Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 02 - Necklaces & Nooses (19 page)

Chapter 24

I
can’t believe we’re doing this.”

Letting Jared and Anna talk me into driving us all to Wisconsin was probably one of the dumbest things I had ever done. If only Cooper could see me now, I’m sure this would amaze even him. Amaze him at my stupidity. Still, I knew this might be the best way, if not the only way, to get the information we needed. To find out why Sheila was making these clandestine trips to the cabin James was hiding at would tell us a lot about what was going on. I just felt it in my gut, and my gut usually wasn’t wrong, although it wasn’t usually faced with issues of this magnitude.

“Oh, quit complaining,” Jared said. “You know this is going to tell you what you want to know, and it’s not like you’re going by yourself.”

“I still think she should tell Willie,” said Anna.

“No!” both Jared and I yelled.

“Anna, he is like Cooper and would tell me not to go, that he wouldn’t allow it, or some such crap. It would start an argument and then he would be even more angry when I went anyways.”

“But you said Willie had people there watching James. He’s going to know you’re there.”

“Yes, he will, but by then it will be too late. I’ll already be there. Now, go get changed.” We had all been in pajamas hanging out ready to have what I thought was a relaxing night in, but then Jared insisted we go to Wisconsin and see for ourselves what Sheila and James were up to. At first I joked with him about the possibilities. Then I realized he wasn’t joking when he got out of his seat and put down his wine, telling us to put real clothes on. Jared’s apartment was on the way to I-94 East, that would take us out of Chicago and on our way to Wisconsin, but Anna’s was way out in the other direction, so she was just going to borrow something of mine.

While we were getting dressed, Jared looked up Crivitz, the town where we were headed.

“It’s about a five-hour drive from here, so we will get there about two in the morning,” he yelled through the door.

“We better be stopping for some Red Bull,” I said. “You do realize all three of us will have to call in sick tomorrow, and I may not have a job after James finds out we drove up to spy on him. So I hope you are ready to loan me the money to pay my bills when he cans me.”

“Whatever. He won’t fire you. He needs you too much. None of the other girls can run that place, and he wouldn’t find someone off the street he could trust. Face it, that place is yours to run until you change your mind.”

“Lucky me,” I said, walking out of the bedroom in my comfy Gap jeans and soft fitted gray tank. “I guess it’s good job security.”

“Take what you can get. It’s better than your last job. At least you don’t have someone sexually harassing you.”

“Good point. Hurry up, Anna. She is so slow,” I said to Jared.

“I heard that!”

“I meant you to hear it. Come on already. Jared, you have the directions?”

“Yep. Downloaded on my phone”

“Great.” We piled in my black Kia and made a stop to fill up with gas and grab some snacks for our road trip. We finally made it to I-94 and were on our way. Even though I was a little—okay a lot—apprehensive about where we were headed and what would happen once we got to our destination, I enjoyed driving trips, especially with my friends. The first couple hours on the road, we were on a Red Bull high, channel surfing on the radio, singing along to anything we knew, or thought we knew, and many we didn’t know but thought we did. It had been a long time since I had the chance to just hang out with Jared and Anna like this. We all had such busy lives. No matter what happened at the end of this trip, I was happy with this part of it.

“Turn it up, it’s the new Britney!” Jared said.

As I was obliging him, Anna said she needed a bathroom break, and I was there myself. Plus I was getting tired and needed some coffee to refuel.

“Next exit we can stop, Anna.”

“Okay. Hey, your phone is ringing again.”

“Who is calling me now? It’s almost midnight; I should be sleeping.” I giggled. “Look at it.”

Anna fished in my purse that was at her knees and finally found the phone. It had stopped by then. “Willie.”

I felt a small twinge of guilt that I hadn’t told him where I was going.

She looked at me, eyes wide. “And he’s called five times. We must have had the radio up too loud to hear. Why do you suppose he called that many times?”

