by Laina Turner
“That sucks. Why can’t it even be easy?’ I joked but was a little serious too.
“Job security for me, Presley.”
“Oh, yeah. Good point. Where do we go from here? Have you located her husband yet?”
“Not yet.”
“Any leads on her murder?”
“Not that either.”
“Geez, Willie. Can’t you tell me some good news?”
“Sorry, I wish I could.”
Chapter 8
Halloween private sale
The weekend flew by in a blur. Between a busy two days of sales, which was fantastic, and trying to squeeze in planning for the Halloween sale, I hardly had any time to even think about Veronica’s murder or the brooch. Work had provided a welcome distraction.
“It looks amazing in here,” Yvette said to me as she walked in to help with the final preparations for the Halloween special sale. “I feel like I’m walking into a haunted house.”
“It was Anna,” I said. “She’s a whiz at decorating.”
When Yvette had come back from being fingerprinted on Friday, I had told her what was in the past was past and I didn’t care about it. I honestly didn’t. I felt bad for my momentary judgment when Willie first told me but I was over reacting. She’d worked tirelessly all weekend helping to prepare for the party which just reinforced my believe she was a great employee and person.
Anna had outdone herself turning Silk into a spooky palace. Fake cobwebs and spiders, witches that cackled, and pumpkins all over. Katy had made spiked cider and mulled wine and found low fat pumpkin mini cupcakes to serve. I had organized the sales floor by price point so it was easy to spot the awesome deals. I wanted to be excited and I was for potential sales, but I was also worried.
“I still wonder if we should have cancelled,” I said to Anna. “Is it in bad taste to have a party so soon after Veronica’s death?”
“This isn’t necessarily a party. It’s a business event.”
“With the intent to lure Veronica’s friends here to try and get information. I kind of feel weird about it now.”
“If they come they have the chance to get great deals. They might give us information. It’s a win-win.”
“I agree with Anna and it looks and smells great. What do you need me to do?” Yvette said.
“If you could finish steaming that rack of dresses I wanted to pull a few more pieces of jewelry from the back,” I said.
“Sure,” Yvette said.
“How many people confirmed?” I asked her as she started heading to the back.
“Out of the thirty I called I got mostly voicemail and only a few people called back and said they’d try and make it,” Yvette said apologetically.
My negativity returned. “People do think it’s bad timing. Maybe we should have pushed it off.”
“Not necessarily,” Yvette said. “Even when given advance notice our customers don’t tend to RSVP. They just show up. I wouldn’t give up just yet.”
“She’s right, Pres,” Anna agreed with her.
“I’m sure we’ll get some traffic and that means potential sales. Even if we don’t get any information from Veronica’s friends,” Katy said.
We all got busy putting the final preparations on the event but when I looked at the clock and saw it was thirty minutes after the event was supposed to start I got nervous.
“No one is here. What if no one comes,” I said.
“Then we will have a lot of spiked cider and mini cupcakes to drown our sorrows in,” Anna said. “I don’t know about you, but I’m game for that.”
“It’s still early to be fashionably late,” said Katy and she did have a point. We had several clients who didn’t feel that the event started until they got there.
Another thirty minutes went by and we were almost half way through the event with no customers which drove me to imbibe two spiked ciders to calm my nerves. I hated to think all this work had gone to waste. I was about to declare it a bust and suggest we lock up and eat and drink everything ourselves when a car pulled up.
“Look, Pres. Someone is here,” Yvette said from her seat by the window where she had been intently watching for customers. “I think she’s one of Veronica’s friends, I recognize her from the fashion show fitting. I just don’t remember her name.”
I walked up to where Yvette was to see who she was talking about. “That’s Belle. One of Veronica’s friends. She’s not on our VIP list. I didn’t meet her until that night and I didn’t ask the ladies if they wanted to sign up. I thought that would be tacky. I wonder how she found out.”
