Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 06 - Tiaras & Texans Page 5

  “Oh, you want to know about my stolen dress?”

  I nodded.

  She shrugged. “It was stolen. I’m not sure what more to say.”

  “Was it worth a lot of money? Where was it the last time you saw it? Can you think of anyone who would want to steal your dress?”

  “It was my evening gown, and by far the most expensive clothing item I have for pageants, but not overly expensive. I think my mom paid a thousand for it.”

  I almost choked. A thousand for a pageant dress, and she didn’t consider that expensive? “Go on.”

  “I last saw it in my dressing station and it was in the blue garment bag I keep it in. It’s a specially designed garment bag, lined and all, to not rip the beading on my gowns. The bag was there before I went out on stage for the swimsuit competition, but when I came back to change into it to get ready for the finals, it was gone. Lucky for me, many of the girls bring more than one dress and I was able to borrow one from Allie. I still came in third.”

  I was writing all this down so I wouldn’t forget what she said later, but it was hard to focus on writing and not let my mind wander about the possibilities. Both girls had something happen that was relativity easy to fix, and they still came in among the top three. To me it seemed a significant bit of information.

  “Can you think of anyone who might have done this? Anyone who was desperate to beat you maybe?”

  “We all want to beat each other. Of course I always want to come in first place, but not at the expense of others. And I can’t think of any of the other girls who would ever hurt anyone else either just to win. Besides, it’s not uncommon to have a last minute rip in a dress and borrow someone else’s. That’s why many of the girls bring more than one. I, myself, normally have more than one, but my backup dress tore at the last pageant and the seamstress hadn’t returned it yet.” Janine looked at her oversized Gucci watch. “Oh my. I have to run. I have a fitting.”

  “Sure. Oh, wait. One more thing.”

  Janine turned around and looked at me questioningly.

  “I apologize in advance for getting in your business, but can you tell me about the shoplifting incident? The one with you, Allie, and Marissa.”

  Janine froze. I could tell she was wondering how the hell I knew about that, but she quickly recovered—I would give her top scores in poise—changing the look on her face. “I don’t know what you are talking about,” she said stiffly, losing some of her sweet southern drawl.

  “Janine, I know it’s probably embarrassing, but really, it’s no big deal. I just wanted to hear the story from you.”

  “Like I said, I have no idea what you are talking about. Now I have to go.”

  “Thanks for speaking to me, Janine,” I said to her back as she hurried off. Obviously, she couldn’t get away from me fast enough. I had hit a nerve when I mentioned the whole shoplifting piece.

  Linda walked over. “She doesn’t look happy. Was she any help?”

  “She didn’t have any earth-shattering revelations about who could be the tormentor, but I didn’t expect her to. Just having her tell the story again could always cause her to remember something new, so it’s worth a shot.”

  “What did you say to make her mad?”

  “I don’t know. Temperamental. Maybe she needs to eat,” I joked, not wanting to spill any secrets to Linda. Cooper had stressed to me that everyone was a potential suspect until we could be sure they weren’t. He always wanted to err on the side of caution and carefulness and we had to maintain confidentiality in the best interest of our client and reputation of Sands Security. So, except for Harvey, everyone right now was fair game. Though I would guess Harvey told Linda everything anyway as his right hand.

  “Well, Marissa is over there waiting for you, and I must warn you, she is in a bit of a snit this morning,” Linda said, pointing to a chair where yet another gorgeous girl, but brunette this time—a nice change—was sitting with her arms folded across her chest and a cranky look on her face.

  “What happened?”

  “Nothing to do with you. Just a scheduling conflict for a certain hair and makeup girl, so Marissa had to go with her second choice. It happens. Only so many stylists and a lot of girls, but Marissa is a bit of a prima donna and feels she’s entitled to preferential treatment. Doesn’t quite get why everyone should be treated equal.”

  I looked sideways at Linda.

  “More of a prima donna than many of the other girls, I mean,” she added with smile, clearly getting what I meant when I glanced at her.

