Page 58 of State of Grace (First Family 2)

Sam gave Stella her business card. “Please call me if you think of anything else that might be relevant.” As she always did, she added, “The smallest thing can blow a case like this wide open.”

Stella took the card from her. “Pam would love that you’re investigating her case. She admired you and your husband very much.”

“That’s nice to hear. We’re sorry again about your friend.”

“Thank you.”

The husband saw them out.

When they were back in the frigid air, Sam glanced at Freddie. “That got us nowhere.”

“I thought she was handing us something with the kid’s friends.”

“Me, too, but of course it can never be that easy. Let’s try the next friend on the list.”

Paula Baxter lived on Quincy Place, about five blocks north of Pam’s home on M Street. Paula was sprinkling sand on her front stairs when Sam and Freddie approached her gate. When she realized who’d come to visit, she nearly fell down the steps. From outside the gate, Sam showed her gold badge while Freddie did the same.

“Lieutenant Holland, Detective Cruz with the MPD. Could we trouble you for a minute of your time?”

“Y-yes, of course. Please come in.”

She went ahead of them into a warm, cozy home in which bright color was the focal point. Rooms were painted in primary colors, including yellow, red and blue. The place gave Sam an immediate headache.

“This is about Pam, right?” Paula asked.

“That’s right.”

Paula led them into an orange kitchen with a profusion of colorful fruit ceramics. “Would you like some coffee?”

“If it’s no trouble,” Sam said, earning a surprised look from her partner. She liked to think she could still surprise him once in a while.

“No trouble at all. I just made a fresh pot.” She poured coffees for each of them and placed cream and sugar on the table.

“How did you hear about Pam?” Sam asked as she stirred cream into her coffee while Freddie dumped sugar into his.

“Our mutual friend Bev called me. Our boys play football together. They have since they were little. It’s such a shock. Pam was the nicest person. Always willing to help out with rides for parents who couldn’t get out of work. She’d say she was self-employed, and if she couldn’t be there for her kids when they needed her, what was the point?”

“I want to ask you something that will sound judgmental when I don’t mean it to be,” Sam said.

“Okay…”

“When Pam worked conferences, she went off the grid with her family for days at a time.”

Paula was nodding before Sam finished speaking. “I know, and she always made sure the rest of us were available for whatever the kids might need while she was away. She helped us the rest of the time, so we stepped up for her when she was working a show.”

“I’ll have to admit I feel better knowing it was part of a plan.”

“The shows were super intense. Often, she was the one running the whole thing, along with staff from the various organizations she worked for, of course, but she was in charge. It was often as much as sixteen hours a day for up to five or six days in a row. Bob and the kids left her alone when she was on-site at a show. They knew they could contact her if there was an emergency, but they tried not to bother her if they didn’t need to.”

“This helps me to understand their routine a little better.”

“She worked so hard for the companies she supported. She’d built that business from a very small company providing registration support to a full-service conference operation. We’re all so proud of what she accomplished and heartbroken that she’s been taken from her family and friends in such a senseless way.”

“Do you know of anyone who might’ve wanted her dead?”

“Not at all. Everyone who knew her loved her.”

Not everyone, Sam wanted to say but didn’t. “Has she had any disagreements with clients, friends, other parents, coaches?”