“Where are Floyd and Sandy?” Pam asked.
“I think they were going to Tobies for a late lunch,” Mary said. “Why?”
“I know why Aaron was attacked.” Pam got her purse from the bedroom and took the keys out. “I’m also sure there won’t be any more notes left on Floyd’s door.”
“If you’re going out, take this slicker.” Mary handed Pam a bright yellow raincoat. Pam wrapped it around herself and dashed for her car.
“Can someone take Barb home if I’m not back in time?”
There was a chorus of affirmative responses.
CHAPTER 31
Pam looked like a drowned rat wandering through Tobies Restaurant with a dripping yellow slicker hanging from one hand. Despite the protection of the slicker, her short blonde hair was plastered to her head like a helmet, and her dress sagged under the weight of the water. She spotted Sandy and Floyd drinking coffee at a table in the corner near the kitchen.
Geez, what happened to you?” Floyd asked. “I thought you were at the wedding shower.”
“It’s a long story,” she said, signaling the waitress for coffee and draping the raincoat over the back of the empty chair.
The waitress brought Pam coffee and topped off Floyd and Sandy’s cups while the three sat silently.
“A guy showed up at your house during the shower,” Pam said after the waitress left. “He asked for you and Mary explained that you weren’t home. She offered to take his name and phone number, but he said he’d get in touch with you later, but added that he was a friend of Aaron’s. I followed him to his car. I identified myself as a deputy and asked if he wanted to contact you regarding official business. He was hesitant. I told him that I was working on Aaron Roberts’ disappearance but his body language said he wasn’t comfortable. He said he really wanted to talk directly to you because he’s seen your name in the newspaper. I asked where you could call or meet him and he really didn’t want to share that information. What he did say was that he wanted us to leave the investigation alone. His exact words were, ‘Enough damage has been done.’ I asked him what that meant and he said continuing the investigation would only cause more pain.”
“More pain for whom?” Floyd asked.
“He didn’t say, but he offered to meet you somewhere discreet. I suggested a restaurant, but he balked.”
“So we’re not meeting him?” Floyd asked.
“He’s parked in the back row of the casino parking lot. I told him you’d be there at 3:30.”
Floyd looked at his watch. “That’s about five minutes.” He stood and threw a ten-dollar bill on the table. “Aren’t you coming along?” he asked Pam.
“He made it clear that he wants to talk to you alone.”
“How will I know which car he’s in?”
“It’s a purple Chevy Corsica.”
“Purple?” Floyd asked.
“Purple. The guy is very slender and is wearing a flowered yellow silk shirt. We’ll wait for you here.”
“Is it still raining?”
“Pouring,” Pam replied. “Take the raincoat. Mary gave it to me when I left. I think it’s yours.”
“What do you think this guy wants?” Sandy asked Pam as they watched Floyd walk to the door.
“I think he’s going to tell Floyd he was Aaron Roberts’ lover.”
“No way! Aaron was close to getting married to Kathy Tucker.”
“Think about it,” Pam said. “Aaron starts drifting away from his drinking buddies here and finds new friends in the Cities. There weren’t many openly gay men in Pine County now, much less back then. It’s easier to meet like-minded people in Minneapolis. He and Kathy start drifting apart because he realized not only wasn’t he in love with Kathy, he really wasn’t interested in girls.”
“That’s an interesting theory,” Sandy said. “When I think about Kathy Tucker I think of a tomboy. I heard she was a jock and very competitive, like male jocks. She’s tall, slender, and has a more athletic than matronly build. He may have found her more attractive than other women.”
“She’s close to Aaron’s ideal woman until he found someone who showed him that he’s not into women at all.” Pam stood up. “I’ve got to visit the lady’s room. I’ll take a warm-up to my coffee if the waitress comes by.”
“Take a comb along just in case you look in the mirror.”
Pam reached for her purse. “Is my hair that bad?”
“Don’t walk past any children; they might think you’re the wicked witch of the west.”
Sandy and Pam were sharing an enormous caramel roll when Floyd returned a half-hour later. Pam licked caramel from her fingers and said, “We’re betting that guy was Aaron’s boyfriend.”
Floyd was wet and looked defeated when he sat down. He threw the raincoat over the back of a chair. “It’s more complicated than that. Aaron was HIV positive and his friend has full blown AIDS.”
Pam drew a deep breath. “I’d guessed that Aaron had come back to tell Kathy that he was gay and to break up permanently. So, what really happened was that Aaron came home to tell Kathy he was HIV positive and that she needed to be tested?”
Floyd nodded. “That’s part of it. The other part was Aaron decided it was time to come out of the closet. He was going to tell his family and then drop the bombshell about his blood test.”
“Mark Roberts would not handle that well,” Pam predicted.
“I don’t imagine,” Sandy said, “that his drinking buddies would be very supportive either.”
“If I were casting a vote,” Pam said. “I think that Mark Roberts is the most violent person on the list of people we’ve interviewed and the most likely to do someone bodily harm.” She unconsciously rubbed the ankle injured in the scuffle with Mark Roberts.
Floyd stared out the window, deep in thought. “I don’t know. Mark’s demeanor when he’s drinking is certainly a problem. I’m not sure Aaron ever dropped the news on his parents. I think it was Ken Solstad’s knife that did the damage we saw in the photo and it was probably Ken who wielded it.”
“Everyone keeps talking about how bitchy Ken was that night,” said Sandy. “I think I have to go with Floyd and put Ken Solstad at the stop of the list of suspects.”
Floyd continued to stare out the window. “Something else is nagging at me. When I talked with Ken’s mother, she mentioned how gentlemanly he was when he came home from Korea, but within a few days he was back to being the old Kenny again. I have a hard time seeing someone make a personality turnaround like that in the span of a few days. I wonder if he picked up something mood-altering. I‘ve seen a lot of cases where people snort or shoot-up some drug and they either lose all inhibitions or get angry.”
“I don’t know that he needed anything other than alcohol and his old buddies,” Pam replied. “Look at Mark Roberts; he holds down a job and lives a semi-normal life until he drinks himself into a rage.”
Floyd let out a deep sigh and sipped his coffee. He said, “Aaron’s friend didn’t want to tell me his name but I got his license number and I’m sure we’ll be able to track him down again. Let’s call him Mr. G for the time being. Mr. G wants us to drop the investigation. He thinks that Aaron never got to tell his parents or Kathy and it’s better to let things lie than to air dirty laundry in the community.”
“I’m guessing it’s too late for Kathy Tucker,” Pam said. “I’ll bet a week’s pay that was the topic of the fight she and Aaron had the night before he disappeared. Maybe she was so upset she lost control. She’d have a pretty strong motive in a second-degree murder case if we had corroborating evidence.”