Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 05 - Gems & Gunshots (13 page)

But who the heck was the Corvette dude, and what did he have to do with all this? So many buts. I rested my head against the steering wheel, hoping the solution would come to me. Screw it. I was calling Alan. I would just feel him out and see what resulted. Staring at the sign in front of me that said no loitering, and hoping that sitting in my car now for over forty–five minutes wouldn’t count, I dialed Alan’s work number.”

“Monroe Insurance Services, Alan speaking. How may I help you?”

“Hi, Alan. It’s Presley.”

“Oh hey, Presley. What’s up?”

I want to know what the hell you are doing with your dead sister’s lover’s wife is what! “Not much. I was hoping you might be free to chat for a few?”

“Sure. I was just about to leave to go to an appointment, but if you’re close to here, drive over and we can grab a cup of coffee at the Starbucks on the first floor of the building. I’ve got some time before I have to be there and it’s too nice of a day to stay cooped up in here.” I could tell he was smiling into the phone. He did seem like a decent guy.

“Okay. Give me fifteen.”

“Sounds good. I’ll meet you on the first floor.”

I hung up and started the car. Setting my phone in the cup holder, I pulled out of the parking lot and merged into traffic. It was before lunchtime so the roads weren’t busy, and I arrived with five minutes to spare. I parallel parked in an open spot right I front of the building. I was lucky, not only that the spot was open but also that there were actually two opens spots so I was able to pull right in. I was not the best parallel parker and would have been afraid to attempt it with Cooper’s beemer. I fed the meter and walked into the building noticing that I was parked right behind a red Corvette.

Funny, once an object is brought to your attention you tend to see that same object over and over, even though you hadn’t really noticed it before. I started walking toward the door and stopped. Wait a second. Hadn’t the plate on the red Corvette from last night started with a BA? I spun around and retraced my steps back to the front of my car and looked at the Corvette’s plate. It started with a BA. Now really, what were the odds? Maybe all vette’s started with BA in California. Haley had written the plate number down, so I started riffling through my purse for the pad of paper she wrote it on. Ah–ha, here it is, I thought, as my fingers felt it and pulled it out. I opened it up and read the letters and numbers. BAQ — 439. I looked up to the license plate for the Corvette parked in front of me: BAQ — 439. Holy crap. This was the same car.

“Hey, Presley!” I looked up and saw it was Alan calling me. He was standing in front of the door with another guy. He waved at me to come join him and since it would be hard to explain why I was staring at the license plate of the Corvette, I walked up to join him.

“Good timing, Presley. My friend Nate stopped in to see me and I was just walking him out so that I could meet you.”

“Yeah, good timing.”

“Nate, meet Presley. Presley, meet Nate. Nate and I went to prep school together.”

“Hi, Nate,” I said, holding out my hand.

He shook my hand and said, “You like Corvettes?”

“Of course. Who doesn’t? Why?”

“I just saw you staring at mine over there,” he said, pointing to the red Corvette, which I now knew was the one belonging to the man Amelia had met last night—which had to be this man. Oh my. “She’s is a beauty.”

“Yes, she is quite a beauty,” I said with mustered enthusiasm. I had never been a car fanatic even under normal circumstances.

“See, Alan. I told you the Vette was a chick magnet,” he said leering at me. “Any time you want to go for a ride, baby. You just call me up. Alan will give you my number.”

Ewwww. I tried not to shudder. I looked over at Alan, and to his credit, he looked a little embarrassed.

“Thanks for stopping by, Nate. I’ll call you later and we’ll have that beer,” Alan said with forced joviality. It made it seem like they weren’t as good friends as he’d implied, or maybe Alan was just embarrassed by Nate’s chauvinistic behavior. In either case, I needed to find out more about this Nate guy. Was that how Amelia knew him? Because of Alan? That still didn’t explain how she knew Alan, but it was one step closer to explaining the triangle of relationships.

“Sorry about Nate,” he said to me as Nate walked away. “He really is a good guy at heart; he’s just a little rough around the edges.”

“That’s okay. Some people are just like that. So, how did you say you knew him?”

