Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 05 - Gems & Gunshots (8 page)

“You a friend of Nicole’s?” A voice jolted me from my picture gazing. When I looked up I saw it belonged to one of the guys in the photos. I assumed he was a brother.

“Um, yeah, you could say that,” I stuttered, not wanting to lie, but of course I couldn’t tell him my real reason for being here. He would have me thrown out for sure.

“I’m Alan. Her brother,” he said holding out his hand to shake mine.

“Of course. The pictures gave it away,” I said with a nervous laugh, pointing to the one of him and Nicole at the beach.

“Yeah,” he said ruefully. “I tried to tell Mom that she was getting a little carried away, but she wouldn’t listen.”

“I’m really sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you. It was obviously very unexpected, and my parents aren’t taking it very well, especially my mom.”

“That’s understandable. I can’t imagine what they must be going through.”

“Yeah, it’s rough. I just hope they catch the bastards who did this,” he said clenching his fists in anger.

“I’m sure they will,” I said sympathetically. “Do the police have any leads?”

“Not yet, and they say the first forty–eight hours is the most important in an investigation.”

“What do you think happened?”

“Just what we were told by the police. They think it was a robbery gone wrong. Just a case of the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Scary how such random things can happen,” I said, avoiding his question. “Please excuse me, I see someone I need to talk to.”

“Sure, nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” I said and headed over in Haley’s direction where she had just come back from the bathroom.

“Did you find anything out? I see you were talking to someone,” Haley said.

“That was Nicole’s brother, Alan.”

“Really?” Haley’s eyes grew wide. “What did he have to say?”

“Not a lot. He asked how I knew Nicole, and I saw you and left without answering. I’m not sure what I was thinking. Now I feel bad. This wasn’t such a great idea.”

Chapter 10

H
ow did you get this?” I asked Amelia, looking at the papers we had spread out before us on the table. She had called me a few minutes ago saying she was in the neighborhood and had something important to tell me and could she come over. I hadn’t spoken to her since telling Cooper about her wanting information on the blackmail, so I was anxious to talk to her as well as find out whatever she had to tell me.

“I looked through his briefcase last night after he went to bed. He hasn’t been sleeping well so he took an Ambien. I knew he wouldn’t wake up once he finally fell asleep, so I went through his stuff. I felt bad snooping, but I told you I was tired of being kept in the dark. This is what I found.”

Amelia showed me some papers that were registration certificates for diamonds that had corresponding insurance papers that showed a claim had been filed for reimbursement of stolen property. “Are you sure these diamonds weren’t stolen?” I asked.

“I’m positive. Look at the dates. They are prior to the robbery, and Greg would have told me if anything had been stolen. Especially of this magnitude. There’s over a million dollars in claims here.”

“I can understand why he might not tell you if he was committing fraud, but why would he fake this and risk jail for insurance fraud? The recent robbery attempt and murder notwithstanding, I thought things were going well.”

“I have no idea, but I damn sure will be finding out.” Amelia leaned back on the barstool in my kitchen and reached for her iced tea. “I am baffled. I’ve known this man for over thirty years and I can’t believe he would do something like this. It’s bad enough keeping secrets, but to commit a crime. Especially when my name is on the business. It could take us both down.”

“Do you think he’s received the insurance check yet?”

“I don’t know. It was only a few weeks ago and I’m not sure how long these things take. To my knowledge we’ve never filed a claim before. First the blackmail and now this. I don’t understand what is going on. What happened to our peaceful life?” she said, voice rising.

“Is there a phone number on that insurance form for the office?” I bent over the papers to look.

Amelia spotted it first. “This one. The six one nine prefix. That’s the local number.”

“Just one second and we’ll see when that was mailed,” I said.

“Who are you calling?”

I ignored her as I listened to the phone ring once, then twice, and then someone came on the line. “Hi, Beverly. This is Camille from Gemstone’s Unlimited. I am calling for my boss Greg Anderson. He said your office was mailing him some checks a few weeks ago and wanted to know if they had been sent out yet. Sure, I’ll hold.” I looked at Amelia and whispered, “She’s checking.”

