~Paul Castellano, former head of the Gambino Crime Family
An accident. That’s what the Scranton Gazette called the fire that claimed the lives of both Bill Beesly and Gerald Halpert. An unfortunate accident was how the police officers had referred to it when waking the families in the middle of the night to tell them their husbands and fathers were dead. The early bird gossipers at Chick’s Café added their own adjectives as the days went on: shocking, horrible, unspeakable, though to be sure, everyone was indeed speaking about it. During the wake last night, Father Flenderson even went as far as to call Bill’s untimely death a tragic accident.
Pam Beesly called it murder.
It was hard for her to think of it as anything else, especially now as she stood in her father’s home office, staring helplessly at cabinets and bookshelves and safes as she tried to figure out where to begin. How was she supposed to know where to start looking if she still didn’t know what she was actually looking for?
She dropped herself into the leather chair behind the desk and spun in half circles as she looked around the room again; waiting for some neon pink arrow to point at something and scream Here! This is what you’re looking for!
She spun to the left and let her gaze drop to the desk itself. It had been almost a week since the fire and judging by the stacks of scribbled notes spread out over the desk, Pam wondered if she was the person to sit there since Bill last had.
She pulled one of the yellow legal pads closer and squinted, trying to ready Bill’s terrible handwriting. The top page was covered in random half-thought out notes like Helene’s birthday – Hawaii? and buy new suit and doctor’s appointment on Tuesday – reschedule. It was when she flipped a few pages over that she read things a little more closely.
C.B. – Monday at hotel site.
Dinner with Vance and wife – Helene on best behavior. Pam snickered at that note, knowing how much her mother hated Phyllis Vance.
Halpert Deal needs work – confirm with Wallace first. She had no idea what the Halpert Deal was but obviously, this seemed like an important piece of information.
Meet with D – security tightened before
Before what? Pam frowned, running her fingers over the script. Bill wrote like he talked, like his brain was three thoughts ahead of his mouth. His notes were just as bad as trying to have an actual conversation with him. She stared at the words, trying to piece them together into anything that would make even the littlest bit of sense. She leaned to the left and opened one of the desk drawers, grinning as she found her dad’s candy stash. She picked out a bag of candy and looked back at the notes in front of her.
D. Security. Now that she thought about it, Dwight had been taking his bodyguard responsibilities more seriously since the fire. Was it a kneejerk reaction or had Bill known something was going to happen?
Pam sighed and spun the chair again, this time until she faced the fireplace behind her. Nothing made sense to her anymore. She didn’t understand why any of this had happened. Why had her dad met with Gerald at midnight at the site they had just broken ground at for a hotel expansion? How did that one makeshift office in one corner of an otherwise empty lot go up in flames? How was it that two relatively healthy and strong men weren’t able to get out of the trailer before it was too late?
And why weren’t the police asking any of these same questions?
“Hey.” There was a soft knock at the door.
Pam’s head snapped up as her younger sister stepped into the room. “Hey Penny.” She held out the bag of candy still in her left hand. “Jellybean?” They shared a small, sad smile as Penny took a handful before squishing herself into the chair next to Pam.
They were quiet for a few minutes, staring at various items in the office as they passed the candy back and forth between them. Penny leaned her head on Pam’s shoulder and sighed. “So Mom’s already driving me crazy this morning.”
“What now?” On a good day, Helene Beesly operated at peak drama queen, so understandably, she had been especially difficult this past week for her girls to handle.
“She can’t decide between the diamonds or the pearls to wear to the funeral. She’s afraid to choose wrong because at the Halperts’ yesterday, all Mrs. Vance talked about was how tacky it was that Mrs. Halpert was wearing a diamond pin.”
“You’re joking.”
“I wish. And Larissa Halpert told me that the pin had been the last gift her dad had given her mom and that’s why she was wearing it. So now Mom doesn’t know she should flaunt her diamonds at Phyllis or if she should wear her wedding pearls. And then she told me that I was too short to wear the shoes I wore yesterday and so I have to wear heels today.”
“Jesus.” Pam didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. On one hand, she knew her mom was just trying to control anything she could while their lives fell apart, but on the other hand, she also knew that sometimes Helene was just batshit crazy. Her dad had been the best at controlling the crazy so without him, they were all in a bit of a tailspin. “Wear whatever shoes you want. Go barefoot.”
