Cash Call, A Stan Turner Mystery Vol 5

by William Manchee

  Chapter 6

  Hot Checks

   The first big cold front of the fall had blown through and it had been raining hard all day. Rebekah had called and said they'd canceled the soccer game that night. I was kind of glad because I had lots of work to do and leaving early for a soccer game would put me even farther behind. While I was working on a real estate contract that a client was pushing me to finish, I heard Jodie on the intercom telling me Don was on line two. I picked up the phone. "Hi Don."

   "Stan, oh man, I'm so glad I caught you. Pam's been arrested. She was at the restaurant in Greenville. One of her friends just called me."

   "What? You've got to be joking."

  "I wish I were, but I'm not. I'm leaving right now to go to the Greenville city jail. Can you come?"

   "Of course. Do you have any idea what this is about?"

   "Something about a hot check. That's all I know right now. I'm on my way. See you there."

   As I rushed out the door, I told Jodie to call the contract client and tell him it was going to be another day before their work was done. She gave me an exasperated look and shook her head. It was raining hard as I drove east on the LBJ Freeway. I wondered why Pam would be writing hot checks. According to Don money wasn't a problem for them anymore. Apparently the investment that had gone south had changed all that. Despite the steady rain it only took me forty-five minutes to get to Greenville. When I made it into the police station, with dripping umbrella in hand, I saw Don sitting on a bench. I went over to him.

   "What's the word?" I said.

   "Nothing yet, I was told to sit and wait here."

   As we were talking, a policeman with a clipboard appeared and said, "Don Blaylock?"

   Don motioned to the officer and replied,"Yes, that's me." We walked over to where the officer was standing.

   He nodded and said, "We've got your wife in custody. She's charged with three counts of passing worthless checks. You can pay the checks and the fine or post a bond."

   "That's ridiculous," Don said. "Pam would never write a check unless the money was in the bank to cover it."

   "The checks are in the file if you'd care to see them."

   "I sure would," Don said indignantly.

   The officer went back into the clerk's office and retrieved the file. He put it down on the counter and flipped through it. He pulled out three checks and showed them to us. Don studied them and then shook his head.

   "I don't understand this. Pam wouldn't do this."

   "She might have made a mistake in her checkbook," I suggested, "but she should have received letters from the creditors and from the DA warning her to pay the checks."

   "She'd never ignore warnings like that. She'd go ballistic if she got that kind of letter."

   "Well, we can figure out what happened later. Right now I'll put up an attorney's bond so we can get her out."

   I went over to the front desk and filled out a bond form. I signed it and gave it to the jailer. Thirty minutes later Pam walked out of the jail, her eyes swollen and her skin pale. She immediately broke down when she saw Don. They embraced. It took her a few minutes to regain her composure. Then she released Don and ran her fingers through her hair.

  "I've never been so humiliated in my life," she moaned.

   "I'm so sorry, honey!" Don said. "I don't understand how you could have bounced those three checks. You're so careful."

   "I had plenty of money in the account. The bank must have made a mistake."

   "Let's go to the bank right now and straighten this out," I suggested.

   Pam let out a shriek. "Oh, Don! Melinda Williams and Nancy Brown were at the restaurant when they arrested me. What are they going to think? I'm sure the whole Junior League knows I was arrested by now. Oh God! How could this have happened?"

   Don took Pam back into his arms and held her tightly. She cried hard for several minutes. I felt really sorry for her. I remembered what a wreck Rebekah had been the time she was arrested. If it hadn't been for the kids needing her so much, she might not have recovered at all.

  "I don't know, honey. But we're going to get to the bottom of this just as soon as we get to the bank." He let her go, took her hand and gently guided her toward the door. "Come on, honey, let's go."

   Several minutes later we were at the customer service window of the bank going through an interim bank statement with a clerk. After several minutes of searching through the canceled checks Pam let out a gasp, "Luther wrote a $5,000 management fee check after we fired him."

   "What?" Don said. He grabbed the check away from Pam and stared at it.

   "Who's Luther?" I asked.

   "He's the asshole who got us in this mess. Goddamn him!"

   Don got up and waved the check angrily. "That son of a bitch! I'm going to kill him!"

   Don marched out of the bank heading toward his car. I rushed after him fearful of what he was about to do. I didn't know who Luther was or what he had done, but I obviously had to delay Don long enough for him to cool down.

   "Don, wait. What are you going to do, punch him out?"

   He didn't stop. "No, I'm going kill the dirty bastard! I'm going to strangle him with my bare hands!"

   I grabbed his arm and tried to get him to stop. "Calm down now. Let's talk about this. Tell me what's going on. I'm sure there is a better way to deal with this. It won't do Pam and your kids any good if you end up going to jail for assaulting him."

   Don turned and glared at me. "That asshole caused my wife to go to jail. He's gone too far, I'm not letting him get away with this!"

   "Nobody expects you to, but let's talk about an appropriate response. Beating him up isn't the answer."

   Don pulled away and started again for his car. "I'm not going to beat him up. I'm going to kill him."

   I dashed in front of him again and blocked him from getting into his car. "Take Pam home. I'll come by your house tomorrow afternoon."

   Pam put her arm on Don's shoulder. She said, "Stan's right, honey. Let's go home."

   I nodded, "Go home. I'm tied up tomorrow morning, but I'll stop by your place tomorrow afternoon. You can tell me then what this is all about and we can figure out how to deal with Luther."

   Don glared at me, barely able to contain his rage. Finally he let out a muffled growl and replied, "It's a good thing for Luther you were here . . . otherwise I'd of killed the son of a bitch!"

   As Don was simmering down I became aware of a crowd of bystanders around us, including a couple policemen coming out of the bank. I shook my head, smiled and motioned for Pam to get into the car. As Don and Pam drove off I looked at the crowd and said, "Show's over, folks. Have a nice day."