Stilettos & Scoundrels (41 page)

“What do you know about Simon Atkins?”
I
asked bluntly. No reason to draw it out since Tobey seemed to
not want me
there anyway. Tobey seemed taken a little off guard.

“Why?”
What was she up to?

“Because someone is trying to shake Helen down for the money Tom owed. And don’t you think there is something, well, odd about him?” Helen swore
me
to secrecy, but since she said Tobey was the only other one who knew the Senator’s gambling secrets,
I
figure
d
she wouldn’t mind. Besides
, with her attitude earlier, I
didn’t really care if she minded. There was no way
I
could even begin to help her without giving up some of
what she told me
.

“I’ve been thinking that maybe he could be connected to the Senator’s murder. Maybe there is s
omething in his background…” I
trailed off.

Tobey
gave me a
puzzled
look.
At least that was how he hoped he looked.
Why couldn’t she just leave it alone already?
This woman was making his job so much more difficult. What was Helen thinking talking to her? That woman was going to be the death of him. And to think he used to think the Senator was a pain in the ass.

“It depends on what you mean by
‘
odd,
’
Pres. A lot of those security types seem off to me. Carrying guns and knowing fifty ways to kill a man with your bare hands seems like odd behavior to me
.
” Tobey chuckled. It
seemed a little forced, but I
though
t probably because he wanted me
to leave.

“True,” I
nodded. “But I mean odder than just that. There’s just something about him that…I can’t really explain it, it’s more of a feeling. Plus
,
he was a real jerk when I came to interview the Senator. Not wanting to even let me in to see him
for a second.” I
didn’t plan to
share how Simon drove past us
and how it made Helen nervous.
I
thought that might be sharing too much
, so I
tried to be vague
, t
hough it seemed all
I
did was make Tobey think
I
was crazy.

“Presley, I think that’s his job. He’s supposed to be aware of what’s going on and that day he was following
Cooper
’s orders because of some threat or something. I don’t see anything sinister in it,” Tobey chastised.

I
didn’t know what else to say. Tobey didn’t seem to think twice about Simon.
I
was hesitant to bring Bobby up. Even though Helen didn’t
want to give any validity to my thoughts about him, I
thought maybe there was a connection. Even if there wasn’t,
I
just wanted to know. Should
I
ask Tobey and pretend
I
didn’t know he and Bobby were involved?

Before
I
could say anything,
Tobey stood up as if to push me
out the door. “Listen, Pres, it’s been a long day, and I’ve really got to get some sleep. Did you have anything else?”

Sleep, my ass!
He just wanted
me
gone. People didn’t light candles and make dinner, which
I
could smell cooking in the kitchen, right before bed. However,
I
didn’t have the energy to call him on it.

“Ok, but you will let me know if you hear anything
,
won’t you?”

“Sure,” Tobey said
, all but pushing me
out the door.
He closed the door behind her and leaned against it.
What a close call that was.
He looked at his watch. He had just enough time to call Chris.
He wasn’t going to like this at all.

That was a waste of
time,
I
thought
, sitting in my
car. Well,
it was
except
for
getting to see what great taste Tobey had in interior design
,
which made
me
feel bad
about my own efforts
.
My
apartment didn’t look nearly that good. After leaving Tobey’s
apartment,
I
sat in
my
car for
the next
ten minutes trying to decide
my
next step. Tobey didn’t have any useful information about Simon
,
and
I believed he told me
what he knew, which was nothing
.
I
was bummed
I
didn’t get to see who he was expecting
, a
lthough
I
was pretty confident he was waiting on Bobby. Who else would he have over and want to keep such a secret? Unless he was seeing someone else
,
and well
,
that was another issue altogether.
When I was a
bout to give up and go home,
my
cell phone rang. Looking at the display,
I
saw it was
Cooper
. According to the screen, it was the fourth time he
had
called in the last hour.
I
had
left
my
phone in
the
car while at Tobey’s. All these phone calls gave
me
the feeling
that
he knew
I
wasn’t holding to
our
agreement
from last night. However,
I
could always hope he had called so
many times because he missed me and wanted to ask me
out or at least
wanted to kiss me again. My
stomach got a few butterflies with that thought
but
they were
quickly replaced by a feeling of annoyance. Why did he
feel the need to check up on me
?
And damn it, why did I like it?