“You laugh but I’m pretty sure she’s setting out clothes for you right now.”
“Great. I wonder if there’s a fashion guide for Mob funerals.” Pam popped a few more jellybeans into her mouth and wondered when the last time she’d eaten was. “What was Mr. Halpert’s funeral like?” She hadn’t gone to the funeral yesterday. Instead, she’d offered to spend the time finalizing Bill’s funeral arrangements so her mom didn’t have to.
“It was sad. Mrs. Halpert almost fainted in the middle of everything. There were so many people there that some of them had to stand outside of the church. A lot of scary looking guys in expensive suits.” Penny looked up at Pam. “They’re all going to be there today too, aren’t they?”
“Probably.” They rested their heads together. “They’re not that scary though.”
“You don’t think Uncle Creed is scary?”
Pam laughed, picturing the slightly balding man who had played weekly chess games with Bill and always had odd little gifts for the girls while they were growing up. He wasn’t related to them but they’d always called him Uncle Creed. “I mean, he’s for sure strange, but no, not scary.”
“Well.” Penny pushed herself out of the chair and stretched. “I still think some of them are creepy. The Halpert boys kept staring at me, so that was weird.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know.” Penny picked at the hem at the bottom of her shirt. “It was just like, every time I looked up, there they were.”
“All of them?” Pam frowned. “Did they say anything to you?”
“No. Well, one of them did come up while I was talking to Larissa and said he was sorry about dad but he wasn’t the one that that gave me the creeps. It was the other two. They just… I don’t know, they were talking to Mom and Meemaw at one point and stopped as soon as I walked up.”
“I’m sure it’s fine. They were probably just talking about the fire and didn’t want to upset you.” Pam looked at the clock and made a face. “It’s getting late; we should probably go get ready before Mom starts looking for us.”
“Yeah, okay.” Penny tried to smile but her eyes were watery. “I don’t really want to do this,” she whispered.
Pam ignored the tears in her own eyes as she wrapped her arms around her sister and promised they’d both get through the day. She hoped her words didn’t sound as hollow as they did to her own ears.
She didn’t want to do this either.
&&&
As Pam stood there and looked at the flat tire she could also hear the thunder off in the distance and for the moment, she was glad that hadn’t actually come up with a plan for what she was actually doing. If this had been the plan she’d come up with, she would have had to admit that it was a bad one.
And maybe it was, she reasoned to herself as she walked around to the back of the car to check the trunk one more time for a spare tire that wasn’t there. A bad plan. It sure as hell hadn’t seemed like a great one when she’d kind of half-assed threw it together earlier in the day. It had barely been ten hours since they’d buried her father and even though she’d spent the day picking at cheese trays and sipping vodka sodas, she still couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten an actual meal; so honestly, it was a miracle she’d come up with any kind of plan at all. Even a bad one.
And she decided that it was a really bad plan as another clap of thunder hit, closer than the last one. She was standing in the middle of an abandoned construction site as the clock ticked nearer to midnight. She was just as lost now, standing where her father had last been seen alive, as she had been standing in his office earlier that morning.
She still didn’t know what she was looking for. She just knew that as she’d sat through the funeral, and the lunch, and fake smiled at hundreds of people she didn’t know but who knew her, that as exhausted as she was, she wasn’t going to be able to sleep until she’d visited the site of the fire. She knew better than to expect something as glaring as like, a book of matches or an empty container of lighter fluid to just be laying there on the ground, but she still thought maybe she could find something.
But she wasn’t Veronica Mars. That was becoming clearer with each clap of thunder, with no light save for that coming from her low-batter cell phone, and with the heel of boot sinking deeper into the mud each time she tried to take a step.
How was she going to solve her dad’s murder when she couldn’t even fix the flat tire on her car?
She heard the snap of a branch to her left and held her breath. She was pretty sure she’d snuck out of the house without Dwight or anyone else seeing her, but she wouldn’t have been surprised if the bodyguard she’d had for the last year had found her anyways.
Except Dwight would have announced himself. He would have jumped immediately into a lecture about what could happen to young women who took off alone in the middle of the night without telling anyone.
Whoever was coming toward her coughed, and Pam tried not to make any noise as her hand dropped to her right hip. She’d never actually used a stun gun before, but she felt pretty confident she could figure it out if she needed to.
