Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 05 - Gems & Gunshots (9 page)

“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Neither do you. You need to stay out of my business,” he said. I could see his hands clenching. He was one of those guys who probably wanted to seem in control at all times, but I could see under the surface he wasn’t all Mr. Calm Cool and Collected.

“I know what I saw, Greg. It was right there in black and white.” I was starting to get angry. It wasn’t like I had fabricated this in my own mind; there was proof and Amelia had dragged me into it. Now I was starting to regret being a willing participant. Sometimes even I regretted my nosiness.”

“No, you don’t. Consider yourself warned. Stay away from me, stay away from my wife, and stay out of my business.”

“Greg, I will gladly stay away from you, but Amelia is her own woman and she can make her own decisions.”

There was only so far I was going to let him push me. I liked Amelia and wasn’t going to let him scare me away from what was turning into a potential friendship.

“I mean it, Presley. And if you know what’s good for you, I wouldn’t mention this little chat we had to Cooper.”

“Is that a threat?” I said, now completely pissed. Who the hell did he think he was coming over to my house—well, Cooper’s house—and threatening me? “If you’ve done nothing wrong then why is this such a big deal?”

“Consider it good advice. Remember what I said. Goodbye, Presley.”

As the door closed behind him, I just stood in the living room with my hands on my hips, angry, wondering what the hell had just happened. If I hadn’t thought Greg was involved in something before, I surely did now. His actions weren’t those of someone who had nothing to hide. And if he thought his warning was going to scare me off, he was sorely mistaken. It had made me even more interested in finding out just what exactly was going on.

Chapter 13

W
hat do you mean you didn’t tell Cooper?” Haley questioned me, giving me the impression she thought Cooper was the first person I should have told. And she wasn’t exactly wrong, but I knew what his reaction would be, so I hadn’t yet.

I shrugged. “I will eventually. He just came home in a really bad mood and I didn’t want to make it worse. Besides, it would be more ammunition to support my staying out of business that isn’t mine, as he puts it, and I don’t want to have that conversation again. I’m not afraid of Greg. I think he’s more bluster than anything.”

“Presley, he came to your house knowing Cooper wasn’t there. That doesn’t scare you even a little?” Haley had finished with her shift early and had stopped over for some of my—now famous, in my mind—mojitos. I had made them the last few nights and was getting really good at it. It was quickly becoming a good replacement for my nightly wine.

“I guess it does a little, but not much. After all, he is one of Cooper’s clients. Greg wouldn’t be that big of an idiot to think he could get away with doing any harm to me. I’m more concerned as to what he’s hiding, for Amelia’s sake and Cooper’s. Especially Amelia. I felt bad for her. I know Greg is up to something. He wouldn’t have made the effort to come over to the house if he wasn’t nervous about me having information he deems a problem— and that’s what I want to find out.”

“How do you plan on doing that?” Haley asked, taking a sip of her drink.

“I’m not sure,” I mused. “I haven’t heard from Amelia. I’m just hoping she’s not mad at me. If Greg made the effort to come over here to threaten me, I can’t imagine how things are at home. I figured I would wait to hear from her.“

“Maybe Alan would know. About the woman angle, I mean.”

I turned to Haley. “That’s genius! Why didn’t I think of that? But how do I bring it up? It’s not like I can just call him and admit I was at the funeral to get information and didn’t get enough so how about talking to me some more.”

“That, my friend, is the million dollar question. But let’s think about this. How could it work? Do you even have his phone number?”

I shook my head. “No, but information like that isn’t hard to find.”

“Then why don’t you just call him? Maybe just be honest with why you want to talk to him,” Haley said.

“Hmm, maybe you’re right. Speaking of phone calls, has Robert tried to contact you anymore?”

“Yes,” Haley frowned. “I’ll never understand men. I’ve ignored him but every day I get at least one text asking why I won’t talk to him. It’s just weird.”

Chapter 14

P
resley. So good to hear your voice.”

She didn’t sound angry, so this was a good start. “Hi, Amelia. I’m so glad you called. What have you been up to?” I said holding the phone to my ear with my shoulder so I had my hands free to close the latch on my purse.

