Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 09 - Romance & Revenge (8 page)

Chapter 11

“Are you sure?
” Katy asked me. I had just arrived back at the condo and hurriedly told them what had just happened with Cooper, not John. I couldn’t even think about that right this minute, though I felt selfish since my personal life probably wasn’t as important as what was happening at Sleeping Bear right now.  But for this minute it was and I had to get it out.

“Katy, I know a girl’s voice when I hear one.” A girl had answered his phone
. I couldn’t believe it; another girl had answered his phone. That sentence just kept wanting to play over and over in my head. I couldn’t stop it. “And girls don’t answer a guy’s phone unless it’s serious. I never even answered his phone. I felt it was an intrusion on his privacy. A trust issue. Clearly whoever this girl is, she doesn’t feel the same.”

“You shouldn’t jump to conclusions, Pres
. That could have been anyone.  Doesn’t mean he is dating someone. It’s probably a friend or work acquaintance,” Katy said, as usual trying to put her positive spin on things and pouring some Baileys in my coffee cup. I wasn’t sure even that would make me feel better. But if nothing else, I could drink until I fell asleep.

“She do
es have a point, Katy. It does seem a little odd that some chick would be answering Cooper’s phone,” Jared said, and Katy turned and gave him a dirty look.

“Shut up!
That’s not helping, Jared.”

“But
he’s right, Katy.” I sat down on the couch feeling defeated. Taking a long drink of my coffee and feeling the Baileys warm me up through my toes. “I wonder if it’s that girl we saw him with. That really pretty one. God, I hate pretty girls. I hope all pretty girls wake up with a bad case of acne tomorrow.”

Katy laughed. “Stop. No pity parties. What can we do that will make you feel better?”

“I wish there was a way to find out who that girl is,” I mused, feeling a little more mellow now that I had a few sips of Baileys in me. “Knowledge is power, you know.

“Maybe
we can find out,” Katy said.

“How?”

“We saw them coming out of Techman Industries so maybe she works there. If it’s the same girl we saw him with outside the building.”

“That’s like trying
to find a needle in a haystack. I think it’s a fairly large size company,” I said. “And besides, if we do find her am I supposed to prank call her and see if it’s the same voice?”

“
Maybe. What else would you like to do? At least this way we’re doing something and keeping our minds from dwelling—you on Cooper and Jared on his job. You guys are bringing me down; let’s do something about this. We need to take action.”

“She’s right, Jared,” I said. “I can’t just sit here. Get dressed and let’s go.”

Jared usually took longer than most girls to get ready, so I was surprised when a quick fifteen minutes later he was ready and we all headed out the door. He must have really wanted to get out of the house.

Snow was lightly falling and the wind was picking up. Winter in Chicago was not my favorite time of the year. Though I could admire how pretty the snow looked, I would like it better if it
were seventy degrees outside. I was not a fan of cold weather.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked Katy.

“Whatever it is, why can’t it be driving? Walking in the cold isn’t my idea of fun,” Jared grumbled.

“It’s goo
d exercise to walk, plus it will make us feel better, endorphins and all that crap,” I said, though secretly agreed with him. I didn’t like exercise either, but I tried to walk as much as possible around the city. It helped me fight the fat. It was Katy who was all gung-ho to walk down the beautiful city streets because she wasn’t able to do that at home. I thought she was nuts, but she was the guest, so who was I to not let her do what she wanted?

“If I wanted exercise, I would go to the gym.”

“You don’t belong to a gym,” I said.

“Exactly my point.”

“If I remember correctly, the building isn’t too far now,” Katy said, ignoring Jared, which honestly was the best course of action when he was cranky like this. For a guest in the city, she had a decent sense of her surroundings. I was pretty impressed.

“I think you’re right, Katy,” I said.

In total we walked about six or seven blocks, which wasn’t bad. Even in the cold. Finally, we were standing in front of Techman Industries, looking at the sign on the door. And then at one another.

“Now what?” Jared asked and we both looked at Katy, since this had been her idea.

“Don’t look at me. At least I got us this far. Now it’s your turn.”

“
Coffee shop,” I said pointing across the street. One of the things I loved about Chicago was the fact you were never more than a few steps away from being caffeinated. “We can warm up and stare at the front of the building and see if she comes out.” It seemed like as good a plan as any, especially the warm part and the coffee part.  The walk hadn’t been bad, but I didn’t want to stand out on the street all day because just in the few minutes we had been standing here I could really feel the cold.

An hour passed and nothing had happened
, except the fact we were all hopped up on caffeine. Or at least Jared and I were. Katy had got passion tea. She said she had already had enough coffee. As if!

Only one person had gone in and no one had come out.
I assumed many people were off for the holidays. The streets were a lot slower even. Luckily, there had been some good people watching in the coffee shop to entertain us.

