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He stepped aside. I got in my SUV and headed for KWMT-TV.
****
Nothing like a little sparring to get the blood moving.
After checking in that it worked with Audrey’s plans for Nala Choi, I also gave the young reporter the outlines of what Brenda had told me about her cousin’s experiences after hearing tips from one of my Helping Out! segments.
“Consider it a good news feature, but also see what the guy was wanted for in Montana in case he wasn’t just a small fry.”
“Potential news story,” she murmured as she took notes.
“Exactly. If it was anything big, we should have heard about it when it happened, but...”
At the time this story would have happened, a lot of things were falling through the crack known as Thurston Fine, our former anchor. Especially when he turned off the police scanner so as not to disturb his naps. “Be sure to check where in Montana. We broadcast into areas up there.”
“Like the follow-up about the Montana deputy’s investigating that I did before Christmas.”
“Right. We want to keep in touch up there, build loyalty among viewers and contacts among potential sources.”
“Got it.”
****
After preliminary research, I took a stab at getting Keefer Dobey’s DNA test results from the company HelixKin.
I examined a mental list of paths and started with a cold call, not identifying myself or the station. I told the customer service person that an uncle had received a DNA test as a gift, but he’d lost the results. I didn’t muddy the waters with the possibility the results hadn’t arrived yet. Let them tell me if that was the case.
She told me to have him log in online with his account number.
Oh, forgetful uncle couldn’t remember that, either.
She’d mail him a copy if I gave her his complete name.
Fat lot of good that did me. All Keefe’s mail would go to Shelton.
I blithered about him being a snowbird preparing to move north for spring and we’d wait until he’d settled to get back to them, and got off the phone before she noted my number as suspicious.
I debated which tack to try next and decided on media relations.
Some media relations people truly are about being a bridge between their company and the media. They communicate, facilitate, translate.
Too many are human roadblocks. If someone called to tell them they’d won a lottery ticket, they’d spend ten minutes saying it was impossible for the caller to talk to them — even though they were already talking to them.
This time I did identify myself, delivered the sad news that one of their customers had died, with oblique references to foul play, and intimated the death could connect to his recent receipt of the results of his DNA test from them.
“To clear this up and find answers for justice and his family—”
“We cannot give a third party the results. Not even under these circumstances.”
I pushed a bit more, but she wasn’t yielding.
She wasted both our time by apologizing over and over. That always strikes me as passive-aggressive, meant to manipulate the person being apologized to into saying it was okay.
It wasn’t.
She could have spared me that.
As soon as we disconnected, and leaving no time for the woman to put out a talk-to-no-one about Keefer Dobey advisory, I called the VP I’d previously selected from the list of HelixKin executives — making sure there was no mention of a law degree in his background. What was in his background was a stint at a company that had imploded from fraud. I’d covered that story.