  I looked over and noticed the guy from last night standing in the corner. “What’s he doing here?” I said, I thought to myself but realized it must have been out loud when Linda answered.

  “Who?”

  “That blond guy over by the coffee service. That’s Hollie’s brother. He stopped Cooper and me last night on our way back from dinner with questions about Hollie. I felt bad, but Cooper told him we couldn’t tell him anything and to talk to the police, He shouldn’t be here.”

  Linda looked over at the coffee service. “That’s not Hollie’s brother. She doesn’t have a brother.”

  “She doesn’t? Are you sure?”

  “I’m positive. Hollie is, was, the youngest of three girls, and they all spent time on the pageant circuit. The mother is a real overbearing type. You know the kind who likes to live life vicariously through her kids? Have them do the things she never could do.”

  “Will you ask Marissa to wait for me while I go check this out?”

  “Sure.”

  I walked quickly over to where Woody, if that was even his real name, was standing.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked him sternly, hands on my hips. He at least had the decency to look sheepish before answering me, which pretty much told me what I needed to know.

  “Well, I…”

  “And don’t try to feed me that crap about you being Hollie’s brother. I know she doesn’t have a brother.”

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lied. Just let me explain,” he implored.

  I stood there for a second raising my eyebrows. “Go on.”

  “I’m actually Hollie’s boyfriend.”

  Now that shocked me more than finding out he wasn’t her brother. Woody was a handsome man but he had to be thirty years older than she was.

  “I know, I know. It doesn’t seem likely, but I promise you it’s the truth. Look, I can prove it,” he said, reaching in his back pocket to pull out his wallet. He handed me a picture. It was of Hollie and him with their arms around each other. In a way that didn’t seem sibling-like. At least, my brother Jesse and I had never held each other that way.

  I looked at the picture for a moment and then turned it over. It said “looking forward to many more pictures with you, love Hollie.” I handed it back to him. “Why did you lie?”

  “Because I thought saying I was her brother was more believable. Plus, if you thought I was family maybe you would be more open.”

  He was right about that. I still wasn’t sure I believed him about being Hollie’s boyfriend, although that picture did seem convincing. “What do you want?” I said and then realized how callous it sounded, especially if what he said was true and he was in fact her boyfriend. “I’m sorry. I know this must be hard for you, but I just don’t know why you are here.”

  “I need to find out what happened. Surely you can understand that?”

  I did. I couldn’t imagine anything happening to Cooper or any of my family. I would be relentless for information.

  “I do understand, Woody, but you need to understand, too, that we can’t give out information on an investigation.”

  “Isn’t there anything you can tell me? Maybe I can be of some help?” He had a point. Maybe he knew something that could shed some light on who would kill Hollie.

  “You are a bit older than Hollie.”

  “Yes. Twenty-eight years to be exact, but I’m not some dirty old man. I loved Hollie and she loved me. Somethi
ng her parents couldn’t understand, and I know on first glance it seems unusual, but we were really soul-mates.”

  I could understand that. My mom wouldn’t be all that thrilled if I brought home a man her age, but then, who was I to judge true love?

  “How can I help?” he asked.

  “Do you know if Hollie had any enemies?”

  He shook his head. “Everyone loved her; she was really a sweet girl.”

  “Woody, think. Are you sure no one gave her any trouble? Maybe one of the other girls who was jealous or something?”

  Woody stayed silent for a second or two. “Well, there was this one girl. They had been good friends and then had a falling out of some kind. Hollie wouldn’t really tell me what happened. But it was one of the pageant girls. They wouldn’t be capable of murder.”

  “You wouldn’t think, Woody, but you never know. Do you know who the girl was?”

  “Her name was Allie something. I’m not sure of her last name.”

  My ears perked up at that. So much for Linda and Harvey thinking all the girls got along. Which made me wonder if they knew.

  “And Hollie wouldn’t tell you why she and Allie stopped being friends?”

