Shake Down Dead (19 page)

I thought that Decker had been right
last night when he said that sometimes all the facts just click
into place. I hoped that would happen with all the information I
was gathering about Whitney. I felt like I was getting to know
Whitney better than her friends and family.

I called Megan to see if she could help
me get a hold of her cousin, Bobby. “I want to talk to Bobby about
Whitney and her friends. Do you think she can help?”

“Bad timing, Jennifer. I’m in St. Paul
at a fund-raising luncheon for Charlie. I’ll call you back in two
minutes.”

The phone rang about five minutes
later. “I’m sorry but I had to excuse myself. I’m in the bathroom
of the Riverfront Hotel. It’s a pretty snazzy hotel. I try to find
the nicest places for these fundraisers. People with money want
more than a rubber chicken for the price of theses
tickets.”

“Meg, I’m glad Charlie is doing so
well. I’m sure he’ll make a great Governor.” I didn’t really
believed that but it seemed that a lot of Minnesotans did. “I found
out that Bobbette was the English teacher for Whitney and her
friends when they were at Hermann High. Will you help me get
together with her so I can find if she knows anything that might be
useful?”

“I’d love to help,” Megan said, “but
Bobby started grad school a few weeks ago for a Master’s in Special
Education. She’s at Perdue University in Indiana. I can probably
find a phone number for her if you want.”

“No, never mind,” I said, my
disappointment obvious in the tone of my voice. “It was just an
idea.”

“Is there something specific you want
to know?” Megan asked. “I can probably find another teacher who
knew the girls.”

“No, I doubt if anyone could have
gotten as close to those girls as Bobbette did. I just wanted to
pick her brain, you know get her talking about those girls and see
what she comes up with. She has a way of rambling and sometimes she
has some great info that she’s not even aware of.”

“Oh, that’s so true. She sure loves to
talk and sometimes she even says something.” I could hear Megan
laughing. “I need to get back to the luncheon, Jennifer. We can
talk more later, okay?”

I thanked her and hung up; trying to
convince myself that Bobbie wouldn’t have had anything useful to
tell me anyway.

I was tucking my phone into my pocket
when it rang. A glance showed me it was Decker calling.

“Hi, what are you up to?”

“I just got my hair cut. How did court
go for you?” I asked.

“Just the usual DUI case. That guy
won’t be driving for awhile. He’s lucky he didn’t get thrown in
jail for a couple months. Have you had lunch?”

“Gee, is it that time already? Where
did the morning go?” I asked, looking at my watch. It was
twelve-thirty.

“Meet you at the Dixie Diner?” Decker
asked.

“I’m on my way,” I replied, breaking
the connection, putting my phone in my purse and backing out of the
parking space all in one fluid motion. I can work fast when food is
on the schedule.

When I pulled into the Dixie Diner, I
saw Decker’s truck in the first row. Unfortunately, I didn’t find a
space that close. A few rain drops hit my windshield as I parked my
SUV. I hurried across the parking lot hoping I’d get inside before
the rain got worse. I opened the door just as lightening slashed
across the sky and thunder boomed.

I spotted Decker in the corner booth
where he usually sat, coffee cup to his lips. I slid in across from
him and asked if he had ordered yet.

“No, darlin’, I was waiting for you. I
like your hair-do.”

“Do you? I was afraid it might be too
short.”

“Nope; looks sexy.” Decker winked at
me.

“Oh. Well, that’s a good look.” I loved
it when he flirted with me.

“Sure is, Jen. I’ll show you how much
later,” He said, wiggling his eyebrows at me. He really thought
that was a cute come-on. I thought it made him look lecherous.
Sometimes I found him just adorable.

Pam walked over to take our order. “Hi,
guys. Ready to order?”

“Just about. How are you feeling today,
Pam?” I asked.

“Oh, I’m fine, Jennifer. Thanks for
helping me the other day. Guess I really shook up
Maureen.”

“You shook me up, too. I’m surprised
that you’re at work today.”

“I can’t afford to take off work here.
I didn’t even tell my boss what happened at the library. Mort
called me last night. He said that he would understand if I didn’t
want to work at the library anymore. I told him there was no way I
would let someone else decide what I’ll do. Besides, they rely on
us volunteers.”

“You must really like volunteering at
the library. You sure you feel okay?” Decker asked.

“I love being around books and the
library really needs the help,” Pam said. “Last year they had
budget cuts, just like everyone else and when two of the staff
retired last year, they decided to use volunteers instead of hiring
more clerks so they could stay open evenings and Saturdays. They
used to be open on Sundays, but they had to stop doing that. It’s a
shame. Listen to me rambling on. I’ll go put in your
orders.”

After she scooted away to the kitchen
for our club sandwiches and fries, I said to Decker, “I’m going to
see if I can meet with her here when she gets off work, before she
goes over to the library. I’m sure she has some information we can
use. She’s so smart and she’s very observant.”

“Not so observant that she noticed who
bonked her on the head,” he replied.

When Pam brought our orders, I
convinced her to meet with me for a few minutes after her shift,
before she went to the library.

“I promise I won’t take more than a few
minutes of your time, Pam. I know how busy you are.”

“Okay, but I really can’t stay long.
They depend on me at the library.”

“I understand that,” I assured her. “I
think you might have some information about Whitney that you’re not
even aware of and that could be very helpful to our
investigation.”

“Well, I’m not so sure about that, but
I can give you a couple minutes. I get off at three-thirty. If
you’re not here, I can’t wait for you.”

Decker chuckled at Pam’s remark.
“Someone must have told her about your lack of punctuality
lately.”

“Oh, shush. I’m only late when I’ve
been working at one of Charlie’s campaign events. Megan always
finds other things to do when it’s time for cleaning
up.”

