Personal Justice Page 6

  She also obtained the name of the victim’s wife, Mrs. Maria Shaft. And that’s where she had to start her story.

  Don pulled the Channel 7 Action News van to the curb in front of the Shaft residence. Lisa hopped from the passenger side door while Don grabbed the camera equipment from the back and hurried to catch up.

  “Don, roll the camera now. We don’t want to miss anything.”

  Don dropped the camera on his shoulder, and in a moment, the red light glowed. He aimed it toward the house and hurried up the walkway behind Lisa.

  She rang the bell and stood back. There was no answer. She glanced toward the driveway. A dark-green Mazda was parked in front of the garage. Someone must be home.

  She rang the bell again. Finally, the door opened a crack and a woman stuck her nose out.

  “Maria Shaft?” Lisa asked.

  The woman nodded. “Yes?”

  “I’m Lisa Krunk from Channel 7 Action News. Could I ask you a few questions regarding the murder of your husband?”

  The woman frowned, and then the frown disappeared as her lips curled into a weak smile. “Yes,” she said, and opened the door, motioning for them to enter.

  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 se
gment. 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.

  Hank greeted her, sat his briefcase on the cushion between him and Jake, and snapped it open. He pulled out two folders, handing one to Jake, the other to Annie.

  “That’s all we have right now and you’re welcome to it,” Hank said. “There’s the ME’s report on the murder, the forensic report, the witness statement, and whatever else we could dig up.”

  “There’s one more thing,” Annie said. “It appears Shaft and Norton did have a relationship after all.” She told him about the news story she found online regarding the 9-ball tournament, handing him the printout.

  He read it and said, “I talked to Tammy Norton and she told me there was no relationship between Shaft and Norton. Said they hadn’t seen each other for years. Both wives claim they knew nothing about their association.” Hank waved the printout. “But this tells me the two men had something going on.”

  “Something they wanted to keep secret,” Jake added. “Didn’t want their wives to know.”

  “Exactly. I don’t think Tammy would have any reason to lie about it,” Hank said. “If she knew about their association, she would’ve said something. She wants to find her husband as badly as we do and she seems sure he’s innocent.”

  “Wives are always the last to know,” Annie said.

  Jake was perusing the forensics report. He dropped it in his lap and looked at Hank. “This sure doesn’t look like a professional hit. A professional would’ve been more efficient than this.”

  “A bullet in the head is pretty efficient,” Annie said.

  “I mean the way it was carried out. A chase and a lot of shots. A hitman would’ve done it in one. Game over.”

  “Exactly,” Hank said. “And he wouldn’t have done it where there could be witnesses.”

  Jake added, “A pro would never have left shell casings laying around either. Especially ones with his fingerprints on them.”

  Annie sat forward, her brow wrinkled in thought. “If Werner Shaft wasn’t involved in anything criminal since being released from prison, then why was he carrying a gun?”

  “Perhaps he knew his life was in danger. Maybe he was threatened and carried it for protection.”

  “Or perhaps,” Hank said. “He was still involved in something his wife didn’t know about.”

  “Both wives said the same thing,” Jake said. “Their husbands had gone straight. So if they were up to no good and working together, they kept it to themselves.”

  “I’m still lacking a motive,” Hank said.

  “Love or money,” Jake said. “It’s always about love or money.”

  Annie looked at Hank. “Is there evidence of any affairs going on anywhere?”

  “We’re looking into that,” Hank said.

  “What about between Rocky Shaft and Maria?” Jake asked. “Could Rocky Shaft have killed his own brother because he’s having an affair with his brother’s wife? He lives with them and has the opportunity.”

  “It’s a possibility,” Hank said. “That’s something we’re looking into, but it might be a hard thing to prove. And right now, King is interviewing Michael Norton’s list of family and friends. His objective is to dig up the whereabouts of Norton, but I’m sure he’ll be asking a lot of pointed questions while he’s at it.”

  Hank continued, “I dropped by Michael Norton’s workplace on the way here. He’s never missed a day in recent history. He was there on Monday and clocked out as usual.”

  “And his co-workers?” Jake asked.

  “None of them could shed any light on this. He never had a run-in with anyone, and nothing seemed suspicious or out of place as far as they could tell.”

  Jake waved the file folder. “You don’t have anything in here on Rocky Shaft.”

  “He wasn’t there when I first went to see Mrs. Shaft. I dropped in again a few minutes ago and Rocky was there this time, but there’s no report yet.”

