Necklaces & Nooses Read online

  “You walked in the fall fashion show last year right?” asked Lily.

  “I sure did. Good to see you both again.”

  “That’s right,” said Steph, you wore the eggplant-colored leather pantsuit with those rockin’ gold metallic platforms.”

  Anna laughed. “Good memory. I thought I was going to look like Barney, but it turned out well.”

  “Yeah, Solange could come up with the craziest outfits that you’d swear would look horrendous, but were amazing.”

  I said, “That’s so true, Steph. I’m going to miss her.” And that was the truth. Solange may have had her faults, but she was good-hearted and a great fashion talent. Besides, even if she wasn’t, no one deserved to die.

  “Presley, do the police have any leads?” asked Lily. “I have half a mind to call up that cute detective. Detective Landon, was it? He is someone I wouldn’t mind going out with.”

  Anna opened her mouth to say something, and I poked her in the ribs to shut her up. I normally wouldn’t hide from the girls that I was interested in someone, but this was different. I just felt weird with him investigating Solange’s murder and all. I just wanted to wait until all this messiness was behind us before I went public with liking him.

  “We better take our seats. Looks like they’re getting ready to start.”

  The service was nice. A few different people got up and spoke about how wonderful Solange was and about her life’s accomplishments. It was a typical funeral. Very emotional and draining, even for me, so I couldn’t begin to imagine how hard it was for the family.

  After the funeral, everyone headed downstairs to a large gathering room that had coffee, tea, and pastries so people could talk and reminisce. At least that was what I assumed the purpose was. I had no intention of going, but Anna said she wanted some coffee and said that we needed to keep an eye on people anyways. She was still of the mindset that the killer might be here, and we would be able to tell. Since I had already tried to dissuade her, and she just ignored me, I figured it was easier to go along and give her a few minutes to look around at the attendees before leaving.

  “See, Presley, good coffee, good donuts. And you wanted to ditch the reception.”

  “This isn’t a reception. We aren’t at a wedding, Anna.”

  “Receptions aren’t only for weddings. They’re pretty much for any type of gathering. You act like being here is wrong.”

  “I agree with Anna,” Lily said with a mouthful of Krispy Kreme.

  “Okay, fine, but I don’t know these people, and I’m not comfortable crashing a funeral reception.”

  “Oh relax, we all know each other, and we will leave in a few minutes. Besides, this way people know you were here to pay respects. It’s the right thing to do. And we all know Solange, so we all have a right to be here.”

  “If you say so”

  We chatted with each other and drank our coffee, and Anna kept her eye on everyone, trying to decide if they looked like a murderer or not. She kept trying to point out people and ask my opinion, but I was trying to ignore her. Lily and Steph left, and Anna and I were about to, but there was something I wanted to do first.

  I walked up to a group of women where Solange’s mother was talking. “Excuse me, Mrs. Barker.”

  “Yes, dear.” She looked at me. I felt so bad. It must be horrible to lose a child. She looked so sad.

  “I worked with Solange at Silk and just wanted to let you know how sorry we all are. Everyone there enjoyed working with her very much.”

  “That’s sweet, dear. Thank you all so much for coming.” She grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

  “It was the least we could do.” Walking away, I felt the urge to call my mother. We didn’t always get along, but I couldn’t imagine how I would feel if something happened to her and vice versa. We might argue, but we loved each other.

  We were almost to the door when shouting stopped us in our tracks. We turned around to see what the commotion was about.

  “See, I told you something good would happen here,” Anna whispered.

  “I think you have a skewed definition of good.”

  “I loved my sister, and you took her away from me!” A man hollered.

  James shouted back at him. “I did not, Steven. It was her choice to stop enabling you. She did it because she loved you.”

  The guy named Steven I knew from Solange talking about him. He was her brother, and from what Solange had said, he had a slight drinking problem. Though looking at the scene before me, slight may have been an understatement.

  “She never would have stopped returning my calls if it weren’t for you. You took away my sister,” Steven said, stepping forward and taking a swing. His fist connected with James’s jaw, the force of the punch knocking James off balance. He took a step back, falling into a group of women.

  “See, Steven? This is exactly why Solange stopped taking your phone calls,” James said. “You’re drunk. Too drunk to be rational and not cause a scene at your sister’s funeral. You’re sick, Steven; you need help.”

  Mrs. Barker had come to Steven’s side. “Steven, honey, you need to stop this. James didn’t control Solange. She was her own woman.” She rubbed his back, trying to calm him down like one might a child. Though, if he was drunk as James claimed, he was probably thinking like a child. I again felt deeply sorry for Solange’s mom. This was the last thing anyone needed to deal with at the funeral of her daughter. I had to give her credit, though. She was a strong lady and seemed to be holding it together well.

