Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 06 - Tiaras & Texans (5 page)

Chapter 7

C
ooper hung up the phone and came into the bathroom, where I was blow-drying my hair. “Turn off the dryer. I need to talk.”

“Can’t this wait? You know I only have a small window of time before my hair dries too fast naturally to round brush it,” I said, only partly joking.  The humidity here wasn’t helping, so waiting a few more minutes wouldn’t make it any worse.

“Do you think I would interrupt your beauty regimen if it wasn’t important?”

He had a point. I set the dryer and brush down to give him my full attention, smiling to let him know I was willing to cut him some slack for interrupting. “Okay, what’s going on?”

“You know how the preliminary results said Hollie was poisoned by some type of plant or flower? Well, that was Detective Miller on the phone, and we have more information now. The poison came from a tassel flower. There are about ninety different species that grow mostly in Asia and Africa, but are grown here in the US as well. It’s not a common flower but not impossible to get a hold of either.”

“So, what was someone here doing with a flower that grows better on other continents, and why would they go to the trouble of extracting the juice or whatever you call it to poison someone? I’m assuming that’s how it’s done, unless they put it in Hollie’s salad disguised as fancy lettuce. Wouldn’t it be easier to get arsenic or something?”

“Yes it would. That’s why this is great news for us. It significantly narrows down the places from which the poison could have been retrieved or who could have had access. In fact, I’m heading over to the biggest greenhouse here in the Dallas area right now to ask them where someone could get their hands on tassel flower extract.”

I held out my cheek for him to kiss me goodbye. “Okay, well, I have that meeting with Janine and Marissa at nine, so I guess I will catch up with you later and we can compare notes.”

“All right. Bye,” he said, grabbing his jacket and letting the door close behind him.

I finished drying my hair and doing my makeup. I felt extra pressure here to look as good as I could, being around all these beauties. It didn’t help that they were all ten or twelve years younger than me. Today I decided to pair a deep red sheath dress with silver sandals. It was a little bit fancy for the daytime, but in this glamorous setting I didn’t think it would be a problem. I made my way to the meeting room where Linda was waiting for me and with her was a young lady. Another beautiful blonde with green eyes. They were all starting to look alike. Still not sure if her eye color was real, but it looked more realistic than Allie’s violet ones.

“Presley, meet Janine. Janine, Presley from Sands Security. She’s here to help find out who’s behind all that’s been going on lately,” Linda said. “We would appreciate it if you would tell her everything you can.”

“Nice to meet you, Janine,” I said, holding out my hand. She took it, and surprisingly had a firm handshake, and not so surprisingly a beautiful manicure that made me immediately cringe, thinking of the chips in my polish I had noticed this morning.

“Likewise,” Janine replied in a strong Texas drawl. “Linda said ya’ll had some questions for me?”

“Yes, we do.”

“I don’t know how I can help, but I’m sure sad about what happened to Hollie. Poisoning seems such a bad way to go. I want to do anything I can to help find her killer.”

Well, the gossip mill was starting to make the rounds. Just like we had assumed. “What have you heard, Janine?”

“Just that Hollie was poisoned. I tell ya, lots of the other girls are scared to eat. I told one that being scared to eat would just help us fit in our clothes better.”

That was one way to look at it I guess. Janine came across as not being too concerned for her own safety. And it was evident either Allie or Elaine or both couldn’t keep a secret. Though to be fair, it could have been any number of people talking. “I wanted to ask you, Janine, about what happened to you in the last pageant.”

“Oh, you want to know about my stolen dress?”

I nodded.

She shrugged. “It was stolen. I’m not sure what more to say.”

“Was it worth a lot of money? Where was it the last time you saw it? Can you think of anyone who would want to steal your dress?”

“It was my evening gown, and by far the most expensive clothing item I have for pageants, but not overly expensive. I think my mom paid a thousand for it.”

I almost choked. A thousand for a pageant dress, and she didn’t consider that expensive? “Go on.”

“I last saw it in my dressing station and it was in the blue garment bag I keep it in. It’s a specially designed garment bag, lined and all, to not rip the beading on my gowns. The bag was there before I went out on stage for the swimsuit competition, but when I came back to change into it to get ready for the finals, it was gone. Lucky for me, many of the girls bring more than one dress and I was able to borrow one from Allie. I still came in third.”

I was writing all this down so I wouldn’t forget what she said later, but it was hard to focus on writing and not let my mind wander about the possibilities. Both girls had something happen that was relativity easy to fix, and they still came in among the top three. To me it seemed a significant bit of information.

“Can you think of anyone who might have done this? Anyone who was desperate to beat you maybe?”

“We all want to beat each other. Of course I always want to come in first place, but not at the expense of others. And I can’t think of any of the other girls who would ever hurt anyone else either just to win. Besides, it’s not uncommon to have a last minute rip in a dress and borrow someone else’s. That’s why many of the girls bring more than one. I, myself, normally have more than one, but my backup dress tore at the last pageant and the seamstress hadn’t returned it yet.” Janine looked at her oversized Gucci watch. “Oh my. I have to run. I have a fitting.”

“Sure. Oh, wait. One more thing.”

Janine turned around and looked at me questioningly.

“I apologize in advance for getting in your business, but can you tell me about the shoplifting incident? The one with you, Allie, and Marissa.”

Janine froze. I could tell she was wondering how the hell I knew about that, but she quickly recovered—I would give her top scores in poise—changing the look on her face. “I don’t know what you are talking about,” she said stiffly, losing some of her sweet southern drawl.

“Janine, I know it’s probably embarrassing, but really, it’s no big deal. I just wanted to hear the story from you.”

