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Friends, we are gathered here

to pay our final respects

to our good friend Daniel Bartholomew Kingsley.

Now, our thoughts and our prayers

go to his loving wife Felicia

and to his son Aaron,

his daughter Ellen and her husband Jim

and his four beloved grandchildren,

and to his many, many friends.

I had the good fortune to be one of them,

and how I look forward to that glorious day

when we shall be together again on Jordan's far shore.

But until then, Daniel Bartholomew...

D.B., as those of us

who were blessed with his friendship knew him...

Rest in peace, old friend.

May the grace of God be with you all. Amen.

Amen.

You know, that wasn't the reunion we hoped it would be, was it?

I know, but that's the way life is.

Yeah.

Friends part, miss each other.

Talk about getting back together,

and somehow, it never happens.

And then, one day, it's too late.

Hey, how about this?

How about all four of us have dinner at Ray Templin's Bar?

We'll drink a toast to old D.B. What do you say?

I haven't been there in so long.

Think the reverend will join us?

You ever know Jimmy to miss a party?

Of course, that's the old days.

Before he got religion.

Well, there are four of us left.

Tell the truth, Ben.

40 years ago, would you have ever imagined

that any of us would have come this far?

I don't know, but we got lucky, I guess. Real lucky.

The way I see it, we made our own luck.

Ben?

Hi.

Hi.

Dad asked me to give you this.

That? What is it?

I don't know.

He gave it to me about a week before he died.

Said it was for your eyes only.

Oh.

You really meant a lot to him, Ben.

This court is in session.

Mr. Taft, are you ready to question the prospective jurors?

I am, Your Honor.

Proceed.

Mr. Morgan, what is your occupation?

I recently retired from Hoffman Tool and Die.

42 years, don't you know?

When we first started, we used to put in a 12-hour day.

Now I don't know what to do with my time.

Mr. Morgan, in the case of...

Dear Ben,

I'm about to tell you a 35-year-old secret.

Remember how the five of us used to go hunting every fall

up around Echo Lake?

What I'm going to tell you

happened on the trip you missed,

because some judge switched a trial date on you.

Remember that?

Say cheese, boys!

Cheese, boys.

Hey, next time, leave your shotgun at home, D.B.

The only shooting you're doing these days

is with that damn camera.

Things would have turned out so differently

if you'd been along that weekend, Ben.

But it was just me, Bud, Jimmy and Lucas.

Who's driving? I am! Are you crazy?

Bud started passing the bourbon,

and nobody much cared that we hadn't shot a thing that day.

But we didn't exactly go back

to the cabin empty-handed that night.

On the drive back, we picked up a hitchhiker.

A girl, very young, very pretty,

very sociable.

The guys talked her into staying a while.

I didn't like the idea,

having just gotten engaged to Alicia,

but I was outnumbered.

Within a few hours, everyone was pretty drunk.

I could see where this was heading.

So could the girl. She wanted to go.

I got out of there, Ben.

I just got in my car and drove home.

I didn't even bother to pack my gear.

I knew something terrible was going to happen.

I was right.

A few days later, the enclosed article appeared

in the Atlanta Examiner.

It was her.

They arrested some poor black

who lived a couple of miles away.

He swore he was innocent,

but he was convicted and sent to prison.

All these years, Ben, I lived with the knowledge

that one of our friends, our closest friends,

could very well be a murderer.

Please, please do what I never had the guts to do.

Find out the truth.

Mr. Matlock!

Now that the court has your attention, Mr. Matlock,

would you like to question Mr. Morgan?

Oh, uh, yes.

I, uh, I apologize for my lack of attention, Your Honor,

and, uh, I'd be happy to talk to Mr. Morgan.

Conrad.

What do you think about when you hear the words, "business card"?

What's up?

"Have a problem?"

"Conrad McMasters,

Private Eye." I'm impressed.

Yeah. Pretty good, huh?

Yeah. What's up?

Uh, I want you to find somebody for me.

Fellow named Calvin Stokes.

He was convicted of first degree murder in '56.

Spent time at the Georgia State Pen

and was paroled in '86.

No problem.

Tell him I want to talk to him.

No problem. What about?

Close the door.

