Stilettos & Scoundrels (53 page)

The next set of windows
showed a view into
the Senator’s study. It was one of those masculine
-
looking rooms, with golf paraphernalia and lots of dark wood
, and tons of that yellow crime scene tape and white powder all over the place
. I bet Helen isn’t too happy with this mess.
Next
was
a sitting room, which
I always saw as
a waste of space
. W
ho really used those
rooms
anymore
?
Then
there was
another room that was empty.
Hmm
.
Maybe they sold the furniture from that room to pay the gambling debts
.
I laughed to my
self. This was getting boring
,
and
my
heels kept sinking in
to
the flowerbed
’s
dirt.
I was probably ruining my shoes. I guessed I
wouldn’t make a good private investigator if it
required
a lot of this tedious
stuff.
Thank goodness, I
only had one more window to go.

Stepping around the corner of t
he house, having almost made my
way completely around,
I was stopped by the police tape, but I
could hear voices.
Guess it’s a good thing I didn’t give up too early.
I
took the chance to pe
ek in the window because I couldn’t really make out what I was hearing. I could tell one was Helen and I
thought the other was
Tobey, and then, of course, I heard Cooper. Poking my head up far enough to see, I
confirmed
I was right
.
I didn’t see Chris, so Tobey must have been using Chris’ car. They were all arguing, but I
couldn’t really make out what they were saying
. The thick window glass muffled the sound too well
. Based on body language alone
though
,
I could tell that both Tobey and Cooper
seemed to be mad at
Helen
.
What for?
I tried leaning in a little closer to listen.

“Helen, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me exactly who Tom was in debt to,” Cooper said exasperatedly.

“Helen,” Tobey implored. “Listen to Cooper. He’s right you know.”

“I’ve told you a hundred times. You can’t help me. I’m not taking any risks. I just want this to be done with and the only way to do that is to pay them off. To do what they want.”

I still couldn’t hear what was being said, but I could tell that Cooper wasn’t happy. Neither was Tobey.

“Helen, there is no guarantee that when you do pay them off they will leave you alone. You’re just asking for trouble by not letting me or the police help you. Not to mention that when the police find out, and you’re a fool if you think they won’t find out, you could be in a lot of trouble,” Cooper said.

“At least tell Cooper what Simon told you. That man is hiding something,” Tobey said.

“Please, Tobey. Simon is harmless,” Helen said dismissively.

“What about Simon, Helen. Is he involved?” Cooper asked.

“I told you Cooper, Simon isn’t a problem.”

As Helen started to continue, My
foot slipped on the mulch and,
thunk
, my head hit the window and I fell to the ground. I
could hear noise
s above me
and could only assume they were running to the window to see what
had made the noise. I
thought it prudent to high
tail
it out of there.

I
ran down t
he length of the house until I
felt it was safe to cut across the lawn and back down t
he driveway. All of a sudden I
heard, in heavily accented English, “Hey you! Stop! You’re on private property!”
Shit!
I
forgot about all the people in the kitchen
,
which of
course happened to be where I
chose
to cut across the lawn. I
ran
even
faster
,
which
still
wasn
’t very fast in these heels. I
sure as hell wasn’t going to stop. The voice kept yelling after
me
, but
they
sounded
further and further away, so I
assumed he wasn’t running after
me
. Good thing
, since I
was out of shape a
nd running slower each step. I
should be fine as long as no one recognized
me, and I
had no reason to think
that
any of the house s
taff would have any idea who I
was.

How far away was the damn car
?
I
t seemed to be taking
me
forever
to reach it
. Then
my heel caught
in a hole and
I
went sprawling.
Umph!
Ow!
That hurt.
I
wanted to lay there and wait for the pain to go away, but
I
could
still
hear voices. Someone was coming to check out the intruder.
I picked my
self up and began running to
the
car again.

I deserve a margarita after this
, I said to myself, as I
noti
ced there was a big hole in my pants. My
favorite pair of black
Ann Taylor trousers, ruined. I took my
shoes off so they wouldn’t get any more ruined from running across the
lawn and in the mulch. Maybe I
should write Steve Madden and tell him his shoes were not made to withstand cross-country running.
In the back of my mind, I knew I should be more worried about what Cooper was going to say to, or rather yell at, me when he got back to the car. It was obvious I hadn’t stayed in the car.

