by Laina Turner
“Can you tell me what this guy looked like?” Cooper asked.
Camille frowned. “I was so distracted by being late; Linda and Harvey hate it when we’re late, so I didn’t really pay attention.”
“Think for a minute, his height, coloring, clothing, anything at all that stood out?” Cooper asked gently. I was amazed at his ability to communicate, depending on the situation.
Camille sat there for a second. “Well, he was not very tall, my height, I guess, brown hair, glasses. He had a work shirt on. You know the kind of uniform shirt that is issued. The thick cotton type with the company name on the chest. But I didn’t see what the name was.”
Just then, the paramedics arrived.
“That’s OK, Camille. You remembered a lot,” Cooper said and moved out of the way so the paramedics could do their thing. Right behind them were detective Miller and a couple uniformed police officers.
“Listen, Pres. Let me talk to them and I’ll meet you back at the room.”
“Shouldn’t I be doing something? I am here to help, you know.”
“Yes, actually. Go talk to Linda and get the girls back to their rooms for now. Until we have a better handle on the situation.”
“Sounds good.” I left Cooper and walked over where Linda was standing with some of the girls. Allie and Marissa included in the mix.
“Oh, Presley, I can’t believe what happened!” Linda exclaimed. “I was just telling Allie and Marissa they don’t need to worry, you and Cooper will find the person who is doing this.”
Allie and Marissa both looked at me skeptically, and I couldn’t blame them. As much as I hated to admit it, I could see why, after the events of the day, they might not be as confident in our abilities to solve this.
“I don’t know, Linda, I don’t know if I want to stay here. Marissa either,” Allie said.
“It seems dangerous,” said Marissa.
Linda looked at me, compelling me to speak up.
“Listen, ladies, I can understand your concern. But we will get to the bottom of this. It’s our goal to keep you safe.”
“Tell that to Camille,” Marissa said.
She had a point. This latest incident wasn’t good for the pageant or Cooper’s company.
####
“What do you think?” I asked, picking up a room service menu from the table in our hotel room. “How do quesadillas sound?” I asked, changing the subject for a second. Murder or not, I was starving, and I knew Cooper needed to eat.
“That’s fine,” he said absentmindedly, his mind on other things besides food. “I think a murder shows escalation by whoever seems to have a grudge against the girls or this pageant. This isn’t good, Presley.” He rubbed his forehead. “To have two girls injured after we got here is not good.”
“Are you even sure it’s the same person? Maybe they were two unrelated acts.”
“It could be. We don’t know enough yet to discard that theory, but it would be quite coincidental. My gut tells me this is all related. We just need to figure out why. Did Linda or the other girls say anything?”
“Just that they’re worried and I think Linda is afraid they might leave the pageant. I hate to say it, but I can’t really blame them.” I hated saying that to him, but it was the truth. “I would be scared if I were in their shoes.”
“I would too, Presley. Harvey is livid, and I can’t blame him.”
“Was Camille OK? Did she say anything else?”
“She had a mild concussion, but they didn’t take her to the hospital. I was going to let her rest and talk to her in the morning.”
“What did detective Miller say?”
“Not much. He was very surprised, I think. I have a feeling the police didn’t take the issues the pageant was having seriously until today. He said he would still call me tomorrow when he found out more about what was used to poison Hollie.”
I sat down on the bed next to him. “I know this looks bad, like we aren’t doing our job, but I know you’ll get to the bottom of this.”
“Thanks, babe,” he said, kissing me.
Chapter 5
I stood in line forever at the Starbucks in the lobby. I woke up early, thinking I would avoid the crowd and get my favorite caffeine fix to start my day. Surely these girls would want their beauty sleep, but no such luck, they were making me feel like a world-class slacker. Most of them were already in line for coffee post workout from what I could see. How anyone could work out this early and without caffeine was beyond me. And they all seemed perky. Working out wasn’t high on my list. I sporadically had periods where I would exercise, but I never really enjoyed it, and I wasn’t functional until I had my coffee. I did hear a lot of them talking about what had happened to Hollie and Camille. Speculating on who was after them. Though none of them seemed too worried, more curious, which I guess was a good thing.
