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

by Laina Turner

  I quickly dialed the number before I changed my mind. “Gary,” I said when he answered. “I’m going to do it. Can you recommend a good mortgage broker?"

  *****

  I made it to the coffee shop and as I ordered my coffee realized how relieved I felt. Making the decision to get a second mortgage on my condo and trying to save Silk, as scary as it was, was a huge burden lifted. Which to me signified I made the right decision.

  Since I was on such a high, I debated calling Patricia. I didn’t want to ruin my good mood. But it could give me information I needed to put my confusion about Roxanne to rest.

  I had looked up her number before I left, just in case, and dialed it before I changed my mind.

  “Hello,” a crisp voice answered.

  “Patricia?”

  “This is she. Who is this?”

  “Presley Thurman. We met the other day at Silk.”

  “I don’t care how much of a discount you might offer me. I’m not coming back and shopping at your store,” she said condescendingly, which was better than hanging up on me I guess.

  “I wasn’t calling for that. I was calling because I was hoping you could tell me a little more about Roxanne.”

  She snorted derisively. “And why would I want to do that?”

  “If you believe she killed Drew why wouldn’t you want to convince me?”

  There was a long pause.

  “Do you still think she killed Drew?” I asked when she wasn’t responding.

  “Of course, she did,” she snapped. “Who else could have done it?”

  “Maybe Rod?” I suggested. “I know he was against the merger.”

  “Rod’s a wimp. He might not have wanted the merger but would never have the guts to do anything about it. He always went along with whatever Drew wanted.”

  “Was the merger a done deal then?”

  “Almost. The signing of the final papers was to happen the day Drew died.”

  “Patricia are you sure Drew wasn’t leading Roxanne on,” I said, which was the exact opposite of what Roxanne said was happening, but both of them couldn’t be right.

  “He did date her before we started seeing each other last year, but as soon as he realized what kind of company she kept he was done with her.”

  “You mean her friends?”

  “Yes. They were some thugs she got Rod involved with; Drew was livid. He was mad at both of them but her the most. I heard him on the phone with her just screaming, and he wasn’t a screamer.”

  That made me pause. “What do you mean by thugs?” Pretty certain I knew what she was going to tell me.

  “I don’t know. Some Russian guys Rod borrowed money from to cover some gambling debts. Rod couldn’t pay, and they showed up at work one day. Drew flipped out. It was the first time I ever saw Drew lose it. I mean, I’d seen him mad before, but not like this.”

  “Did Rod finally pay them?”

  “No. Drew did. That’s when he told Roxanne he never wanted to talk to her or have her around again.”

  “If they weren’t dating and he was engaged to you, why was she around at all?”

  “He said they were friends. He was done with her, but she kept trying to get him back. He just didn’t see it.”

  Now I was glad I had called her. If Drew had ended it with Roxanne, but Roxanne didn’t want to let go that gave even more reason, Roxanne might want him dead. Hearing for sure that she had some sort of relationship with the guys who had stopped into Silk also made me think she was involved in this in a much more benevolent way than I had been led to believe.

  I replayed the conversations I had, had with Roxanne and everyone else about this. I just had to find that one thing that would help it all make sense.

  And then I thought back to the article on the Mogilevich brothers. All the different criminal activities they were involved in and finally a piece of the puzzle slid into place, and I grabbed my phone.

  Chapter 19

  I was sitting in the parking lot of The Whole Pi, waiting for Roxanne. Fingers were drumming nervously on the steering wheel, hoping that my thoughts on how all this fit together was right. If not there was going to be a lot of apologizing to do, but my gut told me, I was at least on the right track.

  When she finally pulled up, I got out of my car and walked over to hers. As I drew closer, she got out and asked, “Why did you want to meet me here?”

  “Just follow me,” I said and started walking toward the front doors feeling nervous that at any minute she would refuse to go in with me. That she would become suspicious as any normal person would and it’s not like I could physically drag her in. Luck was on my side, and she didn’t seem to think anything of it. Good for me, but I thought a bit naïve on her part but maybe she was just that confident I hadn’t caught on to her yet.