“Who cares, maybe she will buy something and that’s the important thing,” Anna said.
“Good point,” I said and opened the door to welcome her in. “Hi Belle, welcome to Silk. So glad you could make it,” I said in my sweetest voice. “Can I offer you a drink?” I asked and ran down the list of offerings.
“Cider would be wonderful,” she replied and Yvette quickly placed one in her hand.
“Everything is twenty percent off even sales items so pull out that credit card.”
“No news on Ronnie’s brooch?” Belle asked me when I opened the fitting room door for her a few minutes later arms full of clothes to try on. She may not have been invited but I was sure glad she had come. Even if she only bought a fraction of what she had to try on right now it would make today a success.
I was also surprised she was out shopping so soon after her friend’s murder and was so casually bringing up the theft as if the murder hadn’t happened. But people processed grief in different ways. I’m glad she’d brought it up though. It gave me the opening I was looking for.
“No but now it doesn’t really matter. I’m sorry for your loss, Belle. I know you and Veronica were close.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. “Thank you. I just wish she would have had a chance to wear that brooch.”
“I know. She loved that piece.”
“She didn’t love that piece as much as she loved sticking it to her husband,” she said, her attitude completely changing and I wondered how much of the spiked cider she’d consumed while out on the sales floor. That was a pretty cold thing to say about someone who just was murdered and who was supposedly your friend and to go from tears to almost hostility within a matter of seconds... wow.
“What do you mean?”
“Craig was divorcing her. He didn’t know that Ronnie already knew. The stupid paralegal at the law firm Craig was using sent over documents meant for Craig but were addressed to Ronnie.”
“Oh.” I didn’t even know what to say to that which didn’t seem to matter because Belle was clearly in a mood to talk as she kept on going without any prompting from me.
“Ronnie was livid. She had thought for a while he was having an affair but honestly she didn’t care so much. She had her own interests, if you know what I mean, and she liked Craig’s money enough to want to continue her life the way it was. As long as he didn’t flaunt his affair in her face it didn’t seem to bother her.”
People never failed to surprise me. I don’t care how much money Cooper had if he was cheating I could never turn a blind eye. I couldn’t live that way but each to his own.
“So Craig didn’t know that Veronica knew he had filed for divorce?” I asked.
“Not according to the last time I talked to him.”
“Oh are you friends with Craig?” I asked, thinking that seemed a little strange. Not that couples couldn’t both be friends with someone but this wasn’t the topic that I would think a guy would discuss with a women who was friends with his wife. It seemed to cross a few lines in my book.
Belle paused and then resumed talking. “Not really. I just assumed by the way he acted last time I saw them together he didn’t know. Maybe he did,” she said casually.
Something seemed off here. Besides the fact that her friend was just murdered and it didn’t seem to faze her all that much but she was also willing to casually gossip about Veronica’s marriage
. Belle almost acted like Veronica’s murder wasn’t any big deal. It was just weird. I saw Katy at the front of the fitting rooms motioning to me.
“Let me know if you need any different sizes and I’ll be back to check on you in a few minutes.”
“What is it,” I asked Katy when I reached her. “Is something wrong?”
“Tilly’s here and Angela said that’s the friend who was with Veronica at the jewelry store.”
My eyebrows shot up. “I like to shop just as much as the next gal but if you had just been murdered I wouldn’t be seeking out the latest sales.”
“No kidding. Anyways I thought you might want to try and talk to Tilly.”
“I do but what should I say?”
“She’s here, and shopping, so I wouldn’t think she’s too sensitive or fragile so just come on out and ask her whatever you wanted to ask her. What did you want to ask her by the way?”
“I don’t know specifically. I guess I just want to know what she knows about Veronica’s murder or the stolen, but yet not stolen, merchandise.”
“Then just ask. What have you got to lose?”
“A customer?”
“Your curiosity being satisfied is more important than a customer. I know that much about you,” Katy teased.