Fully caffeinated, I was now in the process of tracking down Allie, Marissa, and Janine, the three girls who’d had pranks pulled on them at the last pageant. Cooper and I had talked at length last night about how to approach this. We needed to find a correlation, if there was one, between the pranks and the murder and what happened to Camille. Someone or something that connected them. Neither one of us wanted to think about what it might mean if the incidents weren’t related. It would make tracking down the person responsible that much more difficult because it would mean that several people had it out for the pageant and that possibility was too bad to think about.
None of girls were in their rooms, and the day’s activities hadn’t started yet, according to the schedule I had received from Linda this morning. She said she’d been up and at her desk since 5:00 a.m. and she looked like she hadn’t slept at all the night before. So there was no telling where the girls were. I thought I would try the hair and makeup room, as it was one of the few places I hadn’t checked yet. Even though they weren’t due for swimsuit practice run-through until ten, which was two hours from now, maybe they took that long to look their best.
I arrived at the ballroom that was serving as the makeup and hair room and pushed one of the double doors open to see frantic activity. So this was where everyone who wasn’t working out was hiding this morning. I did have to admit I was surprised at the amount of work that went into prepping for this pageant. These girls had to be dedicated.
Now to just figure out where the three girls were. I saw Elaine standing by what appeared to be the blow dry station where several of the contestants were getting their hair done and walked over to her.
“Hi, Presley. How are you this morning? I see you already have some coffee. Are you a caffeine addict like me?” Elaine said in a rush. Did this girl ever calm down? Maybe she should slow down on the caffeine?
“You caught me.” I smiled. “Listen, can you tell me where I might find Allie, Marissa, and Janine? I’ve been trying to track them down.”
“I know. It’s such a terrible thing. I can’t believe what happened last night. Did you hear anything about Hollie? About how she died? It’s so awful. And poor Camille is a wreck this morning.”
“No, I haven’t heard anything, but we’re working on it. To try and make sure this stops happening.”
“You didn’t stop last night from happening,” Elaine said.
I sensed a slight negative undertone that seemed to veer off from her normal nonstop, run-on sentences. She was right, though. Someone was killed and someone was injured on our watch. Cooper was over-the-top stressed that this had happened, and he was doing everything possible to make sure it didn’t happen again. “I know, Elaine, but the best thing for us to do now is to make sure no one else gets hurt. To keep everyone safe and find out who is behind this.”
She raised her eyebrows, and it looked as if she was going to say something, but she paused. “Allie is over there getting a facial, Janine is getting a manicure, and Marissa hasn’t checked in yet.” Elaine pointed to the various stations where the girls were having their beauty-related things done.
; If I weren’t working, I would be in heaven to be here. As Elaine had just pointed out, there were stations for facials, mani/pedis, hair, makeup—you name it, the girls were getting it done, and I was jealous. I made a mental note to schedule a spa day as soon as I got back. Jared, my roommate, and I hadn’t had a spa day in a long time. Mainly because I was broke these days, but even so I would find the money somehow. It was important to pamper myself every once in a while. I deserved it. All women deserved it.
“Eowwwww!!!” someone screamed.
I looked around, startled. The first thing popping into my head was that someone was hurt.
“Got a first-timer here,” a woman’s voice said, coming from a makeshift curtain.
Elaine saw my look of confusion. “That’s the waxing station. It is swimsuit practice today.”
Ahhhh. I winced in sympathy. The yelling now made perfect sense. The lengths we women went to for beauty. I waved goodbye to Elaine, who was already talking to another girl who’d approached her, and I went over to the facial station to see what Allie could tell me.
