Murdered at the Courthouse

by Dianne Harman

  Several people who had been in the hallway of the courthouse were quoted. It concluded by saying sources had told the writer that numerous attorneys in the county were preparing to run for District Attorney Evans’ seat in next year’s election, provided he was still the district attorney and not in prison.

  Kat couldn’t believe it. She closed the paper and hoped no one would give it to Blaine to read before his trial and wondered how that would play to the jurors. It was a small town and most of the residents subscribed to the paper to get news of Lindsay, since the television stations in nearby large cities catered to a much broader audience. She decided to call the editor of the newspaper, Norman Bauer, a man Blaine considered to be his friend, and who had been a very strong supporter of Blaine’s when he was running for district attorney. She looked at the clock and figured it was a little too early for him to be at work.

  She called Bev back. “That article is just disgusting. I can’t believe Norman ran it. He was a huge supporter of Blaine’s in the district attorney race and even wrote a glowing endorsement of Blaine for his paper in the op-ed section. As soon as the newspaper office is open, I’m going to give him a piece of my mind,” Kat fumed.

  “Kat, I’m your best friend, and I’m going to give you some advice. There’s an old saying that the pen is mightier than the sword. In this case, I don’t think you want to alienate Norman. He’s always been a good friend, and I know he’s been out of town. His mother-in-law died after a lengthy bout with cancer, and he and the family have been in Wichita for several days. There’s a very good chance one of his assistant editors took over his job for a couple of days, and it just happened to coincide with that article.” Bev paused. “I guess what I’m saying is to make nice with him. Who knows? He might even print a retraction of the article.”

  “I didn’t know about his mother-in-law,” Kat said, somewhat calmer. “I’ll send a condolence card to the family, and Bev, thanks for the advice. I just hope it’s the scenario you described. I’ll let you know what happens. Think I’ll spend the next hour at the computer. Hopefully, I can write a thousand words or so on my new book. At least I’ll feel productive at some level. Talk to you later.”

  Kat totally immersed in her novel and quite some time later realized three hours had gone by and she’d more than passed her thousand-word goal. She picked up her phone and pressed in the number for The Lindsay Daily News.

  A few moments later she heard Norman’s voice say, “Good morning, Kat. I already know why you’re calling. The phone has been ringing off the hook from people who are incensed that the paper printed the article about Blaine being a prime suspect.”

  “Yes, that’s one of the reasons I’m calling. The other is to express my condolences on the death of your mother-in-law. I knew nothing about either one until my friend Bev called me.”

  “Well, she must be having a busy morning, because I just got off the phone from talking to her,” Norman said with a laugh. “Anyway, Kat, I want to apologize to you, and of course I’ll call Blaine, about the article on him. As you may know I was out of town and had asked my assistant editor to take over my duties at the paper while I was gone. It never occurred to me something like this would happen, and that he wouldn’t run the article by me before he published it.

  “I’ve already had a meeting with him, and he is very aware I’m not happy about it. I guess he thought by running an article like that it would capture everyone’s attention and make him some kind of a big star in the local newspaper world.”

  “Yes, I rather imagine it has,” Kat said sarcastically. “What I don’t understand is why he would run it at all. It almost reads as if it was fed to him. Did he mention what research had gone into the article? And what was that reference to pornographic addiction about?”

  “Kat,” Norman said in a frustrated tone of voice, “those are the same questions I asked him. He told me he received a phone call yesterday morning from a woman who refused to introduce herself who said the judge was a well-known pornographic addict who had been murdered by the district attorney and his deputy district attorney over a dispute regarding a case he was trying. She supplied all of the information that was in the article.

  “Joe was on deadline and running out of time. He cross-checked the part about Blaine and Ryan with a friend of his in the police department. He confirmed that several people had heard the angry exchange between the judge, Blaine, and Ryan. Joe told me he debated whether or not to put in the part about the judge being addicted to pornography, but decided that even if that was wrong, the judge couldn’t sue the paper, because he was deceased.”

  “I understand the difficult situation this has placed you in, Norman, and I’m sorry with all the family dynamics that are probably taking place in your life right now, but I have trouble with this. First of all, Blaine and Ryan have not been charged with anything, and I know the police chief is doing a thorough investigation. Secondly, and this is what is really bothering me, to make a public accusation that someone is an addict of any kind without proof in my mind borders on sensationalism, not ethical news reporting. And may I go off the record for a moment?”

  “Of course, Kat. We go way back, and you know I consider Blaine to be one of my best friends. None of this conversation will be repeated. By the way, I personally agree that was unethical reporting. We have some wacko who constantly writes in about this person or that person being pornography addicts, but I refuse to print those letters. He or she never submits any proof, and it would only result in a character assassination, plus we could be sued, so I’m very careful. I’m just sorry Joe wasn’t. What else do you have?”

