by Bill Evans
“Well, don’t say anything. I might give him a try. On another subject, I’m not sure how we’re going to fill Steve’s position right now. As you can imagine, everyone has come in here to pitch the position. It hasn’t even been two days yet,” Barry said in a somewhat disappointed voice.
“I know, but you know how news people are. They feel if they don’t speak up as soon as a spot opens up it might disappear under their nose. Are you thinking about someone on staff?” she asked.
“Don’t know, to be honest. I’m not sure we have anyone who is strong enough. Jake wants the opportunity, but he’s good in the morning and that would just open up another area that I’d have to fill. Carlos put in his two cents, but he’s not ready. It might serve us well to go outside the market and bring in a new look.”
“What about Phil Roberts over on ABC?” Billie asked.
“I hadn’t thought about him. He’s probably under contract, I would think.”
“He might be, but maybe they don’t use contracts. I know him if you want me to give him a call to feel him out,” Billie offered.
“It wouldn’t hurt to find out if he has any interest. Don’t go out of your way, but if you talk to him, run it by him to see if he’s interested, Barry suggested.
Billie left and Barry was pleased because he got out of that conversation exactly what he’d intended. He knew about the relationship with her competitor, Phil Roberts. More to the point, he was aware of her relationship with Stephanie Roberts, Phil’s sister. It was never talked about or discussed, and Barry was sure no one in his newsroom was aware of Billie’s relationship.
Barry’s cell buzzed.
“Barry, it’s Richard. I’m at the autopsy for Jesse Anderson. You’re not going to believe this. The coroner can’t find any reason for death. No presence of drugs. No gunshot wounds or stab wounds. No signs of a struggle of any kind. The lab has sent the blood work up so we’ll see what that comes back. And get this. There are no signs of any sexual activity before she died. None! What do you make of this? I thought at the very least we’d find the two had sex that night. We’re not even sure if they saw each other that evening.”
“Richard, what are you saying? You think it’s possible this girl ended up in Steve’s bed, at his house, dead, and they might not have even seen each other that night? How is that possible?”
“Believe me, we are all baffled by this. The department hasn’t been able to turn up one link to these two victims other than the girl ended up dead in his bed. There doesn’t seem to be anything tying these two together the night they died. And the coroner can’t tell us yet how they died or what they died from.”
“Is he thinking possibly a double suicide?” Barry asked.
“No. He doesn’t believe it was suicide, either. Barry, he doesn’t know and we don’t even have a theory at this point. I just wanted to give you the information as I got it. I need to call the girl’s family. Remember, this is an on-going investigation so this information is not being released to the public. You certainly can’t put it in your newscast. Don’t screw me on this.”
“Okay, Richard. But I’ve got to do reporting on this story. It’s huge, and I know my competitors are all over it. We’re going to keep on it. My people will file a request for the coroner’s findings through proper police channels. We’ve got to do our jobs here.”
“I understand, Barry. But you can’t use the information I gave you and you can’t use me as a source. Got it?”
Barry wanted to talk to Lisa to discuss putting their own investigative reporters on the story, someone to independently ferret out information on the case. The station had resources that could possibly help the police.
“Lisa, it’s Barry. My hands are tied regarding autopsy information. The coroner found nothing on either body, but I can’t disclose the results. I think we need to do our own investigation and put someone on this story full time.”
“Have you discussed this with Richard or Skip at the police department yet?” Lisa asked.
“Yes, I told Richard we needed to keep reporting on this story, that it’s big news, and I promised not to reveal any information he provided me.”
“What do you think you’re going to find that the police won’t? Or maybe the better question is, what do you hope to find?”
“I don’t know what we’ll find. Something isn’t right. There are no obvious motives or even crimes that anyone can tell right now. No weapons. We really just have two dead bodies and they both work for us.”
“We have a new employee found dead in the bed of our main anchor is what we have.”
“Yes, Lisa, but no one can tell us why. No one can tell us even if they were fucking each other.” Barry looked quickly to the door to make sure it was closed. “I don’t know what we’re going to find, but let’s find out. What can it hurt? We won’t get in the way of the police work. I’ll share everything we get with the investigating detectives. Let me put a couple of people on this to see what we come up with. I won’t even tell our own people that we are doing an investigation. I’ll assign stories to different reporters as if they are side bars to the police investigation.”
“That will work for me. If you promise to handle it like that, I can be okay with it. I don’t want you coming out at the end of all this with a three-piece murder special report. I won’t be happy if that is your goal.”
***
Barry began formulating a plan as soon as he ended his call with Lisa. He thought that maybe he might take the lead on this one himself. He missed working a beat and turning great stories. This might be a perfect one to rekindle his fire. The news department was young and inexperienced at investigative reporting. Some of the people could take parts of this and that way it wouldn’t look like a major investigative piece. Carlos Hernandez could take one part. Carlos was the most seasoned reporter on the staff.
