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"This again." She gave me attitude and I loved it. "Look, I already told you, I don’t know anything else to tell you. My brother is missing. I want you to find him. That’s it."
"Good night, Mrs. Childers." I got up from the bar.
"Where are you going?" She touched my hand. The helpless Mrs. Childers had returned. I continued the game.
"I’ll have a courier deliver a check for the refund of your retainer." I even started to walk off. She held my hand tighter.
"Please don’t go. Sit down, please."
I sat down, trying my best to act like I was reluctant. "Now, you have to start telling me everything you know. Now."
"Nick, I have told you everything I know."
"Okay, lets start with what was your brothers involvement with your husband?"
"I don’t know. Neither of them would tell me anything about what they were doin’."
"What was your brother involved in?"
"This is stupid, Nick. How many times can I say this? I just don’t fuckin’ know any thing. Jake never told me anything about what the fuck he was doin’. Do you understand me now?"
"This picture was taken at the same party as the picture you gave me. I got it out of your brothers safe." I took out the picture and handed them to her. "Who are they?"
"This one is Pamela Hendricks. And that looks like LaShawn. I don’t know what her last name is. She came to the party with Pamela."
"Does your brother know them?"
"I don’t keep up with all of Jake’s friends."
"Does your brother know them?"
"He might have met Pamela at some party. And LaShawn runs with Rocky, so he probably knows her too."
"What were they doin’ at the party, Mrs. Childers? Who invited them?"
"I did."
"Who are they? How do you know them?"
"I’ve known Pamela for years. She was my supervisor at the bank when I was in Kansas City."
"What does she do, fly in for parties?"
"No, Pamela got a job at Manhattan Bank as an Area Manager and she moved here years ago."
"Banker, huh. She have any involvement with your husband?"
"Not that I know of. She knows him, naturally. But I don’t involve myself at all with Chilly’s business. So even if she did have some business with Chilly, I wouldn’t know it."
I was starting to believe her. She really didn’t know anything or she was giving me an academy award winning performance. Either way, it didn’t change anything.
"What’s does any if this have to do with Pamela?"
"She’s dead." I dropped the morgue pictures in front of her for impact. I picked them up along with mine. I figured Kirk must have wanted me to have them since he left them sitting there.
"My God."
"The police think she died of a cocaine overdose."