Well, look. Speaking of the devil, look who's here.

Pardon the expression.

It's about time.

We were just talking about your 28th birthday party, Ben.

Remember that?

You missed it completely.

Oh. Nice one.

Such a great party, nobody realized

you weren't there until it was over. At least I didn't.

Oh, this is great.

This is great. We finally got back together again.

Here.

Okay, well, I'm afraid, uh, I'm afraid

it's not going to be quite...

the celebration we hoped.

Look at this.

That's, um, a letter D.B. wrote me

just before he died, all about that hunting trip

you took without me back in '55.

Including the part about the girl.

The girl? What girl?

That girl.

D.B. thinks one of us killed some girl that weekend?

That's crazy.

I spent a lot of time with D.B. during his final weeks, Ben.

He... he wasn't himself.

I-I had him on morphine...

For pain. He had to have been hallucinating

when he wrote that.

Why did he keep this clipping all these years?

Ben, there was no girl;

in the car, in the cabin, or anywhere else.

You, uh, you haven't told anybody about this?

I'm up for reelection next year.

My investigator, but, uh, no names,

and he's closed-mouthed.

Your investigator?

Well...

I have to go through with this.

Uh, I mean, I just have to.

It was, uh, D.B.'s last request, his dying wish,

so I have to do it.

But, you know, if nothing comes of it, then well, we'll...

Hey.

That will be that.

Yeah, that will be that.

Well, it's a shame. You know, if you'd have

been there that weekend with us, like you should have,

you would know.

You wouldn't have to go through all this.

Yeah. Yeah.

D.B. was sick.

Yeah.

As I recall, that... that trip was one of our best.

You mean you actually brought something home?

Of course we did.

Colds.

From sitting on the cold, hard ground.

Hey, what do you say we order, huh?

I'm starved.

What else is new, huh?

Yeah. Hey, Rita?

All right. It's pretty simple.

Mr. Calvin Stokes still lives in Echo Lake.

It was all I could do to get him to talk to me.

He absolutely doesn't want to get involved.

Told me to shove off.

No, actually, he told me to get the hell out of there.

Maybe he's guilty after all.

I don't know about that,

but he sure wants to put the past behind him

and get on with his life.

Why did D.B. have to dump this on me?

Why couldn't he have just left me a nice tie or something?

Well, daggone it.

The man won't talk to me.

I can't help him. Maybe the boys are right.

D.B. was real sick at the end of his life.

I'm done with this case.

All right, well, if something else comes up,

you got my card.

Yeah, Conrad McMasters, Private Eye.

See ya, Ben.

Uh-huh. Yeah.

Okay. And, uh, yeah, we'll be sure...

Ow! Sorry.

Ow!

Ow!

I'm sorry.

How you doing?

I'm fine.

Did your boys get a look at my car?

Yeah, what was left of it.

Now if anything occurs to you, anything at all, call me.

I will.

You be careful, Ben.

Yeah, I-I will. Thanks, pal.

Conrad...

Why don't you go to the hospital? No, I'm fine.

You don't look fine.

Ow! You look hurt.

How could somebody blow up my car?

Ignition bomb.

You were lucky.

Bob Brooks was right.

Somebody deliberately tried to kill me.

You bet.

So, do you have any idea who might have done it?

No.

Think.

Well, I'm thinking.

You think I'm not thinking? I'm thinking.

Could you, uh, could you trace

where that bomb came from?

Yeah, I'll find out where it came from.

And I'm going to do something else.

I'm going to talk to your friends.

Oh, no.

Well, then you do it.

No, these are my oldest, dearest friends.

And you're investigating them for a murder.

Oh...

If someone from the past, just from the past,

was trying to kill you, they'd have done it a long time ago.

Whoever planted that bomb, has got to be connected

with what's going on now, and you know that.

I have to get up.

Conrad,

you're wrong.

You've got to be wrong.

Forget it.

I wish I could, Mr. Stokes, but I can't.

A man I've trusted for 40 years told me

that you went to prison for a crime

you most probably didn't commit.

You're damn right I didn't.

Why won't you tell me what happened?

Now, what's talking gonna get me?

Now, I did my time... hard time...

And I just want to forget it.

But if you're innocent...

