Lisa stepped inside the foyer, Don close behind, and they followed her into the front room.
Maria sat, Don stood, and Lisa moved in.
“Mrs. Shaft,” Lisa said, the microphone on and poised. “I’m sorry to hear about the murder of your husband.” She continued with her pretense of sympathy. “Our thoughts and prayers are with you at this time and I’m sure my viewers will express the same concern.”
The words almost made her gag, and she spewed them out, realizing it was the best way to get on the interviewee’s good side before moving in for the kill—so to speak.
Maria Shaft smiled weakly. “Thank you.”
Lisa pulled a footstool in close, sat down, and leaned in. “Tell me about your husband, Mrs. Shaft,” she said, pushing the microphone at the woman.
Maria glanced at the mike, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She opened her eyes again and spoke. “My husband was a good man and didn’t deserve this.” She looked at the camera trained on her face. “I want everyone to know that.”
Lisa spoke again, “Mrs. Shaft.” She paused. “May I call you Maria?”
Maria Shaft nodded.
Lisa continued, “Maria, what can you tell me about the relationship between your husband and the suspect, Michael Norton?”
Maria’s face darkened. “There’s no relationship and there hasn’t been for years.”
Time to move in with the heavy artillery. “Maria, I understand your husband and Norton were convicted of burglary several years ago. Would you not call that a relationship?”
Maria scowled. “That was a long time ago, in another lifetime. A lot has happened since then.”
Lisa nodded encouragingly and forced a sympathetic smile to cross her wide mouth. “After all this time, why do you think Michael Norton would kill your husband? Was it for revenge?”
Maria looked at the camera again, her eyes moistening. “I don’t know. The police are doing what they can, and I’ve retained a private investigation firm to help. If anyone out there knows anything, please let me know.”
Lisa stood, hugged the mike, and looked down her long, sharp nose at the camera. “I urge my viewers to contact me directly if they have any information as to the whereabouts of this man.” She paused. She would edit in a photo of Norton at this point.
She sat back down and faced Maria again. The woman was looking toward the door. Lisa followed her gaze to a man standing inside the doorway, a heavy frown on his face.
“What’s this all about?” he asked, looking at Lisa.
Lisa stood and approached him, thinking quickly, the eye of the camera following. “I’m doing a story on the sad murder of Werner Shaft and I wanted to give Maria a chance to air her thoughts.”
“Maria has been under enough strain lately,” he said, glancing at the woman in the chair who dabbed gently at her eyes with a tissue.
“It’s all right, Rocky,” Maria said. “If they can help track down Michael Norton, it’s a good thing.”
Rocky’s jaw clenched and he moved in closer to Maria, his eyes on Lisa. “We want that killer caught.” He cursed, faced the camera, and pummeled the suspect with his words. His language become more offensive as his anger increased.
Lisa didn’t mind. She could bleep out those words, viewers would fill in the blanks, and the effect would be the same. Maybe even better.
Rocky glared at the red light and leaned in, his face flushed. He clenched his fists. “If I get ahold of you, I’ll break your worthless neck. You killed my brother you son of—”
Maria interrupted him with a hand on his arm, her eyes pleading. “Rocky, calm down.”
Rocky took a deep breath and moved back a step. “Sorry. I’m upset, that’s all.”
Lisa smiled outwardly, smothering an inner jump for joy. “That’s okay,” she said in her calmest voice. “It’s understandable.” What she really wanted was more of the same. It was good stuff, and would keep her viewers glued to their screens.
Maria looked up at Rocky. “I know you wouldn’t kill the man. We’ll let the law take care of him.”
Rocky looked at Maria, his eyes flaring, and stormed from the room. The camera followed his retreat and then turned back to Maria.
The grieving widow gave a lopsided smile. “Please forgive Rocky. He’s stressed out.” She added quickly, “We both are.”
“It’s all right, Maria,” Lisa said. “Let’s hope, with the help of our viewers, we can bring your husband’s killer to justice.”
Maria dabbed at a tear rolling down her cheek, then balled up the tissue in her tightly clenched hands. She looked at Lisa and spoke firmly. “Perhaps we’d better end this interview.”
Lisa understood the woman’s tone of voice and knew she wouldn’t get anything else of use. She smiled politely, thanked Maria for her time, and wished her well.
Don shut down the camera and followed her back to the van. Lisa was pleased with the interview. Perhaps she would get it edited as soon as possible, run a short version every hour, and then edit in footage from the crime scene, do some interesting voice-overs, and dump the whole thing on the public at six o’clock.
Chapter 14
Tuesday, 1:05 p.m.
ANNIE CLEANED up the lunch dishes, made herself a cup of coffee, and went into the office. She had discussed the case with Jake earlier, and they had decided to do what they could to help Maria Shaft. After calling Maria, Jake had picked up a retainer, and Annie was ready to delve into the case.
She sat at her desk and booted up her computer. Hank was on his way over and she planned to kill time by doing some preliminary research on Werner Shaft and Michael Norton.
A quick search under both names brought up a story on their relationship nine years ago. They were convicted of breaking into a warehouse and stealing a quantity of electronic equipment. They got nabbed when the fence they contacted turned out to be an undercover cop. Each had pled guilty and done a three-year stint in prison.
The first few links in the search led to a variety of news sources featuring the same information with minor variations.
Then an item caught her eye on the second page of the search results. She clicked through and was presented with a story from less than a year ago.
She read the headline: Werner Shaft Wins 5th Annual Smokie’s Bar 9-Ball Tournament.
There was a picture identifying the subject as Werner Shaft as he stood by a billiard table, proudly holding a trophy in one hand, his cue in the other.
What made her sit forward was the story below the picture identifying the runner-up as Michael Norton. There was no photo of Norton, but there was little doubt, it had to be the same man.
The next item on the search revealed that a small local cable TV company did a short video interview with Shaft and Norton. It was featured on their neighborhood news segment. Annie watched the brief interview with interest.
It wasn’t evidence of any criminal activity, but Rocky Shaft had said there was no relationship between his brother and the fugitive, Michael Norton. And Maria had agreed. Yet there clearly was.
Rocky was mistaken—nothing suspicious in that, but this was evidence the two ex-cons kept in some kind of contact since their time in prison.
Annie wondered why Maria Shaft wasn’t aware of it. Surely Werner would’ve boasted about his tournament win to her. But perhaps not, and either way, it didn’t prove much.
She downloaded the interview video, and then printed out the news story and tucked it inside the thin file she had started on the case. Her search yielded nothing else of interest, so she closed the folder, brought it to the living room, and dropped it on the coffee table. She would show it to Hank and see what he thought about it.
She had just nicely curled up with a book when the doorbell rang. Jake came down from upstairs and beat her to the door, and in a moment, Hank and Jake came into the room and sat on the couch.