Necklaces & Nooses Read online

“Hey, cut me some slack. It’s been a crazy week.”

  “I know, I know. Just giving you a hard time. Seriously though, how are you?”

  “Good. It’s been weird. Almost seems surreal Solange is dead and that I’m the one who found her.”

  “What is it with you and dead people?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Well, first you were involved in Senator Daniels murder, and now you find your boss murdered. Don’t you think it’s an odd coincidence?

  “I wasn’t involved in the senator’s murder. I was there for a legitimate reason.”

  “You were at the store for a legitimate reason.”

  “Boutique.”

  “Okay, boutique for a legitimate reason. End result on both occasions: you were involved in murder. Maybe you should be a detective.”

  I had no desire to be a detective. Date one maybe, but not be one. “I didn’t call you to talk about me. I want to talk about you and find out what is so exciting in your world that you’ve been stalking me.”

  “If you answered your phone I wouldn’t have to stalk, sis.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Now tell me what is so important.”

  “I met a girl,” Jesse said, and I could hear the excitement in his voice.

  “You meet a lot of girls.”

  “This is different. I think this could be the one.” This news definitely made me pay attention. Jesse was more a love’em and leave’em type.

  “Continue.”

  “Her name is Ashley Griffith. I met her a few weeks ago when she and some friends came to the casino for a bachelorette party.”

  “Not hers, I assume.”

  “No. I learned my lesson last time from that one. Anyways, Ashley and her friends were at my table, and we flirted and had fun. The next day she came back, and I couldn’t believe how happy I was to see her. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her. That night she waited until I got off work, and we stayed up all night talking, and we’ve been inseparable ever since. I really do think she’s the one, Pres.”

  “I am so happy for you. What does she do? What does she look like? Where is she from?”

  “She’s a school teacher, teaches second grade. She is beautiful, blonde, and petite, and comes from a small town in Nebraska. She moved to Vegas with some friends after college for the summer last year and ended up staying.”

  “When do I get to meet her?”

  “You can come out any time.”

  “If only money grew on trees.”

  “I did invite her to Thanksgiving.”

  “You what! Does Mom know?” He had never, ever, invited a girl over for any family function. He really must be serious.

  “Yes. I called Mom a few days ago. I think she’s in shock. I asked her not to call you until I did. I wanted to tell you myself.”

  No wonder she hadn’t called me yet. She called every time she thought my brother was doing something that was not what she thought he should do. She complained to me, since she would never criticize him. Even with him telling her not to tell me, I was surprised she hadn’t. This wasn’t something my mom could normally hold in. I was actually looking forward to calling her and talking about this.

  “Inviting her to a family event is a big step,” I said. “I’m proud of you.”

  “When you meet her you’ll see why I think she’s the right one.”

  “Can’t wait.”

  Chapter 12

  Do you know if Solange had a boyfriend?” Willie asked me. We had met up on his lunch break again at Harry’s. I wanted another one of those Reubens, which wasn’t a good habit to get into. I already had enough bad food habits. I didn’t need any more or I wouldn’t fit into my clothes.

  “I don’t think so. I mean, she never talked about anyone special. She spent her time at the boutique or arguing with James. Since she wasn’t technically divorced, I’m not sure she was in the market. I don’t think she was all that interested, at least right now. Her main passion was the boutique. She had high expectations for Silk and focused all her energy on it. Why?”

  “Just looking at the jealousy angle. James doesn’t have an alibi, and there is a lot of proven animosity between them. I also have an eyewitness who saw him leaving Silk the night she was killed.”

  “How is that possible? I was only away from the store for about thirty minutes, probably not even that long.”

  “I can’t go into a lot of detail, but someone did see him leaving in the short span of time you were gone.”

  “Really? Why can’t you go into detail?”

  “I want to check a few things out first. I’m not holding out on you, so don’t look at me like that. I just don’t want to spread false information. Keep in mind anything I tell you must be kept confidential. I could get in a lot of trouble giving you too much information.

  “Okay, if you know he was at Silk right before Solange was murdered, I can see why you would suspect him a little, but is there anything else that makes you wonder?”

  “The fighting for one. You yourself said that it was ferocious at times, and I have heard the same story from a few other people. He wanted money from her for Silk, and I’m sure from her inheritance. So in my detective eyes it makes for a good reason to kill someone.”

  “Did you get that feeling from talking to him? I mean that he might be capable of killing?”

  “Not really. That’s the funny thing. He seemed broken up over her death, and after the reports of the fights they had and their nasty divorce proceeding, that shocked me.”

