Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 09 - Romance & Revenge

by Laina Turner

  “It’s not even been twenty-four hours. I wouldn’t read anything in to it. You know firsthand how busy he gets.”

  I did know, but even so in the past he had always made time for me. Even when he didn’t have time.

  “I’m not,” I said, even though I was. A little. OK, a lot. I couldn’t help it. “But that’s why this is a nice distraction to help Jared. It will keep my mind off the men in my life.”

  “Men? Plural? Since when was it plural?”

  “Willie called earlier.”

  “And you’re just now telling me this?” she exclaimed.

  “You were in the shower when he called.”

  “What did he say?”

  “That he had a great time with us and hoped to see us soon. In fact, maybe for New Year’s Eve.”

  That stopped Katy in her tracks and she turned to look at me.

  “And you said?”

  “I said I would talk to you. I certainly don’t want to be boring and keep you from having fun just because I’m in a funk over Cooper. But I also didn’t want to make plans without talking to you.”

  “Good, because sitting around feeling sorry for yourself won’t change anything. Trust me, I’ve learned that much from my relationship with Chris.”

  “We don’t have to go out with Willie if you don’t want though. We can do anything you want. Sit home and celebrate, go out, whatever. You’re the guest,” I said.

  “If I weren’t here and it was just up to you, what would you do?”

  I thought about it for a minute and going out on New Years’ would be fun and a good distraction.

  “I say we go. He said Jared could come too so we can all go out and have fun. I’ll call him when we’re done here,” I said and we walked into the same Starbucks where we had met Sally. I saw someone wave at us and headed to the table in the back where three of the others who worked with Jared were sitting.

  An hour later we walked out and I sighed. “That wasn’t helpful for anything besides feeding my caffeine addiction. Not a single employee at Sleeping Bear had known anything. Everyone thinks Becky is just great and can’t imagine who would kill her or what she could have argued with Glenda about or who would steal designs. This is hopeless.”

  “Now you sound like Jared.”

  “I feel like Jared. I’m not exactly making any progress.”

  “Patience and persistence, Pres. I know you’ve got one of those qualities.”

  I smiled because she was right on one count. I had persistence but patience was not at the top of my list of good qualities.

  “We just need to think. What is this telling us?”

  “That no one at Sleeping Bear knows anything,” I said, not understanding where she was going.

  “Exactly!” she said in such a way that made me think she had the answer. Whatever it was.

  “What do you mean exactly?”

  “Think about it.”

  I was silent for a minute thinking. Trying to figure out what she was getting at and it finally dawned on me.

  “You’re saying since no one from inside Sleeping Bear knows anything, it must be from the outside?”

  She nodded.

  “But what if one of these people is just a really great liar?”

  “That could be but what does your gut say?”

  “But that’s my gut saying they have no idea what’s going on. It’s not proof.”

  “Where to now?” Katy asked.

  “I thought we’d stop and pick up a few things for dinner tonight before heading home. Jared gave me a list. He’s going to make us one of his specialties.”

  “What’s on the menu?”

  “Enchiladas.”

  “Yum. I hope we’re having margaritas with that.”

  “Of course. Another reason to stop at the store. Need more tequila. Maybe that will help us figure this out.”

  I froze in my tracks mid-sentence and Katy bumped into me. “Oops, sorry but you stopped short.”

  I couldn’t trust myself to talk so I just pointed. Ahead of us I could see Cooper. And he was with a girl. Katy quickly saw what I was pointing at and I could see by the look on her face she didn’t know what to say.

  “Presley, that could be anyone. Don’t jump to conclusions, she’s probably someone he works with,” Katy said and while I appreciated her attempt at being positive even she didn’t sound all that convincing. “You should go talk to him.”

  I look at her horrified. “Are you nuts? And witness public humiliation in front of that girl.”

  “You’re being silly. They’re probably just friends.”

