning the results of the investigation. Ben Bernard felt confident about the findings. His detectives were very talented. If there had been any truth to Suzan Brown’s story, they would have uncovered it. They had worked on the case for a month and even found a .25 caliber handgun Suzan said was used to shoot Dan. But test firing proved it had not been the gun, after all. Ben had taken the information and condensed it into an eight-page memorandum for his supervisor and the press. Ben looked at the reporters who awaited his statement. He cleared his throat.

  “Thank you for coming here today. As you know, we are prepared to tell you the results of our lengthy investigation into the confession made last month by Suzan Brown. After carefully checking into each of Ms. Brown’s statements, we have determined that she and her friends are not responsible for the murder of Carol Montecalvo. Whether she believes her statements or not is a question for psychiatrists, not prosecutors.”

  Ben watched as the reporters began scribbling notes furiously. He continued, reading from the report his investigators had given him.

  “In summary, our investigation shows that a weapon Ms. Brown said was used in the commission of the Montecalvo murder was eliminated as a crime weapon after the gun was found and ballistics comparisons were done by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department ballistics experts. Also, our investigation shows that the persons Ms. Brown said burglarized the Montecalvo house that night, including the man she claimed shot and killed Carol Montecalvo, cooperated fully and voluntarily gave fingerprints when contacted by our investigators. The fingerprints were compared to unidentified latent prints found in the Montecalvo house. The fingerprints of the two men Ms. Brown claimed were in the house did not match.”

  Ben paused a moment, letting that detail sink in. “Our investigation also shows that all persons interviewed who have known Ms. Brown for a number of years have characterized her as a pathological liar, an ex-convict, and a former mental patient who will do anything for money. Also, the only person who has changed her story about the Montecalvo murder is Ms. Brown. So far she has related at least three separate versions of the events and now she states that most of those versions are untrue.”

  Ben continued, giving the reporters as many details as he could to convince them that his office had, indeed, been thorough. He also read them the statements that Suzan’s former acquaintances had given about her.

  The man whose home she was renting at the time of Carol’s murder said this about her: “She’s a very unstable person . . . there’s nothing that comes out of her mouth that’s fact.”

  Others called her a con-artist with no conscience. One woman Suzan had befriended in prison said that Suzan would drift off on tangents about her childhood. Many times those stories would include this new woman, when in fact she had only just met Suzan in prison. According to Bernard’s official report a different former roommate said that she thought Suzan had a split personality. According to her, Suzan once beat her, telling her she was legally crazy and threatening that she could kill her and get away with it if she wanted to. Ben told the reporters this information even though it seemed to support Suzan’s involvement in Carol’s murder. He did not want to be accused of hiding details.

  After several minutes, Ben finally concluded his report. “Based on the evidence and information we have gathered in an attempt to check out Ms. Brown’s story, we find nothing in her statements that would lead us to believe they are anything other than a continuing series of lies.”

  Dan did not find out the results of the investigation until later that afternoon. Sometime after 3 P.M., he dialed Gene Brisco’s number. Although he had often accused both the district attorney’s office and the Burbank Police Department of being dishonest, Dan felt certain that Suzan Brown’s confession would mean the end of his prison term.

  Since his incarceration, he had told anyone who would listen that several members of the Burbank Police Department and the district attorney’s office would owe him a big apology once they checked out Suzan Brown’s story and found out he really was innocent after all. He even went as far as to suggest that various police personnel and the prosecutor might someday wind up in prison for manufacturing the case against him.

  Gene answered the phone on the first ring.

  “Tell me, Gene, what’s the results?” Dan asked, unable to contain his excitement.

  Gene sighed. “Dan, it didn’t go the way we hoped.”

  For a moment,
neither man said anything. When Dan broke the silence, his voice was barely audible.

  “Gene, tell me you’re kidding. Talk to me, Gene.”

  “It’s no joke. They checked her out and decided she was a mentally ill liar. Nothing more. I’m sorry, Dan.”

