It was a little strange to sit in the leather desk chair. The last person to sit here must have been Jim Fate. The pad was compacted a bit to the shape of his larger body. Nic lifted her eyes to the rows and rows of photos and awards. What had it been like to he Jim Fate? Had these tokens of his success reassured him, inspired him, or prodded him to acquire more? Had he liked watching the impression they made on visitors--or was the "brag wall" more for his own eyes, his own needs?
With her gloved hand, Nic slid open the top desk drawer. In it she found the usual loose change, paper clips, pens. Fate seemed to favor the rollerball variety, black with a fine tip. A half-dozen brochures for a gold investment company featured a grinning Fate on the front and touted the company as "the exclusive precious metals sponsor for The Hand of Fate." A little farther back was the good stuff. A flash drive, which she handed to Rod to bag and tag for the computer forensics lab. A business card from a well-known--and female--executive, with "Call me!" scrawled on the back.
She found a credit card receipt for a store called Oh Baby. That could mean nothing or everything, from a present for a coworker's baby shower to one for a secret love child. Nic set it aside to pursue further.
A key card for the swanky Heathman Hotel made the second possibility not quite so unlikely. She showed it to Rod, who was methodically searching the bookcase.
"Some kind of trophy?" Rod speculated. "A night to remember?"
Nic didn't reply. She was looking at a piece of paper she had just pulled from the very back of the drawer. Torn from a trade journal called Talkers, it was headlined "Jim Fate Sets Hot Pace Among Talk Hosts." Fate's picture had been defaced with Xs over his eyes. A cartoon tongue dangled from his mouth. And around his neck was a noose. Whoever had drawn it had taken the time to make it look three-dimensional, shading in the roughness of the rope. Clipped to it was a printed note: "Stop running your mouth. You're going to pay for what you've done."
She showed it to Rod. "Allison Pierce and I were scheduled to meet with Fate the day after he died. He wanted to talk about some kind of threats he'd been getting. Maybe he meant this."
"Or this?" Rod answered. He reached past her and slid out another newspaper clipping tucked in the back of the drawer.
Nic had forgotten about this particular story, which had been hot for a few weeks last summer. Someone had scrawled an angry message across the clipping, the ink so thick that at times she had difficulty reading the article underneath.
Mother Who Committed Suicide Knew Nothing of Baby's Disappearance
Two weeks after Brooke Gardner committed suicide after facing tough questioning by a talk show host about her missing 18-month-old son, the boy has been found alive. Authorities discovered the child, Brandon Gardner-Tippets, at the home of his paternal great-aunt, Tami Tippets. Authorities say the child is in good health and that he was taken from his mother's home without her knowledge. Tami Tippets has been charged with custodial interference and could also face kidnapping charges.
On the evening of30, Brooke Gardner called authorities to report that her baby boy was missing from his crib. Gardner was divorced from Brandon's father, Jason Tippets, and had primary custody of their son. The divorce has been described as acrimonious.
Although Jason Tippets was said to have initially passed a polygraph that cleared him of involvement, authorities now say they are investigating whether he knew about his aunt taking Brandon.
Nancy Gardner, Brooke Gardner's mother, said, "We told the police and the FBI and everyone who would listen, and so did Brooke, we told them that she had nothing to do with Brandon's disappearance. But no one would listen. Brooke would have done anything to find her baby. But instead of helping her, they acted like she was the guilty one. She wasn't eating, she wasn't sleeping, and she was sick with worry. And finally she just couldn't take it anymore."
Brooke Gardner committed suicide by taking a deliberate overdose of sleeping pills two hours after a live on-air grilling by radio talk show host Jim Fate. Her parents say they have filed a lawsuit against him, claiming their daughter was driven to her death by his badgering questions. They charge that Fate duped their daughter into an interview about her missing son, telling their daughter that it would help find the baby. That interview, which aired on Fate's radio show The Hand of Fate, was more of a cross-examination, with Fate peppering the 21-year-old woman with questions about why she hadn't taken a polygraph as her ex-husband had. The complainant seeks undisclosed damages.
Across the clipping someone had scrawled in thick, dark felt pen: "You killed Brooke. Now you need to die too."
Chapter 19
Mark 0. Hatfield United States Courthouse
It was imperative that Allison keep busy. That she keep her mind off Estella. That she stop thinking of the little girl's dark eyes and her shy smile--and the feeling of prying loose her tiny fingers. Investigating Fate's death offered the chance to drown herself in work.
The first thing Allison did when she got to the office after handing back Estella was to go directly to her boss.