Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 07 - Cupids & Crooks Read online

  “Are you going to head to the pool tomorrow?” Denise asked.

  “Probably. Can’t pass up the chance to get some sun,” I smiled.

  “Great. Make sure to look for us. We’ll be out there right after breakfast. The guys will probably be golfing again. Won’t you honey?”

  Randy nodded. Denise smiled at me again. “See you tomorrow!”

  “You too. Have a good dinner.”

  They walked away and I said to Cooper, “Did he lighten up at all on the golf course?”

  “He’s kind of a quiet guy, but he was pleasant enough. Guys don’t need to chat to hang out. Not like you ladies.”

  “That’s why you’re boring,” I said playfully.

  “Lady, I’m anything but boring. Maybe we should skip this witch-hunt and go back to our room where I can show you just how not boring I can be,” he said nuzzling my neck.

  “As much as I would love to take you up on that offer it will have to wait. First things first.”

  Cooper pretended for a second to look hurt, which I knew he wasn’t, and followed me out to the hotel taxi stand. We got in and I gave the driver the address. We were headed to Berger Resorts, where victim number two, Gaby Ruiz, was killed, and I was planning on trying the same thing I did at La Maison and hoping to find someone who was still employed there and then seeing what kind of information they might have about the murder. According to Belinda it was the same type scenario. Gaby was hosting a party to celebrate her birthday and instead of the fun party everyone expected to attend Gaby was found murdered.

  The taxi dropped us off at the door and we made our way to the front.

  “So what’s the plan, Presley? You just going to barge in and ask questions about a two year old murder?” Cooper asked. He wasn’t so much sarcastic as he was skeptical, which I would take over sarcastic any day.

  “Well it seemed to work ok for me at the last place,” I shrugged.

  “Presley, all kidding aside this is a five star resort. People stay here who have money. You need to be careful as to not piss people off.”

  “What’s the worst that can happen? They throw me out of the hotel?”

  He shook his head, resigned to have to deal with me. I walked up to the bellhop and smiled. “Can you tell me if you have any employees who worked here about two summers ago?”

  “No, ma’am. I just started here last week, but I know who might could help,” he said eagerly turning to an older gentleman who was a few feet away sweeping the sidewalk. “Hey, Hector, can you come here for a minute?”

  Hector looked up and walked over. “Can I help you?”

  “Hector, this lady is looking for someone who might have worked her a couple summers ago. I told her you might know.” The bellhop turned back to me and said proudly, “Hector has worked here for thirty years.”

  “And I’m the only one,” Hector said. “Mr. Berger isn’t the easiest to work for and people don’t stay here long. I’m just so old nothing bothers me,” he said laughing at his own comment.

  “Maybe you could answer a few questions for me,” I said and continued on before he could say no. “Were you here when Gaby Ruiz was killed?”

  “The movie star,” the bellhop said excitedly and Hector gave him a dirty look.

  “I was. Working out here at the bell stand.”

  “Do you remember anything unusual about that night?”

  “Besides the fact a star was murdered and this place was crawling with police? Man, was Mr. Berger pissed. You would have though she got herself murdered on purpose,” he shook his head. “I never saw here. She came in the back entrance and unfortunately left the same way. Are you a friend of the family or something?”

  “No. Just helping a friend. So there isn’t anything about that night that stands out in your mind?” I pressed.

  “Sorry.”

  “Ok, well thank you anyway.”

  “Sure thing.” Cooper and I walked away and I could hear Hector giving the bellhop a tongue lashing about being star struck at the mention of an actress’s name. I’m sure in their line of work one had to be subtle.

  “Satisfied now?” Cooper asked. “You know it’s going to be like this at the other places. People just don’t stick around in these type jobs for years on end.”

  “Someone did at La Maison, and here too, just not someone who knew anything. Stop being such a pessimist and let’s go check out the next two places, then we can go back to the hotel and I can take you up on that deal of showing me just how not boring you are,” I smiled.

  Unfortunately, I completely struck out at the next two places. No one worked there during the time of the murders of victims three and four, Fawn Garcia and Esperanza Ochos. I was disappointed but not entirely surprised. Maybe when I talked to Belinda tomorrow she would have an idea for the next step.

  Chapter 5

  Belinda had called and pushed back our meeting so I had a couple hours this morning to kill. Cooper was golfing again, with the promise we would go in to town and do some shopping later, so I thought I would see if Denise and Regina were at the pool. I liked the fact that Cooper and I could vacation together and enjoy time apart and together. Some might find it strange that so far we had spent so much time apart on a vacation, especially one that was to somewhat celebrate a romantic holiday, but this way we both had a good time.

  I walked down to the same pool we were at yesterday. The main pool was still closed, which was fine with me. It still seemed a bit creepy to go in the water where a dead body had been floating a day earlier.

  I spotted the ladies as soon as I stepped out onto the deck, noticing Denise’s big red sun hat from yesterday. They saw me and waved and I walked over to where they were sitting.

  “So glad you could make it,” said Denise.