Keep it down.

Nobody here knows I'm an ex-con.

And I want to keep it that way.

You want to live your life that way?

Hoping nobody will find out? Hoping you won't lose your job?

Why won't you let me help you?

Maybe I can clear your name.

Just leave me alone.

No, Mr. Stokes, I can't.

I promised my oldest friend.

Now you're going to take me and show me what happened,

'cause I'm gonna stay right here till you do.

Now tell me just exactly what happened.

Well, I was walking home from working the night shift

at the mill, like I always did.

I didn't have a car.

I didn't have much of anything. Yeah.

Anyway, I was in a hurry,

so I took a shortcut right down this path.

Mm-hmm. Mm.

All right.

Right here, right off the path,

I saw a pair of gloves kind of caught in the bushes

like somebody tossed them there.

So I went and put them on.

Hell, finders keepers.

It was a cold morning. Of course.

When I got here, I saw something a little ways down there.

So I went and looked.

And I saw it was a girl lying facedown in the brush.

I started pulling her out.

Then I realized her head was all bloody,

and she was stiff like she was dead.

Now that scared the hell out of me.

So I left her there,

and I just ran right up this hill to the road.

Yeah. Uh-huh.

Yeah.

And you ran back to the road here.

Then what?

Well, I kept on running.

Pretty soon I heard a car coming up behind me.

And it was the sheriff.

Well, then I just panicked.

Started running faster.

Then I looked down and saw the blood from that girl

was all over my new gloves.

So I just took them off and threw them in the bushes.

Yeah, and then the sheriff retrieved them.

And after he ran you down and arrested you,

he turned them over to the prosecutor

because without them,

they wouldn't have had much of a case.

Do you really think you can clear my name?

Well, I'll tell you one thing...

I'm going to give it my very best shot.

Where on earth did you get this?

Ellen Kingsley let me look through D.B.'s old photo albums.

Remember what a camera nut he was.

Yeah. Yeah.

How come you're not in this?

Well, that was the weekend I couldn't make it, remember?

And that-that's, that's the weekend

D.B. wrote about in that letter.

Ben, for crying out loud.

Bud... it was the...

It was the only thing D.B. ever asked me to do.

D.B. was taking morphine

when he wrote that thing.

He was out of his mind.

Excuse me, Bud.

Senator Jacob's office just called.

Can you make it to lunch with him and the governor Monday?

Bet I can.

Oh, Senator Jacobs and the governor...

That's life in the fast lane.

Well, if everything goes as planned,

in three years, Patty and I will be moving to Washington DC.

All right!

Oh, wow.

Oh, Bud, I feel lousy about this,

but I-I just got to go ahead with it. I...

Ben, there was no girl.

Well, just for a moment,

um, let's suppose there was a girl.

Let's suppose that you and Lucas and Jimmy

got her up to that cabin,

and there was a lot of drinking going on.

This is as hard to think about

as it is to say, but suppose...

something happened

that could have destroyed your reputations?

Suppose you were afraid the girl would tell?

We've known each other for 40 years.

How can you suggest something like that?

I know, but a bunch of young men getting drunk like that...

Egging one another on.

The next thing you know...

I don't drink.

Templin's Bar.

There was no alcohol in it.

Maybe not now, but you sure did then.

No, sir. I had stopped by then.

No, no.

Here. Here.

Do you see that?

The flask coming out of your pocket right there?

You see that?

You always had that. See that?

Now that I'm remembering that weekend,

it seemed that everybody changed after that.

You ran for city council.

Lucas went back to medical school.

Jimmy joined the church.

Stopped chasing the girls.

That's pure coincidence, Ben.

I hope so, Bud.

I really hope so.

What do you mean

I changed for the better after that weekend?

Well, that's what Bud said.

Buddy said that?

Well, not in so many words, but you did join the church

right after that weekend, didn't you, Jimmy?

Well, sure, but...

And you stopped chasing the girls.

Now wait a minute.

You make it sound like I was some kind of Don Juan.

Well, you were.

Always looking at the girls,

and always combing your hair just right

to be sure they looked back at you.

That's why you never wore a hat, remember?

Didn't want to mess up your hair.

Yeah, well, I was just a kid.

