Chapter 34
Break in the Case
Detective Jill Finch was out of leads in the Jones murder case. They’d scrutinized all the usual suspects: the wife, the ex–business partner, the unhappy home owner who blamed her husband’s suicide on RMS and Jones, but it didn’t appear any of them could have been the killer. There were other persons of interest, but none of them had a motive to kill Jones. None of them inherited Jones’s interest in the various enterprises, so there would have been no reason to want him dead. For most, the loss of Jones was an inconvenience and would likely cause a disruption in the cash flow the businesses were enjoying. Nor did any of them have insurance on Jones. Only his wife was the beneficiary of insurance and she had provided an airtight alibi. The phone rang. Finch picked it up.
“Finch here.”
“Detective,” Matt said. “This is Matt Coleman.”
“Matt Coleman. Right. We met in your office.”
“Yes, we represent Cindy Sharp.”
“Okay. What can I do for you?”
“Listen very carefully. I only have a minute to talk to you. We’re in the middle of trial.”
“Right. The civil trial. Your client is suing RMS.”
“That’s correct. A few minutes ago the judge gave us a lunch break, and my brother Ryan and I went to lunch with two women, Candy Kane and Sharon Sparks. They are friends.”
“Okay,” Jill said, wondering where this was going.
“While we were eating, Candy and Sharon went to the restroom, and while they were away a boy delivered me a note. By that time Sharon had come back, but not Candy. I don’t have time to read the note, but it was a demand that I end the civil trial immediately or Candy would be killed.”
“What?” Jill said, not quite believing what she was hearing.
“Yes, it said they would kill her if we didn’t end the trial immediately. When we went looking for Candy we couldn’t find her.”
“Okay. I’ll call the FBI and get someone over to the restaurant right away. What’s the name of it?”
“No! The note said no police or FBI. You have to work this in the background. If you send someone to the restaurant or to Candy’s house, the kidnapper will know I contacted you and they will kill her!”
Jill took a deep breath. “Okay, so why do they want the trial stopped?”
“Because I know who killed Lucius Jones.”
Jill’s mouth dropped. “You do? Who is it?”
“Rick Shafer.”
She shook her head. “No. We’ve interviewed Shafer. He and Jones were best friends.”
“He’s the murderer, and if you track him down you might be able to save Candy’s life,” Matt said emphatically. “Please find him before it is too late.”
“But—”
“That’s all I can tell you now. I’ve got to go settle this case or Shafer will kill Candy. I’ll call you when the case is settled. Hopefully in less than an hour.”
“But—”
“Sorry, got to go. Talk to you later.”
The phone went dead. Jill slowly lowered it, just staring at it in shock. Her partner, Detective Tom Morin, seeing the look on her face, asked if she was all right.
Jill grimaced, blinked a few times, and then replied, “Yeah, fine. Ah. Listen, we’ve got a kidnapping and a lead on the Jones murder.”
“Huh?”
Jill explained the situation to Morin and the urgency in finding Rick Shafer. They checked their notes, found his address and telephone number, and headed out to their unmarked Chevrolet Impala and exited the police parking lot with Tom driving. According to their notes Shafer lived in Grand Prairie and worked in downtown Fort Worth. They decided to check Shafer’s home first.
“So, do you think Coleman knows what he’s talking about, or is this just speculation?” Tom asked, turning onto the on ramp to I-30 going west.
Jill shrugged. “He seemed pretty sure about it. I think he believes he knows who the killer is. Whether or not he’s right, I wouldn’t hazard a guess at this point.”
“What do we know about the victim?” Tom asked.
“Nothing. I’ll call in and get somebody checking her out,” she said, pulling out her cell to make the call.
“So, don’t you think we should give the FBI a heads-up? That’s protocol.”
“Yeah. But let’s wait until we hear from Coleman. I don’t want to get his girlfriend killed if we can avoid it.”
Jill’s cell phone rang. She flipped it open and put it to her ear. “Finch here,” she said and listened to the caller. A moment later she hung up.