Barry immediately started planning his strategy and the main questions that needed to be answered. Perhaps the most intriguing: Why was Jesse Anderson in Steve Johnson’s bed?
5
JANET JOHNSON WANTED her husband’s body released for burial. The police investigation wouldn’t allow that to happen until after they were sure they had everything they needed. They decided they wanted to hold the body until the lab work came back. It would only be another day or two. Meanwhile, the investigation had turned to background checks into Steve Johnson’s family. The police wanted to know what kind of marriage Steve and Janet had. Were there problems in the marriage? What they really wanted to find out was if Janet had any motive to kill her husband.
The obvious motive was this relationship with Jesse Anderson, the dead girl found in the wife’s bed. What was her relationship to Steve? Until that question was answered there wasn’t anything to point to Janet, at least for now. Money was not the issue, according to bank records. Janet had a family trust that pretty much set her up for life. There was a standard life insurance policy from the station that provided the beneficiary one and half times the employee’s salary. In the scheme of things for Janet, that really didn’t amount to very much.
Janet received visits from friends and station people most of day two. Her family flew down and brought a nanny with them to watch the three girls. Janet still had not gone back to the house. The family had gotten a couple of suites at the Marriott to stay secluded from news reporters.
Billie Latzke, Steve’s co-anchor, showed up at the hotel around eleven to pay her respects to Janet. They had known each other ever since Billie became the co-anchor six years ago. Janet was surprised to see Billie but accepted her guest with a hug.
“Janet, I don’t even know what to say. It’s such a loss for all of us,” Billie said to the new widow.
Janet realized that Billie’s pain was real. She knew there was never anything between her husband and the pretty anchor woman. It was nice to have this intimate moment with her. The two stood there for a few minutes just holding each other’s arms. There were tears but no real crying.
“Is there anything I can do for you, Janet?” Billie asked.
“Go for a ride with me. I need to get out of here for a few minutes,” Janet said in an almost desperate tone. Billie was surprised but felt she had no choice.
“Let’s go,” she said.
“I need to go by the house and pick up a few things,” Janet told Billie.
“Not a problem. Just tell me how to get there.” It had dawned on both women that in the past six years Billie had never been invited to their house.
The ride over was quiet. Janet just wanted some company. It didn’t matter that she didn’t really have a relationship with Billie. It was probably easier that they weren’t best friends. Janet stared out the window and then asked the question Billie didn’t want to hear.
“Was Steve fucking that girl?”
“Janet, I honestly don’t believe Steve ever slept around on you—with anyone—at least not to my knowledge. Steve and I worked well together, but we were not really close, at least personally. We talked about work, but not much more.”
Billie didn’t know for sure, but that is how she felt after six years sitting next to this man. He never showed any signs of screwing around on his wife.
“I was baffled when I heard about the girl being found in your bed. It certainly raises questions, but I honestly don’t believe that Steve did anything with that girl.”
The new widow started sobbing. The cries were slow and heartbreaking. Nothing else was said the rest of the drive to the house.
***
Yellow crime scene tape blocked off the front door and was also visible on the gate to the backyard. The police had locked up the house but Janet had her key. The two women didn’t worry about breaking the tape on the porch. Janet wasn’t too concerned about anything at this point and just crossed through the barrier and unlocked the door. The house was as she had left it. Nothing was disturbed or out of place except for the noticeable mess in the master bedroom where the girl was found. Janet seemed to stand at the foot of the bed for the longest time. Billie stood behind her and patted her shoulder for support.
Janet asked for Billie’s help as she walked over to the bed and began to lift the mattress off the box spring.
“Janet, what are you doing? I’m not sure the police want us to touch anything,” Billie said in a shocked kind of tone.
“Help me, Billie.” The two carried the mattress out the back door, sheets and all, and placed it in the backyard. They then walked back into the house and did the same thing with the box spring. Billie could only imagine what Janet was feeling. Once they placed the box spring somewhat on top of the mattress, Billie turned to go back into the house. Janet didn’t follow. Instead, Janet went to the door leading to the garage and disappeared for a brief minute. She came out carrying a can of lighter fluid, which she opened and emptied onto the mattress and box spring set. Billie watched as Janet then walked in the back door and over to the stove. She took the newspaper that was on the kitchen counter, rolled it up, lit it, and walked her torch out to the backyard and dropped it on the pile. The bed went up in flames.
6
BARRY CALLED HIS young assignment editor John into his office. He wanted to take his pulse before offering him a chance to begin his news reporting career. The news director wanted to be sure he was up to the task.
“Sit down, John. How are you?”
“I’m good. Why?” he questioned out loud.
“You’ve been through quite a bit the last couple of days and I wanted to make sure you were okay. I want to give you an opportunity to do some reporting. Be careful what you ask for. Are you up for this?” Barry asked John.
John’s eyes widened. “Yes, sir. I’m up for it.”
