Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 05 - Gems & Gunshots (12 page)

“Sure. What can I help you with?”

“Is there a back way out of here? You see those people up in the front booth? We would like to avoid them if at all possible and thought maybe if we could go out the back…” I trailed off.

The waitress nodded knowingly. “Not a problem. I know some folks I would like to avoid every once in a while. Let me run your bill up to the bar and cash you out and then I’ll show you the exit that’s through the kitchen.”

“That’s great, thanks.”

The waitress came back in a few moments with our change, which we told her to keep for a tip, and we followed her toward the back of the bar and through the door marked
kitchen staff only
. She led us through the kitchen and pointed to a door that said to only use in case of emergency.

“Go ahead through that door. Don’t worry. The alarm won’t sound. It’s been broken for a while now.”

“Thanks again,” I said to her. We walked through the door and outside to my car.

I paused before starting it up, when Haley said, “I don’t know what you’re thinking but I was thinking that maybe we should wait here until they come out and see where they go.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to drag you along in this wild goose chase if you have better things to do or would rather not be involved.”

“Are you kidding? This is fun. A lot more exciting than what I would be doing if I was home, which would be homework or obsessing over Robert.”

“He’s still on your mind?” I asked sympathetically. I’d had my share of broken hearts and I hated when your mind knew you needed to just forget about them but your heart wouldn’t let you.

“Yeah. I know, it’s stupid but I can’t help it. I really thought he might be the one. And he is. Just not my one, he’s Jill’s. I need to forget him and move on. Though it would be easier if he would quit texting me. That’s why hanging with you tonight, engaged in these covert operations, is good for me.”

“I’m not sure covert is the right term, but if it takes your mind off a guy, so be it.” We settled in to wait for Amelia and Alan to come out and tried to pass the time by playing twenty questions, a game that Haley turned out to be very good at, and me, not so much. Probably about half an hour had gone by when Haley stopped me at question three to point to Amelia coming out of the bar with Alan right behind her.

“Who are we going to follow? Her or Alan?” Haley asked as we watched them head to separate cars.

“I say we follow Amelia. If I had to choose what I find more odd—her arranging a meeting with him or him with her—I would definitely pick her meeting with him. So I want to know if she’s just going back home or not.”

“I can agree with that logic,” Haley said. “Does she know what your car looks like?”

“Yes, but there are a lot of cars like this around here, and since I can’t imagine she would ever think someone, especially me, would be following her, as long as we don’t get right next to her, I doubt she will have a clue.”

“Well, pay attention because there she goes.” Haley pointed at the silver Lexus pulling out of the parking lot.

I waited a few seconds and then put my car in gear and followed Amelia’s Lexus. The traffic was light, so it wasn’t hard to stay a car or two behind her. Lucky for me, she only made a couple turns and we hit mostly green lights or I wasn’t sure I would have been as successful tailing her. This wasn’t as easy as it looked on television, especially with me not being familiar with the area.

“Is this the way to her house?” Haley asked.

“No.”

“So, she must be heading somewhere.”

“Hopefully, it’s not just to some grocery store or Laundromat she likes that happens to be in the opposite direction from her house.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t that suck,” Haley agreed.

“It looks like she’s slowing down.”

“She has her right turn signal on. I think she’s turning into this condominium complex.”

“You think she’s going to notice if I turn in right behind her?”

“I used to have a friend who lived here. There’s another entrance just a few hundred feet past the one she turned into. Go to that one and then we can double back and find her car.”

I did what Haley instructed, and by the time I was able to make the loop back around we saw the back of Amelia heading up the pathway of one of the units. I pulled a few units down where I felt we had a good chance of not being spotted and cut the engine.

“Can you see her?” Haley asked me. “Because I barely can.”

“Not great, but enough. I don’t want to park anywhere else more conspicuous because if we can see her, then she can also see us, and I don’t want to be spotted.” I watched the narrow sliver of Amelia and the door she was standing at. “Someone’s opening the door,” I said excitedly to Haley.

“Can you see who it is?”