I
debated whet
her or not to answer it. If I
didn’t, he
would keep calling back, so I might as well answer. Plus, I
really wanted to talk to him,
but he
didn’t
need to know that. I
sighed. Why was life so complicated?

“Hello,”
I
said cautiously, wanting to keep a
ny and all enthusiasm out of my
voice.

“Presley! It’s about damn time you answered your phone,”
Cooper
said.

I listened, rolling my
eyes.
Even though he couldn’t see my response
, i
t made me
feel better. “Presley!”

“I’m here, I’m here. Keep your shorts on.”
Or not,
I
giggled. A thought of
Cooper naked in front of me
was definitely a good vision
and one that made me feel warm and tingly
.

“Where are you and what’s so funny?”
Cooper
demanded.

Delicious thoughts of a naked
Cooper
were quickly pushed aside, replaced
by
thoughts of strangling him.
I
disliked his tone and
didn’t like
feeling
like
he wa
s
monitor
ing
me
.
These back and forth feelings were exhausting.

“What’s it to you?”
Not going to make this easy for him
. At least I
could get
some satisfaction from that. I
could hear him breathe heavily into the phone, as if to calm him
self, before speaking again. I rather liked knowing I
was gett
ing under his skin. At least I
was affecting him in some way. Better than nothing, right?

“King, I’m just concerned.”
Cooper was a lot more concerned than he wanted to be about Presley. This was not the sort of complication he needed right now.

Like
hell.
I
snorted. “Fine, I’m in the parking lot of Tobey Stone’s apartment building. Does that make you happy?” Let him get mad
. Like I
cared.

“What are you doing there?”

“I stopped here on my way home from meeting Helen at Gardner’s warehouse,”
I said and braced my
self for his response.
That was sure to get him going.

“What?” He yelled so loudly
that I
had
to move the phone away from my
ear. “What the hell were you doing there? What were you thinking
?
I thought I told you to leave well enough alone! Do you think meeting Helen in places far away from the beaten path is leaving this alone?” he asked.

I
ignored him.
“What would you say if I told you I saw Bobby Johnson having lunch here in Alkon with Garrison Palazzo?”

“
I would say that’s somewhat hard to believe
, but let’s get back to the Helen issue. Why did you meet her? What did she want?
”

“
Unbelievable huh?
I will have you know that I saw that happen with my own two eyes.”

“What!”

“But you don’t consider my information to be good
,
so I won’t bother you with the details.”

“Fill me in now!” he barked.
“I want to know what Helen had to say and where you saw Garrison Palazzo. How’d you even know it was him? And why were you at Tobey’s? This is not staying out of things.”

“Not with that attitude.
Besides, I don’t know why this surprises you. Did you really think I was going to sit quietly by? You’re not as smart as I thought, Cooper.
”

“Pres…”
h
e warned.

I
was just getting ready to give
Cooper another piece of my
mind when
I
heard him talking to someone in the background. “
Cooper
, who are you talking to?”

“Just a sec
,
Pres.”

It sounded like he was covering the phone with his hand to muffle the sound
of whoever he was with, and I
couldn’t understand
anything he was saying. But I
could tell it was a
woman’s
voice. It was definitely a girl
.
Jerk.

“Ok, I’m back. Presley you need to tell me
what you know
.”

“Who are you with
,
Cooper
?”

Cooper
sighed
.
“Lisa Simmons.”

“What! You told me not to talk to her. So what are you doing with her
?” I
was pissed. More pissed than I
tho
ught I
should be.

“Listen
,
sh
e just stopped by.”

“I’m going to let you go.”

“Wait, Presley!
Y
ou need to listen to me
,
and if I think you shouldn’t be involved
,
promise me you will back off
?
”

“Maybe.”

Cooper figured this was as good as he was going to get from her, so decided to drop it. For now.
“Now, answer my questions. Please?”

“I saw
Garrison
out at the new strip mall, eating Chinese food.”

“And…”

“Not much happened. They ate, they talked. Bobby came out and Garrison Palazzo left. I asked Bobby about it
,
and he wouldn’t tell me much
,
but I think he was hiding something.”

“What gave you that impression?”

“He said that he had to help that Palazzo guy because he owed him. He wouldn’t tell me exactly what he was doing for him
,
but he acted nervous
,
and I just think there is something going on there.
Bobby got in trouble gambling, so who knows what else he is into.
”