Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 09 - Romance & Revenge (13 page)

We chatted for a few more minutes and got up to leave when Julie said, “I almost forgot. Last night I thought I heard someone trying to get in my apartment. I got up and went to look out the peephole and didn’t see anything, so I opened the door and looked out. I saw a woman getting on the elevator.”

“Did you recognize her?”

“No. She was too far away and had her back to me. I could just tell she was built like a woman.”

My first thought was Glenda but it could have been anyone. We said our goodbyes and made it out of the building before Katy said, “You think Glenda was trying to break in?”

“That would be my first guess. But why try to get in to Julie’s apartment?”

“Maybe she thought it was Becky’s?”

“Could be.” My phone rang, interrupting me and I saw it was Willie.  “Hello?”

“Hey Pres. I wondered if you had given any more thought about the New Year’s Eve party.”

“Can I call you right back? I’m right in the middle of something,” I said, which was mostly true. I just wanted to talk to Katy again before answering.

“Sure. I just need to know by five in order to get the tickets.”

“OK. I’ll call you back no later than an hour.”

“That was Willie,” I said to Katy. “He asked again if we wanted to go to this New Year’s Eve party downtown with him. His friend’s company bought a block of tickets and gave him four and he wants me, you, and Jared to come.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I can sit around moping for Cooper or I can get dressed up and go try to have fun. Besides, this party is at a nice hotel, a really nice hotel, so I think it’s something we wouldn’t want to miss.”

“Then call him back and tell him yes.”

I did just that and Katy and I headed back home where we somehow got back on the topic of my love life.

“I don’t think you should give up on Cooper without talking to him,” she said.

“We’re talking about a party, not my relationship with Cooper.”

“Ooh, what party?” Jared said, hearing our conversation as he came in the front door with our dinner.

He set bags of Chinese food down on the coffee table and I went to grab drinks from the kitchen.

“How much food did you order?” I asked, coming back and looking at six different cartons for just the three of us.

“Never order food when you’re starving. I couldn’t decide what I wanted so I thought I would get a bit of everything. It can always be tomorrow’s breakfast.
So, back to this party thing. What party are we talking about?” he said, passing out the chopsticks.

Jared did love a good party and I knew this would be no exception. Especially when he found out where it was.

“Presley said Willie called and invited us to a New Year’s Eve party at some hotel,” Katy told him.

Jared looked at me. “What hotel?”

“The James,” I said and waited for his reaction.

“Oh. My. God. We’re going. I can’t believe you even had to think about it. Oh no! I have nothing to wear. I’ve got to go shopping tomorrow. All of us do!”

I burst out laughing at Katy, who looked bewildered at Jared’s reaction.  Especially the way he had been so mopey around here the last couple days. I hadn’t told her what hotel because I knew she wouldn’t know what The James was and its significance in the city.

“The James is a very high-end hotel. Thousand dollar a night kind of hotel.”

“For a cheap room,” Jared interrupted. “We couldn’t afford to sleep in the basement even if it was listed on Travelocity on special.”

“Yes, for a cheap room. It’s known for its extravagant parties and very exclusive guest lists,” I said. “I think you have to know someone to even get a reservation and by know someone, I mean important people.”

“Which common folk like us don’t normally get invited to,” Jared added.  “Your detective friend must know people in high places,” Jared said.

“So we’re going?” I said, knowing full well there wouldn’t be any way to stop Jared now.

“If Jared says we need to go, then we need to go,” said Katy. “And I agree with Jared on the shopping part. I didn’t bring anything fancy for New Year’s Eve. I assumed it would be dinner and drinks at someplace more pedestrian,” she teased. “Where my common clothes would fit in.”

“It’s settled then. Shopping trip tomorrow and amazing party the day after,” Jared said. “I might meet the man of my dreams there. I need to look fabulous.”

“First thing tomorrow. Promise,” I said, feeling excited about things for the first time in a few weeks.

Chapter 18

“Does this make me look fat?” Jared said, modeling the outfit of dark blue jeans and a charcoal gray button-down shirt.

“What the shirt or the jeans?” I asked.

“Both,” he said crossly. He hated thinking he looked anything but his best and was always paranoid about looking fat. Anyone who thought that particular paranoia was something relegated to women
only, didn’t know Jared.

“I think maybe you should go up a size in those jeans,” I said.

He looked at me with horror.

“This is my normal size: thirty-fours. I can’t go up to a thirty-six!” he said. To him going up a size would be a travesty. He turned back to look at himself in the three way mirror, swiveling this way and that way, and I could tell he was looking for an indication his jeans were too tight. He looked fine in his thirty-fours. I was just giving him a hard time because I knew it would drive him crazy.

Katy looked at me, trying hard not to laugh, knowing what I was doing and that it was totally working.

Jared caught us glancing at each other and picked up another shirt he had just tried on and threw it at us, figuring out I was teasing.

“You guys are mean,” he said and went back in the fitting room to change into his own clothes.

“But we love you!” I yelled through the door and heard him mutter a response, but couldn’t tell exactly what he said.
Probably a good thing.

A few minutes later, he came out and paid for his things, pretending to still be mad at us. We had already been lucky enough to find something to wear and even at a good price at H&M. They were having some amazing sales.

Shopping done, we were standing at the front of the store, trying to decide what to do next.

“Head home or lunch out? I’m getting hungry,” said Jared.

“Let’s do lunch out, definitely, but let’s stop at your office first,” I said.

“Why?”

“Maybe look around while no one is there? See if anything jumps out at us.”

