Bats and Bling

by Laina Turner

  I heard the front door chime and my stomach dropped. I expected it to be Veronica any minute, thought it was still early so more likely was Yvette coming in for her shift. I looked up to instead see it was Willie, which was a pleasant surprise.

  “What brings you here? Did you get sent over because of the missing brooch?”

  Willie was a detective and I had met him a while back when the previous owner of Silk was murdered. He’d been the lead detective on the case. He’d become a good friend and had been instrumental in helping Cooper and I get back together after a recent break. I owed him.

  “I’m not on this case but I heard over the radio that a car was being dispatched here and I was worried. What’s going on? Why didn’t you call me?” he asked, looking concerned.

  I quickly filled him in and while it made me feel a little better having him here it was a short lived feeling as I saw Veronica’s town car pull up. I wasn’t ready to deal with her.

  “She’s here,” Katy said as if I hadn’t noticed.

  “I can see that. Might as well get this over with,” I said steeling myself for the explosion that was sure to come.

  Veronica walked in and up to me. “I’m here to pick up my brooch.”

  “About that …”I hesitated just a second and Willie jumped in. “Hi, I’m Detective Landon. I’m afraid there’s been a robbery.”

  She looked at him and at me and back at him. I was pretty sure she was already thinking it hadn’t been a few dresses that had come up missing.

  “Presley, tell me that it’s not my brooch that’s been stolen,” she said slowly with an edge to her voice that made me extra glad Willie was here.

  “Veronica, I’m so sorry,” I said softly.

  “What,” she shrieked. “You let my jewelry get stolen? I trusted you!”

  “Veronica, it was locked in the safe. I don’t know how this happened.”

  Veronica took a step toward me and Willie again intervened.

  “Ma’am I realize how upsetting this must be but we are looking into it and we will find out what happened.”

  “You better get my brooch back, Presley, or I will sue you and take everything you’ve got,” Veronica said, venom in her voice.

  “Veronica, I don’t know what happened.” It sounded lame but was the truth and I had no idea what else to say. I didn’t know how someone could have got into the store and into the safe or how anyone knew it was here except the people here last night and what would they have to gain? Except for me, Katy, and Yvette they were all Veronica’s friends.

  “You should have plenty of time to figure that out since you won’t be working on the fashion show,” she said staring at me. I could tell she was daring me to argue. But I had expected this so it was no surprise and I didn’t blame her a bit. I would do the same in her shoes. Being dropped from the fashion show was the least of my worries.

  “I understand,” I said and Veronica spun around and started to walk out of the store.

  “Ma’am, before you leave one of the men will want to talk to you,” Willie said pointing at the police officers who were outside. They had walked back around from the back side of the building.

  Veronica gave him a dirty look. “Fine,” she muttered and walked outside and up to one of them. I didn’t envy them talking to her.

  I breathed a small sigh of relief. “That went as well as to be expected.”

  “Except we lost the fashion show. I’m surprised you didn’t even argue with her a little,” Katy said. “This isn’t your fault.”

  I held my hands up. “What did you want me to do? If I had trusted you with my custom piece of jewelry and it came up missing I’m not sure I wouldn’t kick you to the curb as well. I can’t blame her.”

  “I guess you’re right. It’s just disappointing. The loss of the show and not knowing what happened to her brooch.”

  “So how exactly did you come to have this nice lady’s piece of jewelry?” Willie asked.

  I briefly explained the situation to him, again wishing I had never taken it for safekeeping in the first place.

  “And you have no idea who could have come in here, opened the safe, and taken it?”

  “None at all,” I said with a sigh. “And I know it was locked.”

  “Who has access to the safe besides you and Katy?”

  “Just one of our sales people, Yvette, who is our go to gal. She’s the only one besides us who opens and closes. But she wouldn’t steal from us.”

  “What makes you so sure?”

  I knew Willie was just doing his job but I hated thinking Yvette would steal. After everything that had happened in Silk the last time with who I thought was a trusted employee I just didn’t want to think it could happen again. Maybe I was being naïve. Maybe being too trusting is what kept getting me in these messes.

  “I know what you’re saying and I guess there’s no way to know for sure. God, I can’t believe this is happening. Just when I thought things were getting better.”

  “Things are getting better, Pres. This is just a minor setback.”

  “I know you’re trying to be positive and I appreciate it but right now I’m just not feeling it.”

  As I said that I saw the police outside had let Veronica leave. She was walking away from them anyways, and opened the door to come in. I sure hoped they could figure out what had happened or I was afraid Silk would be ruined. I wished, not for the first time since this had happened, that Cooper was here to help me figure this out.

  Chapter 3 – wed pmanna back

  “Are you ready for me to open a bottle of wine?” Katy asked me later this evening as I was laying on the couch, my arm over my eyes, in dramatic fashion, which I felt was completely deserved. After the morning with the police and the rest of the day dealing with customers and just obsessing over what happened, I was drained. Though I guess I should be happy I had customers. News had spread about the break in and people had to come in a check out what was going on under the guise of shopping so the store had been busier than a normal weekday. Though as much as my mental state could have used a slow day we had some great fall merchandise in and the ladies were buying regardless of the reason they had come in. It had been a good day in sales that we desperately needed. Especially with loosing the great exposure the fashion show would have afforded us. I was just too depressed over the stolen brooch to be excited over a good sales day.