Amelia shook her head. “I can’t believe you. They’re not going to tell you this information over the phone without some kind of verification of identity,” she whispered back.

“Oh, don’t worry. You’d be surprised at what people tell that they aren’t supposed to, you just have to seem confident like you know exactly what you’re supposed to do. In fact once…yep I’m still here.” I listened for a few seconds to what Beverly was saying. “Oh, really? That man; he can’t ever remember anything. I’m sure everything’s fine and that he just forgot. Thanks for your help, Beverley.” I hung up the phone and said to Amelia, “As I said, never doubt what people will tell you over the phone. Not only have those checks been mailed, but according to Beverly they have also been cashed. Three checks totaling just over a million dollars.”

Amelia’s eyes grew wide. “Wow. That son of a bitch. He’s got that much money, and it sure as hell didn’t go into our personal account or the business account. I just got a bank statement yesterday that I printed from the online account to scan and send to the accountant. There was nowhere near that amount of money. He must have it stashed somewhere, that bastard! If only I knew where and what he’s trying to hide.”

“Now Amelia, don’t you think you should give him a little benefit of the doubt? He’s never done anything like this before, has he?” While I had the same reaction she did, I kind of felt bad having brought this to her attention.

“No, but it seems like every day lately I find out something else he’s been hiding from me, and I’m sure this million dollars isn’t being hidden to protect me,” she said bitterly. “People don’t hide money from their spouses unless they have something significant to hide.”

I didn’t like the direction this seemed to be going either, but I also didn’t want to help her jump to conclusions. That wouldn’t be worthwhile for anyone, and if Cooper found out it would really not be good for me. “You’re going to have to be very calm when you ask him about this, Amelia. Or else he may never tell you. He’ll just go on the defensive. Can you think of any reason he would be doing this? Any legitimate reason?”

“Besides to somehow amass a pile of money that he’s hiding from me, which means he is probably planning on heading for parts unknown? No.” Amelia was angry and I didn’t blame her, but I did find it odd that Greg was all of a sudden acting so out of character. Unless he had done this type of stuff all along and Amelia just hadn’t known, which was always a possibility. I knew a lot of people, me included, who didn’t know about a secret life someone close to them was living. It happened.

“I guess I should keep somewhat of an open mind, at least until he has a chance to explain himself,” Amelia said. “But I’m so angry I’m not sure I can.”

“Well, I’m here if you need to talk. I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to make things more difficult.”

“It’s not your fault. Men,” Amelia said, shaking her head.

Chapter 11

C
ooper walked in the door after work. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Hello to you too, honey,” I replied. “What’s wrong with you?” Though it wasn’t a stretch to figure out Amelia had probably talked to Greg and Greg had called Cooper. I had been half waiting for this.

“I just got off the phone with a very unhappy Greg who says you and Amelia think he’s committed insurance fraud? What the hell, Presley? What exactly are you two thinking?” Cooper walked into the kitchen, returned with a beer, and came over to sit down on the chair across from me. The way he was leaning forward indicated he was trying hard not to yell. “You can’t just go accusing people of things.”

Obviously, Amelia had wasted no time in going home and confronting Greg. Not that I blamed her. I would have done the same thing. I set down the magazine I had been looking at and swung my feet off the couch so I was sitting facing him head on. “First of all, Amelia came to me, and second, the evidence she showed me was pretty convincing. I even called the insurance company and—”

“You what?!” he sputtered.

“Amelia is on that account, too, and I had her permission,” I said a bit defensively. It’s not like I went sneaking around behind everyone’s back. Amelia had a right to know what her husband was doing. I decided to leave out that little detail that I pretended to be someone at the store in order to get the information and let him draw his own conclusions. “Anyways, I called the insurance company and they confirmed he had cashed some checks they issued to him for diamonds he claimed were stolen. Amelia said nothing had been stolen until the robbery, but the paper work was dated before the robbery took place. So don’t yell at me. Talk to your client. He’s the one who clearly has something to hide.” I couldn’t read Cooper’s expression. He didn’t seem as mad, but he was definitely thinking about something. Not being the most patient person, after a few seconds, I couldn’t stand it. “What? What are you thinking?”