I squinted to try and see clearer. “All I can tell is it’s a guy. Can you see anything?”

“Only his forearms, which are hairy. So it’s definitely a guy.” Haley giggled. “Or a woman in great need of a wax.”

“I wonder what they’re talking about. Hey, this might be something.”

“What? What?”

“It looks like Amelia is taking something out of her purse and handing it to that guy. It looks like an envelope. Man, I wish I knew what was in it.”

“You think it’s something important?”

“I have no idea. She’s walking back and look! The guy is coming out, too.”

“That sure didn’t take long. Do you think he’s going somewhere with her?”

“No, it didn’t, and we still have no idea why she came here or who she just gave whatever it is she gave something to. But it is interesting that they are both leaving.” I drummed my fingertips on the steering wheel trying to figure out what we should do next.

I felt a vibrating near my leg. Looking down, I realized it was my purse so it must be my phone. I reached down to grab it and saw Cooper’s name on the display. A feeling of guilt washed over me. Not only should I have been home right now, which was no doubt why he was calling to see where the heck I was, but I had also just left a note for him that had been very vague. I either had to ignore the call or lie about what I was doing. Telling him I was following Amelia would not go over well. I hit ignore and tossed the phone back down in my purse. I could tell Amelia had started her car by the lights and I looked at Haley. “You up for some more secret agent tailing?”

“You know it,” Haley said enthusiastically.

“Great. Let’s see where she goes now.” I watched as Amelia pulled out of her parking space and saw the guy she had met get into a red Corvette. Both cars fell in line at the stop sign at the exit of the complex.

“What if they go separate ways? Who are we going to follow?”

“I think we’ll stick with Amelia, but hopefully they’ll save us the trouble and head the same way.” We were in luck for the first few blocks. The red Corvette stayed behind Amelia’s car. I reached down again and grabbed my purse and heaved it on to Haley’s lap. “Haley, do me a favor and grab the notepad and pen out of there and write down this license plate.”

“Good idea. See, you really are a secret agent,” she teased.

“Not hardly. There isn’t anything I can do with the plate number, but I could always give it to Cooper if it looks like it means anything.”

Just as Haley stopped writing, the Corvette turned left. Amelia continued straight and headed right back to her house. As soon as I was fairly sure that was the direction she was headed, I turned and went back to drop Haley off. Then as I drove home, I wondered when would be the best time to tell Cooper about tonight’s events.

Chapter 20

H
ey! You. Hold on a minute!”

“I was walking out of the Coffee Break the next morning and heard someone yelling. I looked up to see it was Kendra. To say I was shocked was an understatement. In fact, in the few seconds that passed as she was crossing the parking lot from her car to mine, I was speechless. She finally reached me and stood there staring until I finally broke the silence.

“Can I help you with something?” I said tentatively.

“You can stay out of my business and away from me.”

“I’m sorry. Do I know you?” I of course knew
who
she was, but I didn’t actually know her. I wondered how she even knew who I was.

“You know perfectly well who I am. Kendra Thompson. You managed to take pictures of Greg and me last night. That ring any bells?”

I winced. I knew when I had shown those pictures to Cooper this might happen, but I had been hoping it wouldn’t. Not that I cared if Kendra was mad at me. I didn’t owe her anything. I just knew it would eventually get back to Amelia, and I hated seeing her hurt. “Well, then maybe you shouldn’t be hanging out with married men if you don’t want people to care.”

She snorted. “Oh please, Miss Righteous. I’m not the first, nor will I be the last.”

“With Greg?”

“I meant in general but with Greg, too. You think I’m the only lady friend he’s had outside his marriage? What business is it of yours anyway?”

“Listen, while I don’t agree with your cheating with a married man, that has nothing to do with why I followed you and took those pictures.”

“Then I don’t understand. Why?”

“I’m trying to find out who killed Nicole.”

“Who’s Nicole?”

Seriously, Kendra was sleeping with Greg and she had no idea who Nicole was? Even if, and that was a big if, Nicole hadn’t also been fooling around with Greg, hadn’t they at least talked about the murder that took place in his business? Surely the subject had come up at least once. “The girl who was murdered in your lover’s store?” I said.

