Page 48

Other than the one picture of her and LaShawn at the party, there wasn’t anything to connect Pamela with Jake. LaShawn came courtesy of Rocky and Mrs. Childers couldn’t say definitely that Pamela knew Jake. The cause of death connected her to LaShawn, but not Jake. "Pamela Hendricks, you begin to interest me." Now I needed to know where Pamela lived, and I didn’t want to ask Kirkland. The need for Mrs. Childers to make an appearance just became more business than personal. It was better that way. Keep it strictly business.
But my mind was on Mrs. Childers. Wondering why she hadn’t at least called. Maybe Rocky told Chilly that she had hired me to find Jake and he did something to her. I was surprised that he didn’t want her to know anything about Jake being missing, or that he was looking for him. He didn’t seem to be the type of guy that it would matter to.
What was going on between Chilly and Jake? What shit wouldn’t work? The answer to one would lead me to the other. And that would lead me to Jake. By two in the morning I had given up on her, and had begun to nod out. "Time to get out of here." But I wanted to finish up my case notes with my new observations before I left.
But my chair was so comfortable.
Thursday July 16: 10:05 AM
The next thing I knew, the sun was shinning bright, I had fallen asleep.
I left another voice message for Mrs. Childers. Since I hadn’t heard from her, I didn’t have much of a choice. I either had to ask Detective Kirkland for Pamela Hendricks address or make my third search of Jake’s apartment. I chose the latter. This was starting to get old. I was on my way to search this apartment for the third time, and was starting to realize it took more than just the title to do this type of work.
But I liked it.
So if I was going to continue doin’ it, I would have to be more thorough, more organized. I arrived at Jake’s apartment, but this time I was prepared to stay awhile. I brought a camera, tape recorder, and a pad. This time I went from room to room and took pictures of and cataloged everything. I wrote down and recorded my observations, no matter how small or insignificant. Everything mattered.
I came across what I was looking for, Jake’s address book. There under H, as it should be, I found Pamela’s address. Determined not to have any need to return, I photographed the entire book. I was about to leave when I looked out the window. There they were. The police. I should have known that they would have the place under surveillance. I knew as soon as I walked out, they would take me into custody for questioning, and my notes, pictures, and the tape would become evidence in the investigation. I turned on Jake’s computer and scanner. I could scan the notes and made a wav file of the tape. Then I downloaded the pictures from the camera and e-mail them to myself.
"Did Kirk give you much grief?" Wanda asked.
"Nah, threatened to lock me up for breaking and entering. But he really just wanted me to give him something. Kirk already knew, but he made me tell him that Mrs. Childers was my client."
"Kirk’s good, Nick. Very good. How long did they hold you?"
"A couple of hours, more or less."
"What did you give him?"
"Nothing really, ’cause that’s what I had, nothing. He had connected Pamela Hendricks to Mrs. Childers and wanted to push the money laundering angle down my throat. But I got the feeling that he really didn’t buy into it and wanted to know if I did."
"Did you?" Wanda asked.
"I was starting to, but I needed to be sure." I was starting to get a little tired myself. I closed my eyes and leaned back.
"What else?"
"The coroner still hasn’t officially assigned a cause of death in any of the cases." I was getting tired of answering questions.
"Did Kirk think that you were a suspect in the deaths of Pamela Hendricks and LaShawn?"
"No. If he did he never said."
"Other than Pamela Hendricks and LaShawn, how many more were there?"
"Five."
"He share any of the details?"
"Just time frame." I opened my eyes and Wanda was staring at me. But she looked away quickly. "He said the first five died within a 48 hour time frame. LaShawn died two days later and Pamela died almost two weeks after that."
"I got the impression that Rocky didn’t seem surprised to hear that LaShawn and Pamela were dead."
"I got the same impression. And after looking at the pictures, I needed to know what Pamela Hendricks involvement in all this was. I thought that if I knew more about her and why she died, I would be closer to the answers that I needed. Kirk let me go with his blessings to take a look around in Pamela’s apartment."
"His blessings?"
"Crime scene. That’s where her body was found."