After enjoying lunch, which consisted of Rocco’s famous Danno Burger with a side of fries and a couple of Blatz beers, we left for the Harley Davidson Plant and what would be my first encounter with the lovely Diane Davidson since she left me on the street corner years ago collecting pigeon shit on my head. I leaned back and closed my eyes, enjoying the comfortable ride down to the corner of Juneau Avenue and Thirty Eighth Street in Marcello’s new Cadillac convertible to where Harley Davidson was located.
In 1910, Harley Davidson had expanded their factory from where it originated on Juneau Avenue to wrap around the corner onto Thirty Eighth street covering two city blocks and where they have been producing the “Hog” for motorcycle enthusiasts ever since.
William Harley drew up his first plans for an engine to put on his bicycle in 1901 because it was difficult for him to peddle his bike to his favorite fishing hole. Along with his friend, Arthur Davidson, they manufactured their first cycle in Harley’s garage. That power cycle had difficulty conquering Milwaukee’s hills without pedal assistance so they scrapped it and started building one with a larger engine. They manufactured the first prototype in a shed in the Davidson’s backyard. They later enlisted the help of Arthur’s brothers, William and Walter and it wasn’t long before the world’s most famous motorcycle manufacturer was in business.
Soon after the receptionist announced our arrival, Diane Davidson had her escort us back to her spacious corner office. As we stood in the doorway, Diane rose from behind her desk with a beautiful smile that seemed to light up the room and approached John to shake his hand. That made me relax a little as I now knew she wasn’t armed. As they were pumping it up I was looking at all the pictures on the walls. Diane had been a pretty busy woman since the days we were an item and she requested I get out of her life. There were pictures of her with her father standing alongside the mayor of Milwaukee and then there were some of them standing with Frank Meier, Milwaukee’s Police Chief with a bank of shiny new Harley’s behind them with a motorcycle cop beside each bike. Then there was one of her and a big strapping handsome man speaking with President Dwight David Eisenhower. There was the degree from the University of Wisconsin and pictures of the Badger’s football team and another one of people dressed in Badger red with their arms around each other laughing it up. The picture must have been taken after a Badger football game. Some of the people looked familiar, like John Marcello but I wasn’t able to put a name to many of the faces.
“John, it’s so nice to see you again,” Diane beamed. She turned to me and flatly said, “Max.”
I nodded at her afraid to say anything that she might construe as being out of line.
“So, what brings you here today?” she said, smiling at John.
I let John do the talking. “Max and I have a client who may have some information regarding these horrible killings that have occurred on the Southside of Milwaukee recently. One of these unfortunate ladies, Sally Hammonds, as you are aware, worked for you and we have been given some information by a source, who wishes to remain unknown, for obvious reasons, who knew Sally Hammonds. Another one of your employees found Sally’s headless body when she went to Sally’s apartment to check on her when she failed to show up to work for three days and didn’t answer any of her phone calls. This much the police have released to us. What they haven’t released to us is the name of your employee who found Sally’s body. We really need to speak to her, Diane, to see if she can verify or shed some light on some information we have that may break this case wide open before we turn it over to the police. We promise that we will respect her desire for anonymity. We would appreciate any help you could give us in getting her to talk to us.”
Diane furrowed her brow and looked in my direction before looking up toward the ceiling and taking a deep breath that expanded her considerable chest, before expelling a lung full of air. I was mesmerized.
She looked down and scowled in my direction, as if she was reading my mind, before turning to John and saying; “I’ll go speak to her and tell her what you have just told me. I can’t promise that she will talk to you and I surely can’t make her. I want you to know John, I am doing this for you because we have been friends for a long time and I trust you. Stay here while I go find her. If she is willing to meet with you, I will let you use my office. I have a meeting with our accounting department and my office will be vacant.” She then swiveled her head in my direction and arched her eyebrow before standing and walking to the door. She stopped and spun around and looked in my direction and said, “You had better treat her with respect, Max. She has been through a lot and is scared to death and rightly so. This is her first week back to work since she found the body and we are watching her closely to make sure she doesn’t have a breakdown.”
I raised my hands in a supplicating gesture and started to say, “Di… She stopped me and said, “Please, don’t say anything. I can always tell when you are lying Max, your lips move.” She shook her head and waved me off before turning and stomping out of her office. John sat there chuckling and shaking his head. “Max, it’s always a pleasure to be in the presence of one of your ex— girlfriends. I just never know what they are going to say. You must really have some great lines, ‘I can always tell when you are lying Max, your lips move.’ That’s a good one. I can’t wait to tell that to Mildred. She will get a kick out of it.”
There wasn’t much I could say to that so I sat there with my mouth shut staring at all the awards and pictures on Diane Davidson’s office walls.
Ten minutes later Diane returned with a small mousey woman, about twenty or twenty one, in tow. John and I both stood.
“John, this is Beverly Screwowski, she has agreed to speak with you but you must promise not to reveal her name to anyone.”
She looked in my direction and said, “That goes for you as well Max.”
I nodded in agreement, afraid if I moved my lips she would think I was lying. Diane turned back to face John and said, “I told her you were a former FBI agent and that I trusted you to keep your word and she said that is good enough for her. I’ll leave you alone now. I have my meeting and I’ll be back in thirty minutes. Beverly, if you need anything, anything at all, buzz Holly and she will get it for you.”
“John” she said in closing as she walked out the door
“Diane”, he replied as we watched her go. She closed the door behind her leaving a hint of gardenia as she left.
“Miss Screwowski, we really appreciate you speaking with us today and I assure you we will not divulge your name to anyone. We just need to ask you some questions regarding some entries in Sally’s personal diary. Are you okay with that?”
“You found Sally’s diary? Oh my God. Where was it?”