Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 05 - Gems & Gunshots (3 page)

“This must be the lovely Presley you’ve told me so much about,” the man said, grabbing my hand and kissing it gallantly.

I blushed and smiled. It wasn’t every day that a man kissed my hand or said that Cooper talked about me a lot. It was definitely sweet, and this guy was definitely smooth. I was a romantic but also a skeptic.

Cooper introduced us. “Greg, meet Presley. Presley this is Greg Anderson,”

My eyes widened. Greg Anderson. This was the guy who owned Gemstone’s Unlimited. Cooper gave me a look that I assumed was trying to convey the fact I shouldn’t ask him a bunch of questions about the recent murder at his store. Even I wasn’t that rude. Or stupid. I wasn’t about to ask questions in front of Cooper. I knew I had to be a tad subtler than that. I would wait for my opportunity. It would come, or I would make one.

“Nice to meet you,” Greg said.

“Likewise,” I replied.

“We still on for 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, Cooper?”

“Sure are, Greg.”

“Well, then I won’t take up anymore of your time. Lovely to meet you, Presley. Good luck on your nomination, Cooper.”

“Thanks, Greg,” he said, shaking his hand. As Greg walked away, Cooper said to me, “Good job.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“The fact that I know you were dying to ask him some questions once you found out who he was. I appreciate you not grilling him.”

“Please, Cooper. I have some restraint.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed,” he joked.

I elbowed him in the ribs. He just laughed and grabbed my hand.

“Let’s go find our table.”

When we found our assigned seating, I was happy to see we had the good fortune to be seated next to Greg and his wife. I was sure Cooper didn’t share the same enthusiasm. He was probably worried about me asking a question, that, in his opinion, was inappropriate, but I thought this would be a great way to get to know them.

Conversation over dinner was spent getting acquainted with one another, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I rather enjoyed Greg and his wife, Amelia. They were charming people. I was the supportive girlfriend and proud when Cooper won the award he had been nominated for: best security firm for the year. Cooper wasn’t one to bask in attention and glory, but I could tell he was extremely happy and proud to have won, as he should’ve been. I knew enough about business to know this would help him move forward.

As coffee and dessert were served, I decided I needed to find an opening in the conversation to ask about the situation at Gemstone’s Unlimited, but it had to be subtle and preferably out of Cooper’s earshot.

“I just love tiramisu, don’t you, Presley?” Amelia asked as I was stuffing my face with my portion of dessert.

“You have to ask? Look at how much I’m eating,” I joked. “I’m a fan of any dessert, but this is especially delicious.”

“I agree. I wouldn’t have to make that daily trip to the gym if I didn’t have a weakness for desserts.”

Amelia was all of maybe a size two. I somehow doubted she had to worry too much about eating dessert. I wished that were true for me. I was a solid size eight on a good day, and I had to be careful to not look at fattening food too long, much less eat it, or I go up a size.

Cooper pushed back his chair. “Would you excuse me for a minute, Pres? I see Bob Render over there, and I wanted to speak to him about a few things before he left.”

“Sure. Hey, are you going to eat the rest of your tiramisu?” Yep, I was bad, but this dessert was so darn good.

He patted my shoulder. “Be my guest; eat it. I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Mind if I join you, Cooper?” Greg asked. “I’ve been wanting to meet him.”

“Not at all.”

“You ladies enjoy your coffee and we will be right back,” Greg said smiling.

“We will try to live without you both,” I teased, secretly glad they were leaving as it would give me the perfect chance to ask Amelia about the murder.

A few minutes passed as I tried to think of how to broach the subject, when Amelia sighed, a worried look on her face. “Something wrong, Amelia?”

“It’s just been a long day. One of our businesses had, well, a bit of an issue this morning, to put it mildly. I didn’t think we should come to this event tonight, but Greg insisted. As one of the sponsors, it was our duty. I just can’t help feeling guilty to be enjoying all this extravagance after what happened.”

“What happened?” I said, sounding concerned and trying not to get excited that, without any prodding from me, Amelia had brought up the very topic I wanted to talk about.