  “I don’t know. They seem pretty familiar,” I said as a taxi pulled up and he put his hand on the small of her back to guide her into the car, my stomach clenching as I saw him touch her. “And look at her, she’s gorgeous.” Which she was. Taller than me - she seemed almost as tall as Cooper - with long blond hair, and I could tell she had a nice figure, even underneath the winter coat she had on. She seemed very elegant, classy. In a different league than me. Jealousy welled up inside me.

  “Presley, you won’t know until you ask,” Katy said. “And there are a lot of beautiful girls in the world. It doesn’t mean Cooper wants to date them all.”

  “Why would I ask now, Katy? I called, I left him a message; he hasn’t called me back and now I see him with another woman. I’m not going to call him again. I’m not stupid or a glutton for punishment,” I said with a lump in my throat, willing myself to not break down and cry.

  “You think Cooper would just start dating someone else and ignore your calls, not giving you the courtesy of telling you? I know this might look bad, but there could be many explanations, and Cooper isn’t the kind of guy who would be a jerk to you. Even if he did want to end things. Look, they’re coming out of an office building. Techman Industries. It’s not a hotel.”

  I looked at the building and maybe she was right, this was business and he wasn’t a mean guy. Maybe that was why he hadn’t contacted me because he was busy. But busy with beautiful women when we hadn’t talked bothered me. I just desperately wanted him to contact me and tell me things were going to be OK.

  “You would think Chicago was a big enough town I wouldn’t just randomly run into him.”

  “Maybe it’s a sign that you need to talk to him.”

  “Only you, Katy. Looking at the positive.” She might feel that way but I wasn’t so sure. Now I just felt worse than before.

  Chapter 9

  I pushed my chair away from the table, and put my hands on my stomach. My very, very full stomach.

  “Jared, you outdid yourself. The enchiladas were absolutely amazing as always.”

  He grinned from ear to ear. “Thank you.”

  “Maybe if we don’t figure out who is trying to sabotage Sleeping Bear Designs you could change careers and be a chef?” I teased. “It would be better than someone’s assistant.”

  “Ha,” he said, but I could tell he was not amused. “Cooking is a fun hobby. Master Chef I’m not. “

  “So what did you learn from my co-workers?” We had agreed not to discuss anything Sleeping Bear related until after dinner so we could relax and enjoy each other’s company and the meal, so I hadn’t yet filled him in.

  “Nothing,” I replied to him. “That’s the problem. No one seems to have any idea about anything. I’m at a loss here, Jared. I’m not getting any evidence that someone is trying to sabotage the company or about Becky for that matter.”

  “You’re not going to give up are you?”

  “No. I just want you to know I don’t really know what to do.”

  “I think your buzzing, Pres,” Katy said and I looked over to my phone which was on the counter. I got up to grab it and saw it was Willie.

  “Twice in one day. How am I so lucky?”

  “You just are, I guess,” he said laughing. “I was calling because I was hoping you would honor me and meet me for a drink tonight.”

  “Um, just a second,” I s
aid and put my hand over the phone and whispered, “It’s Willie. He wants to meet me for a drink.”

  “Then go!” Katy whispered back. “You don’t need my permission.”

  I didn’t really feel like getting out but Willie was fun and right now it would probably be good for me. “Ok, sounds good. Meet you at Muldoons in an hour?”

  “See you then.”

  “That wasn’t so hard,” Katy said. “Just go and have fun.”

  *****

  “You seem distracted,” Willie said as we were sitting at Muldoon’s having a drink. When he had called and asked if I wanted to hang out for a bit, my initial reaction was to say no. There was so much going on in my head that I didn’t know if I would be able to relax and have fun. Katy and Jared thought I should at least try. Though all I really wanted to do was just bury myself under the covers and sleep until my life felt right again, whenever that might be. They had mentioned telling Willie everything that was going on and seeing what he said. I did agree with that. It would be interesting to get his take on the situation and so for that I was glad I was here.