“Oh, her. I forgot her name,” Kendra said as if a murdered lover of her married boyfriend wasn’t any big deal.

I must have given her a look she didn’t appreciate because she immediately snapped at me. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m bad at names. Besides, what does any of that have to do with me?”

“You were both having an affair with Greg and he’s married. Doesn’t that bother you?”

“Men like Greg are never faithful. Besides, it’s me he really loves. What do I care if he finds the need to fool around a little on the side? I still get what I want.”

What a piece of work this girl was. “Fool around on the side? That might have been Nicole, but the man is married. I’m not sure that qualifies for someone on the side.”

“Oh please. He hasn’t been in love with Amelia for a long time. He just doesn’t want to give her half of his wealth. But soon it won’t matter and he will be all mine,” she said smugly.

“What are you talking about?”

“Greg’s coming into some money, and when that happens we are getting out of here, and that old hag can have everything.”

“You do realize that half of whatever Greg has is hers until they divorce right?”

Kendra looked at me like she finally realized she might be talking too much. “It’s none of your business anyway. Just stay away from me and Greg or you’ll be sorry,” she said hotly and flounced back to her white Mustang convertible.

As I watched the brazen hussy—as my mom would have called her—walk away, I was glad her little appearance had helped me make one decision. I had been trying to decide all day if I should call Amelia and tell her I saw Greg and Kendra together. Cooper said it wasn’t my business and the bearer of bad news like that was often the one people got mad at. But I just could not stand by and see Greg do this to her. But then, what had she been doing with Alan? I wanted to ask her about meeting Alan last night, too, but I couldn’t think of a good reason as to why I would even know what she had been doing without revealing I had followed her, and I wasn’t about to do that.

I hadn’t told Cooper about following Amelia or that she met with Nicole’s brother. He had already been in a bad mood over me following Greg, and since I didn’t know why Amelia had met with Alan, I thought I would wait until I had some more concrete evidence that there was even anything suspicious going on between Alan and Amelia. But busting Amelia’s womanizing husband? I didn’t want Amelia to hate me, but she had to know. I reached in my purse to grab my phone as I unlocked the door to my car. Maybe she could meet me so I could do this in person. I didn’t relish the thought of telling her, but if I were Amelia I sure would want to know.

I slid in the driver’s seat, set my purse on the passenger side, and scrolled through my contacts to find Amelia’s number. When I got to her number, I clicked on it to dial and nervously waited for her to pick up.

“Hello, Presley. So nice to hear from you,” Amelia’s voice came through the phone. “How’s your day?”

“It’s great. Look, I was wondering if you’re free later today? I was hoping we could grab some coffee and catch up. Maybe meet at the Tea Room?”

“Oh, Presley, I would love to, but I can’t. I was a bad girl and last night when I was supposed to be organizing the invitations to the upcoming charity luncheon at the aquarium I decided I deserved to relax, so I opened a bottle of wine and settled in with a good book. Now I’m behind.”

“You spent last night at home?” I asked. I wanted to make sure I had heard right. That Amelia was lying to me. Why? Unless she had something to hide.

Amelia laughed. “I know. I’m naughty, but sometimes a girl just has to enjoy wine and a good book. I had downloaded
Fifty Shades of Grey
for my Kindle and was dying to read it. Have you read it?”

“Uh, no. I haven’t,” I replied, a little thrown off that Amelia would lie to me.

“You definitely should, dear. How about we try and catch up tomorrow afternoon?”

“That sounds good Amelia. I hope you get your invitations done,” I said, then pulled the phone away from my ear and hit the end call button. I sat in my car, my mind replaying the conversation I just had with Amelia. She lied about what she did last night, which could only mean one thing. That she had something to hide. Just like her husband did, but what? Maybe I should call Alan and find out. But then what if he told her he told me he had met with her last night and then she would know I knew she was lying. But at this point, if she was going to lie to me, did it really matter if she found out I knew she was lying?