She took a sip of her coffee before answering. “One of our stores was robbed today and someone was murdered in the process,” Amelia said in a whisper, leaning closer to me. “It’s just devastating. In all the years we’ve had businesses this has never happened.

“Oh my! It wasn’t Gemstone’s Unlimited by any chance, was it?”

Amelia looked at me funny. “That’s an awfully good guess or do you know something I don’t know?”

“I admit I know a little,” I said sheepishly, hoping she wouldn’t get angry thinking I was poking into her business. “I was sitting at the coffee shop across the street, the Coffee Break, when I heard the gunshots. I know someone was murdered because I saw the medics bringing out a body. Then I got home and found out from Cooper it was one of his clients. He won’t talk to me much about work. Client confidentiality and all, but of course it was in the news.”

“Oh, well, no secrets here. There were two armed men who conned the sales girls into letting them in before hours, saying they had a plane to catch and one of them wanted to buy something for his wife. They said they would make it worth her while. Instead of getting a big sales commission, they killed her for her kindness.” Amelia sniffled and dabbed her eyes with a tissue.

“How do you know that’s how they got in?”

“Security cameras.”

“So the police know what they look like?”

Amelia sighed. “Unfortunately no. The video feed went out on our camera a few days ago. The company who fixes those for us was scheduled to come out tomorrow. So we only got the audio. The police think it might be an inside job; that someone knew the cameras were down.”

“What did they take?”

“Some cash and a few of our higher–end pieces of jewelry. Nothing important. I just can’t stop thinking of poor Nicole. She’s the girl who was killed. She worked for us almost three years and was our top sales girl. For this to happen…I don’t understand why they couldn’t just take what they wanted and leave. Why did they have to kill her?”

I patted Amelia’s hand for reassurance. “It’s not your fault.”

She straightened up and looked over my shoulder. I followed her gaze to see the guys coming back.

“Do me a favor and don’t mention we had this conversation, Presley. Greg didn’t want me to bring it up tonight, and I don’t want to upset him.”

Since I didn’t have a burning desire to have Cooper know we were talking about it either, I quickly agreed. I didn’t get a chance to talk to Amelia alone the rest of the night, which was disappointing, but the evening was fun. I got to meet a lot of people Cooper worked with and it was nice to put faces with names that I had heard over the last few months.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Cooper said as we were driving home from the award’s dinner.

“Too much dessert and wine. I’m sleepy,” I said, smiling at him.

“Did you enjoy yourself?”

“Yes, I did. I enjoyed meeting people you talk about.”

“You look deeper in thought than that. Anything else on your mind?”

“Just thinking.”

“About?”

“How incredibly handsome you look in your suit,” I said, in a flirty tone.

Cooper just looked at me. “Don’t think I don’t love your compliments, but something tells me you’re thinking about more than that.”

“Okay, fine, but you are handsome. In or out of that suit,” I teased. “I was thinking about Greg and Amelia. They seem like nice people.”

“And…”

“Well, Amelia didn’t want me to say anything but she told me a little bit about what happened today at Gemstone’s Unlimited.”

“Presley, I told you…”

“What a minute; I didn’t bring it up. She did.”

He gave me a look that signaled he didn’t really believe me.

“I promise. She brought it up and told me the police thought it might be an inside job because the security cameras were broken and that maybe someone knew that. She then told me not to mention she was talking about it so as to not annoy Greg. So, please don’t tell him.”

“I won’t, but he’s right. She really shouldn’t be talking about it. The police need to handle it.”

Ignoring him, I continued on. “Amelia said cash and a few pieces of jewelry were taken. Do you think that it was just a robbery gone bad?”

“Personally I think there’s more to this than what meets the eye.”

“And that would be?” I questioned.

“None of your business,” he said with a smile.

“I can’t help but feel bad that someone was killed. How can people do that? Kill someone over a few pieces of jewelry? Amelia felt really bad about it, too.”

“Yeah,” Cooper sighed. “It is a shame to see such a young life taken.”

“Oh, she was young?”

“Early twenties. Sweet girl.”

“You knew her? Personally?” My interest level went up. Cooper didn’t usually refer to other women as sweet. I couldn’t help but feel a little of the green–eyed monster. Cooper was a fantastic guy. I was sure women were always falling all over him.

