by Bill Evans
The downside to these pop-in visits was that he never seemed satisfied with the station’s financial performance. He wasn’t shy about speaking up and letting people who worked for him know it, either.
“Good morning, everyone.” Lisa hadn’t even introduced him yet. He just walked in the room and took charge. “Dave, where’s my money?” he asked General Sales Manager David Pedderman. Then turning to the news director, “Barry, you really screwed us on that live shot yesterday morning.”
Barry was caught off guard, as was Lisa. One by one, Stewart went department by department to take his piece of hide. The whole cycle took about forty-five minutes.
“Look, what happened yesterday was a tragedy on so many levels. Some of you were very close with Steve. Did anyone know this new girl?” The room was silent, filled with looks going from one person to another to see if anyone would answer the question. No one did.
“We have to remain true to ourselves. You have to be supportive to this station, where you work, and to those that you work with. Do not get caught up in all the gossip and bullshit. We are in this together and we will survive together. I appreciate your continued hard work.” And with that he exited the room like he came in. Lisa wrapped the meeting up and quickly stepped into the hall to find the owner.
She didn’t like Stewart walking the halls by himself. You never knew who would confront him and start talking about who knew what. Why put him in that situation? Hell, why create that situation for yourself? Her job, as long as he was going to be in the station, would be to ride shotgun wherever he went so she could protect him, herself, and the employees.
Barry left the meeting, and as soon as he got in the hallway, he tried reaching his friend. “You know anything yet?”
“Coroner is still working on Steve. I’ll call you as soon as I have something for you. I promise,” the detective replied.
“You have to have something. Can you at least tell me how he died?”
“Barry, we haven’t found anything yet, as far as I know. It looks like natural causes. The rope doesn’t appear to have anything to do with his death. Hell, there wasn’t even any bruising on his neck. I’ll get back to you.”
John Rankin, the young assignment editor who found Steve dead in the studio, was knocking on the news director’s door just as Barry ended his call with the detective. “What do you need, John?” Barry stood behind his desk looking over some papers.
“Mr. Burke, can I talk to you a minute?”
“Yeah, grab a chair.” Barry took a seat as well. “What’s on your mind?”
“I know you have a lot on your plate and I’m not sure the best time to bring this up.”
Barry cut him off quickly. “John, get to the point. What do you want?”
“I want to report. I want to get on the street and do some reporting. That’s what I’ve always wanted.”
“What?” The news director liked the balls on this kid. “John, why today? Why is this important right now?”
“I don’t want to seem insensitive, but I’m afraid if I sit on the sidelines and don’t say anything then I might miss an opportunity.” John’s confidence was building.
“What chance? Am I looking for a new reporter right now?”
“I thought with the loss of Jesse, and her being new and a reporter-in-training, her spot might need to be filled. I want to have that spot.”
Barry rubbed his head; he liked the way this kid was thinking. A brazen go-getter. He’s perfect for the news game, Barry thought.
“John, interesting idea. If we decide to fill the slot I will give you some consideration. Right now I need you to jump on that desk and hold it down for us. Okay?” Barry stood as a sign the meeting was over. John stood up and Barry shook John’s hand and basically did everything but lead him out the door.
“Thanks, Mr. Burke. I appreciate your consideration. Thank you.” And with that John went back to his assignment desk.
Dave Pedderman and Rick Hansen passed John leaving Barry’s office and proceeded to step in and sit down before Barry could get behind his desk. “Any time the two of you show up together usually means trouble. What do I owe this visit to?” Barry asked.
“We’re thinking we should make Steve Johnson’s funeral a huge deal. He’s been the top anchor in this area longer than anyone else. He is respected by everyone in the community, and this would be a great way for us to milk this for a while.” The sales manager was about as insensitive as anyone in the building. It was always about revenue.
Barry jumped out of his seat and got to his door as quickly as possible to shut it. He didn’t want any employees hearing this morbid conversation about how the station could generate positive ratings from a tragic event.
“Milk this for a while?” Barry repeated back to the two sitting across from him.
Pedderman continued. “We think we could get a couple of hours of programming out of this. I’m sure I could get the business community to pay a hefty premium to sponsor coverage of his funeral. We might even consider coming up with a one-hour special on the life of Steve Johnson.”
“Wow! Really? Are you two fucking serious? I’m not even sure what I’m to make of this.” Looking into their eyes, Barry could tell, so he said it. “You two are fucking serious, aren’t you?”
“We are. We are serious about this. Think about it. This is a well-respected man in the community who has been the number one news anchor for more than ten years. He has incredible ratings and has always had incredible ratings. Let’s recognize the opportunity for what it is,” Pedderman insisted.
“He has done so much in this community that the community will want to say goodbye,” the promotion manager added.
“You want to capitalize on his death and do what? Maybe have his replacement do the eulogy as a way to introduce him or her to our audience?” Barry wasn’t sure what to think.