“I’ll tell you as we walk over to Starbucks, so follow me. Nate and I went to the same prep school for high school and played on the hockey team. We met during freshman hockey try–outs and have been friends ever since. Like I said before, he’s a bit rough and sometimes comes across as crass, but he’s really a good guy. You know, one of those friends you might not talk to for a while but then if you need something, he’s there?”

“I know exactly what you mean. That’s a good friend to have.” We got to the Starbucks and walked in.

“Which is why I’m used to him,” Alan chuckled.

“What can I get you, Presley?”

“Venti skinny vanilla latte, please.”

Alan gave the barista our orders and told me to grab a table. I of course gravitated to the ones outside. I was already halfway through my two–week vacation and I didn’t want to miss a minute of this great weather. Going back to Chicago weather would not be the same. Just a few minutes later Alan came walking out to me and sat down with our drinks. We took a few minutes to enjoy the outdoors, at least that’s what I was doing, and then Alan finally broke the silence.

“So what did you want to talk to me about? Not that you need an excuse,” he said, smiling.

Now came the uncomfortable part. How much should I tell him? I didn’t, of course, want him to know I followed him and Amelia, but I sure wanted to find out how he knew her, especially after meeting his friend Nate. How could I even bring this up in a natural way? He was probably going to find it odd, no matter what I did, so I might as well just come right out and ask. “Alan, this might seem to be an odd question, but do you know Amelia Anderson?”

He looked at me for a minute with a puzzled look on his face. “She’s one of the owners of Gemstone’s Unlimited, isn’t she?”

“Yes. She and her husband Greg,” I replied and then stayed silent. One of those HR tricks I had. When things are quiet, people feel compelled to talk. If I were the one staying silent, he would probably continue talking, and I wanted to hear what he had to say.

“I believe she sent a condolences flower arrangement to Nicole’s funeral, but I don’t know her personally,” he said casually.

Okay, so now I had two liars on my hands. What should I say next? Should I confront him and let him know I knew he was a liar? Or should I wait? If I waited what was I waiting for? What the hell? I needed to get to the bottom of this. “Are you sure you don’t know her?” I pressed.

“No. Why?” he said again, but this time he looked uncomfortable.

I sighed. “Alan, I saw you with her last night. You were at this bar/restaurant over on Fifth Avenue. I was there eating and I saw you come in.” I saw several emotions flit across his face. Disbelief, anger, wariness. I wondered how he would act now that he knew I knew he was lying.

“Were you following me?” he said indignantly, which I found interesting because it didn’t seem like the normal reaction someone would have.

Okay, now I knew. He was going to try and diffuse the situation by acting mad and put out. Well, that was a start. “Oh Alan, don’t be silly. I wasn’t following you. I just happened to be at the same place at the same time you were. It was a coincidence, that’s all.”

“Then why the big deal with you calling and wanting to talk to me and all? Why didn’t you just ask me on the phone?” he said, still with an attitude, which just made him look like he had something to hide.

Now, I was getting annoyed. Partly because he was right, it was a big deal. I just didn’t want him to know it. “Because I thought it would be nice to grab a cup of coffee or something. Just to see you. I didn’t realize that this would be such a big deal,” I said kind of throwing it back in his face. Take that, Alan.

“I’m sorry,” he said not as blustery. “You just caught me off guard.”

“Why did you lie about knowing her?”

“I don’t know. I guess it seems kind of weird that we would be sort of friends after, you know, what happened to my sister in her store. I didn’t want you to judge.”

I couldn’t tell if he was being sincere or just telling another lie, but it seemed plausible. “How did you meet her?”

“She reached out to the family after all that had happened and asked if she could meet us and offer her condolences. I was the elected family member to go. My parents didn’t want to. They don’t blame her, but they are still pretty upset and not talking to people.”

Again plausible, but it didn’t make complete sense. If that was how she and Alan knew each other, then what about Nate? Amelia knowing Nate on a completely unrelated note would be way too much of a coincidence, wouldn’t it? Unless she met Nate like I did, but then why would she have headed to his house and given him something if she didn’t actually know him?

