Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 09 - Romance & Revenge

by Laina Turner

  “Willie, last time we talked you had a girlfriend, didn’t you?” I asked, wondering if my memory was correct and, of course, wanting to get the story. Not that I was interested in that way. Just making conversation. Willie was very handsome. Tall, strong, looked really good in his jeans and, the little I knew of him, had a good personality. When I had first met him he’d seemed an atypical detective. If I had to pick the star he mostly resembled, I would have chosen Wentworth Miller (I really hated seeing Prison Break go off the air.) Girls would be crazy not to snap him up. Willie didn’t disappoint tonight, in a black dress shirt, sleeves rolled up a little so you could see his tattoos which gave him a bit of a bad boy vibe that clearly contrasted with his cop job. Faded jeans, and some cool-looking shoes, dress shoes, black, but distressed-looking. I was surprised, actually. Men were usually so shafted when it came to shoes. They didn’t have the great choices us women had. They pretty much had tennis shoes, or black or brown dress shoes. Not much else. I felt sorry for guys in this area.

  Katy kept glancing in my direction as if to say, look how cute this guy is. And she was right. It was just hard putting Cooper out of my mind. I wasn’t ready to do that yet.

  “Why, Presley, is that your way of asking me if I’m available?” he teased, and looked happy that I was asking.

  “I would hope you wouldn’t be taking two girls out on the town if you had a girlfriend waiting at home for you,” I teased back, and hoped he wasn’t getting the wrong idea.

  “You’re safe. No girlfriend. The last one ended a while ago.”

  “Sorry to hear that, but I’m not sure that makes us safe, Willie. Might be just the opposite,” Katy said, flirting with him. I had been so worried about her after the whole Chris debacle and how hurt I knew she’d been. It was good seeing her having fun and being back to her old self and even though she was with Dirt, there was nothing wrong with harmless flirting.

  “So, Presley, tell me what you’ve been doing with yourself, since I know you don’t work at Silk anymore.”

  “A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Right now I’m writing a food blog for a small online magazine.”

  “I like technology, but it seems so difficult to connect with people on the Internet. Me, I still prefer the old-fashioned phone. Actually, talking to people.”

  “Tell that to all the people who use online dating,” I joked.

  “True,” he said. “So you write a food blog. That sounds interesting.”

  “Especially since Presley is probably the worst cook I know. It’s really unbelievable she hasn’t been fired yet,” Katy said, teasing me.

  Of course she was right. I had talents, but cooking wasn’t one of them.

  “Funny!” I said to Katy “Don’t air all my dirty laundry. I’m not that bad.” I didn’t do the best job of following recipes. I felt they were more guidelines than absolutes so often my food didn’t turn out exactly as it should. But really how much difference could a quarter teaspoon actually make? Though since writing this blog I had discovered it mattered quite a bit.

  “You’ve got my interest. How does someone who doesn’t cook write a food blog? Not that I know anything about blogs, but it does seem like you would need to know what you are talking about, to write about it.”

  I stuck my tongue out at Katy, who just laughed at me, and then I turned to answer Willie. “I actually think my lack of knowledge and ability in this area is what makes it popular with readers. I try and stick to simple for all the non-cooks out there and once every couple weeks I get a more complicated recipe from my mom. The blend works well. So many food blogs out there are actually by people who are good cooks and the recipes are fantastic when made by actual cooks. Yet us non-cooks could never make them because we have no idea even what half the ingredients are. Mine are simple for the non-Martha Stewarts. For those who want to move a step up from mac & cheese, but a baby step.”

  “I can see that and would assume there are more of those basic cooks than Martha’s out there,” he said. “It sound like a good concept.”

  “What about you? Still detecting?” I said, turning it around on him.

  “Yep. Never a shortage of murders and mayhem in Chicago. Speaking of which, did you know James was in trouble with the law again?”