“What are you hoping to find?” Jared asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I just feel like it’s worth it; that maybe we’ll think of something while there or see something that might be a clue. We made a little progress when we got that information from Allison at Red Dune Creative but now I feel we are at a standstill again. It might be a complete waste but we have time. And then we can stop at that pizza place you like.”

“OK. Count me in, then.”

I knew the pizza would get him; he loved food as much as I did. Food and clothes were something we had in common. Which, of course, was one reason we were such good friends.

****

“Look at this, Jared,” I said, pointing to a picture on Sally’s desk that had caught my eye after we had been wandering around for a few minutes.

He glanced over and shrugged, “What? It looks like a picture of a family party or something.”

He was right. It was a picture of about twenty or so people at some gathering, but the picture
itself wasn’t what was drawing my attention. It was the people in the photo. I picked the picture up off the desk and walked over to where Jared and Katy were looking through files. I held up the photo so they could look at it and then tapped it with my finger.

“There’s Sally,” I said.

“Yes,” Jared agreed, “but I still don’t understand where you are going with this.”

“Next to her is Colleen. The intern I met at Red Dune Creative. Doesn’t that seem like a bit of a coincidence to you? She knows an intern at a company who was mailed your designs enabling them to steal a client? Has she ever mentioned she had a friend or relative working at a competitor? I know she didn’t when we talked to her. She didn’t mention she knew someone at Red Dune or any other company. I didn’t ask her that direct question, but you’d think she would have said something.”

“No, but maybe they don’t know each other,” Jared said. “It could just be coincidence they were at the same party, that Colleen came with someone else.”

“They at least have to have met each other since they’re standing next to each other in a group photo, wouldn’t you think? And what’s the likelihood of them meeting once at a party and what’s happening at Sleeping Bear just being random?”  I didn’t buy for a minute this was all coincidental.

He nodded. “Yeah, I get your point. I just can’t imagine Sally giving someone our designs. She loves this company. What could she possibly have to gain?”

“Something we don’t know yet,” I said. “You don’t always know what’s going on with people.”

“You really think she could be behind this?” he asked. “I don’t want to even think that could be true. John would never believe it.”

“You may not want to think it, but I think it’s a possibility that needs serious consideration. We have to be objective.”

Jared sat down in a chair by Sally’s desk as I put the picture back.

“She’s always been such an important part of this team all the years I’ve worked here. I can’t even imagine her doing anything to hurt the company. Surely there’s another explanation.”

I could tell the thought of Sally being behind this in any capacity was bothersome but that didn’t make it not true.

“People aren’t always what they seem,” Katy said. “Maybe you don’t know Sally as well as you think you do.”

“Well, then what should we do now?” he asked.

“I think we should take this to John. See what he says,” I said.

“You think I should call him right now?” Jared hesitated. I could tell he didn’t want to deliver this bad news.

“Why not? No time like the present. Wouldn’t you rather know now than later?  I’m sure John would.”

“OK.” Jared pulled out his cell phone and made the call. “After a short explanation, he hung up and said, “He’s on his way. Man, I hate doing this to him.”

We killed time waiting for John by looking at the large binder of all the proposals the company had done along the years. It was really amazing. Jared didn’t bring his work home
so I really had no idea that he was so talented. Whenever I asked him about work, he said he just created pretty pictures. What I was looking at was way beyond pretty pictures.

“Jared, these are so good. You’ve even won awards. How come you’ve never told me any of this?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I guess it’s not a big deal. It’s just my job.”

“It is too a big deal and I can’t believe you don’t seem to think so. This kind of work takes talent. The kind that not everyone has.”  I started to say something else when the front door chime went off and John walked through the door.

He was dressed in track pants and a hoodie, a style I hadn’t seen before on him. Apparently neither had Jared, as the look on his face was priceless. It was always interesting seeing people in a different context from what you were used to. The casual outfit suited John, I thought.

John noticed Jared’s expression. “Sorry, I was at the gym when you called and it sounded important, so I didn’t want to run home and change first.”

“You’re fine, just not your normal office attire,” Jared said.

“What information do you have?” John asked with a worried expression, getting right to the point.

Jared glanced at me and I hesitantly started telling him about my experience at Red Dune with Colleen the intern. Even though he had already heard from Jared, I thought it might make it easier to start from the beginning. When I got to the part where I noticed this intern and Sally photographed together, he paled a little. I think the wheels were turning in his mind about where this was leading.

“What picture?” he asked tentatively.

I walked back over to Sally’s desk and grabbed it, handing it to him.

He looked at it intently. “I remember her talking about this. It was a family reunion. And you’re saying one of the people in this picture is an intern at Red Dune?”

“Yes, her,” I said pointing to Colleen, thinking if this was a family reunion photo it didn’t bode well.

“Her!”

I nodded.

“Oh my God. That’s Sally’s niece. I’ve met her before.
A couple years ago.  Sally brought her to a work party saying she was in college, majoring in marketing.  She even joked about her interning here. I can’t believe this. Why would she do such a thing?”

“John, we don’t have proof that this connection means Sally was the one who was giving away your designs. Maybe there’s a reasonable explanation, or maybe it’s just a coincidence?” Jared said. I knew he was trying to grasp at anything that would help make sense that it wasn’t Sally. This was one of the many reasons I was scared about opening a business. With people there were no absolutes. Just when you were sure they would act in one way, they would act another. And it always seemed to be the people you trusted the most who turned out to be ones you should have trusted the least.

“I need to confront her,” John said. “Ask her if she did this. If she used her niece to help hurt our business. “

I could tell he was angry and rightfully so.