Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 09 - Romance & Revenge

by Laina Turner

  “I agree it is, but you have talked about wanting a clear direction for your life, the professional side anyways, and this could be it. This is a golden opportunity and you love fashion. Plus, since when have you been worried about a little responsibility? You had a ton of responsibility when you were in HR. How is this any different?”

  “I’m just not sure that being handed a business that’s in the red and has a bunch of issues that have no idea how to fix is something I can handle. What if it’s all above my head and I fail?”

  “Stop being a negative Nelly. You can do this. You can totally handle this. You’ve got the people part down with your human resources background and you can hire people for the accounting and stuff like that. It’s what I do. Outsource what you’re not good at. You know retail and you’re good at sales and marketing. It ran well before when you managed it and more importantly you loved it. Even though at the time it was temporary until you figured out what you wanted to do type job. You can do it again. You would be crazy to not take this opportunity. It’s not every day someone hands you something like this, and if you fail, so what? Nothing wrong with failure. That’s how we learn, by making mistakes. There is more wrong with not trying.”

  “Have you been listening to Tony Robbins or something?” I asked her. She was usually a glass half full person, which I loved about her, but she was really on a roll right now.

  “No, I just believe in going for it. Especially when it’s a fantastic opportunity like this. People just don’t get chances like this every day.”

  “I’ll do it if you move to Chicago and help me run it,” I said, having that idea just pop in my head and wondering why I hadn’t thought of it before because it was genius. I knew with Katy’s help I could do this.

  Katy laughed. “You’re crazy.”

  “No, I’m not. You said you wanted to sell the salon and get out of Alkon. What better than to move here and help me run Silk? You have all the business ownership knowledge I don’t have and you said you wanted a change. It makes perfect sense.”

  “I know hair, I don’t know retail.”

  “Now who is being negative?” I teased. “Business is business. You would be a huge help to me in learning things I need to know about being a business owner. And it could be temporary. Give you something to do until you can figure out what you really want to do with your professional life. This is a total win-win. You can bank the money from the sale of the salon. You and Dirt can live here. I’ll just clean out that third bedroom that has all our junk and I’m sure Jared won’t mind, until you figure out what you really want to do. There is a lot of opportunity in Chicago for both you and Dirt.”

  Katy looked at me thoughtfully and I could tell she was warming to the idea, which really excited me. “Maybe you’ve got something there.”

  “It’s a great idea! Just tell me you’ll think about it.”

  “I’ll think about it.” Katy laughed. “And I’ll have to talk to Dirt.”

  The thought of working with Katy on this venture made me feel that maybe I could do this. That being a business owner wasn’t completely crazy. I had enjoyed working at Silk and there were a lot of things I’d always said I would do differently if it were my decision to make, so maybe I could do this and bring Silk back to the thriving business it once was.

  “So are you going to call James back?”

  I laughed. “I need to think about it for a while. At least the day. Right now I want to go see if Julie is home.”

  An hour later, we were being ushered into Julie’s apartment. We got lucky and had caught her at home.

  “This is a surprise,” she said. “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon.”

  If she was at all worried about why we were here, she didn’t look it.

  “Can I get you two anything?” she offered to me and Katy. John had called a meeting so Jared hadn’t come with us.

  “No. I’m OK, thanks,” I said and Katy also declined.

  “Then what can I help you with?”

  Katy and I had discussed on the way over how to approach this. We decided the best course of action, and really the only way to get the information we needed, was to directly ask her. It made sense, but now faced with doing just that I was a little nervous. Maybe she had been the one to call me and I should be more careful. A little late now.

  Katy and I looked at each other and then I looked back at Julie.

  “Why did you take the picture of Peter out of Becky’s apartment?”

  Julie looked at us and I could tell she was surprised and then anger clouded her face.

  “You snooped through my bedroom last time you were here?” she said loudly.

  “Not on purpose. I just noticed it as I walked out of the bathroom. Were you having an affair with Becky’s boyfriend?”

  Julie’s face turned red, though from anger or embarrassment I couldn’t tell. Then she sighed.

  “Yes,” she said, the anger from before leaving her voice. “But before you judge me it was short-lived and a complete mistake. I felt so guilty, I couldn’t stand it. I didn’t kill Becky for Peter, if that’s what you think. I swear it didn’t take me long to realize what an ass he was.”

  I don’t know why, but I believed her. Maybe there were others Peter messed around with who weren’t so forgiving?

  “Were there others? Women who Peter cheated on Becky with?” Katy said, taking the words right out of my mouth.

  Julie looked down at the floor a second before looking back up at us, and nodded. “That’s when I realized what a louse he was. I believed him at first when he said he had fallen in love with me and was waiting for the right time to tell Becky. Until I saw text messages from other girls on his phone. I was one of several. He said there was enough of him to go around. He didn’t even care,” she said, with a look of disgust on her face and I didn’t blame her. “He said he had a certain lifestyle to uphold and women loved to give him things.”

  “Did Becky know?” I asked.