“We hadn’t thought about that angle, but that is good. If we know his replacement, that would be a nice touch that probably no one would really pick up on.” Pedderman’s sense of humor was something Barry hadn’t gotten used to, but even this was going beyond his own sense of poor taste.
“If you guys are really serious and you think we should do something as a station, then we need to get Lisa involved.” Barry reached over to his phone and hit Lisa’s intercom button.
“This is Lisa.”
“Lisa, Barry. I’ve got Dave and Rick in here. Do you have a minute to meet with us?”
“I’ll be right down.”
“Hi, guys. What’s up?” she asked as she entered the room.
Pedderman began. “We thought it would be a good idea if the station did something special on the funeral for Steve Johnson. And maybe even create a half-hour retrospective look at Steve’s life and his contribution to Santa Barbara.”
Lisa listened and then thought about it for a few minutes. “I like the idea about the half-hour special. That would be a nice touch. We could do it as told through the people in the newsroom who worked with Steve.” She looked at Barry, trying to gauge his receptiveness to the idea.
Lisa continued. “I’d be worried about doing anything at the funeral. We don’t want to take anything away from the family and we don’t know what their plans are yet. It’s still too new. And before we do anything with a special, we need to make sure we don’t have something here that is going to blow up into some huge scandal.”
Barry interjected. “Let’s start working on the special and putting the pieces together. The news department can start doing the work and that way we’re ahead of the game if we decide to move forward. I agree with Lisa that we need to make sure we don’t have some kind of freakish thing going on before we do too much celebrating of his life.”
The phone rang in Barry’s office. Recognizing the number that popped up, he asked everyone if they could step out of the room.
“Richard, what do you have? Is the autopsy done?”
“The coroner is done with Steve. He’ll start on
Jesse after lunch. We don’t really have anything that helps us right now. It looks as though he died of natural causes. No damage to his organs out of the ordinary. No puncture wounds. No bullet holes. No sign of a drug overdose or poisoning. This one is very puzzling to everyone working it. We don’t have a real cause of death. Yet he was sitting in a chair with a rope around his neck as if he’d been hanged.”
“How can that be, Richard? What about the contents of his stomach? Any traces of anything out of the ordinary?” Barry asked his detective friend.
“That’s what I’m telling you. The coroner hasn’t discovered anything to this point. I’ll call you again once he’s opened up Jesse.”
Barry went down the hall and filled Lisa in, who in turn went to tell Stewart. She drove out to his place at Home Ranch Estates for a planned pleasure lunch meeting.
***
Stewart was in the Jacuzzi overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Lisa walked through the house, out the back door, and dropped a piece of clothing with every step. At forty-five, Lisa was a beautiful, well-preserved brunette with very toned legs and arms. She wasn’t shy about her body as she confidently stepped into the hot water, taking Stewart’s hand. The two embraced and kissed before sitting down.
“No one can figure this one out. No signs of any foul play, and yet Steve died in a very weird way. I also haven’t found out anything that would lead me to believe Steve was cheating on his wife with this girl Jesse.”
“What about the girl Jesse?” Stewart asked. “What’s her story?”
“We really don’t know anything. She’s only been at the station three weeks. She moved here from somewhere in Texas. I talked to her dad but he didn’t indicate anything in our conversation. It’s hard to know how to feel because we don’t know anything.”
Stewart handed Lisa a glass of wine. Normally she wouldn’t drink during the day, but when she was with Stewart she had no rules. “Have the families made any funeral arrangements?” He seemed legitimately concerned for his two dead employees.
“I don’t think anyone has made any arrangements as yet. I would imagine that Jesse’s body will be sent back to Texas where her family is. I haven’t talked to Steve’s wife since we met her at the police station. I don’t know where her head is at.”
Lisa was relaxing for the first time in several days. It would be hard not to relax sitting in the hot, bubbly water overlooking the Pacific Ocean while drinking a glass of wine. This was exactly what she needed, and Stewart knew that. He also knew she needed one more thing, and he slowly held her and pulled her on top of him. She lost herself in the passion of the moment, and she felt safe in Stewart’s grasp. Lunch was over and Lisa grabbed the robe towel that Dugan had left for her on the lounge chair as she got out of the Jacuzzi. Stewart followed, putting on his own robe.
“Some of the department heads think we should do a half-hour special celebrating Steve’s contributions to Santa Barbara and the area,” Lisa said.
“Is that what you want to do?”
“I’m not sure, Stewart. I think it’s too premature to do anything until we know what we’re dealing with. The last thing we want to do is celebrate his life and then find out he was killed because he was having an affair or maybe something worse.”
“Good girl. I’ve taught you well. No need to rush into anything right now. Make sure we find out all the facts before we start down a road we may not want to go down. Also, I want to cover all the costs of the funerals. I don’t want anyone to know, but I don’t want the families to be out of pocket on something like this.”
Janet took a step over and kissed her boss’s cheek. She was touched by his generosity but never surprised by it. This was something she had seen time and time again.
