by Bill Evans
“William, talk to me. Give us your side,” John said to him as he was approaching. John had a second microphone already in his hand. Carlos was chasing after William trying to get across the street. William got to the other side and stopped.
“Ok, what can I do for you guys?”
Carlos was taken by the quick change in behavior.
“William, I’m Carlos Hernandez with CBS Santa Barbara News Channel. We’re doing a story on your activities and we’d like your comments. Tommy, show Carlos what we have so far,” Carlos said to the cameraman.
Tommy played the complete, unedited version so William would see everything, including the piece with Chad.
“I haven’t done anything wrong. The Santa Barbara police have never cited me. So what’s the problem?” William responded.
“The problem is you are taking money from innocent people who believe they are helping you,” John said. “Your signs say, ‘Homeless, need help.’ Are you homeless?”
William started walking away. Carlos followed, asking more questions. “William, we have you on video with at least three different signs asking for help. There’s ‘Homeless, need help.’ There’s another one that says, ‘Vet, hungry, God Bless’. One more reads, ‘Stranded need money to fix car.’ William, are you a vet? Your car certainly isn’t broken. Do you have anything to say to the people of Santa Barbara who you’ve taken so much from?”
“Tell them thank you. I didn’t do anything wrong. I haven’t broken any laws.” William picked up the pace and disappeared. Carlos, John, and Tommy now had what they needed. The story would air tomorrow night and the next two nights.
Back at the station, Carlos put the finishing touches on his edits and took the complete three-part series to Barry. They showed him what they got from William and what they had for the three-part series.
“There’s one more piece to this puzzle,” Barry said to his team. “You need to track down some of those motorists and get their reaction. That is part four of your series.”
“Good. What about showing this to the city council and getting their reaction? Let’s push them to put in place new laws that will prohibit this.” Carlos was right and Barry agreed. This story was now a five-part series. A great way to kick off the November sweeps.
“Carlos, one more thing. Stay behind a minute.” John and Tommy left the room. “I know it wasn’t easy for you to share this story with John.”
“Look, Barry. I wasn’t happy about this in the beginning. John has something special going on, and the more I was around him, the more I saw the it factor. I think John is a keeper. He could be bigger than me,” Carlos laughed.
“Just the same. I want you to know how much I appreciate you showing him the ropes on this story. And especially letting him have some air time with you.”
***
The day was moving very fast. Barry had to excuse himself. The toxicology report was in and Barry and Lisa were meeting the two detectives at the medical examiner’s office.
Tim Samuels, the chief medical examiner, was extremely professional and had handled many major murder cases. Most of the time, his findings helped lead the police to a suspect or at least tied a suspect to the crime. Not this time.
Samuels was blunt. “I don’t have a lot of new evidence to talk about. We did find some very small traces of sodium azide.”
“Sodium azide, doc? Is that what killed these two?” Reynolds asked.
“Maybe. I don’t mean to be elusive, but there really isn’t enough evidence to pinpoint exactly what killed them. That might also be why whoever did this used a drug like this.”
“Where would you get sodium whatever?” Detective Tracy asked.
“Sodium azide,” repeated Samuels. “That’s the interesting thing. Sodium azide is used for agriculture pest control. It’s also used in detonators and other explosives. Here’s the real kicker. Sodium azide is used in airbags.”
“Airbags?” asked Barry.
“Yes, airbags,” Samuels said.
“Tim, how would someone use this drug to kill someone else?” Barry asked.
“The easiest way is to ingest it through food,” Samuels said. “It pretty much looks like plain table salt. It also could be ingested through the skin. It’s water soluble, but that’s unlikely in this case. Sodium azide affects the heart and brain. It doesn’t take much to kill someone. Less than fifty milligrams ingested can bring on a comatose state, with a racing heart rate and falling blood pressure. It would take less than five minutes. In water, they would drown before they knew what hit them. Seeing your victims were not drowned, it’s most likely they ingested it. A few grams of sodium azide would kill a person in under forty minutes.”