  We walked in, and Rod was at the front, waiting for us. I had called and told him I needed to talk to him about Roxanne. On the phone, he had seemed nervous, but he hadn’t asked why. Not asking why further activated my suspicion, and now seeing him he looked very uncomfortable. When he saw Roxanne, his eyes about popped out of his skull. I may have left out the fact she was coming with me when we talked on the phone and by the look on his face, it was the last thing he expected. He looked worried, very worried, making me feel much more confident in my suspicions.

  “Ladies, what a wonderful surprise, please follow me to the conference room,” he said He was doing his best, I could tell, to pretend things were fine and this meeting didn’t seem at all out of the ordinary.

  “What are we doing here? I don’t understand,” said Roxanne.

  To her credit, she still looked cool as a cucumber and Rod looked like a wreck, which reinforced my thought that Roxanne was the brains behind the operation. Poor Rod looked like he was about to burst a blood vessel.

  “Are you OK, Rod,” I asked.

  He cleared his throat nervously, “Just like Roxanne said, I don’t know why we are here. You said you had something to talk about in regards to Drew’s murder,” he said, and I could see beads of sweat at his temple. This guy didn’t do well under pressure.

  “I thought maybe you had something to say to Roxanne.”

  Rod looked at me, and the absolute look of terror on his face told me all I needed to know. I think he had just realized I had figured out how he was involved in Drew’s murder. Confirmation of my suspicions was written all over his face. Now to just get him to say it.

  “Go ahead, Rod, tell her,” I coaxed.

  “Tell me what?”

  Rod sat there, seeming at a loss for words so I thought I would help him out and get the ball rolling.

  “C’mon Rod. She’s been arrested for Drew’s murder. Doesn’t she deserve to know?”

  Rod still was speechless and just stared at her. Roxanne’s face went through a few transformations before she finally spoke.

  “You! It was you? Why would you kill your best friend? He loved you!” Roxanne yelled at Rod.

  Rod had a deer in the headlights look and seemed at a loss for words. He looked at me, and I just shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t know exactly what he thought I was going to do to help him.

  “Tell her Rod. She deserves to know,” I said firmly. After a long pause, Rod spoke up.

  “Because he didn’t deserve you,” Rod said, looking at Roxanne, finally admitting what I had just started to suspect a short while ago.

  “What do you mean? He was amazing to me. If anything I didn’t deserve him,” she said still acting as she had, had this wonderful relationship with Drew.

  “How could you be so stupid and blind!” Rod said his voice starting to rise and I was a little surprised he actually seemed to have some balls. “He used you because you blindly worshipped him, and he loved that. The whole time you guys were together he cheated on you. You even know yourself about Patricia, and she wasn’t the only one. She was one of many. Patricia is as stupid as you are for that matter. He was laughing about it when I stopped by your apartme
nt to have him sign some papers, saying you had stormed off, when he told you he wasn’t going to leave Patricia. Knowing he was trying to cheat me out of my company and doing that to you, saying you were trash. I just snapped.”

  I glanced at Roxanne, who looked bewildered at what Rod was telling her. Had to give her credit, she was a good actress.

  “You’re lying. Drew loved me, and Patricia was just a means to an end! Why is he saying these things Presley?” She said, looking at me, the tears spilling over onto her face. She was doing a good job of trying to make me feel sorry for her. It just wasn’t going to work. I was done being gullible enough to fall for her lies.

  I just looked at them both until I couldn’t take it anymore. Did they really think I was that stupid? I was beginning to feel very insulted. “You can both cut the crap,” I said my voice conveying the disgust I felt for both of them right at this moment.

  Their eyes got wide, and they stared at me. “Presley, I don’t know what you are talking about?” Roxanne said, sounding offended.

  “Really? That’s how you want to play it Roxanne?”

