Chapter 3

25 years later

Nancy—I am an investigative reporter. I write for a major magazine that you all know well. You see it every time you check out at the grocery store or go into a convenience store to buy beer.

Last month I was in Atlanta trying to get some information for my next article. When I visited CNN headquarters I overheard a conversation about a double murder that happened 25 years ago.

I was in the lunchroom and these two secretaries were talking about how a producer was found murdered in bed with one of the secretaries. Both were married but not to each other. That is what caused the strict ‘no fraternization’ policy. So the older one was warning the new one not to start anything with anybody here or she would be fired. Human Resources had strict orders and there were no second chances.

A reporter can smell a good story. I got up and went to their table and introduced myself. I told them I was interested in the murders. The older one said the police knew who did it but never caught the guy. It seems it was the woman’s husband. He left the pistol on the bed with his finger prints and vanished. Now this is a story! Cheaters caught by the husband, murdered in bed together! Anything else?

“Well he was black and she was white, does that matter?”

Hell yes! Now we have a great story. I asked for names and addresses. She could not help me but directed me to H.R. and a Mrs. Simpson, she has worked at CNN since the beginning and she would have all the information I would need.

I thanked them and went to see this Simpson woman. She was very helpful. She gave me names, addresses, ages and more gossip about the story.

“It seems these two had met in college and started an affair. He married first and had two kids. But the affair never stopped. It was because he loved fucking this white woman. When she graduated he helped her get a job there at CNN as a secretary. I think they got together about once a week, but that is just my suspicions. This secretary met a former Marine officer who was just back from Viet Nam and married him. Two years later he caught her and her lover in bed together and shot them.”

That’s all she knew. I thanked her and left.

I went directly to the small town just outside of Atlanta. The police department was very helpful. I managed to find a detective who knew the case and sat in his office while he told me the story.

“This was before my time but I have read the file. The day after the murders someone from CNN called and ask if we could check on one of their secretaries. She was very dependable but had left for lunch yesterday and not come back. Then she did not come to work today and they could not get any answer on the phone. We had a unit swing by their house to check on her. The officers found everything in order but no answer at the door. When one of the officers went around back he noticed the air-conditioner running. It was a cool, rainy day and he thought that odd. He felt the windows and they were cold. He called it in and received permission to enter the house.

In an up-stairs bedroom they found the two. They were sitting up in bed with the sheet pulled up to their chins. There was a bench from a make-up table at the foot of the bed like someone was talking to them. The .45 was found on the bed and it was determined later that the finger prints of the husband were on the pistol. From the crime scene we thought it looked like he had a conversation with them before he shot them so we charged the husband with 2 counts of first degree murder. We found out that he had left his job that day complaining he was sick and never came back. We knew he was a former Marine infantry officer with one tour in Viet Nam. He also had dual citizen ship in the country of Panama. We found that a one-way ticket had been purchased in the name on his Panamanian passport, Juan Diaz. He is in Panama and there is not an extradition treaty with them. To top it all off, he is the only heir to a coffee empire. So we just filed the case away and if he ever comes back to the States we’ll pick him up at immigration.”

I got the address of the wife and I thanked the detective and left. I wanted to find out what she knew about the affair.

She was just getting home with the kids when I pulled up. I noticed there were two kids and they were too young to be the dead husband’s kids. I introduced myself and told her what I was doing. She told the kids to go into the house and start their homework.

“I really don’t have time to get into all of that just now. I have to help my grandkids with their homework, then get supper for all of us and we go to church this evening. But if you would like to come back tomorrow around 9:30am I will have a pot of coffee ready and I will tell you the entire story.”

I told her I would be back in the morning. I ate an early dinner at Waffle House then back to the hotel. I put my notes in order, watched a little television then went to sleep.

The next morning I was walking up to her front door at 9:30.

“Come into the kitchen. How do you take your coffee?”

“Black, no sugar,” was my reply.

I sat across from her at the kitchen table and she served me the coffee. I noticed her coffee was about half milk. Yuck! Milk ruins good coffee. But let’s get started.

“I met Robert in college. He was two years ahead of me. He was smart and he had a plan. He wanted to be a writer. He loved to write so he took a lot of English courses and writing courses.

He asked me out one day and I accepted. I loved him from the first time I saw him and I thought he loved me. I was sleeping with him after the second date. In three months I was pregnant and I told him. I said I would get an abortion but he said no. He asked me to marry him that night. I was so happy. I quit school and we got married. He graduated about 2 months later and got a job writing for the newspaper. We bought a house and I had the baby, a boy. Then about a year later I got pregnant again. He got offered a job as a producer at a cable news company. It was his dream job. We moved into a bigger house and I had the second boy. My life was perfect.

Then one night he does not come home from work. I waited until about 8 pm then I got real worried. I called one of his friends from work and they tell me he left for lunch and never came back. I called the police and am told I have to wait 72 hours to file a missing person’s report since he is an adult. I called his parents and my mother. No one has any idea where he could be. It was the next day about noon that two detectives showed up at my door. They tell me that Robert was found shot to death in bed with some white girl. I am in shock. No way. Not my Robert. The father of my boys. He would not do that to us.