  Gene could feel Dan’s anger and disappointment. For several moments there was only silence and then Gene could hear Dan quietly crying. “Nobody will believe me, Gene,” Dan said, his voice cracking as he tried to talk over the tears that were choking him. “I didn’t kill her. I didn’t do it, Gene. Why won’t anybody believe me?”

  “I believe you, Dan. Chuck and Lorn believe you. We’re not giving up.”

  “But I’m still sitting here for something I didn’t do. I was framed.” Dan was shouting now. “I could never have killed Carol. Never.”

  Gene waited quietly until Dan stopped crying. He knew that in some ways the case was closed. Unless new grounds and evidence were discovered, Gene doubted that Dan would be granted an appeal. But Gene still had one glimmer of hope based on something no one but him knew about. If his suspicions were right, one day the authorities would have to issue a warrant for Suzan’s arrest. When they did, it would not be for one count of murder.

  It would be for two.

  Chapter 47

  Throughout 1991 Gene Brisco kept his promise both to Dan and to himself. He continued to pursue the notion that Suzan Brown had actually held the gun that killed Carol. He also pursued a hunch about something else. By the fall of that year, Gene was convinced that Suzan Brown had not only killed Carol Montecalvo, but that she had also killed Sheriff s Deputy Charles Anderson. The off-duty deputy had been killed when he interrupted burglars in his home on January 24, 1987—a little more than a year before Carol’s murder. Anderson lived just three blocks from the Montecalvo home. The murder remained unsolved through 1991.

  From the beginning Gene believed the key to determining the truth was in spending time with Suzan Brown. By then she trusted Gene and never refused his requests to meet with her. Gene did not understand why Suzan allowed him to keep asking her questions. But then he did not pretend to understand the workings of Suzan’s mind.

  “Suzan, what do you know about the Anderson murder?” Gene asked her one afternoon.

  Suzan’s eyes grew perfectly round and Gene wondered if she was going to strike him. Instead she reached for a cigarette. After she had smoked it halfway to the filter, she suddenly put it out and stared at him.

  “Nothing,” she barked.

  Gene changed the subject.

  The next time, he approached the topic more subtly.

  “I’ve come to a conclusion, Suzan,” Gene said casually.

  “Yeah, and what’s that?” Suzan was flipping through a magazine, paying little attention to the detective.

  “You didn’t have anything to do with Carol’s murder,” he said, taunting her. “I bet you don’t know a thing about it. Probably read it in the newspaper.”

  Suzan looked up from the magazine angrily. As she did, Gene was certain his plan was working.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” she snapped.

  “Just what I said. You lied about the whole thing.”

  Suzan’s eyes narrowed; Gene had never seen her so angry. “Don’t go telling me what I did and didn’t do.”

  Gene shrugged, daring her to become even angrier. “Doesn’t really matter what you say. You lie about everything. Anyway, it’s just my personal conclusion.”

  Suzan’s face grew several shades darker. “Listen, buddy. I was there, saw the whole thing.”

  “Lies.” Gene said, pushing her.

  “No!” she shouted. “The truth. I was there.”

  “Sure. The next thing I know, you’re going to tell me you had a part in the Anderson murder, too.”

  Suzan exhaled slowly through her clenched teeth. Her brown eyes were blazing. “As a matter of fact, I know what happened to Anderson.” She stopped for a moment, perhaps fearing she might have said too much. Then she shrugged, as if it were too late to turn back now. “I was there. Saw that one, too.”

  “Right.”

  “Listen here.” Suzan spat out the words. “One of the guys lost a jacket at the Anderson murder. A green jacket.”

  For a brief instant, the surprise must have shown in Gene’s face because Suzan began to laugh. Then she stopped suddenly and pointed at Gene.

  “Don’t ever call me a liar again!”

  Gene had taken the information and reviewed the police reports on the Anderson homicide. According to the initial investigation, an article of clothing had been recovered near the fence in the Andersons’ backyard. It was described as a forest green windbreaker.

