Accessories & Alibis (The Presley Thurman Mystery Series Book 10)

by Laina Turner

  “No idea.”

  “Really? How is that possible?”

  “A bail bondsman took care of all the paperwork and when I asked him who guaranteed the bond, he said he wasn’t at liberty to say. That is was someone who knew I was innocent and preferred to remain anonymous.”

  “Wow,” Katy said. “You have a generous admirer.”

  “You don’t have any idea who would have that kind of money and bail you out?” I said.

  “Nope. I wish I did. I would like to thank them in the biggest way. I couldn’t have handled one more day in that place,” she said and shuddered at the thought.

  “I’m here to help with Silk if you’ll have me. I know I wasn’t the best manager and I understand if you don’t want an accused murder working in your store, but I do want to help. I owe you for just believing in me, and I need something to keep me busy.” she said.

  I was having a hard time understanding why on earth she would want to come back here. It made no sense to me.

  “You need to know there were some guys in here looking for you yesterday. They didn’t seem like friends stopping by to hang out,” said Katy in a stern tone, which I could see, took Roxanne off guard just a little. It was unlike Katy to act that way, and I felt she should cut Roxanne some slack. She did just get out of jail. But I knew Katy was just looking out for me and Silk.

  “What do you mean,” Roxanne said looking nervous for the first time since walking in the door. I didn’t know if it was Katy making her nervous, or the mention of the people looking for her.

  “When Presley was visiting you yesterday, these two guys came in, I think they were Ukrainian or something because of their accent, but I could be wrong. They asked for you; we told them you weren’t here and were in jail. They at first didn’t believe us, and they finally left but I got a bad vibe off them. They made Joyce and me nervous,” Katy said honestly. “They didn’t seem like they were just here for a friendly social visit, Roxanne.”

  “Any idea who they could be?” I asked, watching Roxanne’s face to see her reaction, which was a mixture of confusion and surprise.

  “I have no idea.”

  By her tone, I was pretty sure she was lying about not knowing these guys. If I was right about my feeling, both she and Rod were lying. That lead me to believe there was something going on neither Rod nor Roxanne wanted anyone to know about. Even if it wasn’t related to Drew’s murder it didn’t look good. This wasn’t the time to be hiding something.

  I decided to let it go for right now and see what happened. Just because Roxanne might be lying didn’t mean she was a killer. A lot of people lied, not as much-committed murder, and I still didn’t think she killed Drew. Of course, it was just a feeling, and if I was going to help her, I needed concrete proof.

  So I decided to change topics since for now she was sticking to her story of not knowing those guys. I brought up another problem I thought maybe she could help me solve.

  “Maybe you can help me figure this other problem. Have you ever heard of Threads Abound?”

  She shook her head. “Never heard of them. Is it someone you’re thinking of doing business with? What kind of products do they carry?”

  “They carry wrap dresses of every flavor. Decently priced and look cute,” I said. I went to the bookmark on my computer and showed her the page where I had looked them up earlier.

  “Those are cute,” she said, “but I’ve never heard of that company. Why?”

  “Because someone has been paying them like clockwork every other week, and we have none of their merchandise. At least none that I can find.”

  Roxanne looked horrified. “Oh God, I hope you don’t think it was me? I promise you it’s not. I wasn’t good at a lot of these managing things, but I swear I didn’t steal from you. Are you sure that’s not some sort of error on their part. Maybe they are sending invoices to the wrong store or something?”

  I hadn’t thought she had, well maybe just a tiny bit she was the person in charge after all, but now I didn’t. She seemed genuine which made me think even more than she was lying about knowing those guys. That denial didn’t have the same tone. And most of the time I felt I was a pretty good judge of character.

  I shook my head. “No, Roxanne. I don’t think it was you, but I don’t think it was Joyce either so that only leaves Brenda and Debbie.”

  “I can’t imagine either of them doing it. They were hired more for their fashion sense than any business skill, and how would they access the money? We pay everything electronically, and I’m the only one who knows the passwords. Well, besides you and James and the accountants.”

  “Could one of the other girls know your password? I asked.

  “I guess they could have looked over my shoulder or something. I certainly didn’t give it out.”

  I sat there and thought for a minute. Someone had to be intercepting the merchandise but why pay the bill? I didn’t understand. Did someone not want Threads Abound calling looking for their money?

  “Roxanne, does anyone request to work on shipment days?”

  She frowned, “No, in fact, the opposite. No one likes to process shipments. The cardboard and plastic are hell on a manicure.”

  I laughed. She was right about that, but getting new merchandise was always something I loved. Ruined manicure or not, seeing the new things still in their packages and thinking about the endless possibilities was like Christmas.

  “Do you keep old schedules? Maybe if I can see who is working when these shipments came?"

  “No,” she shook her head. “I just throw it away when the schedule is done. I mean why keep it, it’s over.”

  Apparently, she didn’t know much about wage and hour laws. So much for that idea. I would just have to keep digging.

  “Presley,” Katy said. “Brenda just walked in. How about I get her started and then go to that coffee shop a few doors down and grab us something?”

