Chapter 12. Pam Gets Involved

That Thursday afternoon after delightful sex with Jake at the old cabin Jolene says, “Jake, I have some good news for us. As soon as I got Carson’s death certificate I sent a copy to the life insurance company. They called me yesterday asking if I want a check mailed or have the $800,000 deposited in my bank account. I nearly fainted when I saw the amount. I’ve never had to deal with more money than my paychecks from the salon. I don’t think it’s good if locals know I’m getting this money. Every Tom, Dick and Harry would be hounding me for a handout or thinking I killed Carson for his money. I am also suspicious of what Paul Waters might be up to. I ran into him in the parking lot of the IGA after I got the call about the life insurance money. He told me the probate court’s handling of Carson’s estate will likely take several months. The reasons he gave sound phony to me. He seemed puzzled by my not reacting to his comments. Then he asked if my income from the salon will tide me over until I get access to Carson’s money. I can’t believe he’s concerned about me getting by. From the gossip I hear in the salon he doesn’t care about anyone but himself. I decided not to tell him about the life insurance money. I have a cousin I trust who works in a big bank in Bay City. I called him after learning about the $800,000 and asked for his advice. I’m going to do what he suggested. I’ll send him the check. He’ll send $50,000 to my checking account to cover Carson’s funeral and my expenses until probate is complete. He’ll invest the rest for me. He said he will invest it to be low risk and give me income from dividends. Some of the dividend money will be sent electronically to my local bank account every month. None of the locals, especially Paul Waters needs to know we’ll have an income besides my earnings and your pension. We’ll have more after probate completes and we can add Carson’s money to the investments. We’ll never have to worry about money.”

“That sounds smart to me, Jolene. I can’t imagine what Waters might be up to, but no one trusts him so you did right.”

“I hope that bumbling sheriff catches Carson’s killer soon. Then you can move into the beach house with me. I don’t care what people will say about it being too soon after Carson’s death. Now, are you ‘up’ for another go?”

By Friday morning Sheriff Ericsson’s baffled. He had the two local activists recognized by the deputies brought in for questioning on Tuesday after failing to get Violet to say anything. It took a detailed follow-up but both of the locals had solid alibis. They left the other activists immediately after the meeting and went to the Corner Bar together. They stayed there until closing and went home. The bartender remembered them and exactly what time they came in. He was watching hockey on the big TV and the Detroit Red Wings had just scored the tying goal in the third period against the Chicago Black Hawks. 

The sheriff had deputies carefully time going from the library to the bar and from the library to the harbor and back to the bar. There wasn’t enough time between when the deputies last saw the two activists outside the library and when they entered the Corner Bar for them to have followed Carson to the harbor, killed him and returned to the bar. 

The sheriff tried to get the two locals to name the other dozen activists protesting at the Saturday night meeting. They claimed they didn’t know any names. They said Violet called the others by numbers so no names would be known. The sheriff didn’t believe their story but they stuck to it even after two nights in jail. He gives up on Friday morning and lets Violet and the two locals out of jail. He cautions Violet she is still his prime suspect and she isn’t to leave the village. 

Knowing the sheriff is baffled and frustrated Sue brings him a second cup of coffee and tries to calm him. She says, “Sheriff, you’ve done everything that can be done. If you’re at a dead end with Violet let her think she’s won for a while. Investigate other suspects. After Violet’s come to think she’s no longer under suspicion bring her in again and ask her for help. Knowing Violet, she won’t be able to stop herself from telling you what she knows, if she knows anything.”

“As always, Sue, you know what I need to do. That’s a great approach. I should have thought of it myself. I know Violet always responds positively to situations that allow her to show she’s smarter than others. She can’t resist the chance for even a little bit of glory. In the meantime I’m going to put some pressure on Jolene. Like I told you before, I think she’s capable of killing Carson to get his money. First, I need to do some homework. Get me Paul Waters on the phone.”

When Sue tells the sheriff Waters is on he picks up the phone and says, “Good morning, Paul. There’s something you can help me with on the investigation into Carson Crenshaw’s murder. Were you Carson’s lawyer?”

“Yes, I did legal work for Carson. How can I help?”

“Do you know who gets Carson’s house and money?”

“Yes, his wife is his only heir. There’s no will so it’ll have to go through probate, which will take some time, but she’ll get it all eventually even though everything was in his name only.”

“Do you know if Carson had life insurance?”

“Not that I’m aware of. Jolene’s going to have to live off her earnings cutting hair until probate is complete. She’ll be in a bind trying to keep up with the lease payments and insurance on Carson’s cars, slip fees and insurance on his boat, not to mention property taxes and homeowners insurance. When you have money it costs money to keep up a high lifestyle.”

“Thanks for the information, Paul. See you at church on Sunday. Goodbye.”

“Did you learn anything useful from Paul Waters, Sheriff?” inquires Sue when the sheriff hangs up.

“Yes, Jolene will get everything Carson had when probate is complete. Carson’s money is her motive for killing Carson. I’ll having her brought in on Monday for questioning.”

“I don’t know, Sheriff. I heard she treated Carson lovingly after the Saturday night meeting. If she loved him it wouldn’t make sense to kill him.”

“I told you before; I think she displayed affection to throw off suspicion. She can’t throw me off with her act. I’m going after her.”

At the Art Society’s drawing session the following Monday evening Pam is getting ready to draw when she notices Jolene is absent. Pam askes Erin why Jolene isn’t there. Erin answers, “Jolene probably won’t be here tonight to model for us. She’s too upset after being dragged in and questioned by the sheriff this morning. She says she went straight home after the meeting but the sheriff doesn’t believe her. He told her he believes she followed Carson to his boat, killed him and dumped his body in the water before going home.”