“Okay, Candace Kane owns an escort service and runs about a dozen girls. She has one arrest for solicitation, but the charges were dropped. She claims her girls don’t sell sex, just companionship.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard that one before.” Morin chuckled. “Look but don’t touch.”
“It’s possible,” Jill said.
“No it’s not. If a guy hires a companion he’s going to want sex before the night is over.”
“You’re an expert, huh?”
“Damn straight,” Tom said as they got to the Grand Prairie exit.
Ten minutes later they pulled up in front of Shafer’s house on Ola Drive. It appeared to be a relatively new single-story house, nicely landscaped, with a two-and-a-half-car garage. The house was dark, and there were no cars in the driveway. They got out of the Impala.
Tom went around back, and Jill went up to the front door and rang the doorbell. Chimes rang throughout the house, but there was no response. A minute later Tom came around from the back.
“Nobody’s home. Should we go in?” Tom asked.
“No. Not without a warrant. I don’t think Candy is here.”
“Okay, how about the neighbors? They might have some information.”
“Good idea. You go across the street and I’ll check next door.”
They split up with Jill going to the house to the west. Shafer’s home was a corner lot, so he only had one next-door neighbor. Jill went up the front door and knocked. A young white female wearing shorts and a TCU T-shirt answered the door. Jill showed the woman her badge.
“Hi. I’m Jill Finch with the Dallas Police Department. We’re looking for your neighbor, Rick Shafer. Have you seen him today?”
“Yeah. I saw him leave early this morning. I guess he was going to work.”
“How well do you know him?”
“Not that much. We don’t socialize or anything. If we see each other we say hi and that’s about it.”
“How long have you been neighbors?”
“About five years.”
“Does he own any other houses besides this one anywhere nearby? Rental properties, lake lots, or anything like that?”
“He has a old farmhouse he bought at Lake Lavon. He keeps his boat there—says it’s not much more expensive than paying for a slip on the lake.”
“Really? Do you know where it is?”
“No. Sorry. Like I said, we’re not friends.”
“Okay. I appreciate your help.”
Jill and Tom got back into their car, and Jill immediately called in to get someone to locate Rick Shafer’s place at Lake Lavon. When she hung up, her phone immediately rang.
“Finch,” she said.
“Detective,” Matt said. “Okay, the trial is over.”
“It is? How did you manage that?”
“We settled, so the kidnapper should be happy. Maybe he’ll let Candy go now.”
“I hope you’re right, but don’t count on it.”
“I think he’ll let her go,” Matt said. “If he doesn’t he knows I’ll talk.”
“But you are talking,” Jill noted.
“Right, but he doesn’t know that.”
“Okay, whatever. Tell me why you are so sure he is the killer.”
Matt explained what the lawsuit against RMS was all about and how Lucius Jones had been profiting from the record number of foreclosures over the past few years. Th
en he briefed her on the situation with Samantha wanting a divorce but trying to time it just right to maximize her final settlement.
“A greedy bunch,” Jill noted.
“You got that right,” Matt agreed. “Anyway, to summarize, Jones had his finger or one of his relatives’ fingers in all the pots—Metro Realty who handled evictions, Prime Holdings who bought the properties that were underwater, Southern Real Estate Investments who bought the properties with equity, Ascot Construction who fixed the properties up for resale, CitiTitle who did the title work, and I don’t know about Richmond & Richmond, their law firm, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone in the family worked there.”
“Okay, so how does Shafer fit in?”
“Oh, well, you know Rick Shafer was Jones’s best friend, right?”
“You said that.”
“Well, the strange thing is, he is not involved in any of these affiliated companies that are feeding off RMS’s foreclosures. So, why is that?”
“I don’t know,” Jill confessed. “You’re right. It doesn’t make sense, unless Shafer is a law-abiding citizen and didn’t want any part of it.”