  “I sort of got the same vibe from him when he called me about the store. He was distracted, but not as much in an I-don’t-care way, but rather just, well, distracted. And as a lawyer, I can’t imagine that’s how he usually behaves. So, now what are you going to do? Follow him, watch him?”

  “Have I mentioned you watch too much Law & Order? I told him the standard don’t leave the area without telling us until further notice, and we will keep investigating. Cases like these that aren’t cut and dry and often take time to filter through all the victims’ previous actions, like who they came in contact with and the like. It takes time, unfortunately.”

  “Any advice for me, since I will likely be interacting with him on a daily basis while I run the store and he checks up on me?”

  “No. Just don’t try to investigate on your own. Please leave it to me.”

  “Don’t worry. I am not at all interested in getting any more involved than I already am.”

  “Am I supposed to believe that?”

  “Of course.”

  “If you aren’t interested in being involved, then why call Cooper to try and get me to see things your way?”

  “Just because I want all angles to be explored to find Solange’s killer doesn’t mean I personally want to keep getting more involved. I just felt it was something that needed to be further looked at.”

  “If you say so”

  “I do.”

  He smiled. “I need to get back to work. What are you doing later?”

  “I’m going to Muldoon’s tonight with Anna and Jared. Want to come?”

  “I would love to, but I need to follow up on another case later tonight. Call me?”

  “Will do.”

  I went back to the store and finished out the day. It stayed fairly steady. A couple of hours before closing, I got a phone call from Anna.

  “Hey there,” I said. “We still on for tonight?

  “Yes, but that’s not why I called. I confronted him.”

  “Really? I’m so sorry, Anna. Do I need to be sorry? What did he have to say for himself?”

  “That nothing was going on and I was blowing things out of proportion. That he should be able to be friends with a girl if he wants to without me freaking out. He was angry, can you believe it? He thinks I am the one with the problem.”

  “Did he know about you checking his Facebook?”

  “Of course not. I’m not stupid.”

&n
bsp; “Then how does he think you found out to confront him?”

  “I just tricked him into telling me. It was easy; men are really very simple creatures.”

  “Do you think if he really had something to hide he would that easily spill the beans?”

  “Yes, he did before. He’s not a good liar.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  “I finally told him I was done, that if he wanted me, he had to really want me. I wasn’t going to be the person who was convenient for him, who just hung around waiting for him to want to see me.”

  “What did he say about that?”

  “I think he was shocked. I left his house right after I said that, and he has done a bit of an attitude shift already. I think he finally realized he might lose me.”

  “Good. He needs to worry?”

  “That’s what I said. I told him I was done playing games, that I was ready to either have a commitment from him or we needed to move on. That there was no point in wasting any more time.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Not much. He tried to give me all his normal excuses, and I said I wasn’t listening. He just got quiet then and said he was sorry, that he knew he didn’t always think about my feelings.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I meant what I said; I’m done unless he changes.”

  “Are you giving him time to change? How did you leave it?”

  “I just said things had to change, so I’ll see how he starts acting.”

  “Are you really prepared to walk away from him if he doesn’t change?”

  “This time I think so.”

  “Are you still feeling up to going to Muldoon’s? We can talk more then.”

  “Yep, see you in a bit.”

  “I thought you told Willie you weren’t going to get involved. Hell, you told me you had no interest in playing detective like you did with the senator. What changed your mind?” Anna asked as we walked down the street to James’s office. I decided to put off going to Muldoon’s for a few hours, instead concocting a plan to sit at the coffee shop across from James’s building until we saw him come out. Then we’d just follow him and see what happened.

  “He’s been acting weird. Willie doesn’t think so, but Willie doesn’t talk to James like I do.”

  “So because Willie doesn’t agree with you, you are taking it upon yourself to see what James is doing? This is what, the second time you have done this?”

  “Partly, I just want to know why he is being so weird.”

  “How is he being weird? And how is it your business?”

  “He’s nice sometimes, and he talks about Solange as if he missed her. I don’t see how he could possibly miss her when they fought they way they did.”

  “Maybe he has realized what he was missing and regrets it. Or maybe he’s just extremely passive-aggressive.”

  “You might be right. I feel that he may be playing us all so we don’t suspect him. Playing the grieving husband and all.”

  “Isn’t that awfully stereotypical? You know, bad divorce, spouse whacks the other spouse.”

  “Probably, and I think it’s far-fetched, but I still want to know more about what he does.”