Yeah, look at this here.

Huh? See?

That must have been taken that weekend.

See your hair?

You must have still been chasing the girls.

Least that's what Bud thought.

He did, did he? Well, sort of.

And it put me to thinking that maybe something did happen

between you and that girl that weekend.

There wasn't any girl that weekend, Ben.

Beautiful church, Jimmy.

Just beautiful.

I hear that they're talking about

televising your Sunday services.

Well, I've been approached,

but I don't think it's going to happen.

I'm just a simple preacher.

Aw, don't be so modest.

You could be the next Billy Graham.

Ben, excuse me.

Bill, would you put one of those red hymnals

up on the organist's bench?

Miss Cora gets a little disturbed if she can't find it.

So I can understand why D.B.'s letter upset you.

I mean, hell... Oh, I mean heck.

Well, heck, it was bad enough

way back when you had to watch every step

because your father was a big bank president,

but I think Bud's right.

You have ten times more to lose now.

Bud said that, did he?

Something to that effect.

Well, Jimmy, I've taken up enough of your time.

I know you've got a lot to do to get ready for services.

So, I'll see ya.

I'll see you on Sunday?

Couldn't hurt.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Bill, would you please finish up this side of the church?

I have to make a phone call.

It's just that I have a lot to lose.

I didn't tell him that.

He said you did. He was bluffing.

He was just trying to get you to say something about me.

Neither of you told him about the girl, did you?

I denied she was ever there.

I did, too.

We have nothing to worry about.

Well...

Who's there?

I didn't want to believe it, I really didn't.

But you did have a girl in that cabin.

God knows what you did to her.

You're my oldest friends.

35 years ago, you did something terrible.

Then you conspired to keep it a secret.

And when it seemed that your secret would come out in the dark,

one of you... Lucas, Bud or Jimmy...

One of you tried to kill me.

Ben, I'm sorry, I'm due in surgery.

Why don't you drop this whole thing?

I can't... there was a girl there that weekend.

You all admitted it.

We didn't.

Lucas, I heard you.

You misunderstood.

So you all spent a quiet weekend alone in that cabin.

That's right. Well, how'd you come home with colds

from sleeping on the ground?

Oh, we were just joking. No.

Something went on that weekend, and, by damn,

I'm gonna find out what. All right,

that's it, I've had it with your paranoid accusations!

This is harassment, Ben... I call you my friend,

but that doesn't give you the right to treat me like this.

Do you mind?

Sylvester!

Sorry about the shirt.

I tell him and I tell him,

but he always ends up wrecking the shirt.

Hear you're in the market for some fireworks.

That's what this is about?

Well, we couldn't very well talk in there, could we?

What are you looking for?

Actually, I'm looking for you.

See, somebody tried to kill my friend with an emission bomb,

and I think they bought it from you.

I have no idea...

Who'd you sell bombs to...

I'll be seeing you around.

What?! Are you crazy?!

See, I made a phone call,

and if you touch me one more time,

there's gonna be more cops here than you ever seen in your life.

Now, you tell me who it was,

and maybe we can end this like friends.

It was a phone order, my man.

You don't know who you sold the bomb to?

That's right.

Who paid you?

Look, I leave the merchandise on the curb.

Car pulls up, guy opens the door,

takes the merchandise, leaves the cash, drives off.

No name, no face.

What'd the car look like?

Brown.

Come on.

Mercedes.

Come on.

560SEL.

License number.

You wrote it down... The guy could've been

leaving you a sack of newspapers.

Thank you, Sylvester.

Georgia plate:

U-P-L-7-9-0.

How you doing? Hi.

I'm Conrad McMasters.

I'm working for Ben Matlock.

I don't have time for this.

Let me just ask you... one question,

just one question. No.

How could you do it?

What, you've known the man for 40 years.

You're supposed to be one of Ben's best friends.

How could you try to kill him?

I did not such thing. Don't give me that!

You bought the bomb. That's impossible!

They identified your car... There's a witness.

I'll tell you what I'm gonna do,

I'm gonna call the police forensics department,

they're gonna come down here,

they're gonna go through this car

with a fine-tooth comb. I didn't buy any bombs.

Wait a minute.

A lot of people could've done it.