Matt laughed. “Yeah, right. No, we thought about it a lot but could never figure it out, but my father finally did. He took some oil and gas classes in law school and had a few clients in the business, which enabled him to make the connection.”
“So, what is it?” Jill said impatiently.
“Okay, it turns out there is a company that Rick Shafer and Lucius Jones owned. A company called Seismic Engineering.”
“Seismic Engineering?” Jill repeated. “How could that company possibly have anything to do with RMS foreclosures?”
“Right. It was brilliant. . . . Have you ever heard of the Barnett Shale?”
“Sure, a natural gas field in north Texas.”
“Right. One of the largest natural gas fields in North America, and it runs right under Fort Worth and the cities around it.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Well, Chesapeake Energy and its partners have spent several billion dollars developing this field in north Texas, and part of the process is getting thousands of home owners who own property above the shale to sign a lease so Chesapeake can drill its wells and produce the gas. These leases often offer a large signing bonus and then a long-term royalty once production begins. An individual home owner, let’s say, might be offered a ten-thousand-dollar signing bonus and then a small percentage royalty on production. The problem is production often doesn’t start for five or ten years, so the home owners often sell their interests cheap, cutting the overall market value of the interests dramatically.”
“Okay, so how does Seismic Engineering fit in?”
“Seismic Engineering is a company Shafer has owned for years. I guess he was in the seismic engineering business at one time. The company was dormant for years but was reactivated about the time Chesapeake began developing the Barnett Shale. Anyway, Seismic Engineering has been buying any foreclosures that are situated over the Barnett Shale and then flipping them, much like Southern Realty. The only difference being when the properties are sold, Seismic retains the mineral interests.”
“Clever,” Jill said thoughtfully.
“So, if you make a really conservative estimate of the stream of income from each mineral interest over thirty years, it would be, say, $60,000.”
“That much?”
“Well, it’s a wild guess, but the people I’ve talked to say it’s on the low side.”
“Okay.”
“So, take $60,000 over the 887 properties that Seismic has flipped, and you have over $53 million.”
Jill was too stunned to respond. Finally she said, “Damn! Okay, that’s impressive, but why does that make Rick Shafer the killer?”
“Because Samantha doesn’t know about Seismic. This was Lucius Jones’s private stash, but it wasn’t in his name and he had no intention of disclosing it as an asset in his divorce. He trusted Rick and knew after the divorce Rick would fork over his half of the pot and he’d be set for life. The problem was, in the divorce Lucius Jones would have to lie under oath, and attorneys and accountants would be poring over RMS’s books and records if there was a divorce. Do you think Rick wanted that?”
“Probably not,” Jill agreed.
“Now, I can’t say for sure exactly what motivated Shafer to kill his friend, but I would suspect it was because he realized if Lucius Jones were dead, he’d own the entire $53 million and nobody could challenge him.”
“Right. So, he had a 26.5 million dollar motive to kill Lucius. Well, I don’t agree that he is definitely the killer, but he does go to the top of the suspect list.”
“You think?” Matt said sarcastically.
“So, he kidnapped Candy so you wouldn’t bring all this out in court?”
“Exactly. He couldn’t afford for Samantha to find out about Seismic. That’s why I think he’ll let her go now.”
“Because if he doesn’t, you’ll give Samantha a call.”
“Now you’re with me,” Matt said.
“Well good, I hope you’re right. In the meantime, we are on our way to Lake Lavon. Apparently Shafer has an old ranch house he bought to stay at when he went fishing.”
“Good. You can call me on my cell if you need me.”
“Will do,” Jill said and hung up.
Tom looked at Jill expectantly. She filled him in on what she’d learned.
“Sounds like a hell of a motive. Why don’t you get someone to look at those surveillance tapes we caught Cindy Sharp on? Maybe Rick Shafer’s face will show up.”
“Good idea,” Jill said as she pushed a speed dial number on her cell phone. A moment later she told someone to check the surveillance tape and hung up.