  There were other details about the Anderson murder that emerged in his subsequent conversations with Suzan Brown. She knew about items taken from the home, the point of entry to the house, and the position and location of Anderson’s body. None of the information had ever been mentioned in newspaper articles. Again, Gene could think of no way Suzan might have obtained the police reports.

  Finally, by November, Gene was convinced that Suzan was responsible for both murders. This did not surprise him—what amazed him was that none of the agencies he took the information to seemed to show any interest in his findings. Burbank police laughed at the idea that Suzan Brown was responsible for Charles Anderson’s murder. Brian was assigned to the case, and although it had been unsolved for nearly five years, he was still trying to crack it.

  That fall, when a reporter asked Brian how the investigation into Anderson’s murder was going, he said, “Fantastic.” Although he told her he could not provide specifics, he said the department had new leads and might even be ready to make an arrest within the next year. He also flatly denied that Suzan Brown was the person or one of the persons being investigated.

  Prosecutor Ben Bernard’s comment was more to the point. “Those people don’t ever give up, do they?” he told the reporter after learning that Gene Brisco believed Suzan Brown might be responsible for the Anderson murder also.

  When Gene realized the wall of doubt he was up against, he began putting every bit of evidence in writing. Finally, by the end of November, he had constructed a case similar to the ones he had once put together while working as a detective for the sheriffs department. But there was a difference—this case was stronger than any he had ever prepared. He thought his information proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Suzan Brown was responsible for two murders.

  On the morning of December 2 Gene Brisco took his findings to Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block’s office. The sheriff’s department is responsible for crimes committed in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Under normal circumstances, the Burbank Police Department would have been solely responsible for the Anderson murder, which took place inside Burbank city limits. However, because Anderson had been a sheriff’s deputy, both departments had been involved in the investigation. Because Burbank police had originally thought Carol’s murder resembled that of Anderson’s, the sheriff’s department had also been involved in the early stages of her murder case.

  Block’s assistants had promised they would give Gene’s findings a fair look and if they were convinced, they would issue an arrest warrant for Suzan Brown. Gene could then relax. The case would no longer be in his hands. If the sheriff’s department believed Suzan was responsible, they would take care of the matter and finally Dan would be released.

  By early April 1992, the sheriff’s department had determined that the case no longer belonged in their jurisdiction despite the fact that Anderson had been one of their men. At that time the department sent Gene’s entire case to the Burbank police for further analysis. When Dan heard about this latest development, he had to agree with Gene that there was no longer any realistic chance of his receiving either a new trial or an early release from prison. “At this point I no longer know what else I can do,” Gene said after hearing that Burbank p
olice were now in charge of the case. “Burbank could have it for years, forever. It’s not that I’m doing this for the attention or for any kind of financial gain,” Gene told a reporter that week. “I don’t really know why I’m so committed to this thing. But I’ve spent too long trying to catch bad guys. People like Suzan Brown, out there walking the streets. Meanwhile, an innocent guy sits in prison. I can’t let something like that happen.”

  The reporter asked him what would happen if Suzan was arrested and Dan released from prison.

  “I might just stand outside on my front lawn and scream at the top of my voice, ‘Justice was served,’ ” Gene said.

  Lorn Aiken was also interviewed. “I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again,” he said. “Dan’s the first and only innocent man I’ve ever represented. Every day while he sits in prison I think about him and how the system failed him. It’s insane to think of a lunatic woman running loose while an innocent man wastes away in prison.”

  * * *

  By that time Dan actually had begun to waste away in prison. He had been moved that spring from the prison in Chino to the high-security facility in Vacaville because doctors at Chino had determined that he was suffering from depression and anxiety.

  In Vacaville, an ominous northern California facility that housed some of the most desperate criminals in the state, doctors agreed that Dan’s depression had grown even worse. They prescribed Valium so Dan could sleep at night and numerous medications to control his stomach ulcers and high blood pressure. Finally, prison doctors decided Dan could not take the stress of living in Vacaville so they sent him to the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo.