Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 05 - Gems & Gunshots (11 page)

“Presley, I’ve told you over and over to stay out of this.”

“Cooper, you have to listen to me. There is too much here that doesn’t add up.”

Cooper sighed. “You’re just not going to let this go are you?”

“No. Not until you listen. Just hear me out and if you still feel I’m completely off base and am making a big deal out of nothing, then I’ll leave it alone and not interfere.”

“Promise?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Fine. Let me grab a beer for this.” He got up and walked to the kitchen.

“Hey, bring the pitcher of mojitos while you’re in there,” I yelled to him.

He walked back in with beer in one hand and mojitos in the other.

“I can’t believe you chose that beer over my awesome mojitos,” I teased.

“I may have to go back to work, so I’m limiting myself to one drink and it’s hard to drink just one of your mojitos.” He softened a little. “Now what’s this crazy theory of yours?”

“It’s not crazy. Just look at the events. Greg files a claim for stolen diamonds that he doesn’t tell anyone are stolen, including you. Shortly after he gets the insurance money the store is robbed and an employee killed. That employee was someone he was dating, cheating on his wife, I might add, and whose father owns the insurance company he filed a claim with for the stolen, yet not really stolen, diamonds. The week after he filed the claim Nicole quit her job at the dental practice and went to work for Greg. Don’t you see? It makes perfect sense.”

“See what?”

“That there are too many coincidences, Cooper. It’s all related.”

“First of all, you don’t know that Greg was having an affair with Nicole.”

“The girls at the dental office where she worked said Nicole told them she was quitting her job because she had found the man who was going to take care of her. Greg was a patient at that dental office and Nicole started working at the jewelry store. Don’t you see? Greg’s that guy!”

“Presley, I admit it does seem suspicious, but Greg could have gotten her a job without having an affair. Maybe Nicole meant she found a guy to take care of her in the sense of a better job.”

I rolled my eyes. Guys could be so dense when it came to affairs of the heart. Even though, from what I had learned about Nicole, it was more like an affair of the pocketbook. “Cooper, trust me on this. Women know these things. Nicole must have met Greg at the dentist’s office and thought he was going to be her sugar daddy. She wouldn’t have thought that if he hadn’t given her reason to. I bet he gave her that reason because he knew who she was. Or rather who her family was.”

“But Nicole didn’t even work at her family business. How could she have been any help to him? Besides, the insurance company didn’t even question the claim.”

“I’m not sure, maybe dating Nicole was his backup plan in case the insurance company gave him grief over the claim,” I admitted. “But I can ask Alan, Nicole’s brother.”

“No, Presley. I admit this is good information, but you need to leave this up to me and the police.”

“Have you figured out any more on who’s blackmailing him?”

“Not yet. We’ve got a tail on Ganuchi’s son, but so far nothing. Since they contacted us postponing the drop for two days we haven’t heard from them. It’s the strangest case I’ve ever worked. Makes me think we’re dealing with amateurs.”

“Isn’t that good? If they’re amateurs they’re bound to slip up and you can catch them.”

“Believe it or not, it’s not good. Amateurs are overconfident and make mistakes, which puts people at risk. They make me much more nervous.”

“What’s your plan?”

“We’re working on it.”

“Does that mean you’re not going to fill me in on what you’re working on?” I said, knowing full well what the answer would be.

“You are correct. Presley, this isn’t a game. It could be dangerous, and the fewer people who know about it the better.”

“It’s not fair. I gave you good information.”

“I know you don’t think it’s fair,” he said, walking over and kissing me, making it hard for me to keep my grumpy face. Although, since he hadn’t thought my information was crazy, maybe I didn’t have to keep the promise I would drop this. And I was meeting with Amelia tomorrow, which might prove interesting.

“You up for a movie?” Cooper asked, breaking into my thoughts.

“Sure,” I said, snuggling up against him as he went to Netflix on the TV, his arm around me putting all other thoughts out of my mind. At least for now.

Chapter 18

I
warn you, I’m bad at this. In fact, in high school, my gym teacher made me sit out during our week learning tennis because the racquet kept slipping out of my hand and hitting people. She said I was a menace.”