  “No, all I know is Allie was giving Hollie a really hard time. Hollie called me in tears a few times. You don’t think Allie could have hurt my Hollie do you?”

  “I don’t know at this point, but we will definitely look into it.”

  “I just want to know what happened to my Hollie,” he said again.

  I felt bad for him, I couldn’t help it. I sighed; what I was about to do would probably get me in trouble with Cooper, but I wanted to help this guy. “Here’s is what I’ll do. Give me your number and if I hear anything I feel I can share, I will call you.”

  His face lit up. “That would be great. I so appreciate it.”

  “But you have to promise me that you’ll stay away from here. Trust me, it won’t help anything.”

  “Okay. Just please, please tell me what’s going on.”

  “I will not. Shoo!”

  He turned to leave, and once he went through the door, I walked over to where Marissa was sitting and got about the same result as I had with Janine. Not a lot. Marissa also denied knowing anything about shoplifting. I wondered if Allie would give me the same answer. I couldn’t wait to ask her about that and about her feud with Hollie. Something else Marissa claimed to not know about.

  Chapter 8

  I hope you had a more productive morning,” I said to Cooper, setting my bags down, plopping on the bed, and kicking my shoes off with a big sigh.

  “Actually I did. But first, how did it go with Allie, Marissa, and Janine?”

  “Change that last to Janine, Marissa and Hollie’s boyfriend, not brother, and it wasn’t too bad.”

  That got his attention as I knew it would.

  “What do you mean, Hollie’s boyfriend, not brother?”

  “The guy, Woody, who stopped us last night. Yeah, not brother, boyfriend.”

  “But …”

  “Exactly, twenty-eight years difference,” I said interrupting, knowing what he was going to ask.

  “Wow.”

  “My sentiment exactly. He said Hollie was one of those girls who didn’t have enemies, but then he finally told me that Hollie and Allie had some kind of falling out and Hollie was upset over it.”

  “What was it about?”

  I shrugged. “Woody said Hollie wouldn’t tell him. Just that she called him a few times crying and upset because of Allie. So she is definitely in my list of talk to next. As far as Marissa and Janine, nothing stood out in the recounting of the pranks, and they both said they felt it was someone just playing. That it was harmless. The girls still placed in the top three even with the added difficulty of the pranks, so really it didn’t hurt them too badly. I have to say, they were all pretty good sports about it. Much more so than I would have thought. However, when I mentioned shoplifting, Janine and Marissa claimed not to know what I was talking about. And I still have to chase down Allie to ask her about that. I swear these girls are a pain to find. This pageant stuff is exhausting and I’m not even a contestant. No wonder they’re so skinny; they run, run, run and only drink coffee and water.”

  “Neither one of them owned up to the shoplifting?”

  “Nope. I could tell Janine was lying. When I first brought it up she had a shocked look on her face, but then said she had no idea what I was talking about. She’s not a good actress. Marissa, on the other hand, I couldn’t tell. Though I have my suspicions she is probably just a really good liar.”

  “They probably lied because it was the last thing they would want to get around in the pageant circuit would be they are shoplifting. Image is everything,” Cooper mused. “Maybe Allie will admit to it and we can force the others to tell the truth.”

  “Though does it really matter?” I said. “Do you think it can be related to what’s happened?”

  “Look at you sticking up for the beauty queens. I agree that we might find out it isn’t relevant, since they are the ones the pranks were committed against, but when someone wants to hide something there is a pretty good chance it’s the piece of the puzzle we need. We can’t overlook it. We need to check it out and if the lead goes nowhere, then we can cross it off our list.”

  “I’m going to try and track Allie down later this afternoon. They have a group practice session for the dance, and I plan on being there and grabbing her for a few minutes.”

  “How was the swimsuit practice?’ Cooper asked.

