Jason Pinter Omnibus by Jason Pinter

Author:Jason Pinter
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: 9780778324898, Suspense
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

189

The letter was brief. It said that Paulina's story was careless

and inflammatory, and any more attempts by this allegedly

balanced news organization to libel without facts would be

met with legal reprimands from the Gazette, and moral reprimands from readers who wouldn't tolerate muckraking.

That part was BS. Readers loved muckraking and, as much

as it pained us, we knew Paulina's article would sell newspapers.

The details of David Loverne's murder were gruesome in

both their brutality and efficiency.

After Paulina's story ran in the Dispatch, in which she

alleged that Loverne's history of infidelity would soon come

to light, the press corps descended on the man's apartment

building eager to take photographs of drawn curtains, berate

cleaning ladies and doormen, and try to scrape up the scraps

Paulina had left under the table. When a person was accused

of wrongdoing, people didn't try very hard to photograph

their good side.

Around five o'clock, Loverne left to attend a previously

scheduled fund-raiser. He was swarmed by dozens of reporters. In what would be viewed as a colossal blunder, Loverne

had no private security, and the elderly doorman was easily

overmatched. As Loverne attempted to push his way through,

a lone rifle shot shattered the commotion, blood splashed

against the glass doors, and David Loverne died.

The photographers spent their entire rolls shooting Loverne's body, the blood pouring from his chest, as well as the

rooftop where it seemed the shot had come from. Several photographers even tried to bully their way into that very building

to either catch the culprit or take photographs of the crime

scene before the police arrived. Thankfully that doorman was

a former cop, realized what was going on and locked the doors.

190

Jason Pinter

The shooter was long gone. But by the time the police

arrived, hundreds of photos of Loverne's body were circulating among newsrooms, tabloids and the Internet.

I called Curt Sheffield to get the lowdown. He told me one

of the investigating officers mentioned that another note had

been left by the killer, but it was being kept quieter than a

mouse fart. He didn't find it amusing when I asked him if he

could hold a megaphone to the mouse's ass to hear it better.

"Doesn't matter if I tell you," Curt said. "Guy's as vague

as my little sister when I ask her how a date went."

"He didn't leave a note with Jeffrey Lourdes. Now he

changes his tune and leaves one with David Loverne. This is

my ex's father, man, cough it up."

"Again," Curt said, "you use this before it's made public,

I'll string you up to a lamppost. The note was just one line.

It read, 'Because I had the power.' That's it."

"'Because I had the power'? That's pretty vague. What's

it mean?"

"You're the reporter," Curt replied. "You ask me, this guy's

been watching too much David Lynch."

As soon as I hung up with Curt, I did a search for that

quote, only adding "William H. Bonney" to the search field.

What came back was most certainly not vague.

In 1878, corrupt sheriff William Brady arrested Billy the

Kid under the auspices of helping the Kid arrest John

Tunstall's killers. When a reporter asked the lawman why he

would arrest Bonney, a seemingly innocent man, Brady

replied simply, "Because I had the power.

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