“Stakeouts are boring. You need to ask Willie how cops pass the time and don’t fall asleep when they’re supposed to be wat
ching for bad guys,” Jared said, resting his chin on his hands.

“Maybe that’s why they eat donuts
,” I joked. “To stay hyped up on sugar.”

“Honey, I’ve seen Willie
, remember? I don’t think that man eats a lot of donuts,” said Katy.

“I guess you do have a point there,” I said back with a smile.

“It’s almost lunchtime, so maybe then there will be some action. You know, people leaving to get food. It is a holiday week so even if she does work here, she may not be working now. Let’s stay until after the lunch rush and if nothing, we’ll go home. Deal?” I said.

Katy and Jared nodded their agreement.

Jared and I started playing Tic-tac-toe on the backs of receipts I had in my purse—I really needed to clean the thing out—when I felt Katy grab my arm, causing my pen to mark across the paper. “Hey, I was just about to win! You know how hard it is to win at Tic-tac-toe?”

“Isn’t that her?” she said
, pointing across the street to where three people had just come out the Techman Industries door and were heading down the sidewalk.

Looking across the street, I quickly recognized the blond
e as the one we had seen with Cooper. Who could miss her? She was that pretty and after seeing her with Cooper, her face was seared into my brain. Probably forever.

“It is. So let’s go.” I stood up and grabbed my purse and the discarded receipts
, which I balled up and tossed in the trash. My heart was racing and I didn’t know if it was from the caffeine or seeing that girl, but I felt it was about to jump out of my chest. Maybe that last cup of coffee was a mistake.

“C’mon, we don’t want to lose her,” I said to Jared,
who was getting a coffee refill, which I hoped was decaf.

“I’m coming, I’m coming.”

“They’re heading down that way.” Katy pointed north and I could see the back of the girl’s head. Luckily, she was tall, which made it easier to spot.

Since the crosswalk
was flashing the white walking man, we crossed the street and walked fast until we caught up with them and then slowed to stay a few paces behind.

“
I feel like real spies,” I whispered, thinking this would be a little bit fun if we weren’t following a girl I saw Cooper with. It wish it was an exercise in finding out who was trying to sabotage Sleeping Bear Designs or who killed Becky. I felt another pang of selfishness that here we were spending time chasing down some random girl who may or may not be interfering in what was probably my non-existent relationship instead of finding a murderer.

“
They’re probably just heading to lunch. There are a lot of good restaurants up this way,” Jared replied gently.

“I don’t think we need to whisper,”
said Katy. “And yes, they are probably heading to lunch and this won’t give us any indication as to who she is or what she means to Cooper, but at least we’ll know what she likes to eat.”

“Which would be Italian,” Katy said, as we watched them turn into Mama’s Pizza.

“How does she stay so skinny eating Italian?” I said as we just stood on the sidewalk,  wondering what we should do next. “So not fair. I bet she doesn’t exercise either.”

“And not even great Italian
. Their red sauce is too sweet for me,” Jared added. “Are we going to wait out here for her to finish lunch and then follow her back to the office?”

“I don’t see any point to that. It’
s way too cold out here anyways,” I said.

“Me either,” said Katy. “But at least now we know she does work
in that building.”

“What good will
that do?” I asked.

“Because now we have more information on her to search.”

About an hour later, we were sitting in the living room at our condo with the fireplace going trying to warm up.

“Here you are
, ladies. Hot chocolate with whipped cream and just a touch of Baileys,” Jared said, serving us.

“Thanks
,” I said and proceeded to Google Techman Industries. Once I found it, I went to the employees’ page and there she was.

“Found her!” I said excitedly and turned my laptop around so they could see. “She’s Vice President of Technology, which m
eans she’s smart and beautiful. I don’t know why we didn’t just Google in the first place and save ourselves the trip.”

“
We followed her because we needed to get out of the house and well, because none of us thought about it first,” said Katy. “It also means Cooper could just have a professional relationship with her. If she’s a VP it would stand to reason if they were using Sands Security she could be the company contact.”

“Or that he decided he wanted a girlfriend with a real job. Besides
, I don’t even know that this is the chick who answered his phone. So what’s the point of all this?” I closed my laptop and leaned my head back against the couch, cradling my hot cocoa in my hands and closing my eyes. “Maybe he now has two girlfriends?”

Katy frowned. “Now you’re just being silly. You know Cooper’s not
like that. Stop trying to torture yourself.”

“I know. It’s just hard to know what to think. Maybe I should try to call him again,” I said
, the Baileys giving me a little boost of confidence, and grabbed my phone off the coffee table.

I dialed his number
, bracing myself for him to answer or even worse, a girl again, only to get his voicemail. I threw the phone back on the table. While part of me appreciated the reprieve and ability to live a little longer in denial, I was going crazy here and really needed to know. One way or another.