  “Depressing for me.” I laughed. “But also boring. Especially for them. It seems to be a lot of standing in one spot without moving while the lighting crew does their thing. It was over two hours of nothing and not nearly as glamorous as it seems to us spectators, who don’t realize all that goes on behind the scenes.”

  “I’m sorry I missed it.”

  “Whatever,” I joked.

  Cooper was busy on his laptop, and I was lying on the bed relaxing and admiring his profile, when the phone rang.

  He grabbed it. “Hello? What? Where?” He spoke in short bursts, his body suddenly getting stiff. I knew from his posture this wasn’t a friendly call to meet Harvey or whomever down at Starbucks.

  “Who was that?” I asked, propping myself up on my elbows. He was already out of his seat, picking up his coat where he had dropped it.

  “Harvey,” he said curtly. “Put your shoes back on, there’s been another prank.”

  “What happened?” I asked as I hurried to throw on my shoes. “Please tell me no one is dead.” I didn’t think so, since Cooper wouldn’t exactly classify a dead body as a prank, but it was never good to assume. That much I had learned the hard way from Cooper.

  “No one was hurt this time, thank goodness, but one of the girls found a message on the mirror in her dressing station, and Harvey said it’s threatening.”

  We walked out of our room, Cooper moving so fast I could hardly keep up. “What did the message say?”

  “Harvey didn’t say.”

  We quickly made our way to the rooms containing the contestants’ dressing stations and walked in to find the girls huddled around one station in particular. I could tell it wasn’t Allie’s, Marissa’s, or Janine’s. Theirs were at the other end. So this must be someone new to add to the mix.

  “Excuse me,” Cooper said, pushing through the crowd of girls all is various states of dress. From the fancy gowns many of them had on they must have been doing fittings for the evening competition.

  Harvey saw Cooper and waved him over. “Let him through, ladies.”

  We finally made it to where Harvey was standing and he pointed to the mirror of the dressing station. Written in what looked like red spray paint was a message that said:

  Roses are red

  Violets are blue

  Don’t compete on Sunday

  If you know what’s good for you

  “Well, whoever wrote it likes rhyme,” I whispered
to Cooper.

  “What do you think, Cooper?” Harvey asked him.

  “First, I think we need to get all the contestants out of here except whoever this station belongs to. Then we need to talk to everyone separately.”

  “Okay. Linda,” Harvey said, turning to his right where Linda was standing, “can you get the girls over to the room next door? The photography people won’t be here for another couple of hours, so it’s available. Have some drinks brought in while they are waiting for Cooper or Presley to talk to them.”

  “Sure thing, Harvey.” She faced the girls and spoke louder. “Ladies, listen up. Follow me over to the Cambridge room next door.”

  As the girls started leaving, Harvey called out, “Bridget, I need you to stay here, please.” Another blonde—surprise—turned her head and walked back. I tell you, they were coming out of the woodwork here. “Cooper, this is Bridget. This is her dressing station.”

  “Hi, Bridget,” he said shaking her hand. “This is my associate, Presley. Can you tell us when you got here to find this?”

  “I came here right after lunch.” Bridget seemed very calm. It didn’t look like the message had rattled her much, while the other girls seemed visibly shaken.

  “Do you remember what time that was?” Cooper asked.

  “Not long ago. Maybe fifteen minutes or so.”

  I glanced at my watch to see it was almost one thirty. No wonder I was starving.

  “Harvey, when was the last time this room was used today before this?” Cooper asked.

  “This morning, before the run-through. Then the contestants had photos next door at eleven and then lunch in the main room. Then they had a short break before coming back to get dressed for more photos. But we don’t keep this room locked, since girls are always coming in and out to grab something.”

  As I listened to Cooper and Harvey talk, I noticed the maintenance man I had seen yesterday lurking around the employee exit doors again. I started to interrupt Cooper to tell him, when the man noticed me looking at him and quickly exited. Was it just a coincidence the same maintenance guy was hanging around the second time something went wrong at this pageant? I made a mental note to talk to hotel management about this.