Justin listened to Jackson take call after call for another forty minutes. Begrudgingly, he admitted to himself that the show was entertaining and riveting. Interesting and sometimes educational. Justin was fascinated with how Jackson went from calm and helpful one minute to enraged and yelling the next. He wondered if it was an act. Jackson was able to speak intelligently about furnaces with one contractor, and moments later, sounded like an expert on automobile engines. He was like a walking home-improvement encyclopedia.
And then, like flipping a light switch, Jackson would go from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde.
“You’re listening to Bob Jackson, the Consumer Champion. This is the show where we track down the thieves, the con artists, the scumbags, and the very dregs of society. We expose them for the dogs they are. Our goal is to eliminate them and protect you from harm. Folks, I just don’t understand these jerks. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I still don’t know why they think they can get away with ripping people off. If someone can shed some light on that, please give me a call and explain it to me.” He rattled off the phone number. “Well, I guess I should be somewhat grateful to them. They make this show possible and interesting.”
The next caller gave Justin a jolt. Her name was Mary, and she told Jackson how she had hired Lane Stevens as her financial advisor to manage close to five-hundred-thousand dollars in her retirement fund. Over the past few weeks, she had been trying to withdraw funds but kept getting the runaround from Stevens. Finally, at her wits’ end and in need of money, she contacted the police. They couldn’t help her and suggested she get an attorney.
Jackson had been warning his listeners for a few days to steer clear of Stevens Financial but it was too late for Mary. Jackson and his team hadn’t seen the morning paper announcing Stevens’ murder, so he carried on, telling Mary that he would continue to try to contact Stevens and get some satisfaction for her. In the meantime, she agreed to consult an attorney.
The final call of the day was from Aaron, complaining about an auto shop that had ripped him off. As Aaron told it, the owner, Charles Stanton—who was also the mechanic who worked on his car—had cheated him by replacing parts that didn’t need replacing. Aaron said that when he confronted Mr. Stanton, he got the cold shoulder and refused to even listen to his complaints. Jackson acknowledged that he had been receiving numerous complaints about Daniels Automotive, and unfortunately, was not able to resolve any of the problems. He warned his listeners to avoid Daniels Automotive until he could get to the bottom of it, and then, all of sudden, he changed course and started yelling.
“I’ve given up on getting this guy to make it right. Boycott him, and let’s put him out of business!”
After ranting for a few minutes, he started to calm down and went into lecture mode, explaining the best way to prevent getting ripped off and protecting yourself from “scumbag contractors and unscrupulous businessmen”.
Then, it was time for the conclusion of the show, and Jackson patted himself and his team on the back for fighting for the people of Denver. He made a point of thanking those people who took the time to share their stories, even though it was difficult. It was their bravery that would help others avoid the same fate.
The receptionist told Justin that the show had just concluded, and she could now take him back there to meet Jackson and his team. She led Justin back to Studio C and introduced him to the team. She had messaged Jackson during the show that Justin McGraw from the Tribune wanted to do an interview. Always looking for more publicity, Jackson had agreed.
“Hello, Justin. Nice to meet you,” said Jackson, holding out his hand. “Have a seat. Over there is George, my right-hand man,” he said pointing to an African-American man in his thirties, sitting at a control booth console. “Over there in that corner are Julia and Steve; they help with production of the show, research, and follow-up.” Julia was a brunette in her late twenties with a pretty face. Justin was taken with her beauty, even though she was dressed in a baggy sweatshirt and loose jeans. Steve was about the same age as Julia but better-dressed in a light brown sweater and khakis. They both waved at him. “So, my secretary said you wanted to interview us for a piece you are writing about the show.”
“Well, not exactly,” Justin replied meekly. “Have you read the paper today?”
“No time yet,” replied Jackson, looking over at George questioningly. “George, have you seen the paper today?”
“Nope.”
“Here’s the thing: There was a murder Friday night or Saturday morning. It was in the paper over the weekend and in this morning’s paper.”
The room went dead silent. Julia and Steve looked up from their laptops.
“I was away all weekend and didn’t have a chance to read today’s paper,” said Jackson. “I don’t want to sound cold but what does it have to do with us?”
Justin surmised he had scooped the police. He was sure they would be there soon, though.
“The victim, Lane Stevens, was mentioned on your show a few times over the past few weeks, and, in fact, just a few minutes ago,” he informed them.
“What?” exclaimed George. “You mean the investment advisor guy?”
“Yes. Lane was murdered. A cab driver found his body on Saturday. Police are calling it murder.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Justin.” Jackson rose out of his chair and paced around the room.
“I’m doing some follow-up research for another article. The circumstances of the murder, and his connections to so many prominent people in Denver, have everyone riled up. Since he was mentioned on your show so much, I thought it might be helpful for the article if we learned more about the victim. I was thinking that whatever you can tell me about him will help me write the article.”