  “What did you think of Rocky?” Annie asked.

  “He’s a very angry man,” Hank said. “But that’s understandable, given the circumstances.”

  “Did he have anything else to say?”

  “Nothing new to add,” Hank said. “He basically repeated what I’ve heard before. But there was one interesting occurrence.”

  “Regarding Rocky?” Annie asked.

  “Regarding Lisa Krunk,” Hank said. “According to Maria, Lisa dropped by, and she and Rocky ended up succumbing to one of her interviews.”

  Annie frowned. “Lisa’s interviews never go well. She always finds some way to make everyone look bad.”

  “I wish they’d kept away from Lisa,” Hank said. “But Maria has a right to know how we’re proceeding, and she has a right to talk to the news people. There’s nothing we can do about that. And it’s important to get Norton’s picture out there. Right now, our goal is to track him down. There’s not much else we can do until that happens.”

  “If you have no objections, Hank,” Annie said. “I’d like to pay Tammy Norton a visit this afternoon.”

  “I have no objections,” Hank said.

  Chapter 15

  Tuesday, 1:38 p.m.

  JAKE WAITED IN the office while Annie made a call to Tammy Norton. The woman said she would be home all afternoon and was eager to help in the investigation.

  “I’d like to go now if you have nothing else to do,” Annie said to Jake after she hung up the phone.

  “My schedule is open,” Jake said.

  “Do you even have a schedule?”

  “I keep it in my head. That way it never gets misplaced.”

  Annie pushed back her chair and stood. “I’ll meet you outside, then.”

  Jake grabbed his keys and pulled the Firebird from the garage. A minute later, Annie joined him and they roared from the driveway.

  When they pulled up to the curb in front of the Norton residence a few minutes later, Jake glanced at the crumbling house. “What does this guy do for a living?”

  “He’s a production line worker,” Annie said, as she opened her door and stepped out. “Meaning, he works on an assembly line.”

  Jake got out of the car, glanced at the dark-blue Ford Probe in the driveway, and followed Annie up the pathway to the front door. She rang the bell.

  Tammy Norton answered the door, a forced smile on her face. “Are you the Lincolns?”

  “We are,” Annie said, and Tammy led them into the front room and motioned toward the couch while she sat in an armchair.

  They sat down and Annie spoke first. “Mrs. Norton, I want to tell you up front, we’ve been retained by Maria Shaft to find your husband.”

  “Please, call me Tammy, and I’m aware he’s a suspect. I’m sure he’s not guilty, and I’m as eager to find him as the police are. I’m so afraid something has happened to him.” Her smile was replaced with a worried frown.

  “We realize you’ve already spoken to Detective Corning,” Jake said. “But we have a few questions for you.”

/>   Tammy nodded, brushed back a strand of dark hair, and leaned forward.

  Annie pulled a file folder from her large handbag and laid it in her lap. She smiled. “Tammy, Maria Shaft indicated her husband and yours haven’t associated since being released from prison, and you said the same to Detective Corning.” She opened the file folder, slipped out the printout of the 9-ball tournament, and handed it to Tammy. “Were you aware of this?”

  Tammy took the paper and browsed it. Her frown deepened. “I knew Michael played 9-ball at the pub on occasion.” She waved the paper. “But I wasn’t aware Werner Shaft was part of it.”

  “For some reason,” Jake said. “Both of them wanted to keep it from their wives.”

  “But why?” Tammy asked, handing back the paper.

  “We think they were involved in something together,” Annie said. “Something illegal.”

  Tammy’s frown took over her whole face, revealing a hint of indignation. “That’s absurd.”

  “Perhaps,” Annie said. “But Werner Shaft was murdered for some reason.”

  Tammy reached on the stand beside her and pulled a tissue from a box. She wiped at some tears and took a deep breath. “Find my husband and this will all be cleared up.”

  “We need your help with that,” Jake said. “So far, he has eluded the police.”

  Tammy sobbed and wiped her face again. She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know where he is.”

  Jake tilted his head and looked sideways at Annie. She was leaned forward, squinting at Tammy. She stood and moved closer to the woman and bent over. Tammy looked back, confusion on her face.

  “Tammy, how did you get those marks on your face?”

  The woman’s hand shot up, covering the side of her left eye.

  Annie reached out and gently grasped Tammy’s wrist and tugged her hand away.

  Jake leaned forward and peered closer. He could see a bruise by her left eye. It looked like she had tried to cover it with makeup, and wiped the covering away with her tears.