“How easy is it to get?” Detective Reynolds asked.
“You can get it if you know about it. This isn’t a popular chemical that people really know about,” Samuels said.
“At least we have a possible cause of death. Not sure how this is going to help us,” Tracy said.
“Tim, can we interview you about your findings?” Barry asked the chief medical examiner.
“Sure.” Samuels was never shy about being on camera. He knew it helped his career.
“Are you ready to say that sodium azide was the cause of death?” Barry asked. “Have you determined how Steve and Jesse got this into their system?”
“Again, we found so little of a trace that it is hard to determine, but it’s safe to say that in both cases, the sodium azide was ingested by food.”
“Finally, something we can work with,” Tracy said.
Lisa Campbell sat still, feeling a cold chill and then sweaty as she realized the implication. Stewart served Steve Johnson dinner the night he died. But why? Why would he do such a thing? Is Stewart really capable of murder?
***
Stewart was coming back into town and Lisa was on her way to see him. She found herself missing him when he was gone. His assistant, Dugan, greeted her by opening her car door. “Mrs. Campbell, you look lovely tonight.”
“Thank you, Dugan. How is Mr. Simpson’s mood?” Lisa asked.
“He’s in good spirits. He’s looking forward to seeing you,” Dugan smiled.
Lisa walked to the front door where Stewart greeted her with the customary glass of chardonnay. With a light kiss on her cheek and a small hug, Lisa felt relieved and strangely comforted in this odd romance.
“So catch me up on everything. Is there any progress on the killing of our two people?” Stewart seemed very relaxed.
“They’ve now determined a probable cause of death. It’s still undetermined, but the medical examiner says they were killed by a drug called sodium azide. Apparently both of them had ingested the drug through food or drink.”
“Sodium azide? Isn’t that stuff in airbags?” Stewart’s knowledge always astounded Lisa. He was certainly one of the brightest people she ever knew, but she never thought about him as being that smart.
“How do you know that?” Lisa asked. “I had never heard of the drug before.”
Stewart thought about it for a minute and laughed. “Not sure how I know that. I probably saw it on Jeopardy,” which was Simpson’s favorite TV show.
“Anyway, there is still no direct connection to Steve and Jesse and there are still no suspects,” Lisa said.
“Actually, there are connections. The same drug killed both people and both people worked at the television station.”
“Yes, but no one can figure out why these two are connected in any way. There doesn’t seem to be a relationship between the two. There is no motive, as far as anyone can tell. This case is really nowhere right now,” Lisa said.
Stewart refilled the wine as Dugan entered the room to announce dinner. “Tell me about your plans to replace Steve Johnson on the anchor desk.” Stewart was always up to speed on every aspect of his station.
“We have an opportunity to get ABC’s top anchor. The deal is being finalized as we speak, and we’re hoping to announce it tomorrow.”
Dinner lasted several hours and the talk turned away from the station. Stewart talked about his coming trip to Paris and how he wanted her to join him. He was always asking her to go on trips, but Lisa was cognizant of what that would do to Tom, her husband. Stewart knew as well. Lisa thought it was a game that Stewart constantly played trying to make her feel more important in his life than she actually was.
***
The next day, Lisa and Barry called Phil Roberts.
“Phil, Lisa Campbell. First off, welcome to the team. I’m excited you’re going to be joining our news team.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Campbell. I’m excited as well. I just wish I could start work now instead of two months from now.”
“Not a problem, Phil. Your start date will be here before you know it. Look, I talked to our attorneys and they thought it shouldn’t be a problem with you doing an interview with us. Let’s set it up for this afternoon. Barry tells me that Billie will do the interview. You okay with all this?”
“Absolutely, let’s do it,” Phil said excitedly.
“Great, I’ll have Billie coordinate it. Talk to you soon.” Lisa hung up the phone and gave Barry a high-five. “Now, let’s go over your sweeps plan.”