  Steven was breathing hard, and I could see he was trying as much as he could to calm down.

  “Loraine, he needs help,” James said to Solange’s mom.

  “James, dear, let’s not discuss this right now, please?”

  “Out of respect for you, Loraine, of course, but I think I’ll be going now. I will call you tomorrow.”

  “Okay.” She nodded. “The usual time?”

  “Yes.” He walked over and pecked her on the cheek, watching Steven out of the corner of his eye as if he was waiting to be hit again.

  “Well, that sure was interesting,” Anna said as we watched James walk out of the room.

  “Not the kind of interesting one wants at a funeral. Come to think of it, I don’t think funerals need to have any excitement. I just feel so bad for Solange’s mom.”

  “Yeah, I know what you mean, but wow, she sure is a tough old broad. I admire that.”

  “No kidding. I can’t imagine having to deal with this. Doesn’t it seem odd that there appears to be so much tension between James and Solange’s family, yet her mother seems perfectly cordial to him?”

  “Yeah, did you hear him say he would call her tomorrow and her say the usual time? That must mean they talk often.”

  “Wonder what that’s all about.”

  “Ask her.”

  “Who?”

  “Ask Mrs. Barker. Why not?”

  “Well, for one, it just seems rude, and what should I say? I know your daughter was just murdered, but why do you have regular phone conversations with her estranged husband?”

  “Sure. Why not?”

  “Right.”

  “Seriously though, she seems nice. Maybe if you did ask her, she would be receptive to talking to you?”

  “Maybe you’re right. It just seems so callous.”

  “I don’t think so. After all, you’re doing it for a good reason. Or maybe have Willie ask her.”

  “Now there’s an idea.”

  “I’m going to run home and change, and then I’ll be over.”

  “Okay, see you in a bit.” We had stopped to pick up my car that morning so we could each run some errands after the funeral, and then we were going to meet back at my condo, if it was cleared for re-entry. Willie had said hopefully by late afternoon or so, and I was counting on it. I was upset my home had been violated, and I just wanted to get back in there and put it behind me.

  “Seriously Anna, I can’t believe you are trying to bre
ak into his Facebook account. If you don’t trust him, then you shouldn’t be with him.” I had finally been let into my condo after the crime techs had finished, and Anna had offered to help me clean. At least this time I knew what to expect. It was a big sacrifice for her, as she didn’t like cleaning anymore than I did, and I thoroughly appreciated her help. But she took pity on me since all I seemed to be doing lately was cleaning up messes. After we had finished to my satisfaction and opened a bottle of moscato to relax, she sat on the couch with my laptop.

  “I want to trust him, but I can’t. It seems like when I do, something else happens.”

  “Then I repeat…why are you with him?” She ignored me as she kept trying to figure out his password. I knew she was doing it on purpose. She didn’t want to answer me, because she knew I had a point. “What makes you think you can figure out his password? It’s not like you’re some computer hack.”

  “Puhlease. Guys are simple when it comes to passwords. I know what a couple of his are, and I’m sure that I can figure it out. I just need a few more minutes and some luck that it doesn’t lock me out.”

  “This is stupid, Anna.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you are wasting time on someone who—”

  “I’m in,” she said, pushing herself away from the desk like she had just done something monumental, which in her eyes, she had. I just hated to think about what she would find. She stood up, walked over to the moscato bottle, and refilled her glass. Leaning against the counter, she took a sip.

  “Really, wow, I didn’t think you had it in you. Guess if the marketing thing doesn’t work, you have a good backup career for un-trusting girlfriends everywhere.”

  “Funny, but probably true. It could be a good side business.”

  “So, may I ask what you are hoping to find? If he’s cheating, do you really want the dirty details?”

  “Uh, yeah, I would rather know than wonder. You know this makes me think of something. You should try to see what dirt you can find on James. You said he’s a jerk at times. Maybe he did kill her for the money.”

  “You think I should hack into his Facebook account? You think that he has been posting he murdered his soon to be ex wife? I hardly think he’s going to be talking about that on Facebook.”

  “No, I don’t mean hack into Facebook. How would you ever do that? You wouldn’t even know where to start with figuring out the password. That’s the trick. Knowing where to start—and when you know someone well, like I do Jeff, it’s easy.”

  “Then what are you suggesting I do?” I had no idea where Anna was going with this. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

  “You know where he works, right?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “Then we should wait outside his work and follow him. See what he does. Maybe he has a secret lover, and he killed Solange to get her money and have his lover, too. We could always Google him. You can find anything on Google.”

  “I’m not sure you can solve murders on Google, Anna.”

  Anna was really getting dramatic about this. James was a jerk, but a killer? I still didn’t feel in my gut that James killed her. It just didn’t seem right. I had no proof, just a feeling, and that was the problem. No one cared about a feeling, in the legal realm that is, it needed to be concrete. I realized this, but it still didn’t change how I felt.