  I picked out good seats in the coffee shop, and we settled in, sipping on our coffee, staring at James’ office building, waiting for something to happen.

  “How do you know he’s still at work?” Anna asked. “It’s almost seven.”

  “Because he’s taken to calling me ten times a day, since he doesn’t have Solange to bug. And he has taken to calling me nightly on his way home from work to see how the store did. He hasn’t called yet tonight, so I’m assuming he is still here.” I’d thought at first if I called him and kept him updated, he wouldn’t bug me so much. That didn’t work; he still called me. No doubt enjoyed knowing he’d filled his call quota each day.

  “What is he calling you for?”

  “About the store. The man’s obsessed. I’m sure he’s afraid I’m going to run it into the ground, and he won’t make his money. But then sometimes I think he’s just lonely.”

  “From what you’ve told me about him, that’s not surprising about the money part.”

  We finished our coffees and got another. We were both amped up on caffeine, and Anna and I were getting antsy and bored of sitting. I was just about to tell her to forget it and suggest we go have our glass of wine at Muldoon’s, which was around the corner, when I saw James walk out of the building. “Anna, look. He’s finally come out.”

  “It’s about damn time.”

  “C’mon. Let’s go.”

  “I’ve got to pee.”

  “No time. I’m not losing him after waiting this long. Just hold it.”

  “God, I hope you have a lot of kids,” she grumbled, but followed me out the door.

  “What if he sees us?” she asked.

  “He won’t; we’re far enough behind him. And even if he does, why would he think we were following him?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe he’s the paranoid type.”

  “Nah. Now c’mon, walk faster. We don’t want to lose him.”

  “It’s hard to walk fast when you have to pee!”

  I ignored her and concentrated on not losing James. I didn’t want him to see us, so I didn’t want to get too close. But there were a lot of people walking down the sidewalk on their way home from work, and I kept losing sight of him for a few seconds at a time. Luckily, he was a tall guy, over six feet, and I was able to see the top of his head.

  “Where do you think he’s going, Presley?”

  “How am I supposed to know? Now just keep up.” We were about half a block behind him and were almost out of the business district. He made a left at the next block, and as we turned the corner he disappeared through the entrance of The Westin. I looked at Anna. “This is interesting. Why is he at a hotel?”

  “Maybe he’s having an affair? Maybe he is having an affair, and his girlfriend wanted him to leave his wife, and he wouldn’t, so she killed Solange to have him all to herself.”

  “You have such a vivid imagination, Anna.” But, there could be a slim chance she was right. I mean, it was plausible, just not likely, in my opinion.

  We followed James into the hotel and saw him walk into the cigar bar. It was small, so I wasn’t about to follow him in there, as he would see me for sure. Lucky for us, we could get a good view of the bar because of the open floor plan. He sat down at a table and ordered a drink. I was surprised to see him in a cigar bar because, as far as I knew, he didn’t smoke. Both he and Solange had been somewhat health nuts. They had the occasional glass of wine, but other than that were very conscious of what they put in their bodies. The complete opposite of me. I tried to be more health conscious, but the sugar and fat always won out.

  He took off his suit jacket, then his power tie, and stuffed it in his pocket. He seemed to be loosening up. Not unusual for an average person after a long day at work, especially with everything else that had been going on. He probably needed to decompress just like any other normal person. Maybe if he relaxed, he wouldn’t feel compelled to bug me so much.

  We sat outside the bar for about twenty minutes and, not able to hold it any longer, Anna went off in search of a bathroom. By this point, James was on his second drink and first cigar, and it didn’t seem as if he was going anywhere any time soon. I started to wonder what was taking Anna so long when a woman walked up to James and sat down, took her coat off, and put it over the back of the chair. She seemed to be mid-forties, long blonde hair, not natural but definitely expensive, and she wore a simple black dress, the kind that made me think she was a professional of some kind. The dress was classy and yet functional. She had on black heels. High but not too high, yet another indication she was a working girl, not a prostitute kind of working girl, but someone who actually had a real job, probably high up or high enough, anyways. She wasn’t someone’s secretary, I would bet on that.

  “Did I miss a
nything while I was gone?” Anna said.

  “What took you so long?”

  “I ran into a cute guy on my way back. I couldn’t be rude and ignore him. You know, just in case Jeff doesn’t come around.”

  Anna could find a guy anywhere. That was one of the reasons I wondered why she was so hung up on Jeff. She could have anyone she wanted. “A beautiful blonde woman just sat down with him.”