Pam asks Erin, “Did Jolene tell the sheriff to check her security system for the time she got home? In my years of detective experience in Grand Rapids, I learned big expensive homes like Crenshaw’s have fancy security systems that record the time the alarm is armed and disarmed. Knowing the sheriff, he wouldn’t think to check, but Jolene can tell him.”

“The sheriff’s questioning upset her so much she didn’t think of that, Pam. Rachael Villmere came in for a perm this afternoon when we were discussing Jolene’s alibi. Rachael told me she noticed the security system when she was designing Jolene’s new kitchen. The Villmere’s have one like it at their beach house and it records the times like you said. Would you please help prove Jolene’s innocent? I need her to be her old self with customers so she doesn’t lose any customers. Violet’s back but she’s still so crabby I’m afraid she’ll lose some of her customers.”

Pam looks at Erin for a few moments and finally says, “For you and for Jolene I’ll check her alibi, Erin. Mary Jane Bloom printed all the details from the deputies’ report in her article about Carson’s murder. It tells exactly what time the meeting ended and people, including Jolene, left the library. Tomorrow I’ll see how long it takes me to drive from the library to Jolene’s home. Then I’ll see how long it takes if I go to the harbor first. If Jolene went straight home as she says the first time will match closely with the time from when the deputies reported people leaving and when Jolene disarmed her house alarm that night. After we know the truth you or Jolene can tell the sheriff to check the times. Jolene will know the time he should get so he won’t be able to use a made-up time to try and trick her.”

“That’s a good plan, Pam. I appreciate you getting involved for Jolene’s sake,” replies Erin.

“I guess I can’t resist doing a little detective work now and then; especially when I can help good friends. Tomorrow, ask Jolene to meet me at her house during her lunchtime. I’ll check the security system to see what time Jolene disarmed it that Saturday night. Can we do some drawing now? Erin, I believe it’s your turn to model. Sarah and the guys are ready to draw,” says Pam.

The next morning after cooking breakfast on the wood stove in the old Lafave kitchen Pam thinks through the steps she needs to follow to get accurate measures of the driving times she’s planning to check. At about 10:30 she leaves the farmhouse and drives to the library. She goes into the library, starts her stopwatch, goes to her car and drives straight to Jolene’s house. She gets out of her car beside Jolene’s garage, walks up to the front door and stops the watch. She writes down to elapsed time in a small notebook and goes back to the library. 

She starts her stopwatch again as she leaves the library. This time she drives to the harbor, parks, walks out on the dock to the biggest fishing boat she sees. She stays there for about 20 seconds, then goes back to her car and drives to Jolene’s house again. She writes down the elapsed time in her notebook. She notes it took 11 minutes more to go to the harbor than straight to Jolene’s house. She does a quick calculation on her phone’s calculator app and says to herself, ‘Jolene would have had to drive over 100 mph to go to the harbor first and then home to make it in the time it takes to go straight to her home’. 

Pam looks at her watch and sees it’s 11:40. Jolene should be home to meet her in a half-hour. She decides to go sit on the beach and enjoy watching the waves on Lake Huron as she waits for Jolene. She’s lost in thinking about painting a lake scene when she hears Jolene’s voice behind her.

“There you are, Pam. When I saw your empty car in the driveway I guessed you’d be waiting for me on the beach.”

“Hi, Jolene, thanks for meeting me. I love the pastoral views from my farmhouse, but living on the lake would be grand too. Do you ever get tired of watching the water?”

“No, the colors are different every time you look at it. It’s a dream for anyone who enjoys painting. Erin said you can tell the exact time I got home the night of Carson’s murder from my security system. Is that right?”

“If your system is the kind I suspect it is. Let’s go see.”

“They return to the front of the house and Jolene disarms the security system and turns to Pam, “What do you have to do to tell when I got home?”

“Let me look at the control panel for your security system. Yes, I’m familiar with this model. Watch now.”

Pam punches the code she watched Jolene enter to disarm the system. A set of options come on the small screen. Besides the one for arming the system there’s an option for history. Pam chooses the history option. A series of dates and times come up along with a down arrow. She chooses the down arrow and scrolls through the dates until she reaches the Saturday of Carson’s murder. Pam writes down the time in her notebook. She looks at the control panel again and chooses the code to return the display to the arm screen. She asks Jolene, “Do you want to arm it again?”

“Yes, I’ve got to get back to the salon. I have a customer due in 20 minutes. What did you learn, Pam?” She says as she punches in the code to alarm the security system.

“Let me check my notes.” After looking at her notebook and doing a quick mental calculation Pam says, “This proves you drove straight home from the library that night, in fact you must have exceeded the speed limit. You made it home in two minutes less than it took me to drive straight here this morning. There is no way you had time to follow Carson to the harbor before coming home. Now, we’ll get Erin to tell the sheriff how he can prove you are innocent. If I tell him he’ll be upset. He thinks I enjoy showing him up to be a hick sheriff. Did you see how to retrieve the arm/disarm times?”

“Yes, I’ll show the sheriff if he comes to check it. I can’t thank you enough, Pam. It’s a terrible experience being accused of killing someone when you’re innocent but can’t make anyone believe you.”

“I’m sure it is, Jolene. Don’t worry any longer. I’ll follow you and tell Erin what we’ve learned.”

“Thank you again, Pam, now I don’t to have to hire a lawyer to get Sheriff Ericsson off my back.”

They get in their cars and drive to Erin’s salon where Pam tells Erin she’s proved Jolene’s innocence. Pam asks Erin to tell the sheriff what he needs to do to verify Jolene’s story.