  “I’m not playing anything. I don’t know what you are getting at.”

  Now I was annoyed. “You played me. Both of you. And good I might add. You both had me sold on your innocence, on many levels. I wanted to help you, Roxanne. I hated thinking you were being accused of something you didn’t do. But too many things just didn’t make sense and you both were hiding so much. Though not very well because the truth kept coming out.”

  “Presley, you can’t believe that I killed Drew!” Roxanne exclaimed.

  “No. You didn’t kill Drew. Rod killed him but because you wanted him to. Rod would never have killed Drew on his own. Without you planting the idea and plotting with him. Rod was your pawn.”

  “What are you accusing us of?” Roxanne said, and I could tell she was getting mad. Good. Maybe she would finally confess to her part in all this.

  “I’m accusing you two of conspiring on how to kill Drew so Rod could have the company and pay off his gambling debts, and you could have revenge. You knew that Rod was completely in love with you, and if he had control of the entire company, you could get him to do whatever you wanted. Including marrying you and then you would have what you wanted with Drew. That was your ulterior motive. Money and to prove to Drew’s mom that you were worthy of being part of her elite social circles. That you weren’t like your cousins the Mogilevich brothers.”

  At this, her eyes grew wide, and I thought that maybe, just maybe she finally realized I wasn’t as dumb as she had thought I was this whole time I believed her lies.

  “Yeah, I finally figured out that part though I admit it wasn’t easy. You are related to them which is how you got them involved with Rod. In fact, you were selling their knock-offs in Silk. Those Halston dresses had me fooled. If it hadn’t been for that customer’s eye for detail, I wouldn’t have noticed with everything else going on.”

  I almost felt sorry for Rod. By the expression on his face, I was getting the impression he thought Roxanne really did care about him and was turning out to be someone different than he thought she was.

  “Presley, I don’t know what’s got in your head, but you’re talking crazy,” Roxanne said.

  I just smiled. “The way I see it you knew Drew was trashing you behind your back and using you. He had a fiancé for goodness sake and had made it clear he was done with you. That combined with the way his family treated you made you angry. I don’t blame you for that, but you should have just dumped him and moved on. You don’t move on well though do you?” I said, alluding to what I knew about her past. Intentionally trying to bait her and see how she would react.

  Roxanne just stared at me, and as her eyes narrowed, I could see she was getting very angry but trying to hold back, so I continued on.

  “You knew how upset and mad Rod was at him, over the business, and you knew Rod couldn’t afford for Drew to find out about his embezzling. It was easy to get him to do what you wanted. And that was to make Drew pay.”

  Rod stared at me after my last statement and looked like he wanted to say something, but the words just wouldn’t come out.

  “Rod, I know that you borrowed money from the Mogilevich brothers to pay your gambling debts. When Drew thought he was paying them off for you, it was only some of them, and you didn’t have the courage to tell him about the full amount. They started pushing you to pay up or else so you stole money from the company to pay them off.”

  “Borrowed, not stole. I was going to put it back,” Rod said defensively.

  “Even if that were the case, Drew’s wanting the merger meant a full financial review which would expose the missing money and Rod, you couldn’t let that happen. The merger would have been great for you financially, but it would have fallen through with the misappropriation of funds exposed. That’s why you were against it.”

  “Rod, you idiot. How did you think Drew wouldn’t find out? You ruined everything.”

  “Come on, Roxanne. Don’t blame him. You pushed Rod to make these bad decisions. You knew it would trap him and put him right where you wanted. You’re smart; I’ll give you that. You covered your tracks well, and it took a while for all the pieces to fall into place.”

  When Vivian had discovered the Halston dresses weren’t true Halston and Willie had told me that the Mogilevich brothers were loan sharks among other things and then the article I saw online had mentioned suspicions of being involved in sweatshop activities, producing knock-off designer goods and exploiting illegals with substandard pay and working conditions. It all started to finally make sense.