“We’ve got a lot of unidentified fingerprints at the crime scene,” Tom noted. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and find one of Shafer’s.”
“Yeah, but since he’s Lucius’s best friend I’m sure he goes by the office from time to time. He’ll just say he left the prints at an earlier meeting.”
“Maybe, but I’m sure the offices are cleaned every night, so that excuse may not fly.”
When they got to Shafer’s property at Lake Lavon it appeared deserted. They got out of their car and approached the house warily. Tom looked down at the ground.
“These are fresh tire tracks. Someone has been here today,” he said.
“Maybe he picked up his boat and went fishing,” Jill speculated, looking over at an outbuilding to her right. “Bet that’s where he keeps his boat.”
They walked over to the outbuilding. The door was ajar, so they walked in. A spare outboard motor was lying on the ground amid an assortment of engine parts, an old anchor, and a torn life jacket. Tom saw a beer can sitting on a workbench.
“I bet this will have Shafer’s fingerprints and maybe some DNA,” Tom said.
“Leave it alone; we don’t have a search warrant.”
“Perhaps we should try to get one,” Tom said.
“You’re right. It’s getting late. Shafer should be getting back pretty soon. I’ll get someone working on a search warrant and we can stake the place out until he gets here.”
“Right. If we grab him and take him in for questioning before he touches anything, we’ll have some good evidence.”
“We better call the Collin County Sheriff’s office since we don’t have jurisdiction out here.”
“I’ll do that,” Tom said, “while you’re getting the evidence.”
They went back to their car and drove it out of sight where they could see the house but they couldn’t be seen. A detective at the sheriff’s office agreed to come out and stand by a short distance away in case they were needed. A half hour later the search warrant was issued and an officer was dispatched to bring it out to them. Now it was just a matter of waiting.
Just after dark they heard a vehicle driving up the dirt driveway. As it got closer they saw it was a Ford F-150 towing a Bass Tracker. As the truck
got up to the house, Tom turned on the lights and drove up behind the boat, blocking any attempt at an escape. Jill got on the radio and called for backup from the Collin County Sheriff’s office. Tom got out and approached the driver’s side door warily as a sheriff’s car pulled up behind them.
“Police officer! Step out of the car!”
A sheriff’s deputy ran up behind Tom, and another joined Jill on the passenger side of the truck. The door slowly opened, and Shafer stepped out with his hands in the air. He was a middle-aged white man of medium build, with thick brown hair and blue eyes.
“What’s this about?” Shafer demanded.
“We have a few questions for you about Lucius Jones and Matt Coleman,” Tom replied.
“Didn’t I talk to you guys a few weeks ago?”
“Yes, you may have,” Jill interjected, “but there’s been some new developments.”
“So, what do you want now? I told you all I know.”
“We have a search warrant for your house and outbuildings,” she explained. “We’re going to search your house first and then ask questions. These deputies will take you to the sheriff’s office in McKinney and we’ll be there shortly after we are finished with the search.”
“A search warrant? What the hell for?”
“We’ll explain it all to you at the sheriff’s office.”
“I want a lawyer,” Shafer said.
“We are not arresting you, Mr. Shafer. We just want to ask you a few questions.”
“Like what?” Shafer spat.
“Like, do you know where Candace Kane is?”
“Who?”
“Candace Kane. She was abducted this afternoon from a West End restaurant in Dallas.”
“I’ve been fishing all day. I don’t know anything about it.”
“Was anyone with you?”
“Sure, Luke Meyers came along. I dropped him off at his house ten minutes ago.”
“Okay, give the sheriff’s deputy the information on Luke Meyers and we’ll check it out.”
“So, is that it?”
“No, I’m afraid not. . . . We have other questions for you, but we want to conduct our search first.”
“What are you looking for?”
“Anything to tie you to Ms. Kane’s abduction.”
“I told you, I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“I know. Just hang tight.”
