It must have seemed so ridiculous to Cinnamon that Newell heard her laugh. It must have seemed like a bad joke to her.

"No, I don't remember," Patti said. "All I remember is stuff that I read in the paper."

"... You know I'm trying to make sure I'm not crazy," Cinnamon said. "That's what I'm trying to doa"review some of this with you so that Ia"I'm trying to find myselfa"" "I understand," David said with a trace of smugness. "And I don't have any problem."

"All the lies and stuff, it makes me go delirious."

"Delirious," Patti agreed. "I hallucinate the way you wouldn't believe."

Cinnamon asked her father if he remembered telling her to get rid of all the rejected suicide notes.

"Probably ... I don't know. I don't remember."

"Are you related to me?" Cinnamon laughed. "Are you clones of the people that I knew out there?"

"Cinny, when my liver went bad," David whined, "it f.u.c.ked up my whole body. I don't remember a lot about Data Recovery."

"I've been here," Cinnamon answered. "It's f.u.c.ked up my life."

Newell listened to the mazes of David Brown's reasoning, once again marveling at his fancy conversational footwork. He was suddenly going the sympathy route, trying to convince Cinnamon that she had it a lot better in prison than he did on the outside.

"I know, I know," David said in a tired voice. "I have to rely on Dada""

"If I can be strong," his daughter argued, "you also can be strong."

"I'm trying. I'm fighting the best I can, but that happened to my body. I've got nothing to do with it. n.o.body asked you to care for the dying."

Cinnamon turned to Patti, determined to try again. "I asked Daddy last time why it was that we went through with this, and he told me his opinion.... What is your reason why you went through with it?"

"Because they were both after him and you didn't want him to be gone," Patti blurted.

"We're talking about Linda?" Cinnamon asked.

And suddenly Patti backed off. No, she recalled no phone conversation between Linda and Alan, had heard no plots against David. Maybe David had heard about a plot. She

David Brown, age eight. The sixth of eight children, David was on the road and on his own when most kids were in junior high school.

David with Brenda Kurges, teenagers in love at sixteen; July 1969. Exactly one year later, Brenda gave birth to their daughter, Cinnamon.

David and Cinnamon, about three, on an outing. His marriage to Brenda was in trouble, but his little girl adored him.

A proud father, David Brown holds Cinnamon, five months old; November 26, 1970.

Cinnamon Brown, seven and a half, minus a tooth. As a young girl, she was a frequent guest at her father's home, with both his second wife, Lori, and his third wife, Linda.

David Brown, age twenty-nine. "The Process," his invention to clean computer disks, had earned him a small fortune and fame in computer circles.

Patti Bailey, age thirteen or fourteen. Unhappy at home, she was thrilled to be invited to live with her big sister, Linda, and brother-in-law, David.

Linda Brown, age twenty. She adored her husband, David, and happily played "Mom" to both her younger sister, Patti, and David's daughter, Cinnamon.

Cinnamon Brown, age fourteen, a bubbly, quickwitted teenager, often shuttled back and forth between her mother, Brenda, and her father, David.

The green stucco house on Ocean Breeze Drive where Linda Brown was shot to death on March 19, 1985. When investigators arrived at the scene, Cinnamon was missing.

Linda died in the ornate iron bed she shared with David. The murder weapon was dropped on the floor of their bedroom.

David's dresser in the early morning after Linda was shot. He owned expensive jewelry, took many prescription drugs for his myriad ailments, and prided himself on being a wonderful father.

In David's dresser drawer, the holster that had held the murder weapon was laid on top of a picture of Patti Bailey.

Patti's room on Ocean Breeze Drive. She had everything a teenager could want, thanks to David's generosity.

Cinnamon slept in this small travel trailer parked in back of the house.

On the morning after the murder, Garden Grove Detective Fred McLean finally found Cinnamon shivering and sick in a doghouse in the backyard of the Ocean Breeze Drive home.

Cinnamon was taken to Garden Grove police headquarters to answer questions that might identify Linda's killer. Suffering from a ma.s.sive drug overdose, she collapsed shortly after this picture was taken and was rushed to a hospital. Later a confession was extracted from her, but that was not the end of the story.

David spared no expense in finding the perfect spot for Linda's ashes. Her remains were placed in the base of a perpetual fountain, marked by this plaque composed by David.

David Brown paid cash for this lavish mansion in the Anaheim Hills, and moved in six months after Linda's murder.

The backyard of David Brown's home on Chantilly Street, where he lived in luxury with his daughter Krystal, Patti Bailey, and her newborn child.

A police surveillance picture of a visit David Brown made to the California Youth Authority school in Ventura. As Cinnamon, back to camera, talked with her father, their conversation was taped surrept.i.tiously.

Another police surveillance photograph taken two weeks later when David and Patti (left) visited Cinnamon. This conversation was also taped.

Left to right: Detective Fred McLean of the Garden Grove police, Orange County Deputy District Attorney Jeoffrey Robinson, and Orange County District Attorney's Senior Investigator Jay Newell. These three men worked overtime to unravel the baffling mystery of Linda Brown's murder. [Leslie Rule]

Cinnamon Brown, now twenty, on the witness stand. [Leslie Rule]

At a tense moment in her testimony, Cinnamon broke down as she answered questions about Linda Brown's murder. Sandra Wingerd, court reporter, is in the foreground. [Leslie Rule]

Patti Bailey, now twenty-two, gave nervous and at times almost inaudible testimony on the witness stand. [Leslie Rule]

David Brown, escorted into the courtroom by Bailiff "Mitch" Miller, May 1990. [Leslie Rule]

David conferred constantly with defense attorney Gary Pohlson, and offered his own legal strategies. [Leslie Rule]

Patti Bailey, age twenty, was also taken into custody and interrogated. Police suspected that both she and David were somehow implicated in the crime.

David Brown, age thirty-five, at the time of his questioning about the murder of his wife Linda.

When Patti's memory faltered, both Gary Pohlson (left) and Jeoffrey Robinson (center) pointed out inconsistencies in a transcript of her earlier testimony. [Leslie Rule]

As she testified about her sister's murder, Patti wiped away sudden tears. [Leslie Rule]