“Fine. Wish me luck.”
I walked over to where Tilly was looking at some dresses.
“Hi Tilly.”
“Hi Presley. Thank you for inviting me to your sale. I’ve had my eye on this chiffon dress since the dress fitting and I’d hoped it was part of the sale,” she said, holding out a beautiful red chiffon evening gown.
“It’s twenty percent off today.”
“Wonderful. I’m a size two. Please put one up at the desk for me.
Size two my left leg, I thought but I wasn’t about to comment. It was her problem on how she was going to fit into that dress.
“Not a problem, Tilly. By the way, I’m so sorry about Veronica. You must be devastated,” I said, even though she certainly didn’t look devastated.
“I know what you must be thinking. How could I be out shopping when my friend’s just been murdered.”
“No, no not at all,” I protested even though that’s exactly what I’d been thinking.
“I just needed to get out of the house and forget all this negativity for a while.”
“I understand. I’m sure that’s why Belle came.”
Tilly stared at me with either shock or surprise, I couldn’t tell.
“Belle’s here?”
I nodded. Not sure what she was thinking but she was definitely thinking something.
“In fact, will you excuse me for a moment so I can go check on her? She’s in the fitting room,” I explained.
“Of course.”
“Ok, I’ll be right back.”
I walked up to Belle’s fitting room door to check on her and, could hear her talking. I assumed it was on her phone since I didn’t hear two voices. I hesitated before knocking on the door. I didn’t want to interrupt.
“I can’t talk now. I’ll call you later,” I heard her whisper not knowing if she heard me or just didn’t want to talk.
I cleared my throat and knocked on the door. “Belle how is everything fitting? Can I get you anything?”
She opened the door and handed me a handful of dresses and it was all I could do not to cringe at the fact that there were several hundred dollars worth of evening gowns all crumpled up in a wad. As she stood there in her bra and underwear clearly not at all shy about who could see her, though looking at her she had no reason too, I caught a glimpse of her cell phone sitting on the little chair in the corner of the room and saw it light up. Someone had sent her a text.
“What about that dress?” I said pointing to one on the floor and stepping into the room. I wanted to see who had sent her a text. Maybe it was the person who she’d been talking to. Though it could be anyone. I was probably reading too much into a simple phone call and text. My suspicious mind was working overtime.
“That’s a no,,” she said as I reached down and grabbed it looking to my left at the chair and seeing the display on her phone said Craig Knapp. Why was Veronica’s husband texting Belle? It made me feel even more strongly that something was off about this whole situation.
“Can I bring you anything else to try?”
“No. I’m about done here. I have an appointment I have to get to,” she said in a hurried manner like she was all of a sudden in a rush.
I walked back out and handed the dresses to Angela. “Can you out these back on the hangers and back on the floor. They might need to be steamed they got a little crumpled up.”
“I’ll say,” she said, wrinkling her nose.
“Thanks. Where’s Katy?”
“She went to the back to look for something,” Angela said.
“Thanks.” I walked to the back stockroom and found Katy looking through some boxes of new merchandise we hadn’t had time to unpack.
“Do you know if that Chinese Laundry dress we ordered in deep red came in yet?” she asked me.
“I don’t remember checking it in, why?”
“I have a customer I think it’d look perfect on but that’s ok. I’ll just have to call her when it comes in and get her to come back. In the meantime I can sell her something else today. Did you see more people came? I told you they would come.”
“Wait a minute before you go back out there,” I said stopping her as she started to walk through the door back out to the sales floor not concerned at the moment with sales.
“What?”
“When I was cleaning dresses out of Belle’s fitting room I saw her phone and she got a text from Craig. You know, Veronica’s husband.”
“And?”
“Don’t you think that’s a little weird?”
“Why? She was friends with Veronica so it stands to reason that she would be friends with Craig.”
“I don’t know. It seems odd to me. She’s out shopping and texting her dead friend’s husband?”