“I have no idea. We didn’t have plans to talk tonight, and he surely couldn’t have any inkling of where I am headed. Or could he?” I got a little nervous at the thought, but he wasn’t clairvoyant, so how could he possible know?

“Maybe he’s just worried that you haven’t answered,” Anna said. “Do you think you should call him?”

“No, she shouldn’t call him, Anna. He’ll ask why she hasn’t answered her phone, and then she will either have to lie or tell him the truth. Neither of which is a good idea. Calling him just puts Presley in a bad spot.”

“But Jared, what if something has broken in the case and he wants to tell her? Maybe we’re making this trip unnecessarily?”

“Did he leave any voicemails?” I asked.

“Nope, just hung up.”

“If it was something important, don’t you think he would have left a message?”

I pulled off the exit into a Shell station, and then up to a pump so I could also top off the tank. I put twenty in, and then walked into the station’s food mart to grab a Diet Coke and some Twizzlers. Jared was checking out right in front of me. He had Doritos, a couple of Butterfinger candy bars, Swedish Fish, a hot dog with the works, and a forty-four ounce Mountain Dew.

“Wow! You’re going to be in a junk food coma,” I said.

“Calories don’t count on road trips. Besides, I’m planning on sharing with you guys. I’m not that much of a pig.” He gave the cashier his credit card. He finished his transaction, and I paid for my snacks, as did Anna. We had enough junk food to last us for a trip to Florida.

We got back on the highway headed east and for a few miles were quiet. All of us were stuffing our faces with junk and listening to some Eighties station. I had the cruise set and was letting the miles go by, thinking about what I was actually going to say and do, once we got to Crivitz.

“Has that blue Honda Civic been following us this whole time?” Jared asked.

“What?” I asked, not hearing all what he had to say.

“I was asking if you guys noticed that blue Honda Civic behind us? I think that same car has been behind us the whole time we have been on the road.”

“So? We aren’t the only ones going to Wisconsin,” I said.

“Yeah, but I swear this car was following us from the beginning, and when we stopped for gas, wouldn’t it have gotten ahead of us?”

“Now that you mention it, Jared, I think this car stopped when we did,” Anna said. “I remember seeing it parked a couple aisles down from us getting gas.”

“But still, it could be a coincidence,” I said.

“What if it’s not?” Jared said.

“Who could possibly want to follow us?” I said sarcastically to hide my nervousness that there could be a list of people it could be.

“Maybe Willie had you followed,” Anna said.

“I doubt he would have someone following me in a Honda Civic.”

“Are you planning on calling him back?” she asked.

“Not now. Jared is right, he would ask where I was, and I would either lie or have to tell the truth, and neither one would end well, and I don’t feel like arguing with him.”

We all got quiet again, more lost in our own thoughts than stuffing our faces. I kept glancing in the rearview mirror, and the Honda was still following us, but was far enough back that I couldn’t tell who was driving. My phone rang again. Willie. It was one o’clock in the morning. Something must be up or he must have ESP, because he had never called me this late. He knew I was usually in bed by then. I let it once again go to voice mail, but if he kept calling I was going to have to answer it eventually.

“Are we there yet?” Anna interrupted my thoughts with her childlike questions, trying to be funny.

“Not sure. Jared? You’re the navigator on this trip.”

“We are getting close. According to Google maps about twenty miles away.”

“Oh, we’re a lot closer than I thought.”

“You’ve been going eighty most of the time, Ms. Lead Foot.”

I smiled. He was right I did have a penchant for speeding and had the tickets to prove it. “Lucky I haven’t passed any cops.”

“The car is still back there,” Anna said.

“I noticed that, too,” Jared said. “When we get to our exit for Crivitz, if the car follows us, we will know they must be following us intentionally and this isn’t just a coincidence. The odds of someone leaving Chicago the same time as us to end up at Crivitz is too farfetched to not be on purpose.”