  “I don’t think so. If she did she gave no indication of caring.”

  “Do you know who any of those other women were?”

  “I don’t. As soon as I found what he was up to, I broke it off.”

  “Then why take the picture?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. Stupid, I know. I did really like him. So there still isn’t any lead on who killed her?”

  Good attempt at changing the subject on her end. “Not on our end. Though the police might have someone. Not like they would tell us.”

  We chatted for a few more minutes and got up to leave when Julie said, “I almost forgot. Last night I thought I heard someone trying to get in my apartment. I got up and went to look out the peephole and didn’t see anything, so I opened the door and looked out. I saw a woman getting on the elevator.”

  “Did you recognize her?”

  “No. She was too far away and had her back to me. I could just tell she was built like a woman.”

  My first thought was Glenda but it could have been anyone. We said our goodbyes and made it out of the building before Katy said, “You think Glenda was trying to break in?”

  “That would be my first guess. But why try to get in to Julie’s apartment?”

  “Maybe she thought it was Becky’s?”

  “Could be.” My phone rang, interrupting me and I saw it was Willie. “Hello?”

  “Hey Pres. I wondered if you had given any more thought about the New Year’s Eve party.”

  “Can I call you right back? I’m right in the middle of something,” I said, which was mostly true. I just wanted to talk to Katy again before answering.

  “Sure. I just need to know by five in order to get the tickets.”

  “OK. I’ll call you back no later than an hour.”

  “That was Willie,” I said to Katy. “He asked again if we wanted to go to this New Year’s Eve party downtown with him. His friend’s company bought a block of tickets and gave him four and he wants me, you, and Jared to come.�
��

  “What do you want to do?”

  “I can sit around moping for Cooper or I can get dressed up and go try to have fun. Besides, this party is at a nice hotel, a really nice hotel, so I think it’s something we wouldn’t want to miss.”

  “Then call him back and tell him yes.”

  I did just that and Katy and I headed back home where we somehow got back on the topic of my love life.

  “I don’t think you should give up on Cooper without talking to him,” she said.

  “We’re talking about a party, not my relationship with Cooper.”

  “Ooh, what party?” Jared said, hearing our conversation as he came in the front door with our dinner.

  He set bags of Chinese food down on the coffee table and I went to grab drinks from the kitchen.

  “How much food did you order?” I asked, coming back and looking at six different cartons for just the three of us.

  “Never order food when you’re starving. I couldn’t decide what I wanted so I thought I would get a bit of everything. It can always be tomorrow’s breakfast. So, back to this party thing. What party are we talking about?” he said, passing out the chopsticks.

  Jared did love a good party and I knew this would be no exception. Especially when he found out where it was.

  “Presley said Willie called and invited us to a New Year’s Eve party at some hotel,” Katy told him.

  Jared looked at me. “What hotel?”

  “The James,” I said and waited for his reaction.

  “Oh. My. God. We’re going. I can’t believe you even had to think about it. Oh no! I have nothing to wear. I’ve got to go shopping tomorrow. All of us do!”

  I burst out laughing at Katy, who looked bewildered at Jared’s reaction. Especially the way he had been so mopey around here the last couple days. I hadn’t told her what hotel because I knew she wouldn’t know what The James was and its significance in the city.

  “The James is a very high-end hotel. Thousand dollar a night kind of hotel.”

  “For a cheap room,” Jared interrupted. “We couldn’t afford to sleep in the basement even if it was listed on Travelocity on special.”

  “Yes, for a cheap room. It’s known for its extravagant parties and very exclusive guest lists,” I said. “I think you have to know someone to even get a reservation and by know someone, I mean important people.”

  “Which common folk like us don’t normally get invited to,” Jared added. “Your detective friend must know people in high places,” Jared said.

  “So we’re going?” I said, knowing full well there wouldn’t be any way to stop Jared now.

  “If Jared says we need to go, then we need to go,” said Katy. “And I agree with Jared on the shopping part. I didn’t bring anything fancy for New Year’s Eve. I assumed it would be dinner and drinks at someplace more pedestrian,” she teased. “Where my common clothes would fit in.”

  “It’s settled then. Shopping trip tomorrow and amazing party the day after,” Jared said. “I might meet the man of my dreams there. I need to look fabulous.”

  “First thing tomorrow. Promise,” I said, feeling excited about things for the first time in a few weeks.

  Chapter 18

  “Does this make me look fat?” Jared said, modeling the outfit of dark blue jeans and a charcoal gray button-down shirt.

  “What the shirt or the jeans?” I asked.

  “Both,” he said crossly. He hated thinking he looked anything but his best and was always paranoid about looking fat. Anyone who thought that particular paranoia was something relegated to women only, didn’t know Jared.

  “I think maybe you should go up a size in those jeans,” I said.

  He looked at me with horror.

  “This is my normal size: thirty-fours. I can’t go up to a thirty-six!” he said. To him going up a size would be a travesty. He turned back to look at himself in the three way mirror, swiveling this way and that way, and I could tell he was looking for an indication his jeans were too tight. He looked fine in his thirty-fours. I was just giving him a hard time because I knew it would drive him crazy.