  I didn’t, but it wasn’t surprising he was in trouble legally. He was the type who liked to skate the edge of what was right and wrong.

  “No! What happened?”

  “It’s been all over the news” He smiled. “How could you miss it?”

  “Unless it’s in People I don’t much care. The local news is depressing,” I said. “It’s all negative stuff out there.”

  “Ahh,” he said with a smirk. “It’s not that high profile to hit the cover of People, but he’s in some hot water. Allegedly, he has been embezzling from his own company.”

  “How do you steal from your own company?” asked Katy. “Isn’t it his?”

  “Yes and no. He’s the majority stockholder, but he has investors. His company hasn’t been doing so hot, tough economic times for a lot of businesses, and he raised some funds and brought more investors into his company for shares of stock. He then used those funds for things other than the purposes he had raised the money for. Which isn’t exactly making his investors happy because they aren’t seeing a return for their money and feel like they invested under false pretenses.”

  “That’s not good,” I said. “But not really surprising either.”

  “Could he go to jail for that?” Katy asked.

  “Absolutely,” said Willie. “It’s considered fraud.”

  “I haven’t talked to him in a long time, Willie. Is that why you asked us to come out? You were hoping for some dirt on James?” I teased.

  He made a face. “No! It’s just a coincidence. This case landed in my lap a few weeks ago because of my previous involvement with him. I shouldn’t even be talking about it with you so what is said at this table stays at this table. Got it?” he said sternly, looking at both of us before laughing. “Seeing you was random and for that I am happy. It was like you had dropped off the face of the earth. Speaking of happy, you grilled me about my love life. So what about yours?”

  I felt a pit in my stomach and could see Katy looking at me, whether with sympathy or pity I couldn’t tell, but either way she knew this was going to be a hard question for me.

  “No love life at the moment,” I said, not liking at all how that sounded and hoping it sounded like I got something caught in my throat. I certainly didn’t want Willie asking me any more questions about my love life. It was too hard to talk about.

  I had a feeling he could sense my discomfort, though, because he paused as if he was carefully thinking about his next sentence. Being a detective, he was more observant than the average guy.

  “Then I hope you will do this again with me sometime. You, too, Katy, if you’re still in town. I mean, what man wouldn’t want to take two beautiful women out on the town?”

  “Thank you, Willie. That’s very sweet,” Katy said. I still had my mind on Cooper and appreciated how he changed the subject.

  “Do you have proof he did it, or is it an alleged thing?” I said, going back to the James issue.

  “Who, James?”

  I nodded as I had my mouth full of spinach and artichoke dip, which was as good as the sushi though an odd thing to have on the menu at a sushi bar.

  “It’s still at the investigation stage. There isn’t concrete proof yet, but so far the evidence points to guilt. Why?”

  “He’s tried to call me a couple times in the last few weeks. He didn’t leave a message either time and I haven’t bothered to call him back.”

  Willie looked surprised. “Does he do that often? Call you, I mean?”

  I shrugged. “Every once in a while. Always to ask me to come back to manage Silk. He has a hard time keeping people. I assumed that’s why he was calling this time, which is why I hadn’t called him back yet. I have no desire to work for him
again and it’s easier to avoid him than to tell him no for the millionth time.”

  “Could you do me a favor and call him back? Just to make sure that’s what he wants. Call me curious.”

  “Sure. I can do that tomorrow.”

  “And then you can let me know and it will give me another excuse to talk to you,” he said grinning.

  “You don’t need an excuse.” I smiled.

  “Good!” he said and gave me a look that under other circumstances would have made me happy, I think Katy was right, he was interested. Right now my emotions were too all over the place to appreciate it.

  Chapter 7

  “Cooper, it’s Presley,” I said into his voicemail hesitantly. “I just wanted… I wanted to see how you were. Call me, OK? I think we should talk.” I set the phone down on the counter and reached for the coffee pot, wondering if it was too early in the morning to put Baileys in my coffee, or better yet, the pumpkin pie liqueur left over from Christmas. That stuff was amazing and I needed something to make settle my nerves. I almost felt worse, now having left that voicemail. What if he didn’t call back? It would be more rejection.

