"Because the people who get mad, they get mad in the moment. They shoot off an e-mail right away and get it out of their system. Killing Jim like that took planning. It wasn't a crime of passion."
Nic nodded in agreement. Fashioning a deadly gas grenade was not a spur of the moment act. "How many calls can you take at any one time?"
"An hour of talk radio is actually forty-one minutes after you take away the weather, traffic, news, commercials, and promo. So in an hour, you might be able to take twenty calls. Jim always said there was no point in having more than six waiting on the phone lines. And if he had someone on air who couldn't get to the point, he would get impatient and dump them."
"I'll bet that made some people unhappy. All of a sudden they are talking to a dial tone."
"Oh yeah," Chris agreed. "Then they would call back and really ream me out. Like I was the one who cut them off." His green eyes flashed from Allison to Nic. "But it would be ridiculous for someone to kill Jim over that."
"People have been murdered over spare change." Nic shrugged. "How about people who have been angry about shows Jim has run about them?"
"I got several calls from Brooke Gardner's parents right after she killed herself. But I never put them on. It wouldn't have made Jim look very good, especially after their grandson turned up. And then recently Quentin Glover has been calling, yelling that Jim has to back off, that Jim is ruining him, that Jim's going to be sorry if he doesn't shut up."
"Really?" Nic and Allison exchanged a glance.
"I guess at one time they actually used to be friends, back before Glover got caught with that mistress. Jim went to college with Glover's wife, Lad. The affair turned Jim against him. It didn't matter to him that Lad took Glover back. Once Jim's made up his mind, it stays made."
"Do you have. Any regular crazy callers?" Nic asked.
Chris looked up at the ceiling. "Maybe Craig. He's a regular caller and also a nut. He always disagrees with Jim. Jim could come out against Satan, and Craig would call to say he's wrong. He's always got his Bluetooth on, and he's always in his car. Jim has even had him come into the studio every now and then. It's good for entertainment on a slow news day. It generates calls."
"Anyone else?" Allison asked.
"Jim has more than his share of crazy fans. One guy we always see lurking around the background every time we do a remote broadcast. He's pretty distinctive--he always wears a leather hat with this wide brim. We just call him Leather Hat Guy. He paces back and forth and watches us, but sooner or later he'll get close enough to snatch whatever junk we're giving away: refrigerator magnets, key rings, window decals."
"Do you know Craig's last name?" Nic wrote as she spoke. "Or how about the Leather Hat Guy? Do you know his name? Has he ever called in to the show?"
"No, no, no, and not that I know of." Chris shifted from foot to foot.
"But they're both just lonely guys who have to turn on the radio to hear any other voice besides their own. There's no way they would kill the guy they think about so much. I mean, for some people, it's like their lives revolve around the show. They get upset if Jim takes a day off."
"Who fills in when that happens?" Allison asked.
"Victoria, but for a lot of listeners, it's not the same. Some people don't like to listen to a woman, to be frank. They say her voice is too shrill or that she's not serious or smart enough."
"Dc, you think that?" Nic asked. "That Victoria doesn't have the voice or the smarts that Jim had?"
Chris looked away. "She doesn't have the same edge Jim does, that's for sure. Jim's all about getting in someone's face. People want the arguments, the excitement. They want a knock down, drag out fight. And Victoria doesn't offer that. Not on the radio, anyway."
Allison took a new tack. "Maybe whoever targeted Jim was someone in his personal life. Tell us a little about that."
Chris lifted his empty hands, palms up. "I don't know much. Jim wasn't the type to kiss and tell."
"What about him and Victoria? Did they ever date?" Nic asked. Chris opened his eyes wider, the picture of innocence. "I don't really know."
"Come on, you look through that window right there at the two of them for hours at a time," Nic said in a tone that implied she already knew the answer. "You can see how they talk to each other, how they look at each other, how much they touch."
"Exactly. Do you think Jim is going to do anything while he knows he's got me and the board op guy and maybe the reporters and the station manager watching him? No way. Besides, if Jim had any relationship at all, it was with his listeners. They were a lot more real to him than people he actually saw day to day."
"What about the other people who work at the station?" Allison asked. "How did they get along with Jim?"
After a long pause, Chris said softly, "Maybe you should talk to Victoria."
"We'll be talking to her later." Nic cocked her head. "What do you think we should talk to her about?"
"Ask her how well she got along with Jim." He looked away.