The same sentiment went for the folded up knife in hidden in her heeled boot. She at least knew how to shoot the handgun in her glovebox.
It seemed to take forever before she could make out the shape of someone standing in front of her. She opened her mouth to shout for them to stay where they were but the figure was laughing at her before she could say anything.
“Pam Beesly?” he asked, squinting at her in the darkness. “What the hell are you doing out here?”
She recognized the voice and the body it was attached to as belonging to the youngest Halpert son, Jim, but she didn’t loosen her grip on the stun gun now in her hand. “Just out for a walk,” she said as casually as she could.
“Uh huh.” He looked over her shoulder at her car and then back at her. He frowned. “Is that a Taser? Jesus, give me that.”
“No!” She shook her head and raised it in his direction. “What are you doing here?”
“No, come on.” He reached toward her and she took a step back but didn’t lower her arm. “Pam, I’m serious.” Jim was taller than her, with longer limbs, and his shoes didn’t seem to be sinking into the mud like hers were. He easily overpowered her, holding her arm in one hand while taking the stun gun from her with the other.
“First of all, you were aiming that at yourself,” he chastised her. “Second of all.” He looked down at object in his hands and then back at her. “It’s pink?”
She was glad he couldn’t see her blush in the dark. “It was a gift.”
“Okay. Got anything else on you? Any throwing stars or pepper spray or guns?”
“Throwing stars?” she asked, folding her arms across her chest. “What do you think I am? A ninja?” She realized she’d completely forgotten about the pepper spray sitting on her nightstand. She really was bad at this.
“No, but I know how Dwight is and it wouldn’t surprise me if he—“ Jim frowned and looked around. “Where is Dwight?”
“Never mind where he is. What are you doing here?” she repeated. She wanted to ask how he knew who Dwight was but he was still talking.
“Obviously the same thing you are, but seriously, where’s Dwight?” He looked over her shoulder again. “Or anyone? Are you out here alone?”
“Why are you so concerned?” She wasn’t sure why she was being so difficult, but she’d immediately decided to limit any information she shared with him to the bare minimum. “And you’re out here alone, why can’t I be?”
“I’m not, actually.” He jerked a thumb over his own shoulder. “I’ve got two guys with me back by own my car. And you’re right, any other time I wouldn’t give a shit about whether or not you have anyone with you but let’s look at some facts, yeah? One.” He ticked off his list on his fingers. “It’s midnight and we’re standing in the middle of a crime scene. Two, you’re already stranded because you can’t fix a flat tire and I just took your stun gun away with zero fight from you. And three.” He shook his head. “I don’t know about your dad, but I know my dad skipped out on his guard the night of the fire, and we both know what happened then.”
Pam looked down at her feet. “You’re right,” she agreed quietly. She sighed and kicked at a piece of yellow police tape that was stuck in the mud. She made a decision. “So you don’t think it was an accident, either?”
His laugh was more of a snort as he gave her a surprised look. “No. I don’t care what the police say, this definitely wasn’t an accident.” He cocked his head to the side. “What do you think happened?”
“I don’t know.” She shook her head helplessly. “I thought if I came down here, if I was able to see—“ her shoulders slumped dejectedly. “I don’t know,” she said again.
“Yeah, me either,” he admitted. They both jumped as it thundered almost directly above them. “I hate to say it, but I don’t think we’re going to find anything tonight. Come on, Nancy Drew, I’ll drive you home.”
“I’m not leaving my car here!” she protested. “I’ll call Dwight and he—“
“My guys will make sure your car gets home before anyone knows it was even here. But we’re not going to sit in the rain and wait for them to do that. Let’s go.” He took her by the elbow again and steered her down the path to where his car sat parked outside the fence around property.
“Are you always so bossy?” She asked, pulling her arm away. “I said I’m fine, I can get home-“
“Yeah, you’ve really proven how capable you can be in the ten minutes I’ve been with you tonight.” Jim held the passenger door open and motioned for her to get into the car. “Do you think I won’t use your own stun gun on you to get you into this car?” he asked impatiently as a streak of lightning illuminated the entire construction site. “Stop being difficult.”