  “You finally did it.”

  I jumped, startled to find Katy behind me. She was all dressed and ready to go for the day, and here I was in my pajamas, wanting to put alcohol in my coffee at eight a.m. Something was definitely wrong with me.

  “Was it because you didn’t have fun last night with Willie? Is that what finally prompted you to call him?”

  “I had fun. Do you think I didn’t? You don’t think Willie thought I had a bad time do you?” I was worried because I didn’t want to have come across as rude to Willie. My not being able to get my mind off Cooper certainly didn’t have anything to do with him and I would have hated to give that impression.

  “Relax. He couldn’t tell anything was wrong. Though he did notice you were a bit upset when he asked about your dating status, but I know you. I could tell you were trying really hard to be chipper. Too hard. Since we were having a good time I can only assume Cooper kept invading your thoughts?”

  “He was and you were right. I should be the one to make a move just as much as he should, so I decided to buck up and call him. But I got his voicemail as you could hear and now I have to wait for him to call back. If he calls back. If he doesn’t, it’ll be worse than if I’d never called him.” I felt like I was tying myself up in knots in what seemed to be a vicious circle.

  “Don’t forget you need to call James, too,” Katy said.

  “I was going to do that after my call to Cooper.”

  “James? Is he bugging you to work at Silk again?” Jared asked, joining us in the kitchen, putting his favorite K-cup in and pushing the button to start.

  I shook my head. “No. Well, I guess that could be it,” I said and filled him in on what Willie had told us and that James had called me a few times and wanted me to call him back.

  “See what I miss when I go to bed early because I’ve had too much to drink,” Jared said, pretending to be disappointed.

  “Funny! Why don’t you call James right now? I’m curious,“ said Katy.

  “OK. Might as well get it over with,” I said. I was sure James just wanted me to work at Silk again and I didn’t relish actually talking to him. He wasn’t one of my favorite people. Knowing he was in some legal trouble made me skeptical as well.

  I sat down on one of the bar stools with my coffee and my phone. Knowing he was in trouble did change the perspective I had and my curiosity was overtaking my dislike.

  He answered on the first ring, almost like he had been waiting for my call which maybe he was. After a lengthy conversation, we got off the phone and I just looked at Katy and Jared with a dazed expression on my face. Having a hard time comprehending what I had just heard and not even knowing how to explain it.

  “What did he say? I couldn’t tell by your side of the conversation, but the look on your face tells me it must be something big.”

  “He wants to give me Silk,” I said slowly, still not sure that I had heard him correctly. And if I had, I was having a hard time believing him. There had to be something about what James said to me that I was missing or he was plotting some scheme that I wasn’t fully comprehending. There could be no good reason, a genuine one anyway, that he would want to give me his dead ex-wife’s business. I really needed that Baileys now. Who cared what time it was.

  “Shut the front door! Give you Silk? What do you mean? He wants to sell it?” Jared said.

  “That’s what I thought, that’s what would make sense, but no. He said give. Believe me, I asked him more than once because I thought I was hearing him wrong. He said it’s operating in the red, he doesn’t have time for it, and doesn’t really care, never did. He said he doesn’t want to see it close, for Solange’s sake, so who better than me to take it over. He said it’s what Solange would have wanted. He wanted to honor her memory or something like that. I was having a hard time paying attention after he said the part about wanting to give it to me. He and Solange had been in the middle of a nasty divorce when she was murdered, so I didn’t completely buy the ‘honor her memory’ crap. He has to have some other reason besides that. I’m just not sure what it is. Maybe he’s losing his mind.