  “Pretty suit,” Regina said.

  Today I had on a royal blue one piece with a silver mesh cover up. It hid my flaws nicely.

  “Thanks. So have you been out here long?”

  “Nope, just came out here after breakfast. The guys went golfing again. Is that where Cooper is?” Regina asked.

  “You know it. I find golf about as boring as he finds lying out by the pool so we each do our own thing and met up in the afternoons. It’s a win-win.”

  “That’s how we are too,” said Denise. “It’s nice.”

  Chapter 6

  “Sorry I’m late,” I said to Belinda as I finally made it to our arranged meeting spot. Denise and Regina had kept trying to get me to stay and although I wanted to find out what their big secret was, and enjoy the sunshine, this was more important.

  “Not a problem. I was just catching up on some work,” she said stuffing some papers back in her briefcase. So I’m dying to know. What did you find out?”

  “Not a lot unfortunately.” Belinda’s face fell a little but she bounced back quickly. She knew as well as I had that it was a long shot anyone could give new information after so much time had passed. “Two of the places didn’t have anyone left on staff from the times of the murder and out of the two who did one guy had no information. I did talked to someone at La Maison who said he saw Malia arguing with an older gentleman before she was found murdered. Since we didn’t share information beforehand I didn’t know if this was old news or new news.”

  At this Belinda looked excited. “I don’t think anyone mentioned her arguing with someone before.” She picked up her large tote bag and sat it in her lap digging around in it until she finally pulled out a beaten up leather journal. Flipping through the pages she paused and her finger moved down the page, as she seemed to be reading something. “Nothing in here about Malia arguing with anyone. I wonder why I didn’t find this out. Who gave you this information?”

  “Diego Vazquez.”

  “No wonder!” Belinda said. “Diego wasn’t working when I tried to talk to him. He was gone for a few months I think, someone there told me to take care of a family member, and then I must have forgot to follow back up. This could be important, Presl
ey!”

  “Do you have any idea who the older man could be? Was she involved with anyone?”

  “She didn’t have a steady boyfriend that I know of. I have no idea, but I will do some more research. I wanted to talk to some of the staff about Lucia now that the police are gone. Want to come with me?”

  “Sure. There is a guy who works here, Roberto, he seemed pretty chatty yesterday.”

  “I remember him. Maybe he can tell us who was working when Lucia was found.”

  We went off in search of Roberto, only to find he wasn’t in yet but was expected in a few minutes. We of course were going to wait. Belinda decided to make some calls and I was just hanging out and people watching when I saw Denise and Regina. I started to call out to them, see what they were up to, when I noticed they were walking over to two young Mexican children, a boy and a girl looking to be about four and six, and an elderly lady who was with them. A grandmotherly type. They obviously weren’t hotel workers and I doubted they were guests either. How did Denise and Regina know them? The three adults seemed to be in a very heated conversation.

  Belinda called my name and tore my attention away from Denise and Regina and back to the matter at hand. She pointed to the left where Roberto was coming through the doors. She started walking over to meet him and I joined her.

  “Hello, ladies. What can I do for you today?” Roberto said graciously when we caught up to him. I was going to let Belinda do the talking. She was a reporter and experienced in asking questions so I thought she might get more out of him then me just being a guest.

  As he had been the day before he was quite forthcoming, and it made me wonder if the hotel knew what a chatty Cathy he was, about what he knew and even provided some details of things I’m not so sure weren’t just a little embellished.

  “Did she meet with anyone or was anyone with her?” Belinda asked.

  “Her make up person and her assistant. The usual I suppose.”

  “No older gentleman visited her?”

  “Not that I saw. Though I do remember her getting a phone call. I didn’t take the call personally, but I heard that a man called asking for her and one of our waiting staff took her the house phone.”

  “Do you remember who took the call?” I interrupted.

  “Sure. It was Helena. I think she’s working the lunch shift in the café lounge come with me I will introduce you.”

  We made the short walk to the café and Roberto spoke to the hostess, who pointed across the room to whom I presumed to be Helena. Roberto motioned to us he would be right back and he walked over to get her.

  “Do you think she will remember anything?” I asked Belinda.

  “Let’s hope.”

  Roberto walked back over with a pretty lady - maybe mid thirties - in tow. “Ladies, this is Helena. I told her what you were asking for and she says she remembers the call. Helena, tell them.”

  She gave us a brief smile. “I took a call for Ms. Vegas, she was not happy,” she said solemnly.

  “What do you mean, wasn’t happy?” Belinda asked.

  “She was, how do you say, annoyed at first and then angry. She hung up on him and told me if she got any more calls to tell whoever it was she wasn’t available.”

  “Is there anything you remember about the caller?”

  “It was a man.”

  “Was the man young or old?” I asked.

  “Older man I think. I’m not sure,” she frowned.

  “Ms. Vegas didn’t mention a name?”

  Helena shook her head. “No, ma’am. I didn’t hear who it was if she said anything.”

  “Thank you, Helena,” Belinda said. I echoed the sentiment.