  After Joyce had brought to light the information about Roxanne’s past, I made some calls. Using the same persuasive tactics I had used with the vendors, called a bail bondsman Roxanne had used and found out one of the Mogilevich brothers had bailed her out and had said he was her cousin. It then made complete sense that she would be using Silk to sell the imposter merchandise and splitting the profit, which I’m sure was putting a handsome chunk of change in her pocket. She knew Rod needed money; one thing led to another and Rod was way in over his head.

  “I should have known better than to think Rod could handle the pressure of doing what needed to be done to get what was owed to him. Drew was right to want to separate himself from you. You’re weak,” Roxanne sneered and stood up, finally showing her true colors. “You two can keep talking about this, but I have a plane to catch.”

  “Where are you going? I thought we had a plan,” Rod said, looking bewildered, not fully understanding, I don’t think that Roxanne had just used him. Now that he had admitted his part in Drew’s murder she knew he was no longer useful to her.

  “That was plan A. A smart person always has a plan B and you aren’t part of my plan B.” She started to walk out the door, and Rod turned to me.

  “Aren’t you going to stop her!” he said, frantic and looking scared. I think he was just starting to realize how much trouble he was in.

  Why he thought that was my job, I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t going to chase after her. Plus I knew she wouldn’t get far.

  “Don’t worry, Rod,” I said confidently.

  She had only been gone from the conference room a few seconds when she walked back in, followed by Willie, Officer Castillo and a couple other policemen.

  Roxanne looked furious. And if looks could kill, Rod and I would both be dead.

  “What’s going on?” Rod asked. Poor guy, he was clueless.

  “Rod Simmons, you’re under arrest for the murder of Drew Conner,” said Willie as he pulled Rod up from his chair and handcuffed him as he finished reading him his rights.

  The other officers took Roxanne and Rod away, and Willie was walking me out to my car.

  “Poor Rod. I’m not sure he would have killed Drew without Roxanne’s interference in his life.”

  “He’s an adult, Presley. He’s responsible for his actions.”

  “I know, but still. What’s
going to happen to Roxanne?”

  “We’ve got several charges against her. Selling the merchandise at your store ties her back to Mogilevich activities, accessory to murder and accessory to kidnapping. We think anyway. I won’t be surprised if other things come to light as we continue with the investigation.”

  “You think she’s involved in Rita’s disappearance?”

  He nodded. “There’s a bigger reason Roxanne didn’t want Rita to talk to the police and we haven’t got all the pieces of why figured out yet. Hopefully, Rita will come forward now that Roxanne is behind bars.”

  “Poor Rita. To be in the wrong place at the wrong time is an understatement here.”

  “I’m going to need you to come down to the station and give your formal statement.”

  “OK. Can I stop by the store first? There’s something I need to take care of.”

  “Sure,” he said and we both got in our cars and drove off.”

  Chapter 20

  I was sitting on the front counter at Silk waiting for Katy. The store was closed, obviously, or I wouldn’t be sitting on the counter and Katy had been at home having left work a couple hours ago. But at this time of night the traffic shouldn’t be bad so I knew she would be here soon.

  Through the windows I saw her walk around the corner and soon the door opened.

  “What are you doing here,” she asked. More importantly why did you call me from home to come down here? I was waiting to hear what happened with Roxanne and Rod. What happened?”

  “I wanted you to come down here because Joyce is also meeting us. I thought we might as well get this over with too then tomorrow we can have a fresh start with none of the drama or at least I hope we can.”

  “You think it’s her selling stuff on eBay?”

  “Yes. I still don’t have proof, but the more I think about it, the more I feel she has to be the one. Brenda and Diane didn’t have access, and I hate to be mean but I don’t think they are smart enough to come up with this idea. And Roxanne did tell me that she vaguely remembered logging in to pay some bills when Joyce was in the office talking to her so maybe she saw her. I don’t know, I may be completely wrong but at this point I don’t want to wonder, I just want to ask. If I’m putting my home on the line, I can’t take this lightly and hope it works out on its own.”