Pam slid into the car wordlessly, jumping slightly as he slammed the door shut as soon as she was in. He stopped to talk to the two guys that really had been lurking in the shadows and no sooner than he got into the car and turned it on, did the storm fully hit with the rain coming down in sheets.
Jim gave her a tight-lipped smile. “Bet you’re glad to be in the car now, huh?” She just glared at him.
“I can change a flat tire.” It was several minutes later when she spoke, surprising herself more than him. She’d been stewing silently over his comments on her capabilities and accidentally spoke out loud.
“Yeah?” Jim kept his eyes on the road. “Why were you just standing there then?”
“Because the jack was missing.” It wasn’t so much missing as it was still in Penny’s car, never returned after the other girl asked a month ago to borrow it because hers was broken and she was going on a road trip with friends.
“Guess it’s a good thing I came along then, huh?”
“Maybe.” Pam stared out the window as they made their way to the other side of town. “What were you going to look for?” she asked finally.
He turned to look at her for the first time since they’d gotten into the car. “I was hoping I’d know it when I saw it.” He shrugged. “I was going to go earlier in the day, but I didn’t want anyone knowing I was there.”
“I decided I was coming down here in the middle of the funeral service,” she confessed. “But I had to wait for everything to be done, and then for everyone to turn in for the night, and then I had to—“ she grinned half-heartedly. “Figure out how to ditch Dwight. I should have taken a flashlight,” she conceded.
“Would have fit into your boot just as easily as that pocket knife you’ve got. Would have been more useful too.”
“How did you know about that?”
Jim’s laugh echoed loudly through the car as he flipped the turn signal on and pulled the car to the side of the residential street they were on. “You should never play poker. Your face gives everything away.” He parked and turned to face her, his laughter dying as quickly as it had bubbled up.
“Listen, I know we don’t know each other that well—“
“At all,” she interrupted.
“At all,” he amended patiently. “But I’m going to tell you this anyways. You need to stop. Whatever it is you think you’re doing, you can’t do it anymore. You have to stop playing detective before you get yourself killed.”
“I’m fine. I can take care of myse—“
“You can’t,” he said firmly. “Not now. Bill isn’t here to protect you anymore. You already said you know this wasn’t an accident. And it wasn’t. It was intentional. Someone wanted them both dead and now they are. What do you think is going to happen to you if you get too close to the truth?” Jim’s hand gripped the armrest between them so tightly that his knuckles turned white. “I didn’t know your dad that well, I haven’t lived here for years but I know that compared to the others, he was a good man. He was the peacemaker, right? But he’s gone, Pam. And if someone can kill him, they’re sure as hell not going to think twice about killing you.”
“But the police aren’t—“
“I know. The police aren’t doing shit. Not yet. But this is so far above what the Scranton Police Department can handle that I’m not surprised.”
“Well then what am I supposed to do?” she asked finally. “Let you figure everything out?” She shook her head. “Like you said, you don’t even live here. And your brothers think that—“
“What about my brothers?”
She stared at him for a minute. “This not letting me finish a sentence thing; do you do that with everyone or am I just special?”
He chuckled. “It’s not just you. I’m terrible about that. What about my brothers? Have you talked to them?”
“I haven’t, but—“
“Don’t.”
“But,” she continued on, ignoring his attempt at her interrupting her again. “They were talking to my mom at the funeral today. And my sister said they were talking yesterday too.” She waved a hand at him. “You can talk now.”
He ignored her sarcasm. “Do you know what they were talking about?”
“Not specifically,” she admitted. She had seen Tom and Pete Halpert talking to both her mother and her grandmother at least three times after the funeral but like Penny had said about the day before, they always stopped talking as soon as she was within earshot. “But come on, it has to be something to do with our dads.”
“Yeah.” Jim closed his eyes, steepling his hands over his face. “I know you don’t know me and you have no reason to listen to any of the things I’ve said to you tonight; please listen at least to this; do not trust my brothers.”
“Why?”
He hesitated. “I can’t say.” She rolled her eyes. “Just, don’t trust them. I can’t believe that anything they’re saying or doing is in the best interest of your family.”
“So what’s different about you? Why should I listen to anything you’ve said tonight? How do I know you aren’t playing me?”
“You’re right; you shouldn’t trust me either,” he agreed readily. “I don’t necessarily trust you.”
She tried not to sound offended. “Why not?”
