From Mrs. Julia Postal's 12/4 affidavit:
"
Johnny said he just wasn't in there". Not: 'I can't find him because it's too dark in there with the house lights off'. But: 'He's just not in there'.
In
his affidavit a couple of days later, Mr. Brewer completely skips over this failure to find the man inside the cinema that led him to the conclusion that man just wasn't in there:
I spoke with Julia.... I spoke with Butch... We checked the exits... I got Julia to call the police.
The
unsuccessful search for the man Mr. Brewer saw at the shoe shop has been deleted.
But on 2 March he is a little more forthcoming:
Nicely ambiguous in its implication: my failure to see him may have been due to the darkness--------it didn't necessarily mean he
just wasn't in thereNow the DPD radio dispatch that went out said that "the suspect" was "Supposed to be hiding in the balcony". Not: 'in the balcony'. Not: 'hiding in the Texas Theatre'. But: 'hiding in the balcony'.
So what happened?
It would seem that Mr. Brewer had concluded that the reason he had been unable to find the white-shirted man was that he was
hiding rather than sitting like a normal patron. He had heard the noise of a seat popping up in the balcony, but when he looked
there was no one there.
This was Mr. Brewer's belief when he told Mrs. Postal to call the police, and she passed it on:
suspect is hiding in the balcony. Thinking that the man might be armed and dangerous, Mr. Brewer was not about to go hunting for him down under the seats himself. Best leave that job to the police.
By the time the cops arrived, however, word had reached Mr. Brewer & co. that a man on the
main floor had been moving from seat to seat. Mr. Brewer concluded that the man who had been hiding up in the balcony had come downstairs and was not on the main floor.
Which was Mr. Brewer's understanding at the moment the police came in the back door.