  I made the effort to look good, no sense in scaring him off by showing up in sweats and a pony tail, besides looking good made me feel better. So I put on my favorite pair of Miss Me jeans, a simple black, long sleeve tee, and a hot pink pashmina scarf to jazz it up. A pair of black motorcycle boots completed my outfit and I was at Muldoon’s in time to drink half a glass of wine before Willie arrived. On top of the margarita I had with dinner, I was in a much better mood. It was a good thing Muldoon’s was within walking distance because after another glass of wine I would probably want to fall asleep and driving would be a bad idea. Alcohol did that to me.

  I was distracted, but I didn’t want to unload on him about Cooper. That just didn’t seem right. So I decided to tell him my other problem or rather Jared’s work problems. As Katy and Jared had said when I left, Willie might be able to help.

  “You remember my roommate, Jared, don’t you?”

  “Yeah. In fact, I think we met here once.”

  “I think you’re right. Well, anyway, he works at a design firm called Sleeping Bear Designs that does branding and marketing for businesses. One of his co-workers was murdered a couple nights ago.”

  “Oh? I’m sorry to hear that. It’s horrible.”

  “Yeah. The bookkeeper. Her name was Becky Palmer.”

  He sat there for a second thinking. I didn’t expect him to know the case. After all, we did live in Chicago and there were unfortunately quite a few homicides a day here.

  “Young lady, downtown apartments, no sign of forced entry?”

  “I want to say yes, but there could be two that fit that description,” I said, but reached for my phone to pull up the news article and showed it to him.

  “Yep. That’s the one I was thinking of. Not my case, but I heard about it. That was Jared’s co-worker? Is he OK?”

  “Everyone there is pretty broken up about it,” I said, wanting to ask him if he knew anything or if he could find out, but didn’t know how to ask. I didn’t want it to seem like I was taking advantage of him or like the only reason I met with him was for information. However, he could clearly read my mind, because after a few seconds he said, “Is there anything I can help with?”

  “Since you mentioned it … the papers don’t say how she died or if there are any potential suspects. I’ve been trying to see what I can find out, strictly as a favor to Jared and his co-workers, but so far it’s not been very fruitful,” I said and told him the little information I had.

  “I seem to remember you playing detective the last time we had dealings,” he teased.

  I blushed. “I just like to figure things out.”

  “Fair enough.”

  He pulled a small notebook out and made a few notes. “I’ll see what I can find out tomorrow. Confidentially, of course.”

  “Of course,” I said and smiled.

  “Anything else I can help with?”

  “I hate to unload on you but since you asked, Sleeping Bear has another problem right now.”

  “This isn’t their year is it?”

  “No, it’s not. They have lost three clients this year due to a competing firm pitching a design so similar to theirs that they weren’t able to actually pitch it, therefore losing the client,” I said and proceeded to fill him in on what had happened, what Sally and the other co-workers had said and everything I knew about the situation. It really didn’t amount to much but explaining it all to someone who didn’t already know made me realize again just how much this small business was facing and how stressful it would be to be a business owner. “It’s not as big of a problem as the other one, of course, but could really hurt their business.”

  He thought it over for a minute. “If you’re serious about figuring this out, then you need to start at the top then talk to one or more of the competitors this happened with, find out what they know.”

  “What do you mean start at the top?”

  “With the son or the other partner. Whoever is in charge. Someone who is going to know more about the history of the company and if anyone harbored a grudge against them. An employee, unless they are the ones doing it, probably won’t know who might have it in for the business. They would have knowledge on those they directly interact with but not necessarily the company as a whole. The partners who run the firm probably will have a list of people who don’t like them.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that. This is a marketing firm. Who could possibly have it in for creative people? It’s not like they’re cut-throat financial people or like James,” I smiled. “They’re just a small company that makes pretty things.”

  “You would be surprised. When it comes to business people can lose all rational thought.”

