The Chocolate Snowman Murders (30 page)

Was he watching TenHuis Chocolade? I tried not to stare at him. I didn't know whether or not he could see me through our big front window.

Aunt Nettie slid into my office, looking nervous. “Who was that man?”

“He's a private eye. He was looking for a Christina Meachum.”

She relaxed visibly and adjusted the white net over her blond-white hair. “That's okay, then.”

“No, it's not okay. Christina Meachum was the name, but the photo he showed me was a ‘before' picture of Pamela.”

We looked at each other seriously. Neither of us knew just what to do.

Pamela was a special employee.

Only a couple of months earlier had I been allowed to learn something that Aunt Nettie had known for much longer. One of her closest friends, Sarajane Harding, was involved in that mysterious underground railway system that helps abused women permanently escape from their abusers by furnishing them with new identities and finding them new homes.

Sarajane, Aunt Nettie told me, had herself formerly been an abused wife. Because she ran one of Warner Pier's best bed and breakfast inns, she could provide temporary lodging without causing comment about strange people coming and going, and she was often called on to house these unfortunate women briefly.

This “underground railway” system is not like the shelters for abused women found in most cities. It is not used for women who simply need to escape a violent husband or lover until things cool down or until they can take legal action. Sarajane was involved in much more serious cases, cases in which the railway “conductors” believed the women were in danger of death, in which the only option seen for them was a new identity, a new life in a new place. If strange men came looking for them, there was a strong possibility that those men were dangerous.

Normally Aunt Nettie would not take part in this activity. For one thing, its legality may be questioned, since it won't work without creating fake IDs, and Aunt Nettie is married to Warner Pier's chief of police. Hogan Jones, her husband of less than a year, might close his eyes to the situation briefly—he despises abusive husbands—but he couldn't ignore it permanently. So Aunt Nettie and Sarajane were careful not to let him know what was going on.

I'd also been careful not to mention Pamela and her problems to my husband, Joe Woodyard. After all, he is Warner Pier's city attorney, on the days when he's not restoring antique power boats. I didn't want to put him in a bad position either. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

Pamela was the second of Sarajane's passengers who had needed a job from TenHuis Chocolade. I'm sure Sarajane had employed some women at the B&B, but she had never asked us to hire one until right before Christmas, and that woman worked only a week. Since the women had to be paid off the books, the accountant in me didn't like it, but it's hard to turn your back on people in this much trouble.

Sarajane hadn't told me Pamela's story, but she had made it clear that her danger was real. That was why Aunt Nettie and I had come up with the “sugar order” alert. If I called out to Aunt Nettie that I needed to talk to her about the “sugar order,” Pamela was immediately to hide in the back room or the storage closet.

“At least our system worked,” Aunt Nettie said. “Pamela's still in the back. Should I call her out?”

“No! That private eye is standing across the street.”

Aunt Nettie didn't turn to look at him. “Do you think he's watching the shop?”

“I don't know. He may have only stopped for a smoke. But we'd better take precautions.”

“I'll call Sarajane to come and get Pamela.”

“That might not be a good idea. After all, Sarajane's car says PEACH STREET BED AND BREAKFAST on the side. Besides, I wouldn't want this guy to get a look at Pamela's face as she left. She doesn't look much like her original picture any more, but I wouldn't want him to see what she does look like.”

“Then I can take Pamela out to the B&B. I'm parked in the alley.”

“Maybe we should check and make sure there's no one watching the alley.”

Aunt Nettie looked dismayed. “I just wanted to help Pamela out with a job for a little while. I didn't mean to get mixed up in some cloak and dagger project.”

“I'm probably being overly cautious, but let's keep Pamela out of sight for an hour or so. Don't let her come back into the workroom.”

“I can have her tie bows.”

I nodded. Pamela was one of twenty-five women working at TenHuis Chocolade. None of the others knew who she was or why she had suddenly joined the staff, and we couldn't let them find out. Twenty-five people cannot keep a secret. So that afternoon Pamela had to have a job that kept her out of sight of the street and of our retail shop, but kept her busy doing something that wouldn't make the other employees wonder what was up. Tying bows was a sufficiently dull job that no one would think Pamela was getting special treatment.

I sighed. “Okay. Pamela ties bows. You watch the front, and I'll run to the Superette for Amaretto.”

“How did you know we need Amaretto?”

“I didn't. I just suggested it because it's something we buy locally.”

“I tried to make a new batch of Amaretto truffles this morning, and there wasn't enough in the bottle to do it.”

“Good. I'll go get some, and as I go I can scout the downtown to make sure nobody's watching the alley. Then you can call Sarajane and ask her to get Pamela out of here. She'll probably want to move her along someplace else.”

I cast a longing glance at my computer—I didn't really have time to leave my regular work for a scouting trip—put on my ski jacket and left by the front door. In the winter there's plenty of parking on Warner Pier streets, and I hadn't bothered to drive around to the alley where Aunt Nettie and I have reserved spaces. At the corner I turned onto Peach Street, paying no attention to Derrick Valentine. I drove along slowly, looking around as I passed the entrance to our alley. I didn't see anybody suspicious. At first. I was halfway down the block before I saw the man in the plain vanilla sedan.