***
The widow Janet Johnson hung up the phone after speaking to Detective Reynolds. She walked into the small living room that was part of her suite at the hotel and sat down. Her attorney, Byron Culpepper, had decided to stay at the hotel the previous night to keep an eye on Janet. She didn’t want to go to the house partly because she was scared, partly because of the dead body, and partly because she was pissed at the thought her husband had cheated on her. And there was the press, everywhere. Not to mention it was an active crime scene. Janet couldn’t understand what was going on around her. She was lost and confused and worried about her three daughters. Yes, her family was wealthy, so she didn’t have to worry about money. But that was little comfort when her loving family life was disappearing all around her.
“What did the police say?” her attorney asked.
“Not really anything. He told me that the coroner worked on Steve this morning and the findings were inconclusive. In other words, they didn’t find anything.”
“Okay. What about the autopsy on the girl? Have they learned anything there?” The attorney was trying to get as much information as possible so he could help his client and family friend.
“After lunch. After lunch the coroner will begin that autopsy. Maybe that will tell them something.” Janet started sobbing.
The attorney walked over and led her over to the couch, placing a blanket over her body. “Rest.” Byron Culpepper was a well-known private practice attorney with a handful of clients. Janet’s family was one of them. He knew what he had to do and began the ball rolling by placing a cell phone call to the firm’s in-house investigator.
“Johnny, I need a complete background check into Steve Johnson. Yes, he’s Janet’s husband. I need to know everything this guy was up to for the past two years. Find out everything you can and let’s update his file. Then check on a girl by the name of Jesse Anderson. I want to know if Steve was banging this girl. Get on it right away and let me know what you come up with.” Culpepper wanted to get out in front of whatever he might be dealing with.
One of the jobs Culpepper did for wealthy clients was to thoroughly check out anyone who came into their families. His firm had done a complete background check on Steve Johnson before Janet married him. Culpepper was being extra cautious and wanted to go over his complete background again. It’s not normal for people to just turn up dead. If something was going to come out, he wanted to know it first.
***
The newsroom was busy getting ready for the five o’clock newscast. Billie Latzke would anchor the news by herself as she did the night before. Billie was a strikingly beautiful blonde who dressed to the nines and had been co-anchoring the evening news with Steve Johnson for the past six years. She wasn’t the best reader of news but her looks brought in viewers of all types. Even the women of Santa Barbara and surrounding areas liked to look at her.
The death of her co-anchor affected her differently than most might expect. The two anchors had sat next to each other for three newscasts a night for six years. They were more professional acquaintances than friends. It was rough in the beginning and there was occasional flirting between the two that never developed into anything. The flirting from Billie’s side came out of nervousness for wanting to please the number one male anchor, who she believed could take her job if he didn’t like her. His flirting was more of a defensive move because of her beauty. He was like the little boy who didn’t know how to let the little girl know he liked her. Their purely professional relationship made them a stronger team on air.
Billie always came in and did her job. She didn’t try to mix it up with the others in the newsroom. She wanted to do her job well every single night. No one really socialized with her outside the station, so her private life remained very private. That suited Billie just fine.
“Barry, you got a minute?” Billie asked, standing at his door.
“Come in, Billie. Everything okay?” Barry felt very close to all his anchors, especially his core team. He brought Billie on six years ago when the main female anchor spot opened up. She was brought in from the San Francisco market where she was trying to break in as a reporter. It was hard for a new reporter to get face time in a top-five market without on-air experience. Billie came out of US
C’s Annenberg School of Journalism and was lucky enough to land a paid internship in the Bay area, but that was because of her looks. The bottom line was that she wasn’t going to get any real face time until she honed her skills in a smaller market.
One of the news producers Barry knew at the station in San Francisco tipped him off about the new, gorgeous news girl. Barry called her and asked her to come to Santa Barbara and audition. She got the gig.
“I just wanted to check to see how you are doing. You’ve had some pretty tough days. You okay?” Billie always took the time to get a read on Barry’s pulse. He appreciated it when one of his troops asked how he was doing. He thought it meant they cared, at least a little.
“I’m good. Say, do you know anything about Steve or this new girl Jesse that could help us figure out what was going on?”
“No. I know Steve was spending some time with her working on her reading and how to punch up a story. He was working with her on that kind of stuff, but I don’t think he really had much to do with her outside the station.”
“So why do you think she was found dead in his bed, at his house, when his wife was away?”
“I guess if you figure that one out you will answer the mystery.”
“What mystery is that, Billie? You said it would answer the mystery. What mystery?”
“Why, who killed them,” she responded.
“You’re probably right. That’s why we have detectives, though. Hey, I’m thinking about giving the kid on the assignment desk, John, a shot at reporting. We’re down one reporter with Jesse being . . .” he hesitated saying the word. “Any thoughts about that idea?”
“I don’t really know him. He seems like a good kid. He’s usually out of the office by the time I come in at two,” Billie said.