“Sure, Jennifer; it’s all Megan’s
fault,” Decker said, tweaking me under the chin.

“
Give me a call after you
meet with Pam to let me know what she said. Okay?”

“Will do,” I replied and gave him a
little salute.

24

I finished up my last delivery and
headed for the Dixie Diner. It was three o’clock. I pressed down on
the accelerator as soon as I left the city limits of Sleepy Eye. No
way was I going to be late. For a change, when I pulled into the
Dixie Diner, I found a parking place near the door. It was three
twenty-five. I entered the diner and spotted Pam coming through a
door marked “Employees Only.” I had made it just in
time.

We sat down in a little booth near the
kitchen door. I had seen waitresses sit there during breaks.
“Thanks for meeting with me, Pam. I know you’re very
busy.”

“I don’t know how I can help you. I
didn’t see who hit me.”

“I know but you’re Whitney’s cousin.
I’m looking for information about her.”

“I don’t know what happened to her. I
haven’t even spoken to her in months.”

“Why is that?” This was new information
to me.

“Oh, we had an argument. Not the first,
by any means. She just got on my nerves and I told her
off.”

“Pam, will you tell me what it was all
about?” I crossed my fingers and hoped she trusted me enough to
tell me.

Pam sighed then sat up straighter in
the booth and leaned over toward me. She began speaking in a much
lower voice. “Okay, but don’t let Aunt Henrietta know I told you
this. That poor woman has enough problems.”

I nodded my head in agreement, afraid
if I said anything that Pam would change her mind.

“Last summer Whitney called me and said
that she needed to meet with me. I couldn’t imagine what she wanted
because she sure hasn’t been friendly with me since she went off to
college.”

Pam pulled a paper napkin from the
holder on the table and began shredding it into strips. “Well, I
met her after work and she said that she knew a way we could make
some money. I knew this couldn’t be good because if she had an
honest way to make money, she wouldn’t have called me.”

By now the whole napkin was in strips.
Pam picked up a ribbon of paper and started to roll it into a ball.
“She told me she knew some things about people who would be willing
to pay to keep that information under wraps. She told me all I had
to do was open a bank account in my name so the money couldn’t be
traced back to her. She said she’d give me twenty-five percent of
whatever she was paid.”

“Oh, my,” I said, leaning forward.
“What did you tell her?”

Pam sat back and crushed all the napkin
pieces into a ball. “I told her she was nuts! There’s no way I was
getting involved in blackmail. She tried to tell me that it was
okay because I wouldn’t really be doing anything wrong. She must
have thought that I had just fallen off the cabbage truck. I knew
she was breaking the law and I wasn’t about to have anything to do
with it.”

“Good for you. Did you tell anyone what
she was up to?”

“No, she didn’t tell me the names of
the people she was going to blackmail. I tried to reason with her,
telling her that if she got caught she’d go to jail and her poor
mother wouldn’t have anyone to take care of her.”

“What did she say to that?” I
asked.

Pam leaned closer to me again. “She
said her mother could rot in hell. That she was tired of having a
drunken old woman eating up her whole paycheck. And she also told
me if I breathed a word of this to anyone that I’d be sorry. I
guess I believed her because I didn’t tell anyone about it. She was
kind of spooky when she was mad.”

“Don’t you think that you should tell
Lieutenant Jacobs about this? Whitney can’t hurt you
now.”

“No way! Don’t you see? Someone she
tried to blackmail must know what Whitney said to me. That’s why I
was attacked at the library. I’m scared to death to go into the
elevator there now.”

“You think that whoever Whitney tried
to blackmail overheard part of your conversation with her? Where
did you and Whitney meet when you had this discussion?”

“At Charlie Jackson’s campaign
headquarters. She volunteered there some evenings and weekends. I
don’t know why. She was never very political. She probably thought
he was cute.”

“Was Charlie there when you talked to
Pam?” There was Charlie again, right in the middle of
things.

“I don’t know. His office door was
closed. He could have been there. Why?”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to share my
information with Pam. It sounded like Pam was just trying to stay
out of Whitney’s stupid plan to blackmail people. After all,
Charlie had the most dollar signs after his name on the list. But
what if Pam had decided to go along with the shakedown and the
killer knew it? Maybe Pam was even the killer, keeping the money
for herself.

“I don’t know, it was just a thought.
Were there any other people there?” I asked to get off the subject
of Charlie.

“No, it was late on a Friday night and
everyone except Whitney and I had left. Oh, yes, there was a
cleaning lady there but I’m sure she didn’t hear anything. She was
cleaning in the bathroom when I got there and had to use the ladies
room. She didn’t come while we were there.”

“Who was the cleaning lady?” I
asked.

“I don’t know. I didn’t really see her
face. She was in a stall with her back to me. I guess she was
cleaning the toilet.”

Was that the truth or just a tidbit to
get me looking in another direction? I needed to talk to Decker
about this.

“I just have a couple more questions
for you,” I said. “Why didn’t you attend Whitney’s memorial
service?”

“I wasn’t invited.”

“Really? Why didn’t Henrietta invite
you?”

“You need to understand, I was the poor
cousin. Aunt Henrietta and Whitney thought of me as a charity
project. Henrietta grew up with my father and they were dirt poor.
My dad worked at the brewery all his life. He got killed in a car
accident when I was little.”

I didn’t tell Pam that I knew from
Bernie that Pam’s father was drunk when he hit a tree and killed
himself. I was sure that Pam knew it and had decided to tell it
this way.

“When Daddy died,” she continued, “my
mother had to get a job and support us. She didn’t think she had
any skills and was working at a laundry when Uncle Graham called
her to tell her they were looking for a seamstress to alter clothes
for customers at the Federated Department Store. She worked there
until she retired. She made more money than at the laundry and the
work was much easier for her. And she loved to sew.”