Chapter
12

“The salon just hasn’t been the same since the murder of Bethany Granville and I’m not sure what to do,” said Katy. I had just asked her how things had been going at the salon over our second round of hot chocolate and Baileys. We had been so wrapped up in Jared stuff and my problem with Cooper, I hadn’t had the chance to really ask her how she was doing. She usually had it as one of her main topics of conversation. She loved that place, always talking about it, but this time she hadn’t been. Now I understood why and I was definitely surprised. I had no idea she felt that way. I felt bad I hadn’t asked her before this.

“You mean financially?” I asked.

“That too, but more the salon in general. I just don’t have the same passion for running it I once had. The money is just icing on the cake of how I feel, even though I know that’s just temporary. I expected to take a hit after Bethany’s murder. I knew it would initially scare some people off. And it’s been slowly coming back. Which I knew it would.”

“Well
, when it comes to getting your hair done you can overlook a lot of things. It’s worth risking your life for a good color.”

“Good point
.” Katy smiled. “I thought I was just in a funk after Chris and I broke up and that once I had some time to sort things out, I would feel better. But I feel back to my old self on that front and I still don’t enjoy going to the salon. I think I might sell,” she said and I couldn’t have been more shocked than if she said she was going to amputate her arm.

My eyes widened. “You’re kidding?
But you love that place. It’s your life.”

“Loved, Presley. I think
its past tense. Things change. I’ve been approached by someone asking if I was willing to sell and I’m seriously considering it. The salon doesn’t make me happy when I go there. It’s making me feel trapped and I don’t like that feeling. I want to love it, because when you love something it doesn’t seem like work and to not even like something I used to love… It’s just depressing and not worth it.”

Wow.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. For as long as I had known Katy, and that was almost my whole life, she had wanted to own a beauty salon. It was the game she always wanted to play when we were little girls, which was fine with me because I loved having her do my hair and makeup. This had been her dream for as long as I could remember. One I was jealous of because I wasn’t that focused. She had opened the salon a couple years out of cosmetology school with some money her grandmother had left her and had been extremely successful almost from the beginning because she was that good. Her salon was well known in the surrounding towns. She was very popular. I had always been so impressed that she knew what she wanted and went for it and had been a very successful business owner, while I floundered in the career department. To think she wanted a change was hard to fathom. Her and her salon was one identity.

“What would you do?” I asked her.

She looked at me nervously. “Maybe move out of town with Dirt,” she said softly, seeming to brace for my reaction.

Once again
, I was shocked. This revelation again took me by surprise. Even more so than her wanting to sell the salon. I didn’t realize they were that serious.

“Katy, there seems to be a lot about you and Dirt you haven’t be telling me. Are you really that serious
that you would move in with him and move away?”

She nodded. “I know it seems soon and probably seems crazy but he needs to get out of Alkon and start fresh. Too many people still aren’t
one hundred percent sure of his innocence and frankly, I need to get out of town, too. I finally understand a little of what you must have felt that made you leave. It’s almost claustrophobic sometimes. I can’t go anywhere without looks and comments about the salon, or Chris, or Dirt. Everyone knows everyone, and while that’s not always a bad thing, and in the past I enjoyed the tight knit community, right now I don’t. I need some space from everything that has happened and I don’t think I can get space by staying in Alkon.”

I nodded because
I did know exactly how she felt, though all places you lived had their pros and cons. The drawbacks about Chicago weren’t nearly as bad as the drawbacks of living in Alkon, in my opinion, but the recent events would have our small hometown talking forever.

“
If I sold the salon I wouldn’t have anything tying me there. My parents are in Florida. We already have to travel to see each other, so why not leave?”

“Where
would you go?” I couldn’t help but think I didn’t want her to move even farther away from me. I saw her little enough as it was and right now she was only a few hours from me.

“I don’t know for sure. We’ve tossed out some places. Arizona, New Mexico
, places that are warm but aren’t Florida. Don’t want to be that close to my parents; a plane ride is a good distance,” she joked.

“Wow. I guess I am surprised and don’t know what to say. It just seems odd for me to think about
you selling the salon. That just seems such a part of you.”

“We all change. I mean look at you and where you were career
wise a couple years ago. You were on the VP track and now your life is completely different.”

“
That’s my point. I haven’t exactly continued to go uphill. I would hate to see you follow the same path. I should have a real career by now, a real calling, and yet I don’t. But you have, or at least I thought you had.”

“At least you’re following your heart and what you want to do, versus what you think you’re supposed to do because that’s what society wants
, and you’re happy. Happier than before.”

“I guess. I just thought by now I would know what I wanted to be when I grew up.
Happiness doesn’t always pay the bills.”

