Stilettos & Scoundrels (39 page)

“So what is going on, Helen? Why all the cloak-and-dagger stuff? Why did we have to meet here, of all places?”
I
ask
ed, looking around and waving my
arms. “Should we even be here? The place looks about ready to fall down. I’m sure the owners wouldn’t be too happy if we fell through the floor or something. This building is quite the liability.”

“It’s the only place I could go where I could easily see if I was being followed. Besides, we own the building. Or rather, I do now,” Helen, replied giving a little laugh
—
the hysterical kind, rather than the ha-ha kind.

“Why would anyone be following you?”
I
took a step forward
,
concerned Helen might really be in danger. It seemed so surreal.

Helen tried to keep herself from crying again. “They called my house, Presley. They called my house and demanded money. They said if I didn’t pay up, they would make sure I met the same fate as Tom. I knew they would want their money, but I didn’t think it would be like this. I thought I would have some more time. I can’t get my hands on that kind of money right now. It would look too suspicious; besides, I don’t even know yet where I am going to get it!” Helen then burst into tears.

I
waited for a few uncomfortable moments for the tears to subside. To help Helen,
I
need
ed her to calm down and tell me
everything she knew. Plus,
I had a few questions of my
own.

“Do you know who it was that called you, Helen? Who did the Senator owe money to?”

“I don’t know specifically who the caller was, nor who Tom owed money to. I didn’t recognize any voices and they didn’t tell me their names. Tom tried to hide as much as he could from m
e about this aspect of his life,
I told you that already, and when I forced the issue
,
he told me as little as possible. Usually just enough to get me to shut
up. To be honest
,
it got to where I didn’t even ask much because I didn’t really care.”

“Who else knows about the Senator’s gambling problem? Maybe that’s who called you. Could it be blackmail?”
I
thought blackmail seemed as good a reason as any.

“The only people who know about this, besides the people he owed the money to, are me and Tobey. As the Senator’s assistant, Tobey was privy to a lot more information than I thought he should have been,” Helen explained. “Tom said he would find out anyway
,
and that we could trust him. I don’t think Tobey is the type to try to blackmail anyone. Other than that, there is no way Tom would have told anyone else. He might have been a gambler, but he wasn’t stupid. At least not that stupid.”

“What about Garrison Palazzo.”
Helen looked up sharply. “What about him?”

“I saw the clippings of you at the Business Women’s luncheon in Vegas. Are you
friends? Maybe he knows who Tom owed.”

“Hardly. Friends or otherwise
, h
e wouldn’t be any help.”
Helen cringed internally.
She should have known that it wouldn’t be possible to keep all the secrets buried.

“Couldn’t hurt to ask
,
could it?”

“Trust me. It wouldn’t be of any help.”

“But maybe it would be. You don’t know until you ask. You obviously know him, Helen. He might have some information.

Helen wanted to scream. Things were complicated enough without Presley bringing up even more dirt.

“Ok
ay
,
could Tom have been involved with someone
in
whom he
might
have confided
?” I
felt a little uncomfortable with this question
,
but it was common knowledge that he was a bit of a womanizer. So it would make sense he might be seeing someone besides Helen. If he had that type of relationship with someone
,
i
t
wouldn’t be a stretch for him to feel comfortable enough with that person to tell them some of what was going on.

“No, he wasn’t currently
seeing
anyone, as you put it. He broke off his last tryst a few months ago after I found out
,
because I threatened to take my money and leave. I guess he could have still been hiding it
,
but I don’t think he would take that risk. That tramp
who
showed up pretending to be his girlfriend was lying.”

“How
d
o you know for sure?”

“Because, he might
have
like
d
those sweet young things he
kept
screwing around with
,
but he like
d
my money even more
,
and I told him that I wouldn’t stand for his running around anymore. It was an embarrassment.”

I
agreed with her. Well, at least
I agreed that
Tobey
was likely trustworthy
and
that Tom wouldn’t want to chance
being
cut off from the money, especially at a time when he so desperately needed it. From what
I
had heard about Tobey, he was a nice guy and ambitious enough to keep his mouth shut about
al
most anything. But
I
wasn’t so sure about the girlfriend thing. It would take guts for someone to show up and lie.

“What exactly did the caller say, Helen? Did you recognize any speech patterns o
r anything?” Helen looked at me
strangely,
as if maybe she thought I
watche
d too many crime shows. She would be
right,
I
happened to be a huge fan of
Law & Order
, although after Jerry Orbach left the show, it wasn’t what it used to be.
But I had to start somewhere. I
wasn’t a tra
ined private investigator, so I had to use what I
had. Presley Thurman
,
P.I. did have a nice ring to it though. On second thought, it sounded a bit too much like
Magnum P.I.
, which maybe would make my
mother happy. She always loved Tom Selleck.