The officer took Shafer away, and Jill, Tom, and the remaining sheriff’s deputy began searching the premises and the outbuildings. An hour went by and they hadn’t found anything relating to Lucius Jones or Seismic Engineering until the sheriff’s deputy announced he’d found a pair of shoes with blood spatter on them. Jill rushed over and examined the shoes without touching them. It looked like Shafer had made an attempt to wipe the blood off the outside of the shoes but hadn’t noticed that blood had gotten in the seams.
“He should have thrown these in the fire,” Jill said, laughing.
“Well, you don’t know that it’s Jones’s blood, or even human blood, for that matter.”
“These are shoes you would wear fishing,” Jill noted.
“Well, we’ll have to see what the crime lab says. In the meantime we better get over and interview Shafer before his lawyer shows up.”
Jill nodded, and they left the sheriff’s deputy to wait for the crime lab unit to arrive. On the way to the sheriff’s office Jill called Matt.
“Hey, we have Shafer, but he claims not to know anything about Candace Kane. He’s got an alibi that looks solid, too. I’m sorry.”
“Damn!” Matt said. “Who has her, then?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you drive up to the sheriff’s office in McKinney. We could use your help in questioning Shafer about the murder. I know you explained the whole thing to me, but it’s pretty complicated. We can also get you with the FBI so they can start looking for your girlfriend.”
“Okay. I’m on my way,” Matt said and hung up.
When Tom and Jill got to the sheriff’s office, they were told Rick Shafer was in an interview room waiting for them. Jill went in first while Tom and the sheriff’s deputy watched from the viewing room. Shafer sat up when Jill came in and sat down.
“Finally. I’ve been here over an hour.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Shafer, but I wanted to thoroughly search your house before I talked to you.”
“You didn’t find anything, did you?”
“Not much,” Jill said, not wanting to alarm Shafer and have him clam up.
“You talked about a lawyer earlier, so I presume you know your rights.”
Shafer nodded.
“You have the right to remain silent; if you talk to us everything you say can and will be used against you should charges be brought. You have the right to an attorney and if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you.”
“I’ve got several attorneys, and if I need more I can get them.”
“Well, your alibi seems to check out. So, you’re in the clear on the Candace Kane kidnapping.”
“You’re damn right I’m in the clear. I’ve never heard of the woman.”
“We have some more questions about Lucius Jones’s murder, though.”
“Like what? I told you all I know.”
“Well, at the time we were just gathering information, but now we have some concerns that you might be involved.”
“Me? That’s ridiculous. Lucius was my best friend.”
“I know. Where were you on the day he was murdered?”
Shafer was silent a moment. “I don’t know. Let me think. . . . I was on my way home from a closing in Dallas.”
“On one of your Seismic Engineering acquisitions?”
Shafer gave Jill a cold stare. “How did you know about Seismic?”
“I’ll ask the questions, Mr. Shafer, if you don’t mind.”
“Okay.”
“So, when did the closing end?”
“I don’t know, three or three thirty.”
“So, where did you go after the closing?”
“Home. I wanted to beat the traffic.”
“How far away was the closing from Lucius Jones’s office?”
He shrugged. “Ten minutes.”
“So, you didn’t stop in to say hello?”
“Ah. No. Like I said, I went straight home.”
Jill gave Shafer a hard look, trying to see if she could unnerve him, but he just looked right back at her with cold eyes. She felt good that he didn’t seem to have an alibi and was admittedly close by Jones’s office just before the murder. She just needed something to force him into a corner so he’d make a mistake.
“So, tell me about Seismic Engineering. How long have you owned it?”
“Oh, God, forever. I formed it when I first got out of law school and was doing seismic testing out in west Texas.”
“Do you still do that kind of work?”
“No. Oil prices dropped and drill activity came to a screeching halt, so I had to come up with another way to make a living.”
“Hmm. So, what does Seismic do now?”
“I buy foreclosed properties from RMS, Lucius’s company, fix them up, and then sell them.”
“Was Lucius a part owner?”