  “Don’t get too excited guys. This probably has something to do with his recent legal troubles and that’s not something I want to get involved in. The last thing I want is to be sucked into his issues. I have enough of my own. I don’t really trust him enough to think this might be genuine. Think about it. People don’t go around giving away businesses. Even ones that are not profitable.”

  “But still, maybe it’s not. Would you want it, if it’s all above board? If he really means what he says?” Katy said, ever the optimist. “I mean this could be a fantastic opportunity.”

  “I’d really have to think about it. Owning a business. Especially retail in this economy. One that is already floundering. It would be a huge risk. Plus, I know nothing about running a business.”

  “But would you want to do it? Pretending there are no other obstacles for a minute, live in your fantasy land where anything can happen.”

  I thought for a minute and realized that yes, I would. I smiled. “Yeah, I would. I loved working there. So own the place … yeah. I would like that. I might even be good at it.”

  “I think you should go for it,” Jared said. “It’s totally up your alley and you’d be good at it. I could really see you doing this. I could work on weekends, hell maybe full time, if we don’t figure out what’s going on with my company.”

  “What did you tell him?” Katy said.

  My head was whirling. “That I would have to think about it. He wants me to call him tomorrow. As if I only need one day to make this kind of decision. But James is nothing, if not persistent.”

  “I can’t wait to see what Willie says about this,” Katy said. “I bet this isn’t what he was expecting James to want to talk to you about.”

  “Yeah, what happened with Willie last night?” Jared asked. “I feel totally out of the loop.”

  “I think Willie has a crush on our girl Presley here,” Katy said.

  “Oh, stop.”

  “Really?” Jared said, looking interested.

  “He doesn’t. And even if he did, it wouldn’t matter. I need to figure out what’s going on with Cooper first.”

  “Well do it and quit putting it off,” Jared said, and I just gave him a look. “OK then for now, we can talk about my problems. Last night I made a list of all the people I work with and put stars by the names to rank how likely I felt they would be to engage in activity that would be harmful to Sleeping Bear Designs,” he said and handed me a piece of paper that did, indeed, have names and stars on it. “Besides, of course, who we have already talked to.”

  I looked it over and saw one name, Todd Billings, had four stars by it.

  “Who’s this Todd guy? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you mention him?”

  “He’s a
new intern.”

  “And you think he might have something to do with this?” I said. “Why?”

  “He’s just an odd guy. He wears polo shirts with the collars turned up and he kind of gives me the creeps.”

  “You don’t like the way he dresses, so you think he might be involved in trying to take the company down?” Katy said.

  “Or do you think he’s capable of murder, because of his poor fashion sense? “ I said.

  “OK, maybe not, but there’s something weird about that guy, so I thought he was worth giving a closer look.”

  I sat the paper down on the table and took another swig out of my coffee cup.

  “It probably wouldn’t hurt to talk to all of these people,” I said. “Will this be it then? If we talk to everyone on this list, will we have talked to everyone?”

  “Yep.”

  “Then let’s do it! When can we meet these people?”

  “I’ve already been working on it,” Jared said and picked up another piece of paper and handed it to me. This one had names and times.

  “I took the liberty of setting appointments up for you today to talk to everyone. Here is your schedule.”

  “You’d make a good secretary,” I said, impressed at this thoroughness.

  “I guess this could be my back up plan. Be someone’s assistant if Sleeping Bear goes under.”

  “Stop being such a negative Nelly,” I scolded. “I’m getting offended you don’t have faith that I can solve this.”

  “It’s not you,” he said quickly, and I laughed.

  “I know. I’m teasing about that part but you do really need to relax. This will get figured out and Sleeping Bear will survive! Now, I’d better get ready.”

  Chapter 8

  “Has Cooper called back?” Katy asked. We were walking down the street to meet the last group of Jared’s co-workers for a mid-morning coffee.

  “Nope,” I said trying to be casual about it. Which was hard because it really bothered me. “I wanted him to call and even if I didn’t like what he had to say, at least I would know something.”