She let out a pent-up breath. “Sorry. I totally overreacted.”
“Is everything all right.”
She glanced into the lobby. Blackwood’s receptionist stood at the front desk, talking to the desk officer. What was she doing here?
“Michaela?”
She realized he was waiting for her answer. “Everything’s good. Sorry, Hank, but I’ve got to go.”
She hung up and crossed to the receptionist. “Pam,” she said, “this is a surprise.”
The woman turned. She burst into tears.
Micki led her to a bank of chairs. “What’s wrong?”
“Dr. Blackwood, she—” Pam drew a shaky breath “—she fired me. For talking to you.”
Micki frowned. “She called me just a few minutes ago and didn’t say anything about firing you. In fact, she gave me the impression you told her we’d talked.”
Pam shook her head, wiped her cheeks. “She’d looked at the overnight surveillance tapes. I didn’t know she did that and…I lied.”
“Slow down. Tell me exactly what happened.”
Pam nodded, took a deep breath. “She was already there when I arrived this morning. She was in one of her moods. Angry sounding. Sort of confrontational.”
“This wasn’t the first time you’d come in to find her that way?”
“No.” She wrung her hands. “It’s not every day, but once a week. I hate it when she gets like that.”
“Go on.”
“She point-blank asked me if I’d talked to you.”
“And you lied.”
“Yes.” She hung her head. “I hate myself for it.”
“Why didn’t you just tell her the truth?” Mickie asked. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I knew she wouldn’t like it. She was already in a mood and I…I didn’t want to deal with it.”
“I’m sorry, Pam,” she said softly. “But you do realize what she did, right? She set a trap for you. Do you really want to work for a person like that?”
“Easy for you to ask.”
“True. But I saw how nervous she made you. How uncomfortable.”
“She’s mean. To the bone mean. She knew how much I needed the job and enjoyed firing me. I saw it in her eyes.” Pam balled her hands into fists. Gleeful, that’s what she was.”
“You’ll get another job.”
Her shoulders slumped. “Not like that. Not one that pays so much.”
“You were overpaid?”
She nodded and fished a tissue out of her purse. “A position, with my skills and experience…anywhere else I’d make half what she offered.”
“Why do you think she did that, Pam?”
She looked startled by the question, as if she had never considered it before. “I don’t know, I was just so thankful.”
“So thankful you never questioned it or anything else about the job? She bought your loyalty, Pam.”
“She said she couldn’t have an employee she didn’t trust.” Bright spots of color bloomed in her cheeks. “Then she smiled.”
“What else can you tell me about Bitty Vanderlund and Cherry Chablis?”
“Nothing more than what I have already told you! That’s what’s so stupid. Why did she even care if I talked to you? Nothing I could say would have incriminated her.”
“Let’s be certain of that.” Micki leaned toward her and lowered her voice. “Could she have somehow orchestrated the murders?”
“You’re serious?”
“I am.”
Pam hesitated, as if to focus. “Would she have if there’d been a way? Yeah, she would’ve. Absolutely. Just for fun. But how?”
Angry. Lashing out at her former employer. Hardly a reliable witness.
But all she had.
“That day my partner and I were interviewing Dr. Blackwood, I asked if she practiced hypnotherapy and she said no. I saw your face; you knew she was lying.”
“Yes.” She looked down at her hands, then back up at Micki. “I didn’t know what to do.”
“Why do you think she did that?”
Pam frowned. “Maybe she was hiding something?”
“Exactly what I think. She ever talk to you about what she does? About therapy in general or hypnotherapy in particular?”
“Some. She once told me that in the wrong hands hypnosis could be a dangerous thing. Something like, she could just as easily instill anxiety and fear in a person as alleviate it.”
Micki made a note and Pam went on. “She started quoting cases of ritualistic abuse in children and hypnosis being used to manipulate the mind of the abused. It creeped me out so much I almost quit then.” She looked down at her hands. “I wish I had.”
“But you didn’t. Because of the money.”
She inclined her head. “I think she got off on watching me squirm. I even told her I had kids and didn’t want to hear anymore, but she didn’t stop.”
Pam shuddered and rubbed her arms. “I was never so happy to get out of anywhere. I felt like I needed a bath, it was that icky.”
“Many therapists record their sessions with patients. Does she?”
“I don’t know. She takes notes, but transcribes them herself because of patient privacy laws.”