“I think you’re letting your imagination get the best of you.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I think she’s hiding something. I mean Willie said they hadn’t been able to find Craig and yet he’s texting Belle. Is she hiding the fact that she knows where he is?”
“Maybe she doesn’t know where he is or maybe the police haven’t asked her. Maybe she doesn’t know the police are looking for him. Presley, there are several reasons that are plausible.”
I put my hands on my hips. “Why are you coming up with so many reasons to dispute my theory that Belle knows something,” I said playfully.
“I’m not trying to rain on your parade just trying to play devil’s advocate,” she said smiling.
We walked out on the sales floor and I saw that Belle was up at the register purchasing the one dress out of the several she’d tried on and an idea popped in my head.
“Hey,” I whispered to Katy. “Do you care if I leave for a bit?”
“No but where are you going?”
“I’m going to follow Belle and she were she goes from here.”
“Presley! That’s insane. What if she sees you and thinks you’re a crazy stalker and calls the cops.”
“She won’t see me and if she does I’ll worry about it then. I just have a feeling she knows something that can help us figure out what happened.”
“The brooch has been found. Why does it matter?”
“Don’t you want to know who killed her?”
“Yeah, but I’m in letting the police figure it out. You should be too.”
I just looked at her.
Katy shook her head. “Well I know I can’t stop you when you have an idea in your head so go on.”
“Thanks,” I said and ran back to get my coat. I got back up to the front just as Belle was walking out. It dawned on me that she might be driving somewhere and I was parked in a different spot than our customers and would never be able to get to my car in
time to get back to the customer lot and see where she was headed. However, she turned down the block opposite to the lot so maybe I was in luck and she was going for a walk. I stayed about twenty feet behind her so she wouldn’t notice me but I honestly didn’t think there was much chance of that. She hadn’t looked back once and why would she. She’d have no reason to think someone would be following her. To be honest I was starting to feel a little foolish thinking that following her was going to tell me anything about who killed Veronica. I was just about to turn around and go back to Silk, after grabbing a coffee of course, when I saw Belle turn right into the Madison Hotel. I decided to follow her just a little bit longer. See what she was doing in the hotel. Probably meeting a friend for dinner or something completely innocent. I’d never eaten at the Madison but had heard great things about the food at their restaurant.
She walked up to the hostess stand and I’m assuming told the hostess who she was meeting because the hostess grabbed a menu and started walking over to the right side of the room. I went up as close as I dared and could just barely see the table where the hostess motioned for Belle to sit down. There was already someone sitting there. Looked like a female but I couldn’t quite tell. Belle and the hostess were blocking my view. I took a couple more steps forward so I could get a better look and almost collided with a server carrying a tray full of drinks.
“Sorry,” I whispered and he glared at me. I looked back to the table and gasped. The woman at the table was Raquel from the jewelry store. What was she doing having lunch with Belle. Were they friends? I wouldn’t have guessed it by the low opinion Raquel seemed to have of Veronica. I wished I could get close enough to hear what they were saying.
“Can I help you,” a voice behind me made me jump and I turned around to see the hostess behind me with a not so friendly look on her face.
I smiled and hoped Belle or Raquel didn’t choose this moment to look over and catch me standing here.
“I thought I saw my friend come in here but I must have been mistaken. We all have our doppelgangers,” I said with a laugh, but the hostess didn’t crack a smile. She must not have a good sense of humor.
“I’ll just leave now. I don’t want to be in anyone’s way.” I quickly walked toward the entrance and before exiting, turned to catch one last glimpse of the two. That was a mistake because at the same time, Raquel looked up and we locked eyes. I could tell she recognized me but she didn’t change her facial expression so maybe she didn’t think anything of it. She turned back to Belle and I made my way to the exit. I wanted a coffee and to get home. I needed to think about what I’d seen. Maybe it wasn’t anything. It just seemed odd to me that those two would be meeting.