  Katy looked at me, trying hard not to laugh, knowing what I was doing and that it was totally working.

  Jared caught us glancing at each other and picked up another shirt he had just tried on and threw it at us, figuring out I was teasing.

  “You guys are mean,” he said and went back in the fitting room to change into his own clothes.

  “But we love you!” I yelled through the door and heard him mutter a response, but couldn’t tell exactly what he said. Probably a good thing.

  A few minutes later, he came out and paid for his things, pretending to still be mad at us. We had already been lucky enough to find something to wear and even at a good price at H&M. They were having some amazing sales.

  Shopping done, we were standing at the front of the store, trying to decide what to do next.

  “Head home or lunch out? I’m getting hungry,” said Jared.

  “Let’s do lunch out, definitely, but let’s stop at your office first,” I said.

  “Why?”

  “Maybe look around while no one is there? See if anything jumps out at us.”

  “What are you hoping to find?” Jared asked.

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. I just feel like it’s worth it; that maybe we’ll think of something while there or see something that might be a clue. We made a little progress when we got that information from Allison at Red Dune Creative but now I feel we are at a standstill again. It might be a complete waste but we have time. And then we can stop at that pizza place you like.”

  “OK. Count me in, then.”

  I knew the pizza would get him; he loved food as much as I did. Food and clothes were something we had in common. Which, of course, was one reason we were such good friends.

  ****

  “Look at this, Jared,” I said, pointing to a picture on Sally’s desk that had caught my eye after we had been wandering around for a few minutes.

  He glanced over and shrugged, “What? It looks like a picture of a family party or something.”

  He was right. It was a picture of about twenty or so people at some gathering, but the picture itself wasn’t what was drawing my attention. It was the people in the photo. I picked the picture up off the desk and walked over to where Jared and Katy were looking through files. I held up the photo so they could look at it and then tapped it with my finger.

  “There’s Sally,” I said.

  “Yes,” Jared agreed, “but I still don’t understand where you are going with this.”

  “Next to her is Colleen. The intern I met at Red Dune Creative. Doesn’t that seem like a bit of a coincidence to you? She knows an intern at a company who was mailed your designs enabling them to steal a client? Has she ever mentioned she had a friend or relative working at a competitor? I know she didn’t when we talked to her. She didn’t mention she knew someone at Red Dune or any other company. I didn’t ask her that direct question, but you’d think she would have said something.”

  “No, but maybe they don’t know each other,” Jared said. “It could just be coincidence they were at the same party, that Colleen came with someone else.”

  “They at least have to have met each other since they’re standing next to each other in a group photo, wouldn’t you think? And what’s the likelihood of them meeting once at a party and what’s happening at Sleeping Bear just being random?” I didn’t buy for a minute this was all coincidental.

  He nodded. “Yeah, I get your point. I just can’t imagine Sally giving someone our designs. She loves this company. What could she possibly have to gain?”

  “Something we don’t know yet,” I said. “You don’t always know what’s going on with people.”

  “You really think she could be behind this?” he asked. “I don’t want to even think that could be true. John would never believe it.”

  “You may not want to think it, but I think it’s
a possibility that needs serious consideration. We have to be objective.”

  Jared sat down in a chair by Sally’s desk as I put the picture back.

  “She’s always been such an important part of this team all the years I’ve worked here. I can’t even imagine her doing anything to hurt the company. Surely there’s another explanation.”

  I could tell the thought of Sally being behind this in any capacity was bothersome but that didn’t make it not true.

  “People aren’t always what they seem,” Katy said. “Maybe you don’t know Sally as well as you think you do.”

  “Well, then what should we do now?” he asked.

  “I think we should take this to John. See what he says,” I said.

  “You think I should call him right now?” Jared hesitated. I could tell he didn’t want to deliver this bad news.

  “Why not? No time like the present. Wouldn’t you rather know now than later? I’m sure John would.”

  “OK.” Jared pulled out his cell phone and made the call. “After a short explanation, he hung up and said, “He’s on his way. Man, I hate doing this to him.”

  We killed time waiting for John by looking at the large binder of all the proposals the company had done along the years. It was really amazing. Jared didn’t bring his work home so I really had no idea that he was so talented. Whenever I asked him about work, he said he just created pretty pictures. What I was looking at was way beyond pretty pictures.

  “Jared, these are so good. You’ve even won awards. How come you’ve never told me any of this?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. I guess it’s not a big deal. It’s just my job.”

  “It is too a big deal and I can’t believe you don’t seem to think so. This kind of work takes talent. The kind that not everyone has.” I started to say something else when the front door chime went off and John walked through the door.

  He was dressed in track pants and a hoodie, a style I hadn’t seen before on him. Apparently neither had Jared, as the look on his face was priceless. It was always interesting seeing people in a different context from what you were used to. The casual outfit suited John, I thought.