“Justin, we talk about dozens of people every day. We don’t really know much about them except as it pertains to their business practices,” said Jackson, sitting back down. “What we do know is that Stevens was a total scumbag. We all tried to get him to cooperate with us and his customers. We only spoke once, but he was extremely rude. After that, my team tried to call him on numerous occasions, and he wouldn’t even take our calls.” He turned to Steve and Julia. “Does that about sum it up?”
Julia spoke up. “His secretary kept telling me he would call, back but he never did.”
Steve nodded in agreement. “Never got through to him after the first call ended abruptly.”
“So, you had very little direct interaction with him?” queried Justin while taking notes.
“Understatement,” said George. “But we get that kind of thing when someone knows they are doing something wrong and doesn’t want to be called out on it.”
“What about listeners? Have any of your callers made threats on his life on the air?”
“It’s possible,” said Jackson, “but you know how people are when they’re upset. They say things like, ‘I’d like to kill him’ or, ‘he made my life miserable; he deserves to die’. But are those real threats? I don’t specifically remember anything like that, but the guy was a creep, and I would be surprised if we didn’t get a lot of comments like that about him.”
“He was a pretty bad guy. The world is probably better off with him gone,” added Julia.
“That’s harsh,” George said, sounding sincere.
Julia was startled by George’s rebuke. “Sorry. But he did hurt a lot of people, according to the number of calls we got about him.”
“Were you able to confirm the losses that people claimed?” asked Justin.
“Not really how it works here,” explained George. “We research as best we can and try to verify people’s claims when they make a complaint, but in this case, we don’t have actual financial statements proving any wrongdoing.”
“We did have a plethora of calls, though. And where there is smoke, there’s usually fire,” said Steve, proud of his analogy.
“That may be, and he certainly sounded sleazy, and we did have quite a few calls about him, but I
think murder is a pretty harsh punishment,” said George thoughtfully.
“Look,” said Jackson, “I don’t think we can be much help to you. All we know is what our callers said about him. Yes, it sounded like he ripped off quite a few people, and when we tried to confront him, he blew us off. He was a jerk. If I had to guess, though, one of his disgruntled customers probably killed him. People get pretty emotional when their life savings have been wiped out. By the way, how did you find out that he’s been on our show?”
“The mother of the deceased is a fan of your show. She was listening to the show last week, and you referenced him a few times. Evidently, she had her other son confront Lane about it Friday night. They argued and fought. Later that night, he was murdered. I spoke with the brother yesterday, and he told me about the connection.”
“Do the police suspect the brother?” asked George.
“I don’t know, really. The police aren’t sharing much with me at this point. He does have an alibi, though, from what he told me.”
“I see,” said Jackson, nodding. “I still don’t see how we can help.”
“I suppose hoping that someone called in and threatened his life and that you might remember who that was is quite a longshot. By the way, whoever it was, they were pretty upset. Not only did they murder him, but they also shoved money down his throat until he gagged and puked, and then he drowned in his puke. Pretty disgusting way to die, I would imagine.”
“No, not a way I would pick to die. I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard of anyone using money as a murder weapon,” observed Jackson.
“They wanted to make a point, and to make sure it wasn’t missed, they left a murder note.”
“The killers left a note?” asked Julia. “What did it say?”
“The police wouldn’t release the exact text. I have sources who told me it was essentially a warning to other people like him to stop ripping people off.”
The room went silent. Jackson stared at Justin for a few moments, and finally said, “I hope that you aren’t trying to make some connection between our show and this murder.”
Justin realized his mistake. “Sorry about that. I guess it did kind of sound like that. I’m not quite sure what to make of all this, and I’m just trying to write an informative article.”
“No one here would do something like that,” said Jackson pointedly. “The only similarity between us and this killer is we are both trying to get guys like that off the street. However, our methods are different.”
“Again, I’m sorry I offended you. It was not my intention.”
“Do you know if the police have any suspects yet?”
“My sources aren’t that good, unfortunately. The official word to the press is that the investigation is ongoing.” Justin paused. “Listen, I know it is a longshot at this point to tie anything together but could you tell me if you keep records of everyone who calls in?”
“I think you should leave this to police,” said Jackson sternly.
“I know. But what if someone who called in claiming they were ripped off by this guy is the actual killer?”
“There is an electronic record of every call that comes into our switchboard. Unless they are calling from a blocked number, it does show a name and number. But we don’t keep a record of what each caller called in about, so there’s no way to look at the electronic record and have any idea what it was about,” said George.
Jackson saw where the reporter was going. “We would need to consult our attorney before we could provide access to the electronic records.”
Dejected but not defeated, Justin asked if they had tapes of the shows and if the tapes had searchable transcripts.
“We have tapes of every show. You can listen to them,” offered Julia, “but we don’t have transcripts.”
“We would be happy to give you a room, and you can start listening to old shows,” added Jackson.
“No way to tell what’s in each show without listening?” Asked Justin, clearly depressed.