“Something’s not right.”

“Like what? Maybe Greg isn’t the upstanding person he presents himself to be?”

“Presley, I’m not sure what is going on, but you stirring things up isn’t going to help me figure it out. And regardless of what the real story is with the alleged stolen diamonds; it doesn’t change the fact that someone is blackmailing Greg, and it needs to be dealt with.”

“Cooper, why haven’t you made him go to the police about the blackmail? It’s not like you to keep the authorities out of the loop. Maybe this is why he falsified those insurance claims. Money to pay the blackmailers.”

“Possibly,” Cooper said. “Greg was adamant we not go to the police and I told him that I would respect that wish, unless I thought it was getting to be out of our best interest, and then I would contact them no matter what.”

“Is it normal for someone not to want to get the police involved in a matter like this?”

“Yes and no. Anyone who takes the risk to blackmail someone is going to demand they not contact the police. Nine times out of ten, the police get involved at some point, and usually I would insist on their involvement. The only reason I didn’t in this case was because of Greg’s involvement with Ganuchi. Ganuchi wouldn’t help if the police were involved, and because of Greg’s prior relationship with him, I thought maybe we would benefit from Ganuchi. I was willing to give it a try at least.”

“Cooper are you sure that Greg didn’t commit insurance fraud? The papers Amelia showed me were very convincing, and he did cash those checks, so this is real.”

“No, Presley. I’m not. I’m not sure of anything at this point. I don’t like the fact that he’s hiding things from me.”

“Did you ask him if he did it when he told you Amelia had accused him?”

“Of course I did. He denied it and I believed him, but now I’m not so sure.”

Chapter 12

I
was sitting on the couch reading the latest issue of
People
magazine when the doorbell rang. I wondered who it could be as I got up and walked toward the door. I was hoping it wasn’t anyone important, as I was in my workout clothes and not dressed for company. I wasn’t sweaty or anything since I hadn’t actually worked out, but these clothes weren’t the most flattering. I had put them on thinking they might motivate me to get some exercise by going for a walk around Cooper’s beautiful neighborhood, but so far it had only motivated me to sit on the couch.

As I reached the door I looked though the side glass and saw Greg standing there. I was more than a little surprised and apprehensive. It was the middle of the day and Cooper was at work, so why would Greg be here? I opened the door and stood in the opening. “Hi, Greg. I assume you’re looking for Cooper? He’s not here.”

“No, I’m actually looking for you,” he said with a look on his face that gave me the impression he was none too happy.

“Me? Why?”

“Can I come in?”

I hesitated for just a second, wondering if it was a good idea to let him in. But he was a client of Cooper’s so he couldn’t be all bad. I certainly wasn’t in any danger. I was being silly if I didn’t let him in. He might be a thief and a liar, but it wasn’t like he was a murderer. “Sure,” I said, moving aside so he could walk through the doorway. “Can I get you something to drink? An iced tea or a mojito if it’s not too early?” I said, trying to be hospitable and lessen the tension I was feeling between us.

“No, thank you. What I have to say won’t take but a minute,” he said crisply.

“Okay,” I said slowly. “At least sit down.” I walked to the living room and motioned to the sofa where I took a seat, trying to hide how nervous he was making me. “So, what’s on your mind?”

He continued to stand in the foyer, but I wasn’t going to let it bother me. If he wanted to stand there, so be it.

“I want to know why you are stirring up trouble,” he asked. I couldn’t get a read on him, if he was angry or upset.

“What are you talking about?”

“The accusations you’ve made.”

“Greg, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t accused you of anything.” Now, I was starting to regret letting him in. I didn’t want to make things worse for Cooper by saying the wrong thing.

“Come off it, Presley. You got Amelia all stirred up about this supposed insurance fraud and now I even have Cooper questioning me about it.”

“Hold on one minute!” I exclaimed standing up. “I saw those papers Amelia showed me and she brought them to me. It’s not like I went to your house looking for them. She’s the one who told me you hadn’t had any diamonds stolen.”