“No. It’s always been my baby.”
“So, do you have to bid at the foreclosure sales?”
“Right.”
“Do you ever have anyone bidding against you?”
“Not often. It’s hard for people to bid on this property because they have to come in with cash or have financing already lined up.”
“So how do you know what to bid?” Jill asked.
“Lucius would call me and tell me what it would take to acquire the property. Then I’d attend the foreclosure sale.”
“How much have you made over the years buying houses from RMS?”
Shafer’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know. Not that much. I’m mainly worried about losing money.”
“So, w
hy do it, then?”
“I don’t know. I make enough money to make it worthwhile, but I’m not going to get rich.”
“What about the oil royalties?”
Shafer’s mouth dropped. He squirmed in his chair but said nothing.
“We know you have hundreds of mineral interests you’ve retained.”
“So? That’s not a crime the last I checked.”
“What do you think Samantha would say about it?”
“Don’t you dare tell that bitch. Seismic has nothing to do with her.”
“You were worried about her finding out about Seismic, weren’t you?”
“Of course I was. She’s one greedy bitch, but it’s my property and she has nothing to do with it.”
“So, you couldn’t take a chance on her finding out. Is that why you killed Lucius?”
“No. I didn’t kill him. Why in the hell would I do that?”
“Because he was the only one who knew half of Seismic belonged to him. It was his stash in case she took him to the cleaners.”
“No. No way. That’s my business. That’s my money.”
“You know we’ve found your prints in Jones’s office,” Jill lied.
“So? I go there all the time.”
“But we’ve checked, and the night janitors claim they wipe everything clean each night.”
“Yeah. Of course they’d say that. What do you expect them to say, they do a half-assed job?”
“Did you plan to kill him or was it a spur-of-the-moment thing?”
“I didn’t kill him!” Shafer protested. “He was my best friend.”
“But he’d never cut you in on anything before. Only when he needed to hide money from his wife did he give you a piece of the action. That must have pissed you off, huh?”
Shafer face was red now with anger. Jill pressed on.
“We know you went to his office. A surveillance camera at the bank down the street caught you heading for his office,” Jill lied again.
Shafer stiffened. He looked down, and his breathing became heavy. He began to sweat.
“So, were you two arguing about the divorce? Did he want you to do something for him? Give him some of the royalty money? What happened? Tell me. I’m going to find out sooner or later. Rich Coleman and his son have already figured it out. Matt will be here any minute to explain it all.”
Shafer took a deep breath and shook his head. “Those bastards! God damn them. Okay, okay. Lucius wanted me to set up an offshore company in both our names and then transfer all the mineral interests to it. He said it would be safer, but I knew once it was in that offshore company somehow he’d figure a way to steal it from me. I told him no. I liked it right where it was.”
“But he insisted?”
“Yeah. And I knew once he got his mind set on something there was no fighting him, so I had no choice.”
“You figured nobody would know about Seismic if he were dead.”
He chuckled, his eyes glazing over. “Yeah. That’s right.”
“So, you killed him?”
He nodded. “I saw the letter opener. So I picked it up and held it at my side so he wouldn’t see it. Then I told him I’d go ahead and transfer the mineral interests. He was happy that I had relented and went over to fix us a drink. While his back was turned I came up from behind and stuck the letter opener through his neck. He gasped in pain, and blood came rushing out of his mouth. After I wiped the handle of the letter opener clean, I left and went home. I didn’t think about surveillance cameras.”
“Because you hadn’t planned the murder in advance.”
“Right. He forced my hand.”
“Well, that’s good. The court might be more lenient since it was a spur-of-the-moment thing.”
Jill signaled to Tom, and he came in and cuffed Shafer. “You’re under arrest for the murder of Lucius Jones.” Tom turned Shafer over to the sheriff’s deputy, who took him to a holding cell.
“Nicely done!” Tom said.
Jill smiled. “Yes, thanks to Matt and Rich Coleman. They did have it all figured out after all.”