Smoke, Mirrors, and Murder

gesture in the record.
    “You’re a liar,” Jensen growled.
    The reporter marked the tape at the spot where the threat was made and they continued on. But later, Bill Jensen drew himself up to his full height and leaned across the table, staring at Janet Brooks.
    “He looked at me, and told me to be very careful, and watch out for myself and what I was doing…”
    Bill Jensen was a master at intimidation. Two months later, Sue’s attorney withdrew from representing her in her divorce. Maybe he’d only been acting, but his threat had been too ominous for her to continue. She was frank with Sue as she said, “I’m sorry you have to deal with this kind of harassment, Sue, but I don’t, and I’m withdrawing from your case. I’ve had enough. I’m done.”
    Sue couldn’t really blame her. Bill could be very scary.
    “Janet was a strong, tough woman,” Sue said. “But she didn’t want to deal with Bill.”
    Both Janet Brooks and Sue Jensen had called the police to report Bill’s threats. The responding detective asked Sue if she thought Bill was going to act on his threat, and she replied that she really didn’t know. He had always been full of bluster and threats. He had been physically abusive at times, but more often she was the victim of emotional abuse. She was still embarrassed to admit that Bill had hurt her physically two or three times a year in the two decades they’d been married. She’d never told anyone about that, only her sister.
    At this point Sue was far more worried about Bill’s driving her attorney away than she was that he might hurt her. He had threatened her so many times; she thought it was probably just more of his intimidation.
    But she admitted that sometimes she was very frightened of Bill, afraid of his “exploding.”
    Bill had numerous problems that might well push him to the point of losing control. Beyond the credit card charges that Bill Jensen had run up for motels and hotels, restaurants, plane tickets, and the other things he had purchased since June 2001, his gambling debts were huge. While he had been a savvy gambler in playing the stock market during his marriage, he appeared to have no talent at all at the various gaming tables in Las Vegas.
    In the same month that he derided and threatened Sue Jensen and her attorney, he was charged criminally by the District Attorney’s Office in Las Vegas. It was not at all unusual for the prosecutor in a city where gambling was the top industry, to send out bad-check notices to those who had wagered more than they could afford. The office had a standard form printed just for that. But Bill hadn’t responded to the “Notice of Bad Checks” letters, and DA Stewart L. Bell followed up with several “Warning of Criminal Charges” letters.
    On July 13, 2001, Jensen had written an NSF check to the Paris/Bally’s Hotel & Casino for $20,000, which brought with it $2,065 in penalties. Between July 12 and July 28, 2001, the Aladdin Resort and Casino took more bad checks, which, with penalties, totaled $26,545. After negotiations, Jensen agreed to repay the $48,610 in monthly payments of $200 for six months, and a final lump sum payoff on November 15, 2002.
    Initially, Bill had been welcomed to a number of hotels in Las Vegas and given club cards offered to high rollers. But he was an abysmally inept gambler. Estimated accountings sent out to club members to use when they paid the IRS indicated Bill’s losses.

    These losses alone from five casinos—more than $157,000—would have wiped out Bill Jensen’s retirement benefits from the sheriff’s office. Some accountings showed only his losses; others indicated the amount he had put into slot machines.
     
    Bill seemed to be teetering on the edge of self-destruction. Although he had ignored Sue’s attempts to make their marriage better, he was now absolutely crazed because she had had the nerve to leave him and ask for a fair division of their property. He appeared to be determined to spend every cent he could get his hands on, on hedonistic ventures and other women. Sue was kept busy trying to plug holes in the dike that had once been her stable financial assets. She was able to retrieve some of the assets Bill had either spent or stolen.
    The following year, 2002, Bill was living in an apartment only a few miles from Newport Hills, and his children visited him a few times. But he wasn’t living alone, and Jenny’s and Scott’s visits were nightmarish. They both still