“Like I said, I have no idea what you are talking about. Now I have to go.”

“Thanks for speaking to me, Janine,” I said to her back as she hurried off. Obviously, she couldn’t get away from me fast enough.  I had hit a nerve when I mentioned the whole shoplifting piece.

Linda walked over. “She doesn’t look happy. Was she any help?”

“She didn’t have any earth-shattering revelations about who could be the tormentor, but I didn’t expect her to. Just having her tell the story again could always cause her to remember something new, so it’s worth a shot.”

“What did you say to make her mad?”

“I don’t know. Temperamental. Maybe she needs to eat,” I joked, not wanting to spill any secrets to Linda. Cooper had stressed to me that everyone was a potential suspect until we could be sure they weren’t. He always wanted to err on the side of caution and carefulness and we had to maintain confidentiality in the best interest of our client and reputation of Sands Security. So, except for Harvey, everyone right now was fair game. Though I would guess Harvey told Linda everything anyway as his right hand.

“Well, Marissa is over there waiting for you, and I must warn you, she is in a bit of a snit this morning,” Linda said, pointing to a chair where yet another gorgeous girl, but brunette this time—a nice change—was sitting with her arms folded across her chest and a cranky look on her face.

“What happened?”

“Nothing to do with you.  Just a scheduling conflict for a certain hair and makeup girl, so Marissa had to go with her second choice. It happens. Only so many stylists and a lot of girls, but Marissa is a bit of a prima donna and feels she’s entitled to preferential treatment.  Doesn’t quite get why everyone should be treated equal.”

I looked sideways at Linda.

“More of a prima donna than many of the other girls, I mean,” she added with smile, clearly getting what I meant when I glanced at her.

I looked over and noticed the guy from last night standing in the corner. “What’s he doing here?” I said, I thought to myself but realized it must have been out loud when Linda answered.

“Who?”

“That blond guy over by the coffee service. That’s Hollie’s brother. He stopped Cooper and me last night on our way back from dinner with questions about Hollie. I felt bad, but Cooper told him we couldn’t tell him anything and to talk to the police, He shouldn’t be here.”

Linda looked over at the coffee service. “That’s not Hollie’s brother. She doesn’t have a brother.”

“She doesn’t? Are you sure?”

“I’m positive. Hollie is, was, the youngest of three girls, and they all spent time on the pageant circuit. The mother is a real overbearing type. You know the kind who likes to live life vicariously through her kids?  Have them do the things she never could do.”

“Will you ask Marissa to wait for me while I go check this out?”

“Sure.”

I walked quickly over to where Woody, if that was even his real name, was standing.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him sternly, hands on my hips. He at least had the decency to look sheepish before answering me, which pretty much told me what I needed to know.

“Well, I…”

“And don’t try to feed me that crap about you being Hollie’s brother. I know she doesn’t have a brother.”

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lied. Just let me explain,” he implored.

I stood there for a second raising my eyebrows. “Go on.”

“I’m actually Hollie’s boyfriend.”

Now that shocked me more than finding out he wasn’t her brother. Woody was a handsome man but he had to be thirty years older than she was.

“I know, I know. It doesn’t seem likely, but I promise you it’s the truth. Look, I can prove it,” he said, reaching in his back pocket to pull out his wallet. He handed me a picture. It was of Hollie and him with their arms around each other.  In a way that didn’t seem sibling-like. At least, my brother Jesse and I had never held each other that way.

I looked at the picture for a moment and then turned it over. It said “looking forward to many more pictures with you, love Hollie.” I handed it back to him. “Why did you lie?”

“Because I thought saying I was her brother was more believable. Plus, if you thought I was family maybe you would be more open.”

He was right about that. I still wasn’t sure I believed him about being Hollie’s boyfriend, although that picture did seem convincing. “What do you want?” I said and then realized how callous it sounded, especially if what he said was true and he was in fact her boyfriend. “I’m sorry. I know this must be hard for you, but I just don’t know why you are here.”

“I need to find out what happened. Surely you can understand that?”

I did. I couldn’t imagine anything happening to Cooper or any of my family. I would be relentless for information.

“I do understand, Woody, but you need to understand, too, that we can’t give out information on an investigation.”

“Isn’t there anything you can tell me? Maybe I can be of some help?”  He had a point.  Maybe he knew something that could shed some light on who would kill Hollie.

“You are a bit older than Hollie.”

“Yes. Twenty-eight years to be exact, but I’m not some dirty old man. I loved Hollie and she loved me. Something her parents couldn’t understand, and I know on first glance it seems unusual, but we were really soul-mates.”

I could understand that. My mom wouldn’t be all that thrilled if I brought home a man her age, but then, who was I to judge true love?

“How can I help?” he asked.

“Do you know if Hollie had any enemies?”

He shook his head.  “Everyone loved her; she was really a sweet girl.”

“Woody, think. Are you sure no one gave her any trouble?  Maybe one of the other girls who was jealous or something?”

Woody stayed silent for a second or two.  “Well, there was this one girl.  They had been good friends and then had a falling out of some kind.  Hollie wouldn’t really tell me what happened.  But it was one of the pageant girls.  They wouldn’t be capable of murder.”

“You wouldn’t think, Woody, but you never know.  Do you know who the girl was?”

“Her name was Allie something.  I’m not sure of her last name.”

My ears perked up at that.  So much for Linda and Harvey thinking all the girls got along.  Which made me wonder if they knew.

“And Hollie wouldn’t tell you why she and Allie stopped being friends?”

“No, all I know is Allie was giving Hollie a really hard time.  Hollie called me in tears a few times. You don’t think Allie could have hurt my Hollie do you?”