Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 09 - Romance & Revenge Read online

  “Uh, I believe I did try to tell you. Many, many times. You just weren’t ready to listen.“

  “Oh, yeah. Maybe that’s true.” She laughed. “Better late than never, I guess.”

  “What’s he doing now?” I asked. “Dirt, I mean.”

  “He wants to go back to the police force, but he still has the prison escape charge on his record, which of course makes that impossible. He hired an attorney to try and get it taken off his record, but in the meantime he’s taking classes at University of Illinois. He said if he can’t get his record cleared, then he needs a field to go into where it doesn’t matter as much if you have a felony record and he’s interested in computers. Anyways, he is in great spirits about it, much more so than I would be. He says he’s not going to worry about what he can’t control.”

  “It’s good he’s planning for the future,” I said. “And that things worked out. This could have been a mess with him stuck in jail for twenty years.”

  “That’s actually been one of our biggest issues. I’m pissed he did that for me and I’m having a hard time getting over it. It could have ruined his life, and it wouldn’t have been worth it.”

  “At least it all turned out OK.”

  “Yeah, it did,” she said, pausing. “Speaking of planning for the future, have you talked to Cooper lately?”

  “No.” I shook my head sadly. “Not in over a month and that was just email. I haven’t talked to him on the phone in forever. I feel like we’re so disconnected. He’s still out of the country as far as I know.” As I said this, I noticed a funny look on Katy’s face. “What? Do you know something I don’t?”

  “He was in Alkon last week. To see his dad for Christmas,” she said hesitantly, and I could tell she didn’t like telling me this since I thought he was far, far away.

  “Oh.” I hadn’t gone home for Christmas this year. My parents had gone on a month-long cruise and we had celebrated our Christmas at Thanksgiving. I spent Christmas here in Chicago with Jared. Not that I would have necessarily expected to spend the holidays with Cooper, but I couldn’t help but be really hurt he hadn’t at least called. I had been telling myself he hadn’t called because he was out of the country and wasn’t able. But after finding out he was back in the States … did that mean we were over?

  “I’m sorry, Presley.”

  “It’s OK,” I said, even though it wasn’t. Last time I’d seen him was almost six months ago when he’d taken a job out of the country and said he wouldn’t be back for a while and that maybe it was best for us to take time apart to think about what we both really wanted. That notion had been brought on by the fact that he had asked me to marry him and, in a moment of stupidity, I had said no. I hadn’t meant no; I’d just been caught off guard and it was the first thing that popped into my head and unfortunately out of my mouth. Things had just went downhill after that.

  I had hurt him deeply and before I had the chance to really explain, he’d left and our communication dwindled. It hurt that he was back stateside and hadn’t even called. I had been holding on to the hope that once he got back I would finally have a chance to explain and it would all be resolved. Apparently, I needed to start facing the reality that we may really be over. I didn’t even want to think about that and kicked myself, not for the first time, for not making more of an effort to contact him and make him talk to me instead of just waiting.

  “He asked about you,” she said.

  “Really?” I said, feeling a little hopeful.

  “Yeah. He asked how you were doing. He seemed sad. He wasn’t normal Cooper. I think he misses you.”

  “I’m sure he’s not sad about me, Katy, or he would have told me he was back in town. I’m afraid that maybe things are just too far gone for us at this point. I mean, it’s been six months with little communication so I have to think he’s moving on.” I knew I was being negative but I couldn’t help it.

  “He was interested when I told him what you were doing. And he didn’t seem like he was moving on. If you really want to be with him you shouldn’t just sit here and let him get away. Make your move.”

  “I’m not about to chase him.”

  “Why not? He asked you to marry him and you were the one who said no. If you want him back, maybe chasing him is the way to go. Show him that you really do love him and want him in your life. Permanently. What can it hurt?”

  “Besides him rejecting me and making me look like an idiot?”

  “Who cares, Presley? If you love him, don’t you want to try everything you can to get him back?”

  “Well, yeah but…”

  “No buts. Swallow your pride and go after him. If you don’t, you only have yourself to blame.”

  “What am I supposed to do?” I asked, because I was really at a loss. I didn’t want to do something that would make me look like crazy stalker lady.

  “Let’s figure that out.”

  Katy and I brainstormed about how to get my love life back on track and Jared eventually joined us.

  “OK, I got a hold of everyone and they all seemed excited to try and figure out who was doing this to us.”

  “Good. Then we can start talking to them tomorrow?” I said.

  “Why not today?” Jared asked.

  “Because Katy is trying to tell me how to get my love life back on track. And more importantly, I thought we could stop by Becky’s, providing you know where she lives, and see what we can find out.”

  “Good idea and yes, I know where she lives. I’m glad you’re butting in to her love life. She needs all the help she can get,” he said to Katy.

  “Hey!” I protested.

  “Hey, nothing. You’ve been miserable since Cooper left. It’s about time you did something about it.”

  “That’s exactly what I’ve just been telling her,” Katy said to Jared.

  “I’m sitting right here. You don’t need to talk about me like I’m not here.”

  “We wouldn’t if you’d do something about Cooper. He’s too good of a guy to let go without a fight,” Jared said.