Chapter 21

I
heard Cooper’s car in the driveway. I had been anxiously waiting, ever since I had arrived home from coffee with Alan. I was somewhat apprehensive about his reaction once I came clean. This time I didn’t even try to pretend I could soften him up or distract him with homemade mojitos or anything else he liked. He was definitely going to be mad that I was still snooping, as he liked to call it, but I hoped once he heard my information he would get over it and focus on the information rather than the method by which it was obtained.

I heard the door open and shut and soon after, Cooper walked into the kitchen where I was sitting at the bar having a snack of pretzels and a glass of wine. I had finished the last of the mojitos yesterday and had been too lazy to make any more. Opening a bottle of wine was much easier.

“Hi, sexy man,” I said to him in a teasing voice, although he sure was a sexy man to me.

He raised his eyebrows at my comment. “Why, thank you, sweetheart. Now, what do you want?”

“Why is it every time I say or do something nice for you the first words out of your mouth are asking me what I want?” I asked indignantly.

“Because nine out of tens times you do or say something nice because you do want something. I can’t help it if I’m trained.”

“You’re such a jerk. It is not nine out of ten times. Maybe six out of ten. Seven at most.” I laughed because he was right. I took another sip of my wine and just stared at him. Again he raised his eyebrows at me and walked to the fridge and grabbed a cold beer. “Something tells me I’m going to want a drink for whatever it is you are planning to tell me.“

Turning around he leaned against the fridge and again asked me, “What do you want?”

“Well, it’s not what I want, per se, but rather more like what I did and what I need to tell you,” I said, wincing a little knowing what his reaction would be.

“Presley. What did you do?!”

“Just hear me out, before you get angry.”

Cooper hung his head. “I hate it when you start out like that because I know whatever it is you have to tell me, I’m not going to like.”

“Would you stop giving me a hard time and listen for a minute?” I said, exasperated.

“Okay, okay.” He held up his hands in surrender and pulled up a seat. “Shoot.”

Now, where to start? “I admit I was curious about this whole robbery murder incident at Gemstone’s Unlimited and just wanted to find out more about Nicole. You know, to see if anything obvious popped up.” I was looking at Cooper and could tell he desperately wanted to say something but was trying to restrain himself, so I took a deep breath and continued. “I went to the funeral home…”

“You what?!” Cooper exclaimed. Apparently, this was such a shock to him that he wasn’t able to stay silent.

“To meet Nicole’s family and to see if there was anything I could learn about her that would shed any light on what happened.” I continued as if he hadn’t interrupted me. “I didn’t really find out anything, but I did have a chance to meet her brother, Alan. We got to talking, and one thing led to another and he told me that Nicole worked at Steven’s Dental before she became a saleswoman at the jewelry store.”

“You do know the police are investigating this?” he said somewhat sarcastically.

I ignored him. “I went to the dentist’s office and asked a few questions and found out that Nicole’s main goal in life was to find a sugar daddy, according to the girls who worked there anyways.” I paused for a second to let that sink in and to take another drink of my wine. When Cooper didn’t comment again, I went on. “Coincidentally, Greg Anderson is a patient at Stevens Dental.” I was sort of disappointed when I didn’t get a reaction from that one, but there was a chance Cooper already knew the story. “Here’s where it gets interesting,” I said, leaning closer to him.

“I can hardly wait,” he said dryly.

I punched him lightly in the arm. “Be nice. Nicole’s family owns the insurance company that wrote the policy on Greg’s stolen diamonds.” Cooper sat up a little straighter in his chair. Finally, I had his attention. Good, since now I was going to tell him about seeing Amelia. “Last night I found out where Greg was going to be having dinner and I drove over there and sat outside and waited for him.”

“Why on earth would you do that?”

“Because he’s a womanizing jerk and I wanted to prove it to Amelia.

“This just keeps getting better,” he said putting his fingertips to his forehead.

“I thought I was doing something good for someone, but now I’m not sure it even matters. After catching Greg, Haley and I…”

“You took Haley with you,” he said incredulously.

“I wasn’t going to go by myself and I don’t know anyone else out here,” I retorted. “After catching Greg,” I repeated, “we went to eat at some bar on Fifth that has great burgers. We were there minding our own business, when in walks Amelia.” I paused for effect. “And Alan, Nicole’s brother, was with her.”