“I have so much to tell you. I know it’s short notice, but I was hoping you could meet me later.”

“Sure. Where?” I sat down on the stool in the kitchen and reached for the notepad and pen Cooper kept on the counter in case I needed to write something down.

“Down at the wharf there’s a place called Smitty’s. It looks like a dive, but it’s really a fun little lunch place. Meet me at two?”

I looked at my watch. It was already twelve thirty and I still needed to shower and then find my way there. “How about two thirty?”

“Sounds good. I look forward to it.”

“Me, too. See you in a bit.” I hung up and put my phone down, a little surprised that she seemed in such a good mood. But I was very interested in having lunch and seeing what had been going on with her in the last twenty–four hours. Had it really only been that long since she’d been here? It seemed like a week, so much had happened. I looked at my watch. I needed to get moving. But even though I was on vacation, the girls at the boutique had still been emailing questions and keeping me in the loop with everything that was going on and I needed to respond. I didn’t mind. It felt good to be missed and I just looked at the questions as job security. Not that I had any worries that James, the owner, would try and replace me. I also noticed, looking at my watch, that I was missing one of the crystals that surrounded the face. I wondered if it was fixable or if it was going to give me a great excuse to buy a new watch.

I became engrossed in email and time flew. Next time I looked at my watch it was almost one fifteen, which meant I had to really hurry. Forty–five minutes later I was walking out the door. I had decided to wear my hair back in a French twist so I didn’t have to take time drying it. To go with this more elegant updo I chose a soft pink baby doll dress and cream–colored sandals. It allowed me to wear one of the new pieces of acrylic jewelry I had bought in the shop that Amelia had told me about last time, and I couldn’t wait to show her.

I pulled in to Smitty’s just a few minutes late. Not bad, considering I made a wrong turn and it took me forever to double back because of construction. As I was walking up to the restaurant, I heard someone call my name. I turned toward the patio seating and it was Amelia waving in my direction.

“Come around here through the gate, Presley. That way you don’t have to go all the way around the front and walk through the restaurant.”

I saw where she was pointing and followed her instructions. The patio area was a large rectangle shaded partly by a big awning and partly umbrellas for the tables closer to the edge. It was so amazing to be able to eat outside almost every single meal thanks to the weather here. I could so get used to this. When I got to the table, the waiter was there taking Amelia’s drink order.

“I’m having a raspberry martini. They’re delicious here,” Amelia said.

“I’ll have the same then,” I said to the waiter, sitting down across for Amelia.

“Okay, ladies, I’ll have these right out and give you a few minutes to look over the menu.”

“Amelia, I’m so glad you called.” I had decided on the way over I was just going to clear the air right away so I didn’t have to keep wondering what she might or might not be thinking. “I wasn’t sure if you were mad at me and I didn’t want to bother you.”

“Why on earth would I be mad at you? I feel bad for not calling you since I’m the one who got you involved in my sordid issues. It’s just been hectic with some charity stuff that got sprung on me at the last minute. The downside of being efficient I guess,” she said smiling.

“Well, I just thought after all that stuff that we found out about Greg… I know Cooper wasn’t very happy with me. You know how things get misconstrued and escalate into giant proportions not worthy of the issue in the first place.”

“Oh, heavens no. That’s one of the reasons I called you. I wanted to share the good news with you and tell you how silly I was being for bringing up the notion that Greg was doing something underhanded.”

“Well, don’t keep me in suspense,” I said, as the waiter came up and set our drinks on the table quietly and motioned he would give us a couple more minutes to look at the menu, since he could tell we hadn’t even opened our menus to look at anything yet.

Amelia set down her martini after taking a drink. “I confronted Greg. I went home that day and I was so angry I just waited for him to come home and I blurted it all out and demanded answers. He told me the whole story.”

I dropped my mouth open in surprise. “Really? He told you why he committed insurance fraud?”

“That’s the thing. He didn’t commit fraud. Those diamonds were really stolen. He just hadn’t told me because he didn’t want me to worry. Not what he should have done, and believe me, I set him straight on that matter, but his intentions were sweet. He said I had enough on my plate.”