“Allie?” I called softly, as she had her eyes closed and I didn’t want to scare her in case she was sleeping—though how she could be in all this noise I didn’t know. I waited a few seconds and was about to call her name again when she gently spoke.
“Yes?”
“Sorry to bother you. I’m Presley Thurman, an associate of Sands Security. I met you last night. We were hired to look into the problems that have been happening at the last couple pageants, and I was told you were one of the contestants who’s had problems. At previous pageants with threatening notes and such.”
“Nothing like poor Hollie or Camille, but yes. I’ve had a couple annoyances,” Allie said casually, opening her eyes to reveal a beautiful shade of violet that I was pretty sure wasn’t her natural eye color. Especially since I was pretty sure her eyes hadn’t been that color last night. She looked me up and down as far as she could, being that she couldn’t move her head very far. She was in the hot towel portion of her facial, personally my favorite part.
I felt uncomfortable for a minute at her scrutiny, which was crazy. I loved the outfit I’d put on this morning. A fitted black three-quarter-length shirt and black pencil skirt with a wide patent leather belt and patent leather heels. I had pulled my hair back in a loose knot and, until this moment, had felt pretty put together and happy about how I looked. Even in this sea of beauties. This chick took that away with one look. Was this how she psyched out her competition and milked their confidence? If not, it should be. She was good at it.
Pushing those feelings aside, I asked her to detail for me what exactly had happened.
“It was a couple pageants ago. The Mayberry one, you know, Mayberry the lip gloss company. It was the semi-finals, thank God, and I was having my hair washed and set. I always bring my own products.” She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Some of the pageant’s hairdressers have been known to water down their product, you know. They think we won’t notice. So there I was lying back and relaxing as the lady was washing my hair, when she gasped. Somehow, some sort of die had gotten into my conditioner bottle. As she ran it through my hair it started to turn black. Being that my hair is light blonde— natural, I’ll have you know—it was a bit of a disaster. My hair was a light green for weeks.”
While I didn’t quite buy the natural blonde bit, I did feel for her. Every woman knows how traumatizing a botched hair job can be. “Do you have any idea who did that to you?”
She shrugged; no easy feat lying down. “Not really. Sure, the contestants can get mad about losing at times, but I’ve been on the pageant circuit for years and never had anything like this happen. I’m just lucky I look good no matter my hair color. I still came in second place. I rocked that green hair.”
“Did you notice anyone unusual around that day?”
“You mean like someone who didn’t belong in the pageant?”
“Yes.”
“No, it was all the usual people.”
“What do you mean by the usual people?”
“The contestants, of course, parents, friends, and all the people who work for Pageants Unlimited. There are always tons of people not in the pageant who hang out. We have a lot of groupies.”
Groupies. Really? My phone started buzzing; I could feel it through my purse that was resting against my leg. I pulled it out of my bag to see it was Cooper calling.
“Feel free to take that,” Allie said, opening her eyes enough to notice I had my phone in my hand.
“What’s up, Coop?” I asked, turning away from her just a little.
“Where are you?”
“I’m in one of the ballrooms talking to Allie. Why?”
“I just got off the phone with the police and have the preliminary results of what happened to Hollie.”
“What did they say?”
“She was murdered, all right. It couldn’t have been an accidental poisoning.”
“So murder for sure,” I said a bit loudly.
“Shhh. I don’t want everyone to know,” he said. His tone conveying he was somewhat annoyed I had just blurted that out. He always played it close to the vest, which in his line of work was important.
“Sorry,” I said in a softer voice.
“Can you meet me and Harvey in about twenty minutes? Same conference room as yesterday.”
“Sure. I’ll finish up here with Allie and be right over.”
“Okay. Bye.”
I snapped my phone shut and turned back to Allie, who was now sitting up watching me intently, and who had clearly listened to my phone conversation.
“Did I hear you say something about poison? Was Hollie poisoned? Oh my God!”
