Stilettos & Scoundrels Read online

  Stilettos & Scoundrels

  Presley tells her boss what he can do with her job in HR and embarks on a new career as a freelance journalist. What seems like a simple interview with a Senator turns to murder when the day after her interview the Senator is found dead. Does the fact that Presley was one of the last people to see him alive make her a suspect? Her ex–boyfriend Cooper, who was in charge of the Senator's security, might think so. Presley is determined to clear her name but can she do it and resist Cooper’s charms?

  Revised and re-edited March 2015. Please download newer version if you purchased prior to March 2015.

  Here’s what others are saying about Stilettos

  I like murder mysteries and this sounded interesting. This is a nice story with a little humor thrown in. I would recommend this highly. —Anonymous

  Loved reading this book. Lots of excitement and energy. This book really keeps you guessing till the end. Looking forward to reading the next one. —Tammy

  Quite a nice little mystery with a lot of humor and a surprise twist at the end. A good quick read that will keep you turning the pages until the end. One of those books that you don't want to put down until it says "The End". —Sporty

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  Stilettos

  &

  Scoundrels

  Laina Turner

  Copyright 2011 Laina Turner

  Smashwords edition.

  Five Seas Ink Publishing

  Cover art by 801Red

  Revised and re-edited March 2015. Please download newer version if you purchased prior to March 2015.

  Acknowledgements

  My dream was always to be a writer, but I never had the confidence that anything I wrote would be worthwhile reading. However, I finally got to the point where I figured, why not? So here it is. My first fiction book, Whoo–hoo!

  I would like to thank my family and friends who never lost confidence in me and helped me through this journey to my dream.

  Most of all thanks to my mother, LaNita, who gave me the gift and desire to write (and many ideas for this book). I wish you were here to share this with me. I miss you!

  Thank you, thank you, and thank you!

  Laina

  Revised and re-edited March 2015. Please download newer version if you purchased prior to March 2015.

  Prologue

  Gently touching the handle of the front door was all it took to make it swing wide open. It was late, after midnight, and everyone in the house except longtime senator Tom Daniels was asleep. As usual, Tom was in his study working late. Walking carefully and quietly through the foyer, the intruder confidently stepped into Tom’s study. He could see the senator was concentrating on the papers in front of him, so much so that he was unaware of anything else. Raising the object, the intruder accidentally hit a stack of books sitting on a side table, sending them crashing to the floor. Tom spun around with a look of shock on his face as he recognized the person swinging a sharp object towards him. Tom raised his hands to protect himself, but he wasn’t quick enough. The spiky end of a stiletto heel punctured the side of his neck; piercing his jugular vein instantly and sending a spray of blood over the papers on his desk. He tried to cry out, but the only sound he made was a gurgling noise as his lungs filled with blood.

  The intruder set the shoe down next to Tom and backed out of the room, softly closing the door to the study and hoping no one would come looking for Tom until morning.

  Chapter 1

  What was I thinking? Did I just tell my boss off and get myself fired? I smiled, thinking back to the moment I told David Ritter that I wouldn’t sleep with him if he were the last man on earth. I wouldn’t sleep with him, even if he promised me the new Louis Vuitton satchel I had been eyeing up, and I’ve always said I would do anything for that Louis satchel. By the look on his face, no wasn’t something he was accustomed to hearing. Though now unemployed, it was a small price to pay to tell him off.

  I made my way back to my condo, forgoing the bus in lieu of a brisk walk the few blocks from my office—well, my former office. It was a nice day out, and frankly I hated public transportation. The bus was just a necessary evil on rainy or cold days. Besides, walking those few blocks would take me past one of my favorite boutiques, Element. I could hardly afford to shop there, but I loved to look. They always had the most fabulous window displays, and I knew that it would brighten my outlook on life.

  I thought back to what happened a few hours earlier. It had started out as a good day. My hair turned out well because the low humidity helped keep it frizz proof. I was wearing one of my favorite skirts, a chocolate–colored pencil skirt, and paired it with a cream–colored cowl neck sweater. It was April, but the wind in Chicago meant that it was still chilly, and a sweater seemed just the thing on a crisp spring day. I’d slipped on my brown Jimmy Choos and my favorite silver earrings from Silvapada with matching bangle bracelet, and headed out the door. I stopped at Starbucks on the way to work, ordered a venti chai skinny with one Splenda, and walked in the door to the office with a few minutes to spare. Enough time to chat with my best work friend, Tonya, who was smoking surreptitiously outside the employee entrance just underneath the no–smoking sign.

  “Tonya, one of these days you are going to get caught and get in big trouble,” I said to my friend.

  “Whatever,” said Tonya, waving her hands absently. “They can’t afford to get rid of me. I know where all of their skeletons are buried.” She laughed.

  Tonya was joking, but she also wasn’t far off. Working at McLaughlin Industries for the last fifteen years, Tonya was the only one on our floor who had been there the entire time our boss, David Ritter, had. Though he hadn’t always been the boss. David Ritter was a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen, and Tonya knew about everything he had done that the company had tried to sweep under the rug. She also had no problem telling him she knew what a despicable ass he was. She intimidated David, so he just ignored her whenever possible. Lucky her.