  “Do you really need to ask?” I said lifting my hands off my eyes and peering at her.

  “Good point.” A few minutes later she came out of the kitchen with a double bottle of Barefoot Riesling opened and hunk of Bellavitano cheese. My favorite. “You haven’t eaten all day and drinking on an empty stomach isn’t a great idea. So eat some cheese first.”

  “Thanks,” I said swinging my legs off the couch and sitting up I reached for a slice she had cut off. I closed my eyes, savoring the taste and the texture. This was the best cheese ever. I loved this stuff. “This is exactly what I needed. Plus the wine. Maybe they will improve my mood.”

  “Listen, I know this is the last thing you wanted to deal with but it’s just a setback. You need to stay positive and keep moving forward. This will work out, you’ll see.”

  “You are always so positive.”

  “I try.”

  “I think what’s really bothering me is who did this and how. I feel violated. Insurance will cover the loss, or at least I think they will. I still need to call them. But who got into the store and into the safe. What’s to say they won’t come back and steal something else and I still don’t have the money to fix the alarm system.”

  “For what it’s worth I don’t think it’s Yvette.”

  “Me either. I didn’t think it before I heard her talking to the police and I definitely didn’t after. But then I thought I could trust Amy too and look what happened.” Amy had been an employee who worked at Silk when I took the store over. I thought she had been a trusted employee who wanted to help me make the store a success and co
me to find out she was stealing merchandise and selling it on ebay. I had been really upset over that. I thought I was a pretty good judge of character and in that case I was completely wrong. “I don’t necessarily trust my judgment. The thing I really don’t understand though is why didn’t whoever broke in also take the money?”

  “Maybe they didn’t want to be greedy,” Katy said with a smile, probably trying to make me laugh.

  “Ha! Funny. Really though. Whoever took it had to be after the brooch. So were they out to hurt Veronica or Silk. Or me for that matter.”

  Katy started to reply when there was a knock on the door. We both looked in that direction.

  “I wonder who that could be?” I said. It had been quite around here the last few days as Jared was in Florida on a business trip, Cooper was on a business trip, and Dirt was back in Alkon, mine and Katy’s hometown, taking care of some final things regarding the sale of Katy’s beauty salon. After years of pursuing her dream of being a successful salon owner she had decided to sell and was temporarily living in Chicago with me until she decided what her next move would be. One that would definitely include Dirt. They made a great couple and had been through a lot to get to where they were at today. I loved seeing her so happy.

  “Let’s open the door and find out,” Katy said and got up to do just that. The door swung open and in the doorway was a tall, beautiful blond.

  “Anna!” I yelled and jumped off the couch rushing to the door and giving her a huge hug. “What are you doing here? I thought you were still in Korea until after the first of the year.”

  “I came back early.”

  “You remember Katy don’t you?”

  “I do. Good to see you again.”

  “Likewise.”

  “Gosh, come on in. We don’t need to stand in the doorway.” I then noticed a couple suitcases sitting there and Anna saw that I’d seen them.

  Anna looked at me sheepishly. “I hate asking but since I wasn’t supposed to be home so early I still have sub-letters in my place. Can I stay with you until I can figure out what to do?”

  “Of course. The more the merrier. We have plenty of room.”

  Katy and I helped her carry her suitcases in and she took off her coat which I hung up in the coat closet.

  “Can I offer you some wine?” I asked.

  “I would love some.”

  I poured her a glass and gave her a few minutes to take a drink before asking all the questions running through my head, “Ok, I talked to you two weeks ago and you said you were loving it over there. So what’s changed, why are you home?”

  Anna gave a big sigh. “There was this guy…”

  “A guy? That’s what made you leave in the first place,” I exclaimed. Katy gave me a look and I realized that may have come out a little harsher than I had intended. Clearly something was wrong or she wouldn’t be here. “I’m sorry, Anna. I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. I’m just surprised that’s all. I thought you loved it over there. That you felt you were making a difference. At least that’s what you were telling me every time we talked.”

  “I did love it there and I totally get where you’re coming from. I know my showing up on your doorstep is probably a shock. But it wasn’t a guy I was involved with that made me leave. In fact, just the opposite. It was a guy I didn’t want to be involved with and he just wouldn’t stop bothering me.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “We worked together and there was no way I wanted to date someone I worked with. Even if I had liked him in that way which I didn’t. I politely told him no, several times when he asked me out, but he continued to ask and started getting angry when I kept saying no. I finally had to go to the program director, which I hated doing but it was getting so uncomfortable for me to be around him I felt I had no other choice. The program director had a talk with him and he stopped asking me out and I thought things were going to be fine, but then weird things started happening. I couldn’t prove it was him but I knew it had to be. It was too much of a coincidence. He refused to speak to me and every time we were together he would look at me with such hate in his eyes I knew it had to be him.” She shuddered and took another drink of wine.