I keep my car locked,

but anybody who knows me...

knows I keep a spare set of keys right there.

Does Ben?

Ben, what you're saying is that I stole Lucas Sinclair's car,

then used it to pick up a bomb,

which I then planted in your car.

If I remembered where that key box was hidden,

you might have, too.

I don't believe this, Ben.

How long have we been friends?

You couldn't pick up that bomb

with your own car, could you? Ben,

what in the hell has gotten into you?

Lucas told me everything that happened

in that cabin that weekend.

Lucas told you? Told you what?

Everything. Nothing happened.

You're fishing, Ben.

Lucas didn't tell you anything.

He told me about the card game.

All right.

So you talked to Lucas,

and he gave you his version of that weekend.

But I'm not gonna get hung for something I didn't do.

You've lied ever since you read D.B.'s letter.

What, am I supposed to believe you now?

Then I'll have to prove it to you.

Lucas tell you we decided to draw cards?

Yeah.

Person who got the ace spades

would take care of the girl?

Did he tell you who dealt the cards that night?

You did.

Pulled the ace, the king and the queen,

shuffled 'em,

and dealt 'em.

Your turn.

Ace of spades.

Do it again.

It's the ace of spades.

I know.

I've got the queen.

There's the king.

You marked the cards.

Just like I did 35 years ago, Ben.

I didn't want to be the one to get the ace of spades,

so I made damn sure I didn't.

This is a hearing on defendant's extraordinary writ

in the case of The People of the State of Georgia

v. Calvin Stokes,

case number 7-6-1-5-3-9.

Appearance as counsel?

Brit Hudson, Deputy District Attorney

on behalf of Fulton County, Your Honor.

Benjamin Matlock for the defendant, Calvin Stokes.

Mr. Stokes is present.

Your petition

presents a very unusual situation, Mr. Matlock.

You understand that I must make every presumption

in favor of the trial court's conviction of your client?

Understood, Your Honor,

but I think a horrible injustice has occurred.

The evidence we'll hear will demonstrate that to this court.

Very well... you may call your first witness.

I was with Buddy Carlson, Lucas Sinclair and D.B. Kingsley.

As you well know, we used to go hunting together

up at Echo Lake.

Yeah, j-just...

just good, clean fun.

Well, we thought so then.

We were young men, little more than boys.

Like a lot of young men, we were...

a little wild and reckless.

Sort of, uh, sowing wild oats.

You know what it was like.

We used to go hunting,

we'd play cards a little, drink a little,

but... we never did anything we were really ashamed of.

Until...

that weekend.

Pastor Hubert...

Jimmy...

you have a choice.

You know that.

You can lie and hope your reputation

as a preacher and a good man

will cause this court to believe you,

or you can...

practice what you preach,

tell the truth,

cleanse your conscience,

correct a wrong

that you've held secret for 35 years.

Can you make that choice?

I've thought of nothing else for days, Ben.

I haven't eaten, I haven't slept, but I...

I have prayed.

Will you tell this court

what happened that weekend

in November 1955?

Everything D.B. said in that letter is true.

There was a girl.

And after D.B. left, things got a little wild.

She... threatened to tell on us,

said she was going straight to the police,

that she was gonna...

see us all in jail, so we...

at first, laughed... We didn't think she meant it.

But...

then she ran out of the cabin.

We went after her.

We... we realized that she could ruin our lives

before they even begun,

so we...

caught her,

locked her in the shed behind the cabin

while we...

decided what to do.

Which was what?

Ben, we were so young and drunk and scared.

No, no, no, there's no excuse; what I did was wrong.

What we did was a sin against that poor girl,

and I... I cannot allow myself to make excuses.

We decided that...

she would carry out her threat, that...

we'd go to jail, and we... our lives would be ruined.

We decided we... couldn't let her go.

So... we decided one of us was gonna have to kill her.

One of you?

Mm-hmm.

And how did you decide

which one?

I'm ashamed to say this, I really am.

We played cards.

We took the queen, the king, the ace of spades from the deck.

Buddy Carlson shuffled and dealt them.

We agreed that whoever got the ace...

I can't say it.

Whoever got the ace of spades

would murder that poor, unfortunate girl.