Damn. Cooper wasn’t going to be too happy she overheard me. “The police think so, but listen, keep this to yourself. Right now we need to keep it confidential. The police are still investigating.”
“Keep what confidential?” Elaine said, popping up out of nowhere.
Where the hell did she come from? Now Cooper was really going to be pissed. I didn’t know Elaine that well, but she sure seemed the nosy type. The last thing I needed was to have her spreading around gossip. Even if it was true. We didn’t need people freaking out and making the story even bigger and more outrageous, which was often the case. In my limited experience, it made the job of figuring out the truth that much more difficult.
“Presley here just told me that Hollie was poisoned. Can you believe it?” Allie said.
I groaned. Damn Allie and her big mouth. Allie slapped her hand over her mouth. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I forgot I wasn’t supposed to say anything.”
What a short memory she had. I just told her that not two seconds ago.
“Ooohhh, why the secret?” Elaine said, trying to be funny, but falling flat. There was definitely an edge to her voice. “What are you trying to hide?”
“Uh, nothing. Cooper just felt that it would be better not to worry the girls unnecessarily and we still don’t have all the details,” I replied.
“Well, seeing as you didn’t stop someone yesterday, maybe the girls have a right to be worried,” Elaine said pointedly. “Allie, I came over her to tell you Betty is ready to fit your swimsuit. You know how she is when you girls are late.”
“Thanks, Elaine. Sorry for spilling, Presley.”
“Don’t worry about it, Allie. I may catch up with you later to ask a few more questions.” Like maybe questions about Elaine.
“No problem,” she said, hopping off the table and heading across the room. I watched her walk away, admiring her baby blue Juicy Couture sweat suit. I had one in green, but I didn’t look as good as she did in it. Velour wasn’t the most flattering or forgiving fabric. And I wasn’t five foot ten inches tall and one hundred and ten pounds. That also had something to do with it, I’m sure.
I turned to talk to Elaine and try some damage control—and to see why she seemed angry, but she was already off somewhere. Oh w
ell, I would figure that one out later. I needed to meet Cooper.
Cooper and Harvey were already sitting down by the time I reached them. I was few minutes late because I had gotten turned around and ended up in a different meeting room, one full of Xerox salesmen. By the time I got back down to the right end of the floor, I was five minutes behind and my feet were starting to hurt. I had probably walked around the hotel an equivalent of two times, and in four-inch heels that was no easy feat. “Sorry I’m late, I feel dumb to admit it, but I got lost. This place is a maze.”
“No worry, darling. Grab yourself a cup of joe and sit down,” Harvey said, pointing to the silver coffee service to the right of the table, and then he adjusted one of his silver cufflinks, which I noticed were inlaid with mother of pearl. They were very classy. I grabbed my coffee and the cream pitcher, then sat down and pulled out my notebook and pink gel pen. All ready for one of them to start talking.
“Cooper, this is your meeting. Please fill me in and let me know how much I should be worried,” Harvey said, fiddling with his cufflinks again. Must be a nervous habit of his, but he did seem calmer than last night.
“I talked to the detective heading up the case and he said that based on preliminary findings Hollie was poisoned which we already knew…”
“Could it have been accidental? Maybe she overdosed on medicine or something?” Harvey interrupted.
“They have to run some more tests, but Detective Miller said it wasn’t a common toxin. The lab said it was a type of poison that comes from an unusual plant.”
“So what you’re saying is … someone had access to this plant and somehow got Hollie to ingest it?” I asked.
“Exactly,” Cooper replied. “They did a thorough search of her room here and there weren’t any signs of the substance. Detective Miller said they would be going to her parents’ home later today to check there.”
“What the hell is going on?” Harvey said, banging his fist on the table. “Pranks are one thing, but killing one of my girls!” He put his head in his hands. After a few seconds, he lifted his head and looked back at Cooper. “Did he have anything to offer regarding Camille?”