“I hear what you’re saying, Jared.”

“Well, get ready to find out, this is our exit coming up.” I turned on my signal and noticed the Civic did the same. “Looks like they’re getting off, too.”

“What should we do?” asked Anna. “This is creepy.”

“I say we pull into that gas station over there”—Jared pointed to a BP—“and see if they follow us. If they do, we need to confront them.”

“Do you think that’s smart?” I asked.

“There are three of us, and we’ll be in a public place. It’ll be fine.”

“If you say so.” I pulled into the gas station and watched in my mirror. The Civic was still right behind us. I pulled into the parking lot of the gas station right under a big floodlight. The Civic pulled in on the other side and just sat there, car idling.

“Well…should we really go over there?” I asked.

“Yes! C’mon. Both of you. Don’t be such sissies.” Jared got out of the car, and Anna and I followed suit. My stomach was doing flip-flops; I was nervous to see who was following us. We crossed the parking lot and got close to the car, close enough for me to see who was in the driver’s side. I gasped.

“What, Presley?” Anna asked.

“I know exactly who that is, but I have no clue as to why she is following us. Or then again, maybe I do.” We reached the car, and I knocked boldly on the window. She rolled the window down reluctantly. “Amy, what the hell are you doing?”

Jared started saying, “You mean this is the girl you said—”

I held up my hand to silence him. I would answer his questions later. Right then, I wanted to find out why she was following us. “Amy?”

She hung her head. “I’m sorry, but I love him, and I have to see and talk to him.

“Amy, has he expressed any interest in seeing or talking to you?” I asked.

“No, but I know he wants to; he just doesn’t feel it is appropriate.”

“What makes you think that? Did he tell you that?”

“I just know,” she said, breaking into a crying fit again.

“Amy, listen to me. Your behavior is bordering on the stalkerish. What made you follow us?” This girl had issues. At first when she had told me her story I thought it was an innocent crush, but this was carrying things a bit too far. I was seriously worried.

“I knew you were running the store, so I figured eventually you would be seeing James to talk about it.”

“Have you been following me around since the other day when you came into the store?”

She hung her head sheepishly. This girl was incredible. “I just want to talk to him,” she repeated.

James would be smart to stay far away from this girl. “Why did you think I would be seeing James once I left the city?” Either she knew more about his whereabouts than I would think or she was just prepared to follow me anywhere I went.

“I didn’t for sure. I know your family lives south, and James once mentioned they had a place in Wisconsin, so once you kept going on 94 outside the city, I thought maybe you were going to meet James at the cabin.”

“How did you know about the cabin?”

“James mentioned it once. He didn’t tell me exactly where it was, just that it was in Wisconsin.”

James should be thankful he didn’t. What had he been thinking getting mixed up with this girl? I still felt she was harmless, but she definitely was over-the-top obsessed. I almost felt bad that she had fooled herself into thinking James might want to be with her. I didn’t think she killed Solange to be with him, but she sure was entering the realm of harassment and stalking. “Amy, you need to turn around and go home.”

“You’re going to meet him, aren’t you?”

“Amy, that’s not important. But, you need to go home. When someone doesn’t want to see you and you go to great lengths to bother them anyway, that’s not a good thing. Do you want the police to think you killed Solange just to be with James?”

Her eyes grew wide. “Of course not,” she snapped. “Why would anyone think that?”

Now she seemed angry. She just didn’t have any clue as to how weird her behavior was. “They would think that because you seem a bit obsessed with James and he doesn’t seem to feel the same way back,” I said. “That maybe you would do whatever it took to be with him. Even, if it meant killing his wife.” I still didn’t think she had murdered Solange, though maybe she was nuttier than I thought. I just wanted to shock her into thinking about what she was doing. “Amy, I know you think you love James, but if he wanted to be with you he would. Don’t waste your time on some guy who isn’t worth it. Find someone who will appreciate you.”