Is that what you can't say?

You must say it out loud, so the court can hear, Jimmy.

You must.

Whoever got the ace...

would murder the girl.

Um, then what happened, Pastor Hubert?

We, uh...

slept in the woods that night, so that none of us

except the murderer would know who killed her.

I didn't even look at my card

until I got to the place where I was gonna sleep.

It was the ace.

So I went to the shed and unlocked it.

The girl was sitting in there inside, terrified.

Almost as terrified as I was.

I stood there, frozen.

And I let her go.

What did you say?

She ran past me out the door,

and I didn't stop her, I let her go.

I couldn't kill her.

Ben, I couldn't kill her.

I was a sinner, but I was no murderer.

Oh, come on, Jimmy, you expect us to believe that?

It's the truth... I let her go.

And I never saw her again.

Till I saw the paper several days later,

and read that somebody else

had murdered her.

You mean...

all these years, and you've never told the others

it wasn't you who killed the girl?

There was no reason to tell them.

They wouldn't have believed me, anyway.

They'd have thought I just... covered it up.

I h... I have...

no further questions for this witness.

Witness may step down.

They had the real murderer all along.

Should've quit while you were ahead.

Three friendships,

three lives destroyed.

For nothing.

Your Honor.

The witness is excused.

You wrecked my life!

Now not only does everybody know I'm an ex-con,

but they think I'm guilty as hell!

Well, well, maybe it's not over yet.

It is for me!

Now I have to find a new place, a new job and a new home

and start all over again!

Well, yeah, but if... No! No more!

You know, you know what I really kick myself for?

For being a sucker!

No, you made me hope for something

that I had no business hoping for!

So from now on, leave me alone!

Well...

Well, we got to do something.

What is that?

Everything I could get from the original trial.

Newspaper clippings and pictures of the, of the evidence

and pictures of the victim.

And-and here are, here are, uh, pictures

that D.B. took that day.

You lay them out over there, and I'll lay all these out.

And we'll pray heaven we'll see something.

Do you see a good picture of those gloves

that he...

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that's good, that's... yeah.

Yeah.

Now see if you can find

picture was dated that Sunday morning.

Yeah, there.

That's it, that's it.

Okay.

Yeah.

Uh-huh.

What?

Uh-huh.

What? Let's go.

What do you got?

Well, something good I hope.

We need to see... the weatherman.

So then you drew cards to determine

which one of you would kill her.

Yes, I'm sorry to say we did.

B-Before you drew them, unbeknownst to the others,

to make sure you did not get the ace of spades,

you marked it.

Is that correct?

I didn't want to kill her.

Well, you were the nephew of the mayor

from a... highly respected, influential family

with a reputation to be protected,

not to mention your own political aspirations.

I did not want to kill that girl.

I think you did.

What you didn't want was for the others to know about it.

Objection.

That's not a question, it's a statement.

Sustained.

I remind you, Mr. Matlock, that this is not a trial.

Uh, since you knew

which card was the ace,

you knew that Jimmy Hubert had drawn it,

didn't you?

Yes. And you followed him

to the shed that night, didn't you?

No.

And when you saw that he was

unable to go through with it and let the girl run away,

you went after her, didn't you?

No, I did not.

And you caught her somewhere in the brush,

and you hit her,

and she was dead, and you left her there, didn't you?

- No, I did not. - Your Honor,

where is defense counsel going with all this?

That is the court's question as well, Mr. Matlock.

You're not meeting your burden of proof

by these off-the-wall inquiries.

Do you have something more concrete?

Yes, I do, Your Honor. Then get to it,

would you please?

Yes, Your Honor.

I believe you all have a copy of these pictures.

Uh, the gloves

that you were wearing that weekend,

what'd they look like?

That was 35 years ago.

Who remembers?

Well, let me ask you this, then.

This is a picture of, uh,

Jimmy Hubert, Lucas Sinclair and you,

with your gloves on.

Now, th-this picture was made that weekend, wasn't it?

Yes. D.B. took it

and sent copies to all three of us.

Right,

right, right.

You know, when you compare your gloves...

There's a blowup of one of your gloves...

With the gloves that, uh, Calvin Stokes had

when the sheriff arrested him at the scene of the crime,

you find something very interesting.