The phone in Lisa’s office rang while the two were talking about the November sweeps. The receptionist announced that it was Darryl Smarks, the attorney for William, the person in the panhandling story. “Mr. Smarks, Lisa Campbell. How can I help you?”
Smarks was known for handling sleazy problem clients. “Look, you can’t run the story or any of the audio that you have from William on this story.”
“The story runs,” Lisa said firmly.
“My client will sue you for defamation of character. He will own your station,” the lawyer huffed.
“The story runs. Do what you have to do.” Lisa hung up the phone and looked at Barry. “You better have gotten this right.”
Barry nodded. “No worries here. We nailed this guy.”
***
That night CBS ran the panhandling story during their five, six, and eleven o’clock news. The second story that night was the announcement that Phil Roberts was leaving the ABC station and joining the CBS station. Across the street, the ABC news director, Sharon Miller, screamed, “FUCK!”
The third story was the CME stating the cause of death in the unsolved murder case. Lisa and Barry were elated.
CBS then ran all three stories again. Twice in their morning two-hour news show and again in both the five and six o’clock evening shows. The station also promoted the entire panhandling series, and the feedback from the viewers was immediate. The Santa Barbara police had warrants prepared and raided William’s home as well as the storage garage. William was nowhere to be found. The rest of the group was arrested. Chad was arrested but was released because of his willingness to cooperate and tell the story. The detectives gave CBS the heads-up on their raids, so all of that was captured on camera as well. It was the story that kept on giving.
Every time the station aired the story, they ran a crawl on the bottom of the screen asking anyone who had given to these people to please call a special newsroom number. Carlos and John teamed up to talk to anyone willing to tell their story. The phones rang off the hook. By the next day, the two reporters had more than enough people to talk to. Getting part five done wasn’t going to be a problem. They’d already tracked down some of the license plates that they recorded while watching William and his team at work.
***
Lisa watched the newscast from Stewart Simpson’s living room. She was proud of everything she saw that night in her newscast but couldn’t get rid of the thought that Stewart might be a suspect in the two murders. The nagging thought of his involvement was unbearable, and finally she just blurted out the question she had wanted to ask since she first suspected him.
“Stewart, I can’t help but think you know more than you’ve told anyone about Steve’s death. Do you?”
He was surprised it had taken her this long to ask the question.
“Lisa, I won’t lie to you. We’ve known each other too long. Trust me when I tell you, you don’t want to know.”
“Yes, I do. You owe me that much,” Lisa said looking directly into Stewart’s eyes.
“I don’t owe you anything. I didn’t have anything to do with Steve’s death. Or the girl’s, either.”
“What about the steak and lobster dinner? That was the same thing the corner said Steve had in his stomach the night he was killed.”
“Yes, I had steak and lobster. I have steak and lobster a lot. I didn’t have it with Steve Johnson.” Stewart was staying very calm and in control. That was one of his biggest strengths.
“Why the large bonus to me?” asked Lisa with tears welling up in her eyes.
Stewart walked over to her and put his arms around her. He then took his hands and cupped her face, looking directly into her eyes. “I gave you that bonus because I thought you deserved it. Yes, the money came from the policy I had on Steve. I didn’t have anything to do with his dying. What? Did you think that I paid you this big bonus so you wouldn’t question anything?”
Tears were now flowing. “I did think something like that. I am so sorry. I love you, you know that. I couldn’t bear thinking you had anything to do with this. Every time I turned around little things kept pointing at your involvement.”
Stewart didn’t say anything else but just held her tight. He held her for a long time.
Outside the room Dugan was listening to everything. He was worried Lisa might push Stewart’s button and trigger a side that she wouldn’t want to see. So far so good, he thought.
Once he felt the drama was over, he entered the room to bring more wine for his boss and the one person he felt he shared a kindred spirit with.