  “Katy, that would be awesome. I am in such a need of a caffeine fix.”

  “Ok. Just give me a few.”

  “I went to talk to Rod yesterday,” I said to Roxanne after Katy had walked away.

  “You did? Good, did he assure you that I couldn’t have killed Drew?"

  “He did. In fact, maybe too strongly.”

  Roxanne looked confused. “What do you mean by that?”

  “I think he has a crush on you.”

  Roxanne started laughing. “He’s harmless. Drew used to say the same thing, but Rod’s just a flirt. He means nothing. He certainly isn’t interested in me.”

  “Well, he was very supportive of your innocence. Would there be any reason you could think of that he might want to see Drew dead?”

  Her eyes filled with tears, her happy expression leaving her face for the first time since showing up here.

  “Sorry. Just thinking about Drew.”

  “I understand,” I said and handed her a tissue from the box on my desk. I waited a few minutes for her to compose herself before asking again, “Would Rod have any reason to want to see Drew dead.”

  “No. I mean they occasionally had disagreements but nothing that bad.”

  “You mentioned Drew wanting to sell and Rod being opposed. Do you know why?”

  “No, I don’t. In fact, Rod was having some financial troubles, and I was a little surprised when Drew said he was against selling. I would have thought he could use the money.”

  “What kind of financial troubles,” I asked, wondering if they were the kind where a key man insurance policy might be a good solution which would give Rod motive.

  “He had a gambling problem and had put himself in serious debt.”

  “Drew knew?”

  “Yeah. He bailed Rod out before but said he was done enabling him. Rod’s problem dates back to college. Listen, I know what you must be thinking but Rod didn’t kill Drew. Those two were like brothers.

  I started to ask another question when Katy returned with the yummy goods from the coffee shop.

&nb
sp; “Is Brenda all set for a while,” I asked her.

  “Yeah. I’ve got her working on steaming. She seems to be able to handle that.”

  “Good. I want you to hear this.” I wanted to ask Roxanne about her alibi and wanted Katy to be a second set of ears.

  “You’re sure no one saw you that night?” I asked, taking a bite of the double chocolate brownie Katy had brought back with the coffees. Just what I didn’t need, but oh so good! Chocolate and coffee guaranteed to put me in a good mood. As long as I didn’t think about the calories.

  “Just the waitress. I was the only one there, customer wise. It was late, and they were about to close. In fact, they closed soon after I got there, but she could see I was upset and said I could stay until she finished her end of night stuff. I was grateful. I just wanted to be alone and think, and I didn’t have any other place to go. I was so upset about the nasty fight I had just had with Drew and was really afraid that maybe this was the end. We had never fought like we did that night but had been bickering a lot lately, and things were strained. I knew I didn’t want to go back home, so I needed time to figure out what I wanted to do, where I wanted to go and most importantly what to say to Drew.”

  “Walk me back through why you and Drew were fighting,” I asked, thinking that hearing it again might give me some new information. . Katy hearing the story as well might help, the whole two heads is better than one might prevail. “And don’t skip anything. No matter how trivial you think it might be.”

  Roxanne sighed. “His family. Anything we ever really argued about was related somehow to his family. They didn’t like me. Thought I was after his money and thought I wasn’t good enough for him which I can see their point. I’m a poor farm girl from Iowa, and his family has money. A ton of money. We don’t exactly travel in the same social circles. I know his mom felt like I was a gold digger.”

  “Don’t discount yourself like that Roxanne. If they were that narrow-minded that was their problem, not yours,” Katy said, and I could tell she was warming up to Roxanne just a little.

  She smiled a little. “That’s what Drew always said. He said I allowed myself to get way too worked up over them and what they thought, and I should just let it be. That he loved me, and that was all that mattered. That his family would just have to deal with it. It was just easy for him to say, harder for me to follow. He wasn’t the one who had to deal with her.”

  Good advice I thought, but I knew good advice didn’t always mean easy to follow the advice. “So what exactly happened this time that made it worth fighting over?”

  “Every year they have this big Spring party. It’s to raise money for one of her charities. I attended last year, and it was so clear she didn’t want me there with all her rich friends, I was so uncomfortable. I told Drew I didn’t want to go this year, and he was furious. He said I couldn’t let his mom scare me away and if I loved him, I would just suck it up for him. I didn’t disagree with him in theory, but I just couldn’t do it. She was so mean and hateful, and he didn’t know the extent of it. I didn’t tell him everything.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “She called me once, right before Thanksgiving and flat out told me how I was never going to be good enough for her son. She said she would make sure he didn’t marry me if it were the last thing she did and then offered me money if I would break up with him.”

  What a witch, I thought. “And you didn’t tell Drew this?”

  “No. I didn’t want to hurt him. He loved his mom and kind of had blinders where she was concerned. He never thought she was as bad as I did, and that was his mom. As much as I might want to, I wasn’t going to bad mouth her. What was I supposed to do? I didn’t want to be the cause of a riff between him and her.”

  ”What about his dad,” I asked.

  “I think he liked me just fine. He at least was nice to me. But he didn’t ever stand up to her for me. Not in front of me anyways. I think he is as afraid of her as I am.”