Finally, I
saw
the car. I
swore to God
that
it was farther away th
a
n where
we had left it. I
jumped in huffing
,
puffing
,
and hoping no one was following me. I laid back in my seat, turned my head to the left, and noticed the keys were still in the ignition. Cooper must have left them in case I wanted to listen to the radio or something. I thought for a minute. No, I couldn’t.
He would kill me
.
But he was going to kill me anyway for not staying in the car, once he got back. So what did I have to lose? He would get over it. I slid across the seat into the driver’s side, turned the key,
gunned the engine, and took off, shooting dirt and gravel everywhere.
The
tires caught the blacktop with a screech
—
Dukes of Haz
z
ard
,
watch out
—and I
took off down the road.

It took a few miles before I
w
as sure no one was following me and my
breathing returned to nor
mal. All that excitement and I
didn’t really have anything to show for it.

My
heart rate was finally starting to slow
, and I was feeling back to normal. I
was ready to turn back onto Main Street when
,
in my side view mirror, I
saw a black Hummer behind
me
,
the
full
-
size
d one
, not the H2.
It was definitely not
the typical car
for this are
a
,
so it
piqued my
interest.

I
looked in my rearview mirror and was startled to see that the Hummer’s driver had sped up and was closing the distance between his car and mine. “That bastard is right up my ass.” I could not see through the SUV’s tinted glass to identify the driver. “What the fuck?” I muttered as I accelerated, only to witness the larger vehicle gain speed behind me. I flipped off the annoying driver, my middle finger thrust angrily out my window. I was slightly regretful for showing road rage, but after the experience I just had, my patience was gone.
Jackass should know better than to tailgate someone. That’s how accidents happened.

The Hummer was still
tailgating dangerously close behind, and I
began to think
that
maybe flipping him off
hadn
’t
been
the be
st course of action to take. I
got the distinct impression
that
this wasn’t a random
event
. The person in that car was definitely following
me. I
turned left on Autumn Street to see if the Hummer followed
me, and it did. As soon as I looked back to the road, I realized my
mistake
:
Autumn Street was
a dead end. What should I
do now? Years ago, there was a cut
-
through at the end of Autumn Street to the next street over. At one time, there had been a house
on the lot,
but the house was torn down long ago and what
had been
two driveways coming in for each side
of the house had created
a semi-passable cut
-through. I
figured it was worth the chance.

I
made a hard right and floored it.
This shit is bumpy
, I thought as my
head hit the
car’s
ceiling a few times. The
Hummer hadn’t been expecting me
to turn so sharply and took a second to follow
me. This gave me
a slight advantage, but one that wouldn’t last long since the Hummer was far better equipped to go off-road than
Cooper’s SUV. I
just prayed there wasn’t any
thing in this tall grass for me
to run over. The last thing I
needed was a flat tire. After one final bump
that
almost
sent me airborne, I
was
through to the other street. I gunned it so I
could make it through the light at the end of the street. She made it, but the Hummer stopped
; the driver
must have decided
they wouldn’t lose me
and didn’t want to
break the law to run that light
.

I
needed to put some distance between
us
, but didn’t want to go home and
have them follow me there. I decided to go to Brian’s. I figured he owed me
anyway and his place
wasn’t that far away. Plus, I
could p
ull into his garage and hide the
car.

I
turned down another side street, taking an indirect way to Brian’s in case the Hummer caught back up to
me
. Pu
lling into Brian’s driveway, I
kept going right into the shop. Brian looked up from the engine he was working on, startled. He walked over to
me
, wiping his hands on a rag.

“What the hell, Pres? Why are you pulling into the garage? I’m trying to work here.”

“Shut up
, Brian, and shut the door!” I
jumped out of the car and look
ed toward the road to see if I
could get a glimpse of the black
Hummer. I
didn’t see anythi
ng as Brian closed the door. I
was probably safe.
Whew!
I leaned against the car as my knees felt weak. I
wasn’t used to being chased through town and began to realize this
investigation might be more dangerous than I
originally thought. Maybe
Cooper
was right.

“Presley, tell me what the hell is going on! You barge in here, scream at me to shut the door, and you are trembling and are as white as a sheet!” Brian said.

“A black Hummer tried to run me off the road. Luckily, they got stopped at a red light
,
and I was able to lose them, I think. This was the closest place I could think of to hide myself and
the
car. Besides, you owe me. Is Barbara here?”