  “What kind of things was he doing?”

  “At first it was petty, juvenile type things, Presley. My bicycle tires were both flat for no reason, a dead snake in my backpack, paint all over one of my folders containing lesson plans which ruined them. They were more annoying than scary but then it escalated to things being taken from my apartment even though I knew I had locked the door. The whole thing started to scare me.”

  “Did you go to the director again,” Katy asked.

  “No. I couldn’t prove it and clearly telling on him just made things worse so I decided to resign and come home. I know it’s kind of the chicken’s way out but I wasn’t going to renew my contract in January anyway so coming home a few months early wasn’t that big of a sacrifice to feel comfortable again. I just don’t have a place to live for a few months,” she said and smiled. “Small price to pay I guess.”

  “You can stay here as long as you need to. It’ll be fun. Like we’re back in college. Bunch of girls sharing space.”

  “I know Katy and Dirt are staying here and I hate to crowd you all. I just didn’t have any other place to go tonight. I’d planned on a hotel but just didn’t feel like it. I wanted to be in familiar surroundings.”

  “I’m glad you came. We will squeeze you in. I want you to stay.”

  “So do I,” said Katy. “We can make it work.”

  Tears shone in Anna’s eyes. “Thank you. You don’t know how good that is to hear. I’m so glad to be home.”

  Chapter 4 – thurs am Veronica killed

  We’d stayed up way too late talking last night and not only was I exhausted but I’d just got off the phone with the insurance company and it was not the news I had hoped to hear or been expecting for that matter. This situation had just gone from bad to worse and I didn’t know what my next step should be. I felt like lately it was one step forward and two steps back. Anna came into the kitchen and caught me sighing into my coffee

  “What’s wrong?” she said as she walked over to the Keurig and started the process to make her a cup of coffee. She may have been gone almost a year but she still knew her way around my kitchen which was oddly comforting. I was so glad she was back even though I wasn’t happy she had a stalker that ran her off from a job she liked. I needed my friends right now more than ever. Especially with Cooper out of town. He’d been so busy we’d been playing phone tag since the break in happened and I hadn’t got the chance to fill him in and more importantly get his opinion. I didn’t always follow his advice but I enjoyed hearing it.

  “Just got off the phone with the insurance company.”

  “I assume by the look on your face that it wasn’t good news?”

  “Yeah. Since that brooch wasn’t part of our stock, nor the personal property of anyone who worked at Silk, it’s not covered for loss. That’s not at all what I expected to hear. I thought since it was in the store it’d be covered. There’s no way in hell I can come up with enough money to pay Veronica for her loss. Silk is still in a lot of debt so I couldn’t even sell the business to pay her back if I want to. Which I don’t. Sell the business I mean. I have no idea what I’m going to do now.”

  “I have nothing but time on my hands right now until I decide what my next steps are going to be. I can help in any way you need,” Anna said.

  “Do you know what you want to do now that you’re back. You know for work. Are you going to try and get your old job back?” I said, changing the subject and trying to get my mind off my problems. Anna had been a junior executive at a pretty big advertising firm before she had left and had been on the fast track to move up. At the time she said she loved what she did just not enough to stay and she had moved half way around the world for almost two years teaching English.

  “I’m not sure. I thought when I came back I
’d just slide right into my old life, but I don’t think I want to go back to corporate America. I don’t have that same drive to climb the ladder and deal with all the crap that I used to. I was thinking maybe starting my own PR firm,” she said this tentatively as if nervous at what my reaction would be.

  “That’s a great idea, Anna,” I said. “You’d be awesome at it. You always were the best executive at your firm. I bet you could even re-connect with some of your old clientele and get them to come over.”

  “I like the idea of having something that’s one hundred percent mine but it’s scary. I have a lot of money saved from the last two years since my room and board was paid for so I can live for a while without making an income but what if I can’t make it successful? Then I’ll be out of money and a business.”

  I started laughing. “I’m not laughing at you,” I quickly added when I saw her face. “What you said is just funny to me because it’s what I said to myself a million times before taking the plunge with Silk. I still think about it constantly. It’s scary to think about going into business for yourself with weekly no direct deposit going in your bank account but you’re good at what you do and smart. I have no doubts you’d be successful. Just don’t hold onto a customer’s valuables. That will get you in trouble,” I said smiling. “If we make it past this crisis, Silk can be your first client. As long as I get the friends and family discount because if not I could never afford you.”

  “You’ll figure out how to fix this, Pres. You always do.”

  If only I had the same level of confidence in my ability to fix this that Katy and Anna had but all I had in my mind were doubts right now.

  “I don’t think I have much choice but to figure out who took the brooch and get it back. If insurance won’t cover the loss and Veronica sues me I will lose everything. I’ve worked too hard to let that happen and I don’t see any other option.”