They're the same gloves.

They're the same brand, maybe.

No.

The same gloves.

The glove in this picture

is the same as the glove in this picture.

You see that little tear

right along the seam?

Identical.

Then I must have lost it,

and he must have found them.

Oh, you lost them.

Hell, I don't remember; it's 35 years ago.

I mean, how else would he have

wound up with them?

I tell you how.

'Cause you were wearing those gloves

when you killed that girl, got her blood on them

and threw them away.

The next morning, Calvin Stokes comes along,

he picks them up, and that's how he wound up with them.

No.

If he found them, it's because

I dropped them in the woods someplace earlier that day.

No.

You were wearing those gloves

when you left that shed to kill that girl,

and I can prove it.

How in the hell do you know that?

D.B., D.B. took pictures

of every hunt, all the way through.

He had a camera always present, remember?

From beginning to end.

Here at the beginning, here at the end.

Even D.B. got in this picture using a trip wire.

See the bulb?

See there?

You're wearing your gloves.

You know,

I'm not sure which trip that picture was taken on, Ben.

It, uh, maybe was taken on a different trip.

Eh, come on, Bud.

Come on, now.

You know how organized D.B. was.

Here's the original to this one.

He wrote the date on the back of every picture.

See? 11/55.

November '55.

It's his handwriting, too.

Yes, but, uh, how do you know it wasn't taken in the morning

when we were starting out?

Because...

what are you holding in your hand?

It's a flask?

What was in the flask?

Probably bourbon.

You know, there was one hard and fast rule

we had about alcohol and hunting.

I remember.

No drinking till the end of the day

when we were all done. Why?

Well, because alcohol and loaded guns don't mix.

Right.

And you were drinking.

See?

Cap is off the flask.

Since you were drinking,

it must have been the end of the day, right?

I don't remember.

Well, you got your gloves on.

And you got your gloves on here.

And the date on that picture is the same.

11/55.

All the fellas are wearing the same stuff they're wearing

in all the other pictures.

Must have been cold

in that cabin that night.

You got your gloves on.

Well, that's because the picture was taken the night before.

It was on Friday when we first arrived.

No.

The picture was taken on Saturday

after you locked that poor girl in the shed

and before Jimmy Hubert went up to kill her.

How in the hell do you know that?

Because D.B. is not in the picture.

Well, he was the one taking it! No!

You were taking it with the trip wire.

See the bulb in your hand?

See the glove there with the bulb?

D.B. had long gone.

You probably wanted him to think that nothing unusual

had happened since he had left.

That's why you took it.

The same thing with this picture Sunday morning.

Make D.B. think like you were happy as anything.

See there?

Now, look.

Gloves... gloves...

gloves...

no gloves.

What happened to them?

That picture was taken Saturday not Sunday,

and I-I just hadn't gotten around to putting them on yet.

No, it was Sunday.

And again, D.B. didn't take that picture.

You did.

With the trip wire.

See the bulb in your hand?

And you know something else?

I called the weather bureau, and that weekend,

that Saturday,

was cool and overcast all day.

But Sunday morning was bright, sunshiny,

not a cloud in the sky.

You see?

And it was cold that morning.

Sunday morning was much colder than it was

all day Saturday.

And that... yet there you stand

bare-handed.

Why, Bud?

Why?

I think I know.

You had tossed your gloves away...

after you murdered

that young hitchhiker, hadn't you?

Ben, I...

It's hard...

to keep coming up with answers

to these very difficult questions, isn't it, Bud?

Maybe... maybe you'd better

talk to your lawyer before you answer that last one.

Yes.

Good luck, Mr. Stokes.

Thank you,

Mr. Matlock.

Conrad.

Take care.

Mr. Matlock.

Well... Yeah.

You know...

you think you know people, and you don't.

I thought I knew all those fellas.

All the 25 years Mr. Stokes was in prison,

I thought I knew them and that we were friends.

And we weren't.

Funny, huh?

In a way, I guess.

Well,

all you can do is the best you can.

That's what Mama always told me.

Yeah? Best you can?

You bet.

Hey.

Let's go down to Ray Templin's

and hear a little music.

What say?

Yeah.