  “That is a hard place to be in,” Katy said and I agreed. When your boyfriend’s parents didn’t like you, it was never easy. Nor was the other way around, I had my fair share of guys my mom hadn’t liked and she didn’t make it easy for me or the guy. It was frustrating, and I could see how it could lead to arguments. I didn’t envy anyone being in that position. That’s why I was grateful now that my parents liked Cooper. It made life a lot easier. Plus in Roxanne’s situation, and you added money to the mix, I could see how it would make things that much worse.

  “He got mad and said how did I expect to marry him if I avoided family functions.” She saw my look and smiled. “We had been talking about getting married. The only reason I was hesitant was because of his family. Drew was right. How could I expect to be Mrs. Drew Conner if I wasn’t willing to sacrifice? I couldn’t go through life as his wife, not going to events. But at the time I was just mad and accused him of not sticking up for me with his mom and if he couldn’t do that, maybe we shouldn’t be together. You know how it is. Just one of those things that get blown way out of proportion. Where you start saying things you don’t mean. I needed to get out of there before things got worse. I told Drew I was going for a walk, and I left him sitting on the couch, drinking beer.”

  “What time did you leave?” I asked.

  Roxanne shrugged. “I don’t know exactly. Maybe nineish.”

  “So you left the apartment and went to the coffee shop?”

  “I walked around for a while first. For more than a while, I guess because by the time I decided to stop and get something to drink the coffee shop was about to close and they close at midnight.”

  “You were walking around the city in the cold for three hours,” I said skeptically. Even in March, temperatures were not moderate, especially in the evening and this past week had been exceptionally cold. Winter wasn’t going away quietly.

  “You don’t believe me,” Roxanne said softly, more of a statement than a question and she looked upset that I wouldn’t.

  “I’m not saying that. I’m just playing devil’s advocate. If I find it strange that you would be walking around the city on a cold March night for three hours so do the police. So you walked around and then went into the coffee shop and then where did you go? Not home?”

  “No. I wasn’t ready to face him, so I went to my friend Coleen’s place. She’s in Philly for work and I’ve been feeding her cat, so I have a key. I went there to sleep and then woke up and came to work. Then the police came and you know the rest.”

  “When did you send an email?”

  “What email,” she said, looking confused.

  “The one in which you said you wanted to kill Drew. The one you told me yesterday was the reason you got arrested.” I looked sideways at Katy, who also had a puzzled expression on her face. I could tell she was thinking what I was thinking. How did Roxanne not realize what email I was talking about? It was a pretty significant piece of this whole story.

  “Oh, sorry. I’m just not with it,” she said, laughing, which seemed forced to me.

  “I sent it from my phone at the coffee shop.”

  “What exactly did this email say?” Katy asked.

  “I said I was so mad I could kill him and that we both needed to cool down before talking. And I would contact him later.”

  “And because of that statement the police think you killed him?” I was still skeptical; it didn’t make sense. She said she could kill him. She didn’t threaten to do it.

  “I guess. That and I don’t have a solid alibi for that night.”

  “But what about the waitress you were talking to?” Katy asked.

  Roxanne shrugged, “Don’t know. I assumed the police talked to her, and it wasn’t good enough.”

  “We need to talk to the waitress at the coffee shop,” I said. The news had reported that the approximate time of Drew’s murder was late Tuesday evening, early Wednesday morning. At that time, Roxanne was either walking around in frigid temps, at the coffee shop or at her frien
d Coleen’s. Only at the coffee shop was there a witness to her presence.

  “How could she help?” Roxanne asked.

  “To find out what she told the police. Maybe it would help us in some way. It’s worth a try.”

  “I chatted with her for a few minutes and she said she preferred the last shift. People were in less of a rush she said and usually in a better mood. So we could go tonight if you want. Maybe she’s working.”

  “I’m game,” I said and looked at Katy.

  “Count me in too,” she said.

  Chapter 9

  We worked until the store closed when Roxanne suggested we order food and just keep working until time to head to the coffee shop. I thought that idea sounded great. It was much easier to get stuff done when closed and you could make a mess not worrying about customers who sometimes had to happen before you cleaned things up.

  She seemed to have a better work ethic than Brenda or Debbie and was willing to do whatever we needed. I was beginning to think she let the store get into the shape it was in because she just didn’t know any better, not because she didn’t care. She seemed to care now or maybe she just felt guilty. Either way, I was grateful. We needed the help.

  With the list Katy and I had given her, she really went to town and knocked off quite a few things once she knew what we expected of her. I was pleasantly surprised.

  When we left to head to the coffee shop, I was exhausted. I could have crawled in the back seat of my car and went right to sleep. These long days were long, and my feet were killing me. A twelve-hour day in heels wasn’t easy, but that’s where I drew the line. I might wear trouser jeans, but I wouldn’t give up my heels. I wasn’t fond of flats and tennis shoes were strictly for exercise or portraying the athletic look, which was more likely in my case. I loved wearing yoga pants, but I didn’t do yoga. Beauty was pain that just had to be endured.