  “You want to check out the spring sale at Macy’s on our lunch break?” Tonya asked.

  “You don’t have to ask me twice.”

  “Good.” Tonya twisted her cigarette against the brick wall to put it out and flicked the butt in the trash can. “We might as well get this day started.”

  About an hour after we got back from lunch, where I had the good fortune to pick up two pairs of Diesel jeans and a cute red DKNY stretchy t–shirt, David called me into his office. Not an unusual occurrence in itself. As a Senior Human Resource manager, I had many meetings with David in his capacity as Vice President of Sales, where he was always coming on to me, and it had grown tiresome. A couple of times I had complained to David’s boss, Gary, after David wouldn’t stop texting me about taking me out or about how I looked that day. I wasn’t sure what Gary had said when he talked to David, but David had mostly behaved since then. When forced to speak to me, he was curt and tense, but I didn’t care because it was better than the alternative. Although lately I wondered more and more why I still worked there under those conditions. I didn’t trust him, and I was just waiting for his old antics to flare up again. Today I wasn’t disappointed.

  “You wanted to see me, David?” I walked into his office and stood in front of his over-sized mahogany desk.

  “Yes. Have a seat.” David gestured to one of the chairs beside his desk, next to a small coffee table. His office wasn’t luxurious, but it was a step up from my tiny cubicle.

  I sat down as David leaned against his desk, and I could barely sta
nd the overpowering stench of his cologne. I wanted to gag, and hoped whatever he had to say was quick.

  “I wanted to talk to you about the workforce reduction reports, Presley. They’re still four percent higher than where I asked you to come in the last time.” His topic wasn’t surprising. I knew this was coming eventually. One of the aspects of my position that I hated most was that I was responsible for cutting jobs. I knew it was unavoidable if the company was to remain profitable, but it was a distasteful duty nonetheless.

  “David, I realize the numbers were above expectations, but the higher average salary of some of the more tenured employees wasn’t figured into the original numbers. Head count came in on target. One person less even, but the salary piece was higher.”

  “Not good enough. You needed to hit those numbers, or it throws off the rest of my projections. I’m accountable for those. You need to fix it. Get rid of Evans and Thompson. You can hire four college grads for that amount of money and still have cash left over.”

  “How do you expect me to do that?” I glared at him, incredulous. “I can’t just get rid of people because they make too much money and don’t fit in your spreadsheet calculations, when they are the best person for the job. That’s how lawsuits happen.”

  “Hey, I’m the sales guy, you’re HR. It’s your job to figure it out.”

  I seethed, my hands clenching. I wanted to punch him. There was only so much I could do from a legal and ethical standpoint. He just wanted to make my life difficult, and he was doing a damned fine job at it.

  “Maybe we could work something out,” David said, putting a lecherous hand on my knee.

  I deliberately took his hand, removed it from my knee, and looked him straight in the eye. “And what exactly would that be?”

  “Let’s just say if you are nice to me, I could be persuaded to overlook the discrepancy. Then you wouldn’t have to lay off any more people,” David said with his version of a charming smile, returning his hand to my knee.

  Furious, I jumped up and faced him, putting my hands on my hips. “If you think I would do anything outside my professional capacity for you, you are sadly mistaken. Your behavior is despicable, and I’m not going to tolerate it.”

  David flushed a deep red. “Are you sure about that, Presley?” He sneered. “We’re making cuts all across the company, and if you aren’t doing your job, which you clearly aren’t by being over budget, well...”

  “Are you trying to tell me that if I am not nice to you, you’re going to fire me?” I said, using finger quotes on the nice.

  “I’m not doing anything. It's your choice.” David sat back in his chair looking smug, as if he thought I was going to change my mind if he threatened me about my job. “Well?”

  “Well, nothing. I won’t do it.”

  “Then I guess you have left me no choice. You’re fired.”

  “What? You can’t do that.”

  “Yes I can. Like I said, we need to make more cuts.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. There was no way Gary knew about this. I had worked with him for years before David had become my direct boss.

  David got up and went behind his desk. “That’s all,” he said, dismissing me. “Please clear out your desk and leave. I assume you won’t cause any trouble on your way out. I would hate to call security.”

  I was dumbfounded. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I walked over to his desk.

  “Is there something else, Presley?”

  “Just one more thing.”

  David looked up expectantly. I picked up his coffee cup and threw the contents at him. His jaw dropped. He stood there dripping coffee off what was probably a five–hundred–dollar suit.

  I started laughing. “That’s all I have to say.” I turned around and walked out of his office.

  Chapter 2

  Hi, Charles.” I greeted the doorman of my building, just off Michigan Avenue.

  Okay, admittedly, it was WAY off Michigan Avenue, but since it was within walking distance, if you liked long walks, of all the great shopping, I felt it was an accurate assessment. I resided in a old but beautiful condominium; a six–floor walk–up. I cursed the climb often, but tried to tell myself what great exercise I was getting. On a sunny day, I could see the skyline for miles, if I looked out the bathroom window at a right angle while perching precariously on the toilet seat. However, with real estate prices in Chicago, I knew I was lucky to have this.