“Because I don’t trust anyone right now.” Jim stared at her for a minute. “You need to be careful,” he said again. “No more wandering around in the middle of the night without backup. And don’t get into other people’s cars so easily.”
“You—“
“That was a joke,” he said mildly. “Kind of. Actually, no, it wasn’t. Don’t get in anyone’s car. That’s just good advice for anyone.” He looked at her expectantly. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Pam sat back and stared ahead. “Yes,” she said, feeling every bit a child being scolded by her father. “I’ll be more careful,” she promised.
“Okay.” Jim pulled the car back onto the street and turned toward the gated community where her house was.
She looked at him skeptically. “Can I ask you something? Two things.”
“Sure.”
“How do you know I’ve been staying with my mom? And how do you know about Dwight?”
“I just assumed. I can take you back to your apartment if you want?” She shook her head. “And Dwight?” He shrugged. “Everybody knows Dwight.” She didn’t want to laugh, but she did. “But also, I’ve spent the last few nights learning the Scranton Families history to get a better idea of the hierarchy and who would most benefit from my dad being dead.”
She was kind of impressed by that. “Have you figured it out?”
“I’ve got some ideas.” He pulled the car up to the closed gate and Pam waved at the guard to let them through. They were both silent as he pulled up to her house and parked the car again. “My guy will leave your car with the guard up front,” he said. “And you’ll stop running around town in the middle of the night?”
“Fine. And thanks,” she added as an afterthought. She was halfway out of the car when she stopped and looked back at him. “Can I have it back?”
“Have what back?”
She held out her hand expectantly. “My stun gun.”
“Absolutely not.” He shook his head. “You have no idea how to use it.”
“It’s mine!” she protested.
“And I’m going to hold onto it until I leave town. Once I’m gone, I don’t care who you try to use it on.”
“I really don’t like you.”
“I don’t think I’m that fond of you either. Good night, Beesly.” He grinned as she slammed the door shut and then backed out of the driveway with a wave of his hand. She stared at his car as it disappeared down the block before turning and heading toward the darkened house.
She went to bed that night more confused than she had been at the beginning of the day.
&&&
Pam didn’t wake up until almost noon the next day and even then, she only woke up because someone was knocking at her bedroom door insistently. She opened the door to see Dwight standing there with a box in his hands.
“Pamela. I thought you were dead.”
“I was just sleeping, Dwight. It was a long day yesterday.”
“Why was your car outside the gates last night?” he demanded.
“Is it back?”
“Yes.”
She yawned. “Then it doesn’t matter. What’s with the box?”
“It was hand delivered for you this morning. Should I scan it for explosives before you open it?”
“No, I’m sure it’s fine.” She took the box and shut the door again with a ‘thanks, Dwight.’ He yelled at her through the door that she was being irresponsible but she ignored him.
Sitting on the edge of her bed, she inspected the box carefully. There wasn’t any postage or markings on the box other than her name, Pam Beesly, scrawled across the top in bold black script. She broke the tape seal with her fingernail and lifted the cover, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion as she lifted the tissue paper from the top.
It was her stun gun, but it was encased in a Tupperware container of lemon jello. A piece of paper fluttered to the ground. It was a business card with Jim’s contact info on one side and a handwritten message on the other.
Be careful, Nancy Drew.
She didn’t have a lot of time to think about anything before she heard a commotion coming from downstairs. By the time she’d thrown her robe on, Penny was flinging her bedroom door open and barreling in.
“Mom’s lost it. She’s gone off the deep end. Pam, you gotta stop this.”
Pam frowned. Penny’s face was red, she’d clearly been crying, and she looked like she was on the verge of hyperventilating. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
“Mom’s fucking crazy. She can’t make me do this, can she?” Penny was talking more to herself than she was to Pam as she paced the length of the room. “It’s not like it’s the 1800’s, she can’t just say this is what’s going to happen and I have to go along with it. I mean, I’m an adult.”
“Penny.”
Penny didn’t hear her. “And okay, I’m an adult, yeah, but I’m only nineteen. I’m too young to get married. Especially to him. He’s so much older. And he’s creepy. And—“
“Penny.” She waited until the blonde stopped and looked at her. “What the hell are you talking about? Mom wants you to do what?”
“She said I have to marry Tom Halpert.”