Katy laughed. “That’s because they
drum that concept into our heads in school, but that doesn’t make it right for everyone, and doing one thing your whole life isn’t either. People change. Now the trend is to go through several careers in a lifetime. And while I’ve been very happy with my career choice thus far, I think it’s time for a change.”

“You’re probably right. I just need to get my shit together before our twenty year class reunion!”
I said, and we both laughed.

“Have you given any more thought to James’
s offer? Maybe Willie is right and it is genuine.” 

Maybe I could finally find my true calling so to speak. That one thing I was passionate about.

“I have, actually. I admit the idea is kind of exciting, but it’s probably too good to be true so I don’t want to get my hopes up.”

“I think it sounds like a great opportunity and I think it would be something you
’d really enjoy. You owe it to yourself to check it out. At least explore the possibilities. What’s the worst that can happen?”

“Willie did give me the contact of a friend of his who does contracting from time to time with the police as a forensic accountant,
whose real job is business accounting and the valuation of companies. He said this guy could look at the books and make sure they weren’t tied to James’s other issues. And of course, see how far in the red Silk actually is. It could be too far gone to save and James just hopes I’m too dumb to know any better and this is his opportunity to unload it.”

“Then do it. Right now!” Katy said.

I looked at the clock. “It’s seven, way past business hours.”

“So call anyways and leave a message. That way he’ll cal
l back and you won’t put it off and make more excuses. This could really be your opportunity, Presley.”

“You’re relentless, you know that
?”

“Y
eah, well you need to take the plunge and someone needs to help you do it.”

“You’re a good friend, Katy,”
I said, reaching for the phone because she was right. I had nothing to lose by getting more information. And maybe, just maybe, this could work out.

I made the call and left a message as I expected and Katy and I continued to chat,
passing the time just catching up in general on mutual friends we had growing up, when my phone rang.

“It’s Willie,” I said to Katy. I’d almost been hoping it was the accountant calling back before I changed my mind and chickened out.

“Hi Willie.”

“
Tell him hi for me too,” Katy said.

I heard Willie laugh. “Tell her hi back,” which I did, and then turned my attention back to the phone.

“What’s up? Do you have some information for me?”

“Why as a matter of fact I do.”

“He has information,” I said to Katy.

“Why don’t you put me on speaker phone so you both can hear.”

“Good idea,” I said and did just that. “Ok, you’re talking to both of us.”

“I was able to do some digging and found out Becky was poisoned.”

“Poisoned? How?” I asked.

“Insulin.”

“Could it have been accidental? Maybe she was diabetic and took too much?” I said.

“No. According to the autopsy she was not diabetic. She somehow ingested enough insulin to throw her body into shock and kill her.”

“So you’re saying that someone gave her this?”

“Unless she committed suicide, yes. And there was no insulin found at her apartment so it’s unlikely this was a suicide.”

“How could someone have administered insulin? Did she drink it or something?”

“No. That’s the other reason this couldn’t have been a suicide. She was injected. So there would have been a syringe and a vial of insulin in her apartment at least.”

I thought about that for a minute. It had to be someone she knew if they were about to get that close to her but still, someone would have given her a shot against her will.

“So you’re saying someone gave her a shot of insulin and that’s what killed her?”

“Yep, that’s what I am saying.”

“Seems like it would be hard to hold someone down long enough to give them a shot.”

“That’s the other interesting thing. There were traces of a sedative in her body as well. The theory is someone drugged her and then when she fell asleep, gave her the insulin. They are testing the glass found in the sink for residue but it’s not back from the lab yet.”

“Do they have any suspects?” I asked.

“They are looking at the boyfriend again, but he seems to have a solid alibi.”

“You have to have a prescription for insulin
, don’t you?”

“Yes. And she didn’t. Like I said, she wasn’t diabetic.”

“Thanks for calling and letting me know.”

“No problem. Just remember you can’t talk about how you got this, or I’ll have to throw you in jail,” he said jokingly, but I knew he was serious about not telling anyone.
I understood he had went out on a limb for us.

“Promise. It will stay between us. And Jared.”

“And Jared what,” he said, walking into the room. He had been on a date and I hadn’t even heard him come in.

“I’ll fill you in, in a minute. Bye Willie. And thanks again.”

“You’re welcome. Talk to you later?” he said, in the form of question.

“Of course!”

“Alright then. Bye.”

“Bye.” I hung up and turned to Jared, filling him in on what Willie had just told us. “So it’s reasonable to think that whoever killed Becky is a diabetic or at least has access to insulin.”

“That’s no help,” Jared said.

“Are you kidding
? It’s a huge lead. At least we know what we are looking for.  Jared you need to find out if anyone at your work has diabetes. Then we can at least cross them off the list.”