Amelia laughed. “I’m sure you’re not that bad.”

“Oh, but I am. I was not blessed with eye hand coordination.”

“We can just play for a bit and then go relax and have lunch.”

“Sounds like a plan.” I tossed the ball in my hand and tried to get used to the feel of the racquet. I was not an athletic type of gal. Not that I didn’t enjoy the outdoors or activity. I just didn’t have any natural talent.

“Just toss the ball up and swing,” Amelia called to me from across the court.

“Here goes.” I tossed the ball and swung. The racquet connected and swooshed the ball over the net somewhere in Amelia’s proximity, but not close enough for her to hit it, so she went chasing the ball.

“See, that’s not so bad. You made it over the net and even if I can’t hit it, I will get my exercise running after it.”

“Beginners luck, Amelia, but thanks for being so understanding.”

Amelia was really good and that fact was apparent by how she made it easy for me to actually play. I found myself enjoying the game and some of the horrific high school memories faded away. After about an hour of easy play, Amelia suggested we hit the showers and then lunch. I was more than ready. I was exhausted, while Amelia didn’t even seem winded.

“See, that wasn’t so bad, now was it?” Amelia asked once we were seated at the clubhouse for lunch and had placed our order.

“I admit it wasn’t nearly as bad as I anticipated, but that’s only because you made it easy for me,” I said, taking a long drink of my Diet Coke. I hadn’t had one in days, being in more of an iced tea phase and trying to cut down on NutraSweet, but after that workout, I needed one.

“Before I forget, I asked Greg about that Nicole girl. He said she was a friend of one of the other girls and he didn’t know her before she was hired.”

So Greg lied to Amelia, and I didn’t even have to ask in order to find out. Was he lying strictly because of his affair? I hated not telling Amelia what I had found out during my trip to the dentist’s office, but I didn’t want to stir up any more drama and get Greg mad at Cooper again.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Amelia said.

“You do?” I said, surprised.

“You think I’m crazy to believe him. Don’t worry, Presley. You don’t live with a man for thirty years and not know if he’s lying or not.”

“As long as you’re sure, Amelia, that’s all that matters.”

Chapter 19

G
emstone’s Unlimited,” a woman’s voice came over the line.

“Hi there. I’m supposed to be meeting Mr. Anderson this evening for a business dinner, but I can’t remember the name of the restaurant we’re suppose to meet at. I was hoping you could peek at his calendar and tell me. I hate to call and ask him and look like an idiot.” I had been watching and waiting for him to leave the store before making this call just to ensure he wouldn’t be there.

“Oh, is this Kendra?”

“Sure. I mean yes,” I said quickly, hoping the woman on the other end wouldn’t ask me anything that would give away the fact I was not Kendra. She obviously didn’t know Kendra’s voice. Though it was interesting to know that Jill had thought that Kendra and Greg had ended things. If they were having dinner, that didn’t seem like accurate information and made me think it didn’t take long for Greg to get over Nicole. The girl came back and told me where they were meeting, even throwing the time, which was most helpful. I thanked her and got off the phone thinking step one of my plan was in place and it had been even easier than I had anticipated.

*****

“Tell me what we are doing here again?” Haley asked.

We had just pulled up across the street to what was a very nice upscale French restaurant. San Diego sure didn’t have a shortage of good places to eat.

“We are getting proof that Greg’s a cheat. So, then maybe Cooper will believe me that something fishy is going on here and Amelia will know her husband is a louse. Though I don’t relish that conversation,” I said.

“How are you going to get proof?”

“We will wait for him to show up and then snap pictures of him with this.” I leaned into the back seat to pull out a camera with a zoom lens.”

“Nice! Where’d you get that?” Haley asked.

“I sort of borrowed it from Cooper.” He didn’t actually know I had borrowed it. Not that he would care if I borrowed anything of his unless I was going to use it to do things he had already told me not to do, so I just thought it best not to mention it until I had the proof to convince him. Then he would be so happy he’d forget to be mad. At least that was how I envisioned it in my mind, and things like this always seemed to work out better in my mind.

“We should have brought some snacks,” Haley said after about twenty minutes of sitting. “The smell of the food coming from the restaurant is making me hungry.”