Lisa didn’t take the refill. She was exhausted and feeling overwhelmed. The drive home would give her time to compose herself enough so Tom wouldn’t think anything was up. She kissed Stewart as Dugan brought her car around.
“Mrs. Campbell, drive carefully.” Dugan’s eyes looked directly into Lisa’s as he spoke. He wanted to say something else to her but knew he didn’t dare.
16
Dugan had spent the evening as he almost always did, alone in his suite reading or writing. He placed his portable disc into the back of his computer and pulled up his daily writings from October 9 and began reading them to himself.
Stewart and I sat down to discuss this girl Jesse Anderson. Jesse was from Dallas and Simpson helped her with her broadcasting career by getting her a job at his station in Santa Barbara. I told Stewart that she was too young and that he shouldn’t be getting involved with this girl. Jesse was still in college when they met.
It was like so many before, Dugan thought, a beautiful twenty-something with a family who really couldn’t care less about their little girl. These were the types that Stewart preyed upon. Stewart’s relationships didn’t really develop past the age of twenty-five. Lisa Campbell was the exception. Stewart loved Lisa and Lisa loved Stewart. They both understood the ground rules. Lisa was married and Stewart had other partners. He continued reading:
I was scheduled to pick Jesse up at two in the afternoon and bring her to the house. Stewart told her that he wanted to talk to her because he didn’t like the way things were left the last time they saw each other. That last time was in Dallas before Jesse moved to Santa Barbara.
Stewart and I had planned the day’s activities. Steve Johnson would be coming over for dinner after the late news was over. He was told that the owner of the station wanted to thank him personally and talk about a new contract. First we had to deal with Jesse.
Dugan went back to his notes regarding the last visit Jesse made to Stewart in Dallas several weeks earlier. He read the entry into his electronic diary from that day.
September 14, 2005
Jesse Anderson visited Stewart this evening. S
tewart thought it was going to be a night of love making, as Jesse would want to thank Stewart for his help getting her the job in Santa Barbara. He had also promised her that he would continue to subsidize her career earnings until she got her career to a place where she could live without his help. Instead, the night took on a different tone. Jesse wasn’t there to thank Simpson but to tell him they were over.
Normally, Stewart didn’t have an issue when this scene played out with whomever he was with at the time. Tonight was different. Jesse was angry, and she began to threaten Stewart. She told him she was going to go to the police and tell them about their relationship and how he “kept” her like a sex slave. She told him she didn’t want anything to do with him ever again, but he needed to keep paying her.
Stewart listened and didn’t react until she left the house. Then he went berserk. He couldn’t believe that this tramp of a girl who he had taken care of and basically put through college was trying to hold him up. It might be hard to believe, but this had never happened to Stewart Simpson before. He knew his girlfriends could be classified as whores by the outside world. Stewart’s world worked for him and his girlfriends.
That night the boss and I talked about what needed to be done. This wasn’t the first time we had to eliminate a problem. It was the first time the problem was one of Stewart’s sleepovers. Hopefully, Stewart won’t want to follow through on our discussion tonight. Only time will tell.
In his next entry he had written:
I picked Jesse up as scheduled. She was off from her new job at Stewart’s station. Her mood seemed good and she always got along with me. It was my job to make sure the girls were treated special and to smooth over any misgivings between them and the boss.
Stewart had decided that Jesse was a bigger risk than she was a threat. What the two of us talked about several weeks ago was planned for tonight.
When we got to the house, I escorted Jesse into the living room. Stewart wasn’t in the room yet. He was finishing up a phone call in the den. The plan was for me to pour drinks for Stewart and Jesse and to put something in Jesse’s drink. I poured a Perrier for Stewart and a diet Coke for Jesse. I dissolved sodium azide in her drink before giving it to her. Sodium azide doesn’t have any odor and you don’t need much to get the job done. The best part was that it would do what it was supposed to do within a very short time and without leaving much of a trace in her system.