“Then what about the money? Where did it go?”

“He said he just signed the checks right over to the distributor where he was getting replacement diamonds from. He told me that was the easiest way to get the diamonds back into stock. He didn’t want to wait for the checks to clear our bank and then wait for a transfer into the vendors account. That could have taken weeks.”

“Is that a usual practice?” I couldn’t help but to think the story sounded far–fetched.

“Presley, you seem like you don’t want his story to be the truth,” Amelia said waving away the waiter who had come back to try and take our order.

“It’s not that. It just seems, I don’t know, too easy,” I said honestly.

“Presley, I appreciate your concern, but I know my husband. He wasn’t lying to me. He just made some bad decisions because of good intentions. We’ve all done that. What’s that saying? The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

“I understand, Amelia. I guess I’m just surprised, but it’s not like I know anything about the jewelry business,” I said, although I didn’t understand. With everything else going on, why would Greg be hiding only this from her to protect her? If that was truly the case, why did he come to my house and tell me to stay away from Amelia? Something didn’t sit right with me about this.

“Let’s order,” Amelia said, picking up her menu and seemingly done with the topic. “The salmon salad here is divine.”

Chapter 15

T
hanks for meeting me, Alan.”

“I’m always up for meeting a pretty lady for a drink.” He winked at me.

I had gotten up the courage to call Alan to meet me for coffee, easily finding his phone number on the Internet, but I hadn’t exactly said it was to talk about his sister. I hoped he didn’t think I was interested in him that way. I hated being put in the position where I had to let someone down. I thought I better just get right down to business so I didn’t give him any wrong ideas. “Listen, Alan. There’s a reason I wanted to talk to you and when I ask, it will probably not come out right so I apologize in advance if I offend you.”

“Ooh, sounds mysterious. Please, ask away,” he said, still smiling at me.

“What do you know about your sister dating her boss at Gemstone’s Unlimited?”

“What?” He looked totally shocked, the flirtatious smile slipping from his face. I could tell this was not at all what he was expecting.

“I’m sorry, Alan. I didn’t know how to sugarcoat it, and I know this is bad timing and I don’t mean to be insensitive but…”

“Hold up a minute.” He interrupted me, holding his hand up to stop my babble. “Even if my sister were dating her boss, and she wasn’t, what’s it to you?” He sounded pissed off. Not that I blamed him. I would, be, too, in his situation. Here I was, a girl he barely knew, saying these things about his sister who had just been murdered.

I took a deep breath. “I’m trying to find out who killed your sister. Don’t you want that?”

“But why? What’s it to you?” he said, still angry. “You haven’t even told me how you knew my sister.”

I had been hoping he would forget that little fact. No such luck I guess.

“I guess technically it’s nothing to me, but I’m a curious person and the police aren’t making any progress, are they?” I had overheard Cooper on the phone to one of his guys, frustrated by the police’s lack of progress on his client’s behalf, and I could only assume Alan would be frustrated as well. I had tried to get more information from Cooper about Nicole’s murder, but once again, he wasn’t forthcoming and had simply said the police were working on it.

“Well, no,” he said, all the anger melting away to sadness and he appeared very deflated. “What makes you think Nicole was dating her boss though? She had a boyfriend. And what would that have to do with her murder? Is her boss a suspect?”

“No, he’s not a suspect, at least not to my knowledge, and I don’t know for sure that there was a dating relationship there. I was just told that was the case, but at this point its just gossip. Frankly, I was hoping you would be able to confirm it for me.”

Alan shook his head. “Sorry. The only guy she was dating was her boyfriend Rex, at least that I know of.”

“Had she been dating Rex long? I mean, could she have been dating someone else and you just didn’t know? Greg, her boss, was older. Maybe she didn’t want anyone to know she was dating a man old enough to be her father?” I asked, hopeful Alan might agree that could be the case. I didn’t know why I had such a strong suspicion that Greg’s wandering eye had to do with what took place at Gemstone’s Unlimited, but I did and I couldn’t shake it.