  “Speaking of losing all rational thought, I talked to James and I’m pretty convinced he has lost his,” I said and told him about the conversation I had with James.

  He sat there silent, probably trying to figure out James’s angle. Which was what I had been trying to figure out since this morning and had yet to come up with any kind of idea. Surely he knew other people who were better suited to run a business than me. I didn’t even think he really liked me but rather tolerated me, much like I tolerated him, because he had known I did a good job.

  “I know,” I said in response to his silence. “Doesn’t make any sense. Unless he’s trying to hide something in Silk and thinks giving it to me will help that cause or will pass the buck. He’s got to have an ulterior motive.”

  “I don’t know. Silk isn’t a very large or important part of his holdings. I actually had a meeting today with the forensic accountants looking at his books. They had a list of his companies whose assets are in question and I just don’t remember Silk being on that list, although I guess I could have missed it. So if it’s not one of his businesses he raised investor money for, then you’re safe. He has several small businesses such as Silk that aren’t part of his major holdings.”

  “It wasn’t his business, it was his wife’s. So it’s probably not part of his big conglomerate. You think he might be being genuine?” Of all the thoughts I had about this that had not been one of them. It seemed too unrealistic. Who actually got this kind of opportunity from someone they weren’t related to? Or who didn’t want something in return?

  “I think if this is something you are interested in, then it’s worth exploring. It could be genuine on his part and if you think you want to do it, then it would be silly to not at least do your due diligence. You won’t be out anything but time if you do find he’s not being honest about his reasons.”

  I sat back and thought about what he had just said. If James was sincere and this deal was actually on the up-and-up, was this something I would want to do? I think I did. I just didn’t want to set myself up for disappointment.

  Willie smiled. “You like the idea, don’t you?”

  “I think I might. But I just can’t fathom James as being the g
iving type. There has to be an ulterior motive here.”

  “People can be surprising. Maybe he really wants to do something nice?”

  “Maybe,” I said, but was still skeptical.

  In spite of my initial reluctance to go out, I found myself having a good time and had to admit Willie could be very helpful in figuring out the mess at Sleeping Bear. Plus, he was charming and easy to talk to. We moved on from Jared’s problems to just chatting and I learned a lot about him and found myself sharing a lot about myself—as well as not thinking about Cooper for a while. It was good to have a distraction. If things were different, meaning if I had closure with Cooper, I could see myself liking Willie. He really was a decent guy.

  Chapter 10

  The next morning I walked into the offices of Sleeping Bear Design and couldn’t believe how quiet it was. I didn’t think I had ever seen it so quiet in this place. Usually it was all hustle and bustle, or at least it was every time I had come to visit Jared. People on the phone or their laptops. Clients in the three conference rooms, of which only one actually had a door, so you could hear everything. This whole creative vibe was much different than the HR environment I had worked in, where we liked doors that closed and our privacy and you felt you should always be whispering.

  I took Willie’s advice about taking the concerns to the top. After all, he was a detective and this was what he did for a living so he knew what he was talking about. Early this morning I had Jared call John, who owned Sleeping Bear Designs, to see if he would meet me. To my surprise, he was willing. I half figured he would blow it off thinking there was nothing I could do or not wanting Jared to involve me. After all, I was an outsider. So I would expect that. Especially considering I pretty much felt the same and was just trying to humor Jared. I didn’t think of myself as a detective, just someone who always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong times, or the right times depending on how you looked at it. I tended to stumble across things rather than to be able to purposefully figure them out. So it wasn’t like I thought I was going to come in and save the day. Though I had to admit I enjoyed trying to save the day. The company really needed someone like Willie who actually knew what to do. But Jared had a point when he said no one else was going to take it seriously because it wasn’t a crime until it could be proven it was. The stealing designs part of course, not Becky’s murder. Willie had basically said the same thing last night. I had asked him if he thought the two things could be related and he said it was probably unlikely.