The sedan was parked across from the end of the alley. The man was sitting there, talking on a cell phone. He had what looked like a map spread out on his steering wheel. He would have a clear view down our alley in his rearview mirror. Was he some innocent salesman, talking to his boss about calling on a Warner Pier business? Or was he tag teaming Derrick Valentine, making sure no one who looked like Pamela came out our back door?

One thing about a town of 2,500; a stranger stands out. In the summer, you could hide a battalion of private eyes in the crowds of tourists who throng the quaint streets of Warner Pier. But in wintertime we locals know everyone we see. And I'd never seen this guy around. Plus, his car had a Georgia license plate. As in Atlanta, headquarters of PDQ Investigations.

Aha!

When I returned from the Superette, I parked in front of TenHuis Chocolade once more, got out clutching my bottle of Amaretto and walked through the shop and the workroom and into the back room. I tried to look as un-secretive as I could.

Aunt Nettie has made the break room as pleasant as possible for our employees. It looks like a dining room in a home. The tables and chairs might be from a secondhand store, but they had been good quality traditional pieces to begin with. The chairs had upholstered seats, and prints or paintings by local artists are hung here and there. The kitchen nook had more than a microwave and a refrigerator; a real range with oven and burners was available. There was—oh, glory!—a dishwasher. And that dishwasher wasn't for chocolate-making equipment. Those utensils were cleaned in a separate area in the workshop itself.

Pamela was sitting at the largest table. She was surrounded by rolls of ribbon in Easter pastels and a bowl of the little gold bunnies. A can of Pepsi stood off to one side, safe from expansive gestures. Beside it was a small tube of M&M Minis. I bit my tongue at the sight. Pamela consistently refused to eat TenHuis chocolates—some of the best truffles and bonbons in the world—but seemed to be addicted to those M&M Minis, mass-market candies available at every drugstore, supermarket, and convenience store. She always had one or two tubes in her purse or pocket. I knew I was being petty, but it irked me.

Pamela seemed to be irked at me in turn. “I hope this hasn't been a false alarm,” she said. “I hate making bows.”

I mentally compared Pamela to the picture Derrick Valentine had identified as “Christina Meachum.” In the photo, Christina had looked younger. She had been plain, true, but she'd looked normal. Her face was symmetrical.

Pamela's face had a different look, not abnormal exactly, but not like the photo. Her face was skewed, crooked. She talked out of one side of her mouth, and one of her eyebrows was higher than the other.

Christina had dark hair. Pamela's was a brassy, homedyed blond, part of her attempt to change her appearance. She had lost an eyetooth since the earlier photo had been taken. But she and the woman in the photo had the same narrow chin, if you ignored the lump on the right side of the jaw, and the bright lipstick Pamela wore smeared over a pouty mouth was just like Christina's. The dark eyes were the same shape, and Pamela wore eye makeup like Christina's.

Yes, I felt sure the picture showed Pamela as she had looked before an angry husband had beaten her face out of shape and broken her jaw.

“The detective was looking for someone named Christina Meachum and showed me an old photo,” I said. “But—I didn't question that it was you when I saw it. Besides, it would be a pretty big coincidence if some detective was looking for a woman who looked that much like you right in the same area where you were hiding out.”

Pamela smirked.

That was the last reaction I had expected. I'm sure I looked astonished, because Pamela immediately dropped her head into her hands.

“I forget what I look like these days,” she said. “You're being tactful, trying not to say the picture looked the way I was before I was beaten to a pulp.”

Pamela kept her face down, and she used her hands to push her hair back, displaying a broad forehead. She nervously pulled off her hairnet, then put it on again. She pulled it down to help her hair hide her large ears. It was just as well that her disguise required that she cover them up.

I got a Diet Coke out of the refrigerator and sat down opposite her.

“We're eager to see you get started again in life, Pamela. This guy may have had nothing to do with you. But there's a strange car at the end of the alley, too. It would be foolhardy . . .”

“I know! I know!”

She looked up, letting her hair fall back into a curtain that covered her jaws and forehead. Her eyes looked fierce. “I realize you've jimmied your accounting around for me. I do appreciate it. I just don't see how they could have found me here in Warner Pier.”

“The detective said they had information that you'd been in this area. Had you ever been here before?”

Pamela shook her head.

I went on. “Do you have relatives around here? Had you vacationed here? Did you know anybody around here?”

She kept shaking her head. When I'd used up my supply of questions, I stood up. “Aunt Nettie can call Sarajane, and we'll figure a safe way to get you out of here. I'll pay you through today out of petty cash, in case she's able to move you to a safer location.”

Pamela's eyes popped open. “A safer location! You mean in another place?”

“That would make sense to me.”

“No!” The word shrilled out. “No! I'm not leaving Warner Pier.”

 

I'm sure I looked amazed. I certainly felt amazed.

Sarajane had gone through the whole rigmarole of sneaking Pamela into Warner Pier, keeping her under cover, helping to change her appearance with a bad bleach job, finding her an off-the-books job, and keeping her true identity secret—even from Aunt Nettie and me—and Pamela was willing to risk staying here when her whereabouts might have been discovered? She could be throwing all Sarajane's work away. And her own life.

Even Aunt Nettie and I had gone to a certain amount of trouble to keep Pamela safe and her identity a secret. And now, when her hideout might be compromised and the violent husband she had fled might be close to finding her, she didn't want to leave Warner Pier.

Yes, I was amazed. Warner Pier was a nice town, but not worth dying over.

ALSO BY JoANNA CARL