  Charles smiled at me as I walked to the stairs. He was such a cute old man.

  I loved the energy of Chicago; it was always fast-paced and put me in great spirits. Walking into my building and seeing Charles, I almost forgot my current troubles. When I got out of college, I had bought this place. At the time, this section of town wasn’t cool, but rather a stomping ground for vagrants. But was in my price range. Over time, the place had caught on, and young professionals started moving in, which gave the building life and energy. It was a great place to come home to. My mother had a different opinion. She liked the city, to visit, but didn’t think the area I lived in was safe enough for her baby and constantly tried to talk me into moving home.

  I unlocked my door thinking about how to find a new job. The bills wouldn’t pay themselves, and I didn’t have a sugar daddy in my back pocket. Stepping into the foyer, I kicked off my shoes and dug my toes into the thick, cream, shag carpet as I hung my coat in the front closet.

  Since graduating from college I had toiled away at McLaughlin Industries, doing what I’d thought, for the last several years, was my dream job. I’d had visions of being a high–profile executive, with assistants at my every disposal. I saw myself on the covers of Fortune magazine and Business Week in a red power suit, maybe a Chanel. The article would describe me as someone who broke through the glass ceiling and could play with the big boys. I’d worked my way up to Senior Human Resource Manager, which was pretty good, considering that I had started out as someone’s assistant. It was a position I had enjoyed. Though looking at recent events, maybe I had been fooling myself. I just threw away years of hard work and job security and wasn’t very upset. Shouldn’t that be telling me something?

  My lofty visions of being the first female CEO of McLaughlin Industries had started to fade a while ago. I kept at it because it was still a lucrative job and because I didn’t know what else to do. I worked countless hours and put up with abuse from top management, mostly David, thinking it would get me to the next level—and for what? Frankly, I had focused on the same goal for so long, I wasn’t sure how to change it. I was stuck in a rut. I kept working hard, the way I had been raised to do, believing it was the right thing. But now that my job was history, surprisingly, it felt like a weight had been lifted. Even if I still wanted to be a top executive, I wasn’t going to sleep with anyone to get ahead.

  Unemployed or not, I was lucky. I wasn’t without options. One of my friends sold Mary Kay and had been after me for months to become a representative. She was trying to meet a quota to earn a car and kept telling me how easy it was to get women to buy things to make themselves look better. Another friend of mine was a restaurant manager and would probably take pity on me and give me a job. Though he knew perfectly well, I was a klutz and that having me as a server would lose him more customers than he’d gain. While both were interesting propositions, somehow I couldn’t see myself aspiring to drive a pink Cadillac or waiting tables.

  There was one opportunity though, my friend Trevor Jameson, who just happened to be the editor of a new online magazine called Our World, had told me about a job recently. To write a column for the human profile section of his magazine over drinks last week, asking me to keep my ears open for someone who might be looking for such a position.

  He told me that the column’s writer wasn’t coming back from maternity leave, and he needed someone right away. Secretly, I had been dying to take advantage of the opportunity, if only I didn’t have such a bad shopping habit that kept my credit cards maxed out. I would
have told him on the spot I would take it. That should have been a big clue that I was unhappy at work. What Trevor had described had excited me more than anything at McLaughlin in a long time.

  Was that why I snapped today? Since last week, all I had been thinking about was Trevor’s job and how frustrated I was that I couldn’t take it. Maybe being fired was a sign. Maybe the forces were telling me I should take this opportunity.

  Let’s do this, I thought. Totally excited, I dialed Trevor’s number at work.

  “Hello, this is Trevor.”

  “Hey, Trevor. It’s Presley.”

  “Hey, girl! What’s up? Did you call to meet for lunch, because if so I am swamped today and don’t think I can swing it. I think I’m free tomorrow. Let me check.” I heard him rustling papers in his desk.

  “No, that’s not why I called. Remember last week at Muldoon’s when you mentioned the job opening you had for your human–interest column? Well, I wanted to see if that was still open.”

  There was a brief pause on the other end. “I filled it yesterday. Why?” he asked curiously.

  I gave a deep sigh. “Well, I happen to be unemployed and was thinking it might be a good fit for me.”

  “You?”

  I gave a laugh. “I know, crazy idea.”

  “Not crazy. Surprising, yes. If something else opens up, I’ll let you know.”

  “Thanks, Trevor.”

  “Drinks soon?”

  “Definitely.” I hung up and laid down on the couch wondering what my next move should be.

  Chapter 3

  I rocked out to Pearl Jam as I headed down the highway the last few miles to my parents’ home in Alkon. I enjoyed leaving the exhaust filled smell of the city and watching the skyscrapers morph into the calmer landscape of suburbia. Seeing the rolling countryside just beginning to green up with spring cheered me. I didn’t usually notice the landscape on the drive to Alkon; I was always too preoccupied with work, but today I realized how different Chicago and Alkon were, although they were only a few hours apart. The city was still my favorite place, but I could appreciate the pretty landscape outside the city too.