  “Anything else I can help you ladies with?” Roberto asked.

  “Not right now, Roberto. Thank you,” I said.

  “Ok, then,” he said with a flourish. “I’m off.”

  This older man can’t be a coincidence can it?” I asked Belinda.

  “I don’t think so. In fact I’m not going to think so. This is our only lead, only connection between the five murders except for the physical characteristics. We need to find out who this man is.”

  “Do you happen to have any idea as how we can do that?” I asked.

  “No. I was hoping you would,” she said to me and smiled.

  Chapter 7

  Belinda ended up calling a contact she had at the main cellular phone company, and after much cajoling and the promise of a Victoria’s Secret gift certificate, her friend looked up the call logs for four out of the five victims. We were happy it was that many as there were several different cell providers who serviced the area and we could have only had one number with this company. We got extremely lucky.

  “She is sending the call logs to my email and then all we have to do is go through each one looking for similar numbers. If we can find the phone numbers the victims had in common the day they died, and then find out who owns those numbers, maybe we can find mystery man,” Belinda said.

  We had met in Belinda’s office, which was in downtown Cabo, so we could print off the call logs. Spreading them out on a big conference table we each took two logs and looked for the date of the day the respective victims died and used a highlighter to mark those specific numbers so they would be easier to compare. After completing that task I went back down the two lists looking for any common numbers with the plans to circle them. I had hoped to find one commonality, the mystery man, and was surprised when I found three numbers both victims had called or who had called them, the day they died.

  “How many numbers did you find?” I asked her pointing at the three I had found.

  “Two. What about you?”

  “Three. Don’t you find it odd?”

  “What?”

  “That they have so many numbers in common. I thought we would be lucky if we found one number in common.”

  “Yeah, kind of. Do we have any matching?”

  We looked and saw there were two numbers all four victims had in common.

  “Let’s call them and see who they belong too,” she said, grabbing the logs I had in my hand and picking up her cell phone. Dialing the first number and holding the phone to her ear while crossing the fingers on her other hand for good luck only a few seconds went by before she said, “I’m sorry I must have dialed the wrong number,” and hung up.

  I looked at her expectantly.

  “You can cross that one off the list. It was a stylist they must all have in common.”

  The same was true of the other numbers she called. A car service was the other all three had in common and a salon and the restaurant La Flora were the other two that some of the victims had in common.

  “Are there so few people in these industries that are good that all the stars use the same ones?” I asked.

  “It seems so. Not so surprising, but it didn’t give us any businessman connection. We’re missing something,” Belinda mused.

  Chapter 8

  “Presley, hey Presley!”

  I looked toward the sound to see it was Denise and Regina. When they saw they had caught my attention they waved me over. I had just got back from downtown and was going to run up to my room and freshen up before meeting Cooper. He was going to be back from golf in about an hour and we had plans to take a shopping tour. I did want to ask them about the woman and kids they had been talking too earlier.

  “Hi, ladies, how’s it going?” I asked when I reached them.

  “We’re drinking mojitos. How do you think it’s going?” Regina laughed.

  “That means pretty well in my book,” I said smiling.

  “Let’s get you one,” Denise said swiveling in her seat and motioning to the waiter to bring another chair and cocktail. Within short order both wishes were fulfilled and I was sitting down to join them. We chit chatted for a few minutes and I enjoyed the first sips of my drink and decided there was no subtle way to ask so I might as well blurt it out.

  “Who was the Mexican family I saw you two with ear
lier?”

  Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Regina shoot a glance at Denise, but just as quickly as it had happened it was gone.

  “What do you mean,” Denise asked sweetly with the sweetness of someone who is trying to hide something.

  “I saw you two in the lobby earlier talking to who looked to be a grandmotherly type and two small children. I just wondered how you knew them.”

  “Why?” said Denise.

  I was taken aback. I hadn’t been able to guess as to who those people might be but I surely hadn’t expected Denise or Regina to get defensive and I could definitely tell Denise was on edge and clearly uncomfortable that I was asking.

  “Just curious. Making conversation,” I said trying to lighten the mood.

  “Denise is just being silly. C’mon, Denise. Lighten up,” said Regina. “That is a relative of someone who works for Denise back home. We brought some trinkets and such here for the kids. Nothing sinister. Denise is just over protective, aren’t you, Denise?”

  Denise nodded and took another sip of her drink.

  While I wanted to believe Regina, something about it didn’t ring true and certainly didn’t explain Denise’s attitude. However, it was their business not mine.

  “Ok. I didn’t mean to be so nosy.”

  “I’m sorry, Presley. I guess I need a few more of these cocktails,” Denise laughed hollowly.

  We changed subjects to safer topics like the beaches here and I told them about my trip downtown, just not the why behind it. When I finished my drink I begged off from having another and headed up to my room hoping I still had time for a quick shower.

  I was just finishing up getting dressed after my shower when I heard the door click and I poked my head out of the bathroom to see Cooper walking in.

  “Hi, sweetie,” I said, kissing him on the cheek he offered up. “How was golf?”