Helen pulled out a compact to survey the damage from crying and put on powder and fresh lipstick
, which pretty much made her look perfect again.
“All they said was
that
they consider Tom’s debt my debt,
that
I had until
Friday at four
p
.
m
.
to get them the money, and
that
they would be back in touch with a time and place to meet to transfer the money.”

“How much money are you talking, Helen?”

“Four million dollars.”

“Four million...you’ve got to be freaking kidding me!” How could someone get themselves that far in the hole
?
D
id they really think he would have ever been able to pay? More importantly, who could afford to let someone float that much?
I
couldn’t fathom how much four million dollars was. Obviously
it was
a drop in the bucket to Tom. Even Helen didn’t seem too upset by the amount of money
;
in fact
,
the other day she said the amount was over a million. Four million was significantly over a million
,
and she was so nonchalant about it. She seemed more upset these people were not giving her enough time to pull the money together, than
she was about coming up with
the money itself.

“Helen, you have to tell the police. I can call Dirt and have him meet us out here. This is too much for you to handle alone.”
I pulled out my
cell and started to dial.

“No!” Helen shouted. “They said no police or they would kill me too, and I believe them. They told me things about my routine so I would know they’ve been watching me. I don’t want to handle it alone, that’s why I came to you. I’m afraid to even go around town because I just know they are out there watching. Oh, Presley, I don’t know what to do.” She started crying again.

I have no idea what to do either,
I
thought. What the hell did she think
I
could do?
I
was just an HR person turned wannabe writer, now turned private investigator, if you
interpreted the term loosely. My
real talents were in shopping and finding great deals.

“Helen, you can’t just pay them. I mean, how do you know they will go away after that? They could keep coming back for more and more.”

“Why would they do that? I’m sure if I pay them this will go away. They just want their money. Isn’t that the honor among thieves or something? Why would they keep after me?”

Or something,
was right. Helen seemed to think this was no big deal. She was nuts if she thought it would be that simple. Even if she paid them, surely they would know how much it was worth to her to keep things quiet and nothing would prevent them from asking her for more and more money. The threat of exposure would always be there.
I
had to convince her to at least let Dirt know. He would know how to help
,
and
I
was sure he would keep it from the FBI since
he wasn’t thrilled with us
being in the middle of this to begin with.
Crap.
I
realized
I
hadn’t made it to the station to talk to the FBI yet. “But what if they don’t, Helen? They are the bad guys. Do you really think people who threaten you with death if you don’t pay them have any scruples?”
I
pleaded with her. “You have to go to the police. Dirt can help you and we can trust him. I promise. Or at least let’s tell
Cooper
. He’s not the police and he can help. He knew Tom
,
and even though he didn’t know about this
,
he can help us.”

“No one can help me
,
and telling
Cooper
would be bringing on more trouble than I need,” Helen said furiously.

“Why?”

“
Cooper
has ties to those guys too
,
Presley. How do you think he came to work for us in the first place?”

“What are you talking about?”
What the hell was Helen talking about?

“And you’d better not tell a
nyone either.” Helen ignored me
and kept right on talking. “My life is at stake here
,
so don’t screw this up for me. I don’t know what I was thinking telling you anyway.”

Me either
,
I
thought. Helen seemed more like her normal cold, calculated self.
Yay for me,
I
thought sarcastically. What the hell did she mean about that comment about
Cooper? I had to get to the bottom of that. All this was making my head hurt.

“Helen, the murderer had to know the Senator’s routine
,
or how else would they have known to catch him alone at home
?
At the very least, they were spying on you both at the house. Have you noticed anything or anyone around that is out of the ordinary? And please tell me what you mean about
Cooper
.”

What Helen said got
me
thinking about many things. The murderer had to have insider information. If Helen could be believed, and
I
didn’t see why she would lie, Tom’s gambling problem was something only she and Tobey were aware of. It didn’t fit. There had to be others who knew, even if Helen didn’t think they knew. There didn’t seem to be anything else that would put the Senator in a position where people would want to murder him.
I
didn’t see what Tobey could possibly have to gain and neither did Helen. There had to be someone on the staff who knew more than Helen thought. Wasn’t there always an inside connection
, maybe whomever it was Helen had been making out with in the car?
Besides, the Senator was killed late at night
,
so someone had to have access to the house and be pretty confident no one would be around that time of night when the Senator was working late.

“No. I told you that no one knew. I am sure of that. It would have leaked to the press if anyone other than Tobey knew. That’s the way it works. No one would have kept this information to themselves without a price
,
and no one came to us for money
other than
what he owed to the casinos. I don’t think the rest of the staff is that loyal. The media vultures would pay a fortune for that kind of information.”