Chapter Fifteen #2
“I know! That’s what I told her.”
“Is Dad home yet?”
“Not yet, but he texted to say he’s on the way soon. I’m going over to Grandpa Skip’s house. He wants to know how school was.”
“I’ll be home in a little while. I’ll see you then.”
“Okay. Thanks for calling.”
Sam closed the phone. “Can I laugh now?”
“Better now than when he can hear you.”
“It’s so funny to me how he’s so much like me in some ways and so much like Nick in others. I used to go into a deep, dark funk on the first day of school. Dyslexia made my life a living hell, but of course no one knew what it was back then. I feel his pain.”
“He’s so damned cute. I wouldn’t be able to hold it together if my kid was saying that kind of stuff. Another reason why I probably shouldn’t have kids.”
“We already talked about that. You are having kids, and that’s the end of it.”
“Um, by the way… In case you don’t already know this, you’re my boss at work. You’re not the boss of the rest of my life.”
“Where the hell did you get that idea? I am the boss of you. Period. You’re having kids. That subject is closed.”
“You’re completely out of control.”
“You say that like this is news to you or something.”
He busted up laughing. “You are entertaining to have around. I’ll give you that.”
“I do what I can for the people.”
“That thing with Ramsey was intense.”
“Yeah.”
“Are you okay? I mean, he said some crappy shit—”
“I’m fine. He doesn’t bother me. I’m used to him and his crappy shit.”
“You think he’s going to sue you?”
“I’m sure he will.”
“All this because he’s jealous of your career. It’s ridiculous.”
“It is what it is. Let’s not give him any more of our time. It’s what he wants.”
“What’re we going to say to Joe Kramer?” he asked.
“I was about to ask what you had planned.”
He groaned. “Why did I know you were going to say that?”
“Because I’m nothing if not predictable.”
“That is true. I guess I’ll ask him why he didn’t tell us about the quarter-million-dollar debt and ask if there’s more that wouldn’t show up on a run of financials. I’ll let him know it’s in his best interest to tell us now rather than letting us figure it out for ourselves.”
“Make sure you mention how we hate when people waste our time. Two trips to his house in this traffic is a huge waste of our time. In fact, you can start with that.”
“Got it.”
With Freddie occupied with his phone, Sam pressed a button on hers to make it ring.
“Holland.” She pretended to listen. “No, I said midget strippers. There’s a big difference.
I want the little people.” She paused, glanced at Freddie and said, “I don’t know.
Let me ask him.” Holding the phone to one side, she said, “You’re not allergic to latex are you? ”
The look he gave her would’ve killed a lesser person.
Sam wanted to howl with laughter, but somehow managed to maintain her composure. “He’s good with latex. Yes, this Saturday at ten. Don’t let me down.” As she slapped the phone closed, it took everything she had to maintain her composure while she counted down to herself—five, four, three, two—
“Are you freaking kidding me, Sam? Midget strippers? And what the hell are you doing with latex?”
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the vein in his forehead bulging and had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from losing her shit. “Mind your own business.”
“I swear to God…”
“Please don’t take the Lord’s name in vain, young Freddie. You’ll go straight to hell.”
“I’d rather go to hell than this party you’re having. In fact, count me out.”
“You’ll be there.”
“No, I won’t.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“And P.S., the word ‘midget’ is not acceptable as you’d know if you’d ever attended required sensitivity training.”
“I’m not calling them that. They call themselves that.”
“I can’t believe we’re even talking about such a thing.”
“Really? You can’t?”
He shook his head and released a deep sigh.
Sam had to fight the urge to laugh hysterically at his distress.
They arrived at the Kramer residence a short time later and had to double-park.
“Let’s make this quick before some overeager Patrol officer gets a big idea to ruin his career by towing my car,” Sam said.
Still fuming at her, Freddie knocked on the door.
Kramer’s sister, Sarah, answered.
“Have you found the person who killed Mel?” she asked when she let them in.
“Not yet,” Freddie said, “but we wondered if we could have another word with Joe.”
“He said you were here earlier.”
“Right,” Freddie replied. “We have a few loose ends to tie up.”
“He’s lying down. He hasn’t slept since… Does it have to be now?”
“Yeah, it does,” Freddie said.
“I’ll go get him. You can wait in the front room.”
Rather than sit like they had before, they remained standing until Joe Kramer appeared with his sister trailing behind him a few minutes later.
“Could we speak to you alone?” Freddie asked.
“I don’t mind if Sarah is here.”
Freddie glanced at Sam, who nodded, encouraging him to go ahead with it.
“We know this is a difficult time for you, sir,” Freddie said, “but one thing that irritates us is when people waste our time.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Freddie handed him the printout that detailed his debts.
Joe glanced at it and visibly sagged.
“What is it, Joe?”
He ignored his sister’s question. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“The fact that you’re deeply in debt is something you should’ve revealed to us when we asked if there was anything else material to the investigation that you thought we ought to know,” Freddie said.
“Debt?” Sarah asked. “What kind of debt?”
“I took some of the money we’d saved for a house to buy into a business opportunity,” he told her. “I wasn’t going to say anything about it until the investment paid off.”
“We need the details of the business opportunity.” Freddie held out his notebook and a pen. “Including the names and phone numbers of everyone involved.”
Joe’s complexion drained of color. “You’re not going to talk to them, are you?”
“Is there any particular reason why you wouldn’t want us to?”
“They’re working on a top-secret defense project.” When his legs seemed to fail him, he sat down hard on the sofa. “If I send cops to them, they’ll cut me out, and I’ll never get back my investment.”
“We’ll let them know you didn’t have a choice,” Freddie said.
“Start writing, and don’t leave anything out.
If there’re other debts besides the ones listed on that sheet, write them down.
If we have to come back here again because we find out something else you didn’t tell us, you could face obstruction charges. ”
“The man just lost his wife,” Sarah said testily. “Is it necessary to speak to him this way?”
“I’m afraid it is,” Freddie said. “Did your wife know about the investment?”
“No, she didn’t. I wanted to come back to her with a windfall. She was so stressed out about how much the fertility treatments cost. I wanted to do something to make her happy.” He looked up at them, his eyes filled with heartbreak. “You don’t think something I did got her killed, do you?”
“We have no way to know that until we investigate further,” Freddie said. “The sooner you tell us what we need to know, the sooner we can get to it.”
“How did these people find you?” Sam asked.
“Through one of my colleagues at work. Friend of a friend.”
“Write down the colleague’s name, too,” Sam said.
It took about fifteen tearful minutes for him to finish the list and hand the notebook back to Freddie.
“I’m only going to ask this once,” Freddie said. “Is there anything else we should know about your life or Melody’s? Anything at all?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “That’s it. Y-you’ll let me know what you find out?”
“We will.”
“What am I supposed to do in the meantime? Do I act like I haven’t set the cops on them?”
Sarah sat next to him and put her arm around him.
He leaned into her.
“Don’t say a word to them about us,” Sam said. “If you do, that too could result in an obstruction charge.”
“If something I did got her killed…” He shook his head. “How will I live with that?”
“Nothing you did caused this,” Sarah said. “You loved her. Everyone knew that.”
He dropped his head into his hands and began to sob.
“We’ll see ourselves out,” Freddie said. “Stay local in case we need to get in touch.”
“Where else would I go?” he asked.