  “Norman, the Lawrence case got dumped on Blaine with almost no notice. No, I take that back. The judge gave him about fourteen hours to prepare for it. This is a major murder trial. Most attorneys prepare for months for a case like this. He doesn’t have time to clear his name and find out who murdered Judge Dickerson. As you know, I’ve helped in a couple of other cases, and I’m doing my best to see that my husband’s name is cleared. Here’s what I find interesting. I don’t believe anyone other than the police and one or two other people knew about the judge’s addiction. Not only was it unethical reporting, there’s a very good chance that whoever called in the story to Joe is the murderer.”

  Norman exhaled. “Whoa, Kat, that’s heavy stuff.”

  “I know, but it all kind of makes sense. Maybe the murderer called it in hoping the story would be written and that Blaine and/or Ryan would be charged with the murder and the case would be over. That means no more investigation, and the heat is taken away from the real killer. It could actually be a woman calling on behalf of a man,” Kat said thinking of Kim Rosen.

  “Good grief, I may never be able to spend a day away from this paper again,” Norman said.

  “I just had a thought. Do you tape incoming calls?”

  “No. The paper did before I became the editor, but I found that a lot of people who might call with a story are afraid that what they say will be recorded, and it could result in huge problems for them. There is even a statement in the paper below the contact names of our staff to that effect. I think I know where you’re going with that question, but we have no way to find out who called that story in.”

  “That’s a shame, because it very well could have been the murderer.”

  “Yes, I suppose you could be right. Kat, I’m reluctant to print a retraction of the story for a number of reasons. You can well imagine the damage it would do to the morale of my staff. I have a call in to Police Chief Moore, and I’m pretty sure he’ll say that at this time there are no suspects in the case.

  “I’ll print that and have him say that even though loud angry voices were heard coming from the judge’s chambers, at this point in time that’s all they were, loud voices, and he does not consider District Attorney Blaine Evans or his Deputy District Attorney, Ryan Walsh, to be suspects. I can even put something in about how shocked he was to read that article in the newspaper, an
d he categorically denies having any evidence that would point to either Blaine or Ryan. I think that should soften Joe’s article.”

  Kat considered Norman’s offer, and decided it was the best he could probably do given the circumstances. “I’d really appreciate that, Norman, and I’m sure Blaine will too. What I will do is call you with any information I find out. I don’t know what it will be or when I’ll get something, but I’ve made a vow to clear my husband’s name. He’s too good a man to have something like this hanging over his head.”

  “You won’t get an argument from me over that statement, Kat. I see the chief is on the other line, so I’m going to sign off. Talk to you soon.”

  The egos of people, Kat thought. Here’s a newspaperman who thought he could make a big name for himself with a sensational expose, but the whole thing is going to backfire on him when I find out who killed the judge, and I will.

  CHAPTER 20

  Kat had just turned back to her computer to finish the chapter she’d been working on, when her phone rang. “Sorry to get back to you so late, but the dance recital went on longer than I’d thought, and I couldn’t get to your questions until this morning,” Dave said.

  Kat saved her work and let her computer go to sleep. “No problem. How did your daughter do?”

  “It was pretty cute. She’s only five and they did this little dance, but she fell down at the beginning of it. Their ballet instructor, a young college girl, had told the little girls a number of times that if they fell down to immediately get back up and smile as if nothing had happened. Emma, that’s my daughter, got back up right away and smiled, but she’d fallen on her rear, so for the rest of the dance her left hand was holding her rear. Honestly, it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. My wife and I had tears rolling down our cheeks we were laughing so hard, and we weren’t the only ones. The girls got a standing ovation when the dance was over, and they thought they’d done a better job than any of the other groups. I’m pretty sure the standing ovation was out of pity for my daughter.”

  Kat pictured the scene and laughed. “That is funny, Dave. The joys of parenting. Is she okay?”

  “Yes, I think even her pride survived, because she told her mother and me that the teacher was really proud of her for getting back up so quickly and finishing the dance, and according to our daughter, she said that in front of all the other girls. So, yeah, she’s fine.”

  “That’s something I would have liked to have seen.”

  “I recorded the whole thing. I’ll send it over to you. Anyway, I found the information you asked for, plus a little more. Jules Rosen did not attend his 12-step Rageaholics Anonymous meeting the night the judge was murdered. Remember, I just report the facts, but that is an interesting coincidence. I have some feelers out to see if I can find out what he did do during that time frame. When I find out something, I’ll let you know.

  “As far as Nancy Malone and her daughter, Rebecca, are concerned, I think you know that Nancy Malone inherited a lot of money from her parents. From what I could find out, Nancy held that over Rebecca’s head the whole time she was growing up. She was always told to do this or that or her mother would change the trust fund and disinherit her. When she discovered that Rebecca was posing for porn sites, she founded Mothers Against Pornography Addiction.”

  Kat mulled over what Dave had said. “Dave, Nick mentioned she was the only member of the organization. Did you find anything to the contrary?”

  “No, although she’s very out there in her fight against pornography addiction. I was told she writes a lot of letters to the editor of the local newspaper about it, but they’re never printed. The paper’s probably worried about liability.”

  That’s interesting. Norman said they got a lot of letters from someone regarding pornography addiction. Wonder if it was Nancy Malone. Probably better call him later and ask.