“Got you covered.” I reached behind me, pulled out a bag of goodies, and tossed it to Haley. “Knock yourself out.”

“Yum, Pringles,” she said, pulling out the can and setting the bag down. She took off the lid, tore off the foil seal and dug in. “I love these and haven’t had any in forever! I try not to buy them ‘cause I’ll eat the whole can.”

“Me, too, but they were on sale at the gas station. Hand me the Twizzlers, would ya?” Haley reached in the bag and pulled them out for me. We sat in silence, except for the sound of chewing and crunching, for what seemed like eternity but was barely another twenty minutes.

“This is boring. I don’t see how cops do it,” Haley said. “I can’t stand sitting here waiting.”

“We shouldn’t have much longer. Their reservation is in five minutes. I just wanted to get here early to get a parking spot before the rush, so we’d have a line of sight to the entrance.”

We people watched for a few more minutes and then I finally spotted him. Or rather first his car pulling up to the valet. “There he is,” I said excitedly to Haley, holding up the camera and trying to focus. Picture taking wasn’t one of my strongest suits. I watched and snapped as Greg got out of one side of the silver Mercedes and Kendra—I assumed it was Kendra since I didn’t know what she looked like—got out the other side. She was gorgeous: tall, olive skin, jet–black hair and a perfect body.

“Wow. She’s gorgeous,” said Haley. “Almost can’t blame him for cheating.”

“Haley!”

“I’m not saying it’s right and that he shouldn’t be shot, I’m just saying, as beautiful as she is, it would be hard to resist.”

I took a few more pictures before they walked in the restaurant and I could no longer see them. “That’s the best I’m going to get.”

“Did you get some good shots?”

“I think so,” I said, putting the camera on view so we could look at the pictures. Thank goodness for digital cameras so I didn’t have to wait anxiously at the one–hour photo place just to find out none of them were good photos. “Yeah, I did get some good ones.” There were at least two good shots of Greg and Kendra. Again, I was assuming it was she. His arm was around her waist and she was leaning into him all cozy, so there was no denying they were together. Their touching and close proximity said more than just casual friends. “I hope this convinces Cooper that Greg’s not the upstanding guy he thinks he is.”

“Do you think it will?”

“It can’t hurt. Let’s get out of here and go get something to eat. You would think after all that licorice I wouldn’t be hungry, but smelling the meat cooking from that restaurant is making me crave a burger.”

‘That does sound good,” Haley agreed. “I know just the place.”

We drove a few blocks across to what, from the outside, looked like a dive bar, but Haley assured me it was much better inside. When we walked inside, I started to question her definition of
much better
but figured I would reserve judgment until I tried the food. Which, when it came, was delicious. I had a bacon burger deluxe and fries and I didn’t know when I’d had better. “This is amazing!”

“I told you. It doesn’t look like much, but their food is to die for. If you’re in the mood for greasy burgers and fries, that is,” Haley said with a mouth full of French fries.

“How did you…” I started to ask Haley how she had come across this place when the words got stuck in my throat.

“How did I what?” Haley asked when I didn’t continue.

My eyes widened and I pointed in front of me, which was to Haley’s back. She started to turn around. “Stop!” I said in a loud whisper. “I don’t want them to notice us.”

“Who? What is going on?” she whispered back.

“It’s Amelia.”

“Greg’s wife?”

“Yes, and she’s with Nicole’s brother Alan.”

“How do those two know each other?” Haley asked.

“I have no idea.”

“Did you want to go over and say hi?”

“I don’t think so. This just doesn’t seem right to me and I’d rather they not know I’ve seen them.”

“What? Them being together?”

‘Together. Here. I mean this isn’t really Amelia’s kind of place.”

“Did she see you?”

“No, I don’t think so. She and Alan are over in a corner booth. I can hardly see either of them so I can’t tell what they’re talking about, but hopefully it also means they won’t notice us slipping out.”

“I think there’s a door out the back,” Haley said, motioning for our waitress.

I scarfed the last few bites of my burger and washed it down with my Diet Coke.

“Are you ladies finished?” The waitress asked when she came over to our table.

“We are and it was wonderful,” I said to her. “We do have a question to ask you.”