  “Why don’t you cook us lunch while you lecture me,” I said, wanting to change the subject and hoped that would be a good distraction. “And then we can head out.”

  “Fine, but you’re not off the hook!” He laughed. “Steaks OK? Then we can have a lighter salad for dinner with the leftovers.”

  We both nodded. Jared started getting the stuff together for lunch in the kitchen while we sat at the bar and watched. He did almost all the cooking for us when we ate at home because, to be honest, my cooking wasn’t actually cooking; it was more like warming up or ordering take out. His culinary skills were one of the many reasons it was great to have him as a roommate.

  “This is wonderful, Jared,” Katy said after taking a bite of her steak. I can’t seem to ever get steak to come out right. It’s always tough. Even when I grill it outside.”

  “The secret is to cook it in a cast iron skillet on the stove in olive oil. Seals in flavor but doesn’t dry it out.”

  “I never would have thought of that,” she said.

  We finished lunch in short order and left the dishes for later, so we could head to Becky’s.

  Chapter 2

  We hailed a cab because it was easier than getting downtown by car. At least for me. I hated driving in downtown traffic and really only kept my car for my trips home. Though I had thought many times I should just sell it and rent when I drove home. But it was six months from being paid off and the garage fee was practically free. So it could just sit there.

  Jared gave the cabbie the address and for the first few minutes of the drive we were silent. I don’t know about them, but my mind couldn’t help but wander to Cooper.

  “What’s your plan?” Jared asked, jolting me out of my Cooper thoughts, which was probably a good thing.

  “I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “I thought just seeing the place might give us an idea of what happened or a clue. It can’t hurt to at least take a look.”
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  Since it wasn’t quite late enough to be the evening rush hour, we made it across town in decent time. The cab driver pulled up in front of a nondescript-looking apartment building. We got out, paid him, and he left. We all stood for a minute looking at the building.

  “How are we going to get past the door man?” Katy asked and we stared at the guy behind the desk just inside and left of the glass entrance doors.

  “Often at places like this, just like in our building, the doorman doesn’t screen every visitor. They are there to be somewhat of a deterrent to homeless people and the general riffraff from coming in. Not to question the seemingly normal people. The problem is, if he does ask who we are here to see, we can’t very well say Becky. And it is surprising there isn’t at least one cop still here. Though maybe they’re on Becky’s floor, not here on the main floor.”

  “I might have a solution. I met one of Becky’s neighbors one time when we all went for drinks after work. She met us. Her name was Tammy or Teresa. Something that started with a T,” he said, and closed his eyes as if to think for a minute.

  “Tressa. That’s it. Tressa something, I have no idea of her last name. I’m not even sure it was given.”

  “Well a first name is something. Let’s give it a try.”

  We walked up to the front door and I admit I was a little nervous. I might be nosy, but I was a rule follower and felt a little guilty if we ended up having to lie. In light of the recent murder, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were hyper-vigilant to people coming in.

  I shouldn’t have wasted my time worrying because we walked in and right to the elevators and the doorman barely looked up from his magazine.

  “Well, we know one thing already. They don’t have a great doorman,” whispered Katy.

  He was like Charles that was for sure. The elevator door shut and Jared pushed the button for the ninth floor, which was the floor Becky’s apartment was on, according to Jared’s information.

  When the elevator doors opened we all peered tentatively outside the doors and down the hall to the right. I could see crime scene tape, but I didn’t see an officer, which was a positive. I knew from experience the best way to act like you have a right to be somewhere you shouldn’t be is to do just that. Pretend you belong. I walked down toward the end of the hall confidently with Jared and Katy close on my heels. The hallway was completely empty and when we got to her door, number 9175, there was the yellow crime scene tape, but other than that, it looked pretty normal.

  “Now what,” Jared whispered in my ear.

  Now what indeed. I was so lost in thought about the next step when Jared poked me in the back, jumped and I snapped, “Just give me a minute.”

  “You might want to turn around,” he said.

  “Why,” I said, turning to see someone standing in the doorway, a couple doors down, staring at us. Uh-oh.

  We all stared at one another in a surprised silence. Until Jared finally spoke up.

  “Are you Tressa?” he asked, and I just looked at him wondering what he was doing.

  “No, I’m Julie. Tressa lives down the hall. Is that who you’re looking for,” said the blond, mid-twenties looking girl.

  “Yes. We must have walked the wrong direction,” he said and we started walking toward Julie who had a skeptical look on her face.

  “Tressa is at work. It’s only three,”

  Jared shrugged, “She didn’t know we were coming.”

  “Are you reporters?” she asked.

  “No,” Jared said and looked at me. It was clear Julie didn’t believe we were here for Tressa.

  Strangely enough, honesty often was the best policy. Though you had to be somewhat careful to not give everything away. So maybe it was better to say partial honesty was the best policy.

  I paused for a few more seconds, weighing the options of what could happen if I said too much and she freaked, slamming the door in our face and calling the cops. I decided there was much more to gain, than lose, so opened my mouth and started talking.

