LAS VEGAS — The dots have yet to be connected for jurors, but prosecutors trying to prove that Margaret Rudin murdered her millionaire husband began laying the groundwork Monday for a claim that Rudin attempted to create an alibi with a late-night visit to a woman she had never met.

Carol Kawazoe, a tax preparer who often worked into the wee hours in an office she rented from slain real estate mogul Ron Rudin, testified that she told her husband that she found it strange when Margaret Rudin knocked on the door with an offer to buy her coffee. Prosecutors and police believe the 2:25 a.m. visit by the defendant to C&C Taxes on Dec. 19, 1994, occurred after Ron Rudin was shot in the head with four .22-caliber bullets.

"I had never met her before ... I thought it was odd that I would have a visitor at 2:30 in the morning," said Kawazoe, who rented 800 square feet of space in a complex that also housed Ron Rudin's real estate office and Margaret Rudin's antiques shop.

Kawazoe, whose long brown hair flowed over a blue blouse and olive-green suit, giggled nervously as she answered questions from prosecutor Gary Guymon about the visit. She smiled when she identified Margaret Rudin, seated at the defense table, as the woman who introduced herself that night and talked for 30 minutes to an hour. The 57-year-old widow faces a possible life sentence if convicted.

Kawazoe read about Ron Rudin's mysterious disappearance in newspapers during the weeks that followed, but she testified that she did not see or speak to Margaret Rudin again until Jan. 14, 1995. It was a Saturday and Kawazoe was late for an appointment, she recalled on the witness stand, but Rudin wanted to talk about her fear that her missing husband had been killed and that his business associates had allegedly stolen $18,000 meant for her.

"She was kind of broke, I'd say. She was also a little upset. She was very upset," Kawazoe said. "She was rambling about many different things. She was rambling about Ron having girlfriends ... She spoke about him having affairs."

Launching the second week of the prosecution's case, Kawazoe's testimony supports the prosecution's argument that Rudin killed her husband out of jealousy and to get more than $6 million, her share of his $11-million estate.

But Kawazoe also may have helped the defense, which is trying to establish reasonable doubt by offering up other viable suspects and motives that were not pursued vigorously by police. Specifically, Kawazoe testified that during their second meeting Rudin spoke about her belief that Ron Rudin met foul play because of shady land dealings.

"When I told her to have hope, she said, 'You don't understand these people, how dangerous they are,'" Kawazoe testified.

Ron Rudin's charred body, which had been decapitated, was discovered near Lake Mohave one week after Kawazoe and Margaret Rudin spoke.

Under a contentious cross-examination by defense lawyer Tom Pitaro, Kawazoe became argumentative and, at times, unresponsive. Pitaro, trying to show that Kawazoe had changed her testimony since she appeared before a grand jury in 1997, raised his voice and snapped at the witness several times. Judge Joseph Bonaventure, who has expressed increasing frustration over the slow pace of the trial, admonished Pitaro to go easy on the witness and pleaded with Kawazoe only to answer questions posed.

"Mr. Pitaro, you're being a little hard on this witness. She's not on trial here," Bonaventure said outside of the jury's presence. Later he told Kawazoe, with the 12 jurors and six alternates seated, "You're a tough witness, you know that? You don't listen to me."

Pitaro, during questioning that lasted all morning, managed to get Kawazoe to acknowledge inconsistencies between her testimony Monday, previous grand jury testimony and statements to police.

Before the break, Bonaventure told both sides that the pace of the trial is too slow and that he is considering Saturday sessions. Bonaventure said he is inclined to excuse a male juror, a teacher at a school for children with behavior disorders, by week's end. The man told Bonaventure that he believes his extended absence is negatively affecting his students.

"I believe what we are doing here is important. I didn't try to get on the jury and I didn't try to get out of it," the juror told the judge. "At this point my students need me more than the court needs me."

Lack of concern

Jurors who appeared to be bored or weary of the verbal wrestling between Pitaro and Kawazoe perked up during the testimony of the next witness, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police report-taker Sandra Wassall. Nearly all of the jurors picked up long-dormant notebooks as Wassall described Margaret Rudin's demeanor in a telephone call the day after Ron Rudin disappeared.

Wassall said she called Margaret Rudin after two of Ron Rudin's employees, Sharon Melton and Ronald Danner, reported him missing. Margaret Rudin did not seem too anxious to file a formal missing person report, Wassall said.

"I really felt that she did not have concern. I didn't hear concern in her voice," Wassall testified. "It was like a lack of concern. Lackadaisical, like I'll file if I have to."

During questioning from Pitaro, Wassall conceded that she only spoke to Rudin briefly, did most of the talking and did not reduce her feelings about Rudin's demeanor to writing.

"It was from that that you discerned that Mrs. Rudin lacked concern?" Pitaro asked.

"Exactly," the witness responded.

Another police department clerk, Iris Meccia, testified Monday afternoon that Margaret Rudin appeared upset while filing a formal missing person report on Dec. 20, 1994. Rudin was accompanied by Danner, who has since died, when she reported that her husband was wearing a black shirt, slacks and cowboy boots when he was last seen.

"At times she was crying," Meccia said.

The next witness seemed to bolster the prosecution's claim that Margaret Rudin did not act concerned about her husband's disappearance because she knew what had become of him. Las Vegas police detective Frank Janise testified that all contact he had with Margaret Rudin during the three weeks he worked on the case was initiated by himself or his partner, Detective Pat Barry.

Janise, on cross-examination by Pitaro, said the defendant signed a consent-to-search form and that he never smelled any foul odor in the Rudin's bedroom. Prosecutors believe Rudin shot her husband in the couple's bedroom. A witness who is expected to take the stand later this week is expected to testify that he smelled a foul odor and observed a dark-colored stain when he removed carpet from the Rudin's bedroom after the killing.