“Let’s see what you got. I want you to work some background on this Steve and Jesse story. We need to know if there was anything romantic or otherwise between the two of them. We need to piece together the timeline between when Steve got off the eleven o’clock news until you found him in the studio just before three. Basically, we need to find out everything you can that might help us know what happened so we can report it.”
John thought this was an awful lot to give such a cub reporter. Then again, he was sure others in the newsroom were working on other parts of this story.
“Mr. Burke, what about the assignment desk? Do you still want me to work that as well?” John asked his boss.
“No, John. I’m going to ask Tami, the intern, to take that job for now. Starting tomorrow, I want you as one of my reporters. That means I need at least one story out of you every day for the newscasts. Your work on this investigation piece will have to be separate. You have to show me everything that you come up with every day so we can compare notes with what everyone else has.”
“Not a problem, boss.” John left the office without touching the floor.
Barry knew he had lots to uncover. How did she get to Steve’s bed? Had they met after the eleven o’clock news was over? Why was she in his bed if they didn’t have sex? There were so many questions that didn’t make sense. He pushed the intercom button to buzz the station’s IT guy.
“Rex, I need you to direct all of Steve Johnson’s emails for the past thirty days over to me. I also want to see anything Jesse Anderson was doing as well. Thanks.”
Barry thought maybe he’d get lucky and find something in an email that might explain their relationship. Right now, he had nothing. Next up was a trip to the business office located on the other side of the building. The news department had its own little wing of the building. That separated news from the sales guys. It was an unwritten rule that news and sales should not mingle. The news guys worried about “news integrity.” Sales people never thought about that side of things. What was the problem if McDonald’s wanted to show their new morning coffee off by having their McDonald’s coffee cups on the morning show anchor desk? Revenue seemed to always trump “news integrity.”
Barry next called a business manager to get the phone records for the past sixty days on Steven Johnson’s phone. “Did we pay for his cell phone? If so, I’ll need his cell phone records as well.”
“I should have these things by this afternoon,” the business manager said. The entire conversation took less than a minute and Barry was headed back to his office.
Billie was waiting for Barry. She wanted to tell her boss about her outing with Janet Johnson and the burning of the bed. As he listened to her describe the incident, he quietly wondered if the police were done with the bed. If not, Steve’s wife might have ruined some evidence.
“Billie, it sounds like you had a fun time. Have you talked to the police yet?”
“I talked to them only briefly, but they’re supposed to contact me again to follow up,” Billie answered.
“What happened that last night Steve was on the air with you? Was Steve acting funny about anything? We’re trying to figure out what he did from the time the eleven o’clock news was over until John found him in the studio.”
“Barry, it was a typical night in the newsroom. There wasn’t anything going on. We even joked about it being a real slow news day. I do remember he took two or three calls between ten and the start of the newscast. That was a little out of the norm. Steve never got a lot of phone calls that late in the night. I figured at least one of the calls was Janet checking in. Then it didn’t seem like he was talking to Janet after that.”
“Why do say that?” Barry asked.
“It was the way he was talking on the phone.”
“You think it might have been Jesse calling?” Barry wondered.
“No, I don’t think so. And Barry, I really don’t think Steve was doing anything with Jesse outside of the station.”
“Then why was she found dead in his bed? Do you know where Steve went after the newscast was over?”
“I assumed he just went home. In hindsight I haven’t any idea,” Billie said.
“Okay, you need to start working on tonight’s newscast. I’ve got to
make a few phone calls. Shut my door, please.” Billie went to her desk area and Barry got on the phone and called Tracy.
“Yeah, Barry, I was just going to call you. We got the coroner reports back. You want to see them?”
“Anything new turn up?”
“No, it’s like I told you earlier. No cause of death has been determined. Come down and take a look for yourself.”
“I’m on my way.” Barry grabbed his cigarettes off his desk and out the door he went.
The drive from the station to the police department was twenty minutes. The ride seemed like only minutes because his thoughts were occupied by every possible twist he could imagine. Who else was involved? If it was somebody at the station, he wondered if anyone else was in danger. He thought the station should hire a security guard to be on the premises in the evening. Barry would bring that up to Lisa later that day.
Barry pulled into the Santa Barbara police station. He had to sign in at the front desk while waiting for detectives Tracy and Reynolds to come get him.
“You want coffee or anything before we sit down?” Tracy asked.
“No, I’m good. So, the autopsy turned up nothing?”
“Honestly, Barry, it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The coroner didn’t find anything. The blood work came back and there was nothing.” Reynolds and Tracy were shaking their heads.
“That’s bizarre,” Barry said. “Something killed them.”
“That’s just it. We have nothing. Don’t you think that is extremely odd? The coroner has come up empty,” Detective Reynolds said.
“So, what’s next, then? Where do you go from here? Did he test for poison?” Barry asked.
“I would assume so, but let’s call him and see.” Tracy picked up the phone and dialed the coroner’s direct line.
“Samuels,” the coroner answered.
“Yeah, this is Richard Tracy. Did you run tests for poisons and all that good stuff on the Johnson and Anderson bodies?”