  “Here’s the deal. My friend Jared here worked with Becky,” I said and pointed to her apartment door. “My name is Presley, by the way, and this is Katy,” I pointed to Katy. “Like I said, Jared here worked with Becky and we wanted to see what happened to her. Not in a gruesome way,” I quickly added, so she didn’t think we were that strange. “But to figure out what happened.”

  “So are you a cop or something?” she asked, sounding confused.

  “Um, not exactly. Just officially nosy.”

  A few seconds went by and I was crossing my fingers she wouldn’t call 911 and report crazy trespassers.

  “OK,” she finally said and I let out a grateful breath. “I’m all for nosy. If it’s for a good cause. I liked Becky. She was a great neighbor and what happened to her is awful.”

  “Do you know what happened?” I asked.

  She shrugged, “Not really. I was just getting out of the shower when I heard a scream. I threw on my robe and ran to the door to look out. Becky’s door was open, but a girl was standing just outside it on the phone and she was calling 911, I could hear. She stayed on the phone until the police got here and they wouldn’t tell me anything. Believe me, I tried.”

  “Damn,” Jared muttered. I knew he had been hoping for something a little more helpful.

  I could see on Julie’s face she felt bad, though she had absolutely no reason to and started to comment to that effect when she began talking again.

  “I have a key to her apartment.”

  That got my interest.

  “We traded a long time ago, just in case someone lost their keys.”

  “The cops didn’t take it?” I asked.

  “They never asked,” she said and smiled. This was my kind of gal. I smiled back and said, “Do you mind us using it to take a look?”

  “Not at all. Let me get it.”

  “Are you crazy,” Katy whispered to me. “We can’t go in there. We could get in trouble.”

  “It’ll be fine. We just can’t touch anything. We’ll be in and out in five minutes and no one will know.”

  Julie returned quickly with a key and a pair of rubber kitchen gloves. She handed them both to me.

  “We probably shouldn’t touch anything. Don’t think you’re leaving me behind. I just didn’t want to go in by myself.”

  “Works for me,” I said. “Why don’t you guys stay out here and be on look out. Yell or text if someone’s coming who shouldn’t find us in here.”

  “You mean like the police,” Katy said and I could see she still wasn’t happy about this.

  “Exactly.”

  Julie walked over to the door and put the key in. She then handed me one of the rubber gloves, put the other one on herself and unlocked the door, pushing it open with her gloved hand.

  “Be quick,” said Katy.

  I nodded and followed Julie into Becky’s apartment, which was an absolute mess. Probably from the police, I assumed, looking at the white dust that was everywhere. I knew from experience it was the powder used for finding fingerprints. It looked like someone had taken handfuls of powdered sugar or flour and just twirled in circles letting it slowly flow out until it covered everything.

  “So, what are we looking for?” whispered Julie.

  “I don’t know specifically. Anything that might give us a clue to who killed her. Though to be honest, if there was something here, the police probably found it and took it already.”

  I walked around the apartment thinking Becky had good taste. Lots of IKEA and Pier 1 in here. I loved Pier 1. Inexpensive but still nice. I saw some photographs on a row of staggered, floating shelves and walked over to them.

  “What’s that?” Julie asked.

  “Just some pictures. Her and some guy. Maybe her boyfriend. Do you know if she had one?”

  “Not sure.”

  “I’ll have to ask Jared if he knew.”

  The apartment wasn’t that big so it didn’t take long to walk around the whole place.
Other than wondering if she had a boyfriend or not, there wasn’t anything that seemed out of place but since I hadn’t even known her I probably wouldn’t have noticed anyway. I walked back toward the front door.

  “You ready?” I called to Julie.

  “Sure, I’ll be right there.”

  I walked out the door where Jared and Katy were waiting and saw Katy visibly breathe a sigh of relief.

  “Thank God,” she said. “That took forever.”

  I looked at my watch. “It was fifteen minutes.”

  “A really long fifteen minutes. Where’s Julie?” Katy said.

  “Right here! Let me just lock up.”

  After the door was secured, Julie walked over to where we were standing in front of her apartment.

  “Any luck,” Jared said.

  “Nothing jumped out and screamed this is how she died if that’s what you mean.”

  “I was hoping,” he joked. “Seriously though, nothing? No clues?”

  “I did see a picture of her and some guy. Did she have a boyfriend?”

  “Yeah. His name is Peter, I think. One of the girls at the office might know. Why?”

  “Maybe we could talk to him, he …”

  “Sorry to interrupt, but I need to get ready for work,” Julie said.

  “Oh, sorry. Thanks for the key,” I said. “And the glove,” handing it to her.

  “Sure,” she said and abruptly closed her door.

  “That was odd,” said Katy.

  “It’s like she just had enough of us and wanted to get away.”

  “And you don’t feel that way sometimes?” I said, laughing.

  “Good point.”

  “Listen. Let’s head home and think about what to do next.”

  Chapter 3

  “You should call him,” Katy said to me as we were walking down Michigan Avenue the next morning, coffee in hand, window shopping.

  “Who?” I asked, knowing perfectly well whom she meant but playing dumb. I knew she wouldn’t stop bringing it up. She and Jared had harassed me all night long about this, in between discussing theories on who killed Becky.