  “You really think following him is the answer?” I said.

  “It couldn’t hurt. I mean, you said yourself there was no love lost between them, and her parents didn’t even seem to want him to be a part of the funeral.”

  “I think that’s what the police should be doing.”

  “Presley, do you really want to just wait on the police?”

  “That is their job, you know.”

  “That bastard!”

  “Who, Jeff?”

  “Yes. I knew it. When a guy says they are just friends you can never believe him.”

  “Maybe Jeff, but don’t classify all guys like that. What did he do?” I walked over to where Anna was at my computer on the couch and sat down so I could see what she was looking at.

  “Read this!” Anna said. “This Sarah chick says she wants to get to know him better and is willing to try a long distance thing. I guess she lives in Iowa. How the hell did he meet a girl from Iowa?”

  “Maybe she is just coming on to him?” I didn’t really like how Jeff treated Anna, but I didn’t want her hurt either. I was hoping to give him the benefit of the doubt.

  “Oh no, this is his response.” She clicked on the message to open it and started reading. “I would like to get to know you better by talking to you.”

  “That doesn’t necessarily mean anything besides friends.”

  “Except he doesn’t mention anywhere in this email thread that he has a girlfriend, and she obviously is thinking he doesn’t or else she doesn’t care. Take this away from me. I just can’t stand to read anymore.”

  I took the laptop from her, logged off, and shut it down. Setting it on the floor, I turned to Anna and refilled her wineglass. I could tell she was upset, and I had seen time and time again how much he hurt her. But I could also understand you weren’t done with a relationship until you were really done, and emotions weren’t always something you could force yourself to stop feeling. Even when intellectually you knew you should.

  “Do you want to talk?” I said.

  “Why, so you can just say I told you so again? I know I’m stupid.”

  “Not stupid, Anna. I hate seeing you hurt like this all the time, which is why I say you need to kick him to the curb. But I also know what it’s like to love someone and hope they will change. While maybe not the smartest thing to do, when you look at the situation rationally you can’t help how you feel, and emotions don’t always make sense. Hell, they hardly ever make sense.”

  “I need to realize he will never change, at least not with me. But, Presley, I know he loves me.”

  “He does love you.” I actually had no doubts that he did love her. He just wasn’t ready to settle down and took her for granted. That was clear by his actions. Before Cooper, I was much more judgmental of Jeff, but I now had a better understanding of how difficult love was.

  “Did Willie find out who broke into your condo?” Anna said attempting to change the subject.

  “No. It’s disappointing, but whoever did it didn’t leave prints, and none of the doormen remember anyone who wasn’t a tenant. They found a door at the service area that had a busted lock. The maintenance guy said it wasn’t like that a week ago, so Willie is assuming that somehow someone cased the joint and found that was a weak spot.”

  “That’s just weird they didn’t take anything.”

  “No kidding. They obviously were looking for something. But neither Willie nor I have any idea what. I don’t have anything of value. Any criminal worth their salt should have noticed that right away.”

  “Maybe that’s why they trashed the place. They were angry that you didn’t have anything for them.”

  “It just doesn’t make sense. There are many people in my building that have a lot more than I do. Willie thinks whoever it was felt I had something they wanted, specifically. I think that Peter guy is involved somehow.”

  “What does Willie think of him?”

  “That there’s not enough proof to say.”

  One thing that really had me confused was that I didn’t understand at all what the faux-German guy, Peter, wanted so badly with accessories from Silk. It didn’t make sense. After seeing him at the funeral, I had told Willie he had to be involved in this somehow. These were way too many coincidences. But Willie didn’t completely agree with me that the connection was necessarily bad. He hadn’t been able to find anything concrete connecting Peter with anyone from a sinister standpoint. Obviously Peter knew someone in the family or he wouldn’t keep showing up, but Willie said he couldn’t just assume it was for a bad reason without proof.

  I told him that sometimes the connection was
n’t obvious, and he didn’t really like that. He had the audacity to say I shouldn’t be worrying myself about the investigation so much. We got into our first minor spat, if you could even call it that, about my involvement, and I basically told him he should have not asked my opinion if he didn’t want it. He muttered something under his breath I chose to ignore, and we hung up.

  I didn’t think he was really angry, just annoyed. I seemed to have that effect, first with Cooper and now Willie. I had sat there since getting off the phone trying to figure out what the possible link could be. Willie had said this guy had a record for petty crime. James was a lawyer, so maybe that was a connection. Although James’s firm handled mostly white collar crime not smash and grab—Willie’s term not mine—it was plausible. Criminals and criminal lawyers seemed to run in the same circles. Or it could be completely unrelated, and I could be totally off base, and Willie right. Somehow I doubted it.