“I knew her.”

“How?” I pressed.

“That’s not important,” he said in such a way that I knew further discussion was not going to happen. At least not right now.

I was quiet the rest of the ride home just thinking, thinking about what Cooper meant about it being more and wondering how I could get him to tell me his theory. And him not wanting to disclose how he knew the victim just added to my curiosity. Good thing I loved a good puzzle.

Chapter 4

N
o coffee? Are you sick?” Cooper said, motioning to the water glass that was in my hand instead my normal large coffee cup. We were sitting at the breakfast bar in the kitchen, and he was drinking his usual black coffee.

I was waiting for him to leave for work so I could head back to the Coffee Break and talk to Haley. So until that happened I was just sitting there keeping him company and drinking water with lemon, feeling quite proud of myself after having two glasses of water this morning. “No, just trying to cut down.”

He leaned over and felt my forehead like he was checking for a fever, and I swatted his hand away.

“Stop it, you goof. Really. I’ve been getting jittery lately and thought maybe it was a good idea to cut back on the caffeine. I’m going to head to the Coffee Break later to sit out in this beautiful sunshine and get some writing done. So, I’m saving my caffeine for there.”

“Okay, but do me a favor and just focus on your writing,” he said with mock sternness. “Not on sticking your nose into other people’s business—specifically what happened yesterday at Gemstone’s Unlimited.”

“No promises,” I said sweetly.

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Cooper looked at his watch and set his cup down. “I’ve got to run. Should be home about sixish. You want to go out or stay in for dinner?”

“After last night’s event, how about we stay in and have a relaxing evening? I’ll find something to bring home.”

“Sounds good,” he said, kissing me goodbye.

When he left, I got up and gathered my laptop and things to take to the coffee shop. I hoped it wasn’t Haley’s day off. I had forgotten to ask her yesterday if she would be in today, but if nothing else, I could still sit out in the sunshine.

I was in luck. I walked into the Coffee Break after the short drive over, and Haley was behind the counter.

“Presley! Glad to see you again.”

“Me, too. I was hoping you would be here today.”

“I usually am. Want to try the special today? It’s one of my favorites: iced caramel macchiato and an almond biscotti for one low price.”

“Sounds perfect.”

As Haley was fixing my drink, she asked, “So did your boyfriend say anything to you about what we saw yesterday?”

“Besides ordering me to keep my nose out of other peoples business? No not much.”

“Are you?”

“What?”

“Going to keep your nose out of it?” she teased.

“Probably not. I’m a curious gal. What can I say?”

“Good, because I have some news you might be interested in then.”

“Really? What?”

She handed me my drink and biscotti. “Take this and sit down. I’ll come over in a few minutes. Let me take care of the person behind you.”

The ten minutes it took for Haley to finish making the customer’s drink and walk over seemed to last forever. I kept hoping no one else would come in for a while so she wasn’t interrupted, which made me feel a little guilty, because I didn’t want the business to not have customers. I just hated waiting.

She slid into the seat across from me. “So, last night I talked to Jill, you know, my cousin I told you about who works across the street?”

“Yeah. Did she hear something?” I asked excitedly.

“I guess the cops called everyone who works there in for questioning, even the people who weren’t there at the time of the robbery and murder. Jill said the owners were really going at it in the office and she overheard the owner’s wife, Ann or Annie, something like that…”

“Amelia,” I Interrupted. Haley looked surprised that I knew this information but continued her story.

“Amelia then. She said Amelia was making accusations at her husband. Accusations of infidelity and hanging around with the wrong element. Whatever that means. Basically saying it was his fault. That he brought the troubles to the business.”

“Did Jill say if Greg was having an affair?” I asked.

Haley held up her hand to stop me. “I’ll answer that in a second, but first how do you know their names?”

“They’re clients of Cooper’s, my boyfriend.”

Haley shook her head as if to clear it. “Now that’s quite a coincidence, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is. I was shocked when he told me, though I don’t know why. He seems to always know everyone. He even knew the victim, but he wouldn’t tell me how. Anyway, go on.”