  Kat turned her attention to Nancy’s daughter. “What about Rebecca Malone? How old is she, what does she do? How do she and her mother get along now?”

  “She’s in her senior year at the university here in Lindsay. Rebecca lives in the Pi Beta Phi sorority house, and from what I can find out, and it would take more time than I had to be definitive about this, but it looks like she posed for the sites for notoriety. She was one of the few on the site to list her email address. I can only guess that having people contact her in relation to what they’d seen of her on the site made her feel important. I’m no shrink, Kat, but that would be my layman’s guess.”

  You may not be a shrink, but I know an expert in this field, and it kind of goes along with what she was telling me. I probably better call Professor White as well as Norman. Plus, she’s in Lacie’s sorority, which means Lacie probably knows her. What a coincidence.

  “Dave, you’ve done a great job. What about contact information for Nancy and her daughter. Were you able to get it?”

  “Sure was. That was the easy part. Here it is for both of them…”

  When she ended the conversation with Dave, she sat back in stunned silence, unable to believe what Dave had just told her about Rebecca. She was a member of the same sorority as Lacie. She wondered what the odds were on something like that ever happening. Then the author in her took over and she wondered how she could incorporate it into her new series, Bawdy Halls of Ivy, or even her first book in the series, The Professor’s Predicament. She decided that having a student as a porn star might make an interesting part of the book.

  She called Lacie and said, “Hi, sweetie. How’s my favorite college senior? Get the results back on that big exam you took last week?”

  “I did, and I’m pleased to tell you that your daughter got the highest grade in the class. I just found out this morning, and I think I’m going to do some retail therapy this afternoon to celebrate, since I don’t have any classes. How are you doing? I read that article in the paper this morning about Blaine. What’s up with that?”

  Kat spent the next ten minutes bringing her up to date on Blaine, the judge, the Lawrence trial, and that she was trying to help Blaine by finding out who murdered the judge.

  Lacie was quiet for several minutes, then she said, “Mom, do you really think that’s a very good idea? I mean, you’ve gotten lucky a couple of times, but murdering a judge is pretty bad stuff. I don’t want my only relative to be the next victim. This makes me really concerned about your safety.”

  “Thanks, Lacie, but I’m fine. And in answer to your question, while it may not be a very good idea, I don’t have a choice. I need to do it for Blaine. With the short time he’s had to prepare for this trial, he’s up to his ears in it, and he sure doesn’t have any spare time to clear his name. Honest, I’ll be fine.”

  “Well, knowing you, my words will probably fall on deaf ears anyway,” Lacie said, “but I’d feel better if you had Rudy with you. Remember, the whole reason Blaine bought him for you was to make sure you were safe. As scary looking as that dog is, I think you’ll be just fine with him. Would you do that for me?”

  “Okay, if it will make you happy I will. Lacie, I have a question for you. I understand Rebecca Malone is in your sorority. Do you know her well?”

  “She’s down the hall from me, but even though we’re both seniors, I can’t say she’s one of my best friends. Why?”

  “I’m going to tell you something in strict confidence, and I want you to promise me it won’t go any further. Will you do that?”

  “Sure. This sounds serious.” Lacie lowered her voice before continuing. “What about Rebecca?”

  Kat told her what Dave and Nick had found out about Rebecca and her mother. She also told Lacie she’d like to talk to Rebecca and before she’d called Lacie, she’d come up with a plan.

  “Mom, I can’t say I’m super surprised. She’s kind of thirsty.”

  “Thirsty? You’ve lost me, Lacie.”

  “Well, you know. She just wants attention. She’s always trying to get it and sometimes, by doing things that are negative.”

&nb
sp; Kat frowned. “Like what?”

  “Like being put on probation for coming in late several times. She makes it sound like she was in some big romantic session with a hot guy when she had to stop and come back here. That’s the kind of attention I’m talking about, plus her sweaters are always a little too tight. If she wears a skirt, it will be a little shorter than everyone else’s. Mom, you know what I mean.”

  “I get the picture, but why did the sorority want her? She doesn’t seem to fit the picture of the other girls in your sorority.”

  “She’s wicked smart. Simple as that. She always has the highest grades in the sorority, and she definitely brings up the house average. Guess we’re no different than anyone else. Like to be at the top of the heap. Thing is, I never ever see her studying. She must have some type of brain that just absorbs whatever she hears and remembers it.”

  “Interesting. Lacie, here’s the idea I came up with. I’d really like to talk to her, but I’m thinking maybe I could come to lunch or dinner under the pretext of interviewing a couple of the girls who live in the sorority house. I’d use the pretext that I’m an author writing a novel about college life, and I want it to be as real as possible. She could be one of the people I interview. Since she gets such good grades, you could use that as the reason I’d like to meet her. Would something like that work?”

  “Sure, why don’t you come for dinner tonight? I’ll get a couple of my other sorority sisters together and tell them you’d like to interview them after dinner. We eat at 5:00, so you could still be home in time for dinner with Blaine. Would that work for you?”