“Nope. Always something interesting, though. When would you like to start?” joked George.
Justin imagined listening to hours of Jackson yelling and screaming. He shuddered. And even if he did hear a likely suspect, without access to the electronic logs, he wouldn’t be able to connect the dots. However, if he did hear someone say anything that sounded like a threat, he might be able to convince them to let him cross-reference the call. He realized he was acting like a detective instead of a reporter. Hopefully, Detective Stein would have the resources to go down this rabbit hole.
“No summary logs that might, at least, mention Stevens?” He finally asked.
“Nope,” said George.
“Well,” Justin sighed, “I don’t think that would work. But thanks anyway.”
Somewhat dejected, Justin left the studio with very little to show for his time. He didn’t think that Jackson and his team were trying not to be helpful; he just felt they didn’t have much to give him. But Justin’s mind was working overtime. When he’d first met Brian, he had imagined him killing his brother. He had motive—assuming there might be an inheritance—and there was no love between them. But he had to assume his alibi was good and if he was the killer, wouldn’t he at least try to look and sound upset? Brian made no bones about admitting that he hated his brother and didn’t seem the least bit upset over his death.
No, the obvious suspects were likely to be past customers of Stevens. It wasn’t a stretch to assume that someone who had been ripped off by Stevens would look to get revenge. The problem for Justin was that he wouldn’t ever get access to the list of clients, and even if he did, it could take days to contact them all. And besides, he reminded himself, he was supposed to write about the killing and the investigation, not play amateur sleuth. This wasn’t an episode of “Murder, She Wrote”.
His mind kept reeling, though. Nagging at the back of his mind was the possibility that the killer was Jackson. It fit his on-air persona, and even though he didn’t see the note himself, the tone that was portrayed to him sounded just like Jackson. Maybe he had taken his role as consumer champion a little too seriously and gone off the deep end? He wondered what would have happened if he’d asked Jackson about his whereabouts. Probably a major meltdown. Justin decided to try to let it go. He needed to be objective in writing his articles, and letting an overactive imagination probably fueled by tequila and pot would be a bad idea.
Justin left the building, leaving the Consumer Champion team to ponder the latest development. Julia and Steve didn’t have much to say as they left for the day, while Jackson and George decided to get some lunch and discuss the murder. Jackson admitted to George that he was hard-pressed to be upset over the death of Lane Stevens. “I mean, jeez, the guy was a sleaze-ball.”
“You think he had it coming?” questioned George.
“I don’t know. I guess, does anyone really deserve to be murdered?”
“Not to me. But you’re right; that guy was bad. Can you imagine all the people he hurt?”
“So, here is what’s troubling me now. The brother tells the police and the press that we talked about Stevens, and now, he’s dead. What if Justin makes that connection in his next article? Is that going to hurt us?”
“I don’t know, really. I could see people turning on us. Public endangerment or something,” said George. “Why? What do you think would happen?”
“I don’t know, either. I can see your point that some people will blame us, and there could be a backlash against us. But on the other hand, you know what they say about PR.”
“What?”
“Any PR is good. Plus, there are probably lots of people out there who will applaud the actions of the Revengers. Our ratings could actually go up. I know that sounds morbid, but given human nature, it could happen. I just don’t know what to think right now.”
The show wasn’t just a job to Jackson. He really did see himself as a crusader. At times when his imagination went wild, even a superhero. Each
year he did the show, it became more important to him. As a kid, his uncle had groomed him and taught him everything he knew about radio, but Jackson had taken his knowledge to a new level. He had always had a keen sense of right and wrong. His parents and his uncle had instilled strong morals in him at an early age. While working in the background at the radio station, Jackson had landed a newspaper column as a consumer advocate. His popularity had grown so much that his uncle was able to convince the station owner that he would be successful on the air. Given that opening, Jackson took the opportunity and ran with it. Even though there was another consumer advocate radio show in Denver, Jackson brought a fire and enthusiasm that was contagious and all but ensured success. He called out the sleaze-bags for who they were. He never sugarcoated it.
But Jackson’s success didn’t come without a price. He hadn’t been married long when success started rolling in. His young wife, Nancy, couldn’t compete with Jackson’s adoring audience, and she was resentful of all the time he devoted to his show and his fans. And then, one day, the magic in their marriage was over. They were still in love but realized that neither of them was up to the challenge to make it work. The divorce was quiet, amicable, and what they both thought was best. After the divorce, Nancy moved away and started a new life in Los Angeles, while Jackson devoted even more time to the show. For the next two years, Jackson devoted his life to the show and rarely dated. Time away from his duties as the Consumer Champion were spent in the gym or fishing up at Grand Lake. That had all changed when George introduced him to Tina. Jackson was smitten. Tina had it all: Good looks, intelligence, independence, a keen sense of humor, and a successful career. She understood the demands of a career and had no problem sharing him with his work and his adoring fans.
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