Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 08 - Vows & Victims (7 page)

“He won’t be coming this trip.”

“He won’t be at the wedding? Why not?” she asked with concern.

“He got a last minute job and he had to fly out today,” I said, just now realizing I had no idea where he was flying to or where the job was.

“That’s a shame.”

“Yes, it is.” In more ways than one. I still couldn’t believe he had told Chris and hadn’t told me. It made me wonder if he would have told me at all if I hadn’t called him about Dirt. Speaking of which…“I do have some interesting gossip, though.”

“And what’s the scoop?” my dad asked.

“Dirt escaped from jail.”

“What?” my mom exclaimed, dropping her fork. “Oh my goodness. When did this happen? What is this world coming to?”

“This morning, according to the police.”

“What are they going to do?” she asked.

“Who? The police,” I said, grabbing a second helping of eggplant. A helping I shouldn’t have taken, since I had an already–tight dress to wear in a couple days, but right this moment I didn’t care.

“Yes, the police. We can’t have a murderer running around loose.”

“Of course not, Mom. I’m sure they’re looking for him.” While I didn’t want the third degree over this either, at least it got her off the Cooper subject.

“You better be careful.”

“I will, Mom. Stop overreacting.”

“Your mom’s right,” my dad interjected. “It’s not something to take lightly. He has reason to not be very happy with you.”

That was probably a bit of an understatement, but he was right. No matter what he had done, it was still hard to reconcile in my brain that the Dirt I had grown up with was now a convicted murderer.

“I will. I promise. Now let’s eat some brownies.”

An hour later, I was stuffed, the kitchen was cleaned up, and I had changed out of my jeans into yoga pants to better accommodate my full belly. I was sitting on the couch with my laptop, putting the finishing touches on my first food blog post when my phone buzzed. It was Tobey.

“What are you doing?” I asked when I answered the phone.

“The question is what are you doing? Can you meet me?”

“Now?”

“Yes. Now!”

Chapter 9

W
hat do you have for me?” I said, sliding in the booth at Betty’s, where Tobey had said he wanted to meet when he’d called me twenty minutes ago.

He slid a piece of paper toward me with names on it.

“What are these?” I asked.

“Names of some former associates of Bethany’s.”

I looked over the list where there were names of three females and two males. I looked back at Tobey. “I guess I’m just a tad confused. Why did you need to meet me just to give me this?”

“Because I wanted to see your face in person when I told you what all these people have in common.”

“Please tell.”

“They were all arrested as part of a prostitution sting.”

My jaw hit the floor. “You’re kidding me.”

“No, I’m not,” he said with a smile, apparently getting the reaction he was looking for. “After you dropped me off, I decided to do some digging into Bethany’s past. She had worked at a real estate office in another town that’s no longer in business. When I checked into why, I found there had been an investigation into the business for suspected prostitution. These three ladies,” he said, pointing to the names, “were arrested for soliciting, and the two gentlemen on the list were the ones allegedly trying to hire them. There were more involved, but these folks were the only ones who were actually arrested.”

“Allegedly? Meaning they weren’t convicted?”

“Nope. The charges were dropped.”

“Why?”

“It doesn’t say.”

“Then we need to find out,” I said. “It just seems in a small town that wouldn’t necessarily be something overlooked. Great work, Tobey. This really could have something to do with Bethany’s murder. If she worked there, maybe she was part of things? Do you have phone numbers, or better yet, addresses for any of these people?”

“No, but we can find out that information fairly easily.”

“Then do it. We can try and track them down tomorrow.”

“OK,” Tobey said.

“Did Chris tell you about Dirt? I’m assuming Katy told him?”

“She did and he did. It’s crazy. How do people break out of jail these days?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know, but the more I think about it the more creeped out I get. I don’t know why he would risk coming here, but what if he does?”

“You think he really would? Wouldn’t he rather just get the hell out of here and go to some remote place, without extradition to the US? Or at least not come back to the place where he had been a sheriff’s deputy and most people would still recognize him?”

“That would be the most logical thing to do, but he’s not really all that logical these days. I mean, he did kill a man and just broke out of jail. That’s not rational thought.”

“Good point.”

“Do you ever miss politics, Tobey?” I said, changing the subject.

“Ha!” He snorted. “Not one single bit. My job now might be a little boring at times, but working for Senator Daniels definitely gave me my fill of politics and, more importantly, politicians. It’s just a game I have no desire to play. It’s funny how glamorous and exciting you think something will be in college and then the reality of it is a huge disappointment.”

“What do you see yourself doing long–term? Are you going to stay at the newspaper?”

“It works for now, and I know you left here and didn’t look back, but as corny as it sounds, I kind of like it here. Being around my family and friends. After the whole Senator Daniels thing, I was ready for laid back, even boring. And that’s what I’ve got here!”

“Yeah, I can understand that. Speaking of family, I should get back home. I promised my mom I would help her with a few things. But let’s meet up tomorrow and check out some of Bethany’s co–workers.”

“OK, tomorrow morning at nine. I should have the information by then.”

We left, and I took the long way out of town for no other reason than to see what had changed since my last visit a few months ago. Which wasn’t much. I started to turn left on the road that would circle me back around to head in the direction of my parents’ house when something, or rather someone, caught my eye. I slowed down and started to make my turn, luckily no one was behind me or they would probably have been honking at me at this point.

The person I was looking at was tall, lanky, dark haired, wearing blue jeans and a T–shirt, and standing next to an old Buick LeSabre. His back was to me, but there was a sense of familiarity that struck me when I saw him. His car was in the lot of an old drive–up restaurant that had gone out of business a few years ago and people used to advertise cars for sale and extra parking for special events. Basically, it was a place no one paid attention to or gave a lot of thought to what cars were there. It was a good place to hide in the open.

C’mon, turn around, dammit, I muttered to myself, wanting the person to turn around before I got too far past to see. As I slowly drove by, the man finally turned slightly to look over his left shoulder before he opened the driver’s side door. Almost as if he knew someone was watching him. I looked back at him in my rearview mirror and my heart nearly stopped as I confirmed my suspicion.

The man was definitely Dirt. He was back in town.

Chapter 10

A
re you sure it was him?” Katy asked the next morning when we were on the phone. I had tried calling her last night, but hadn’t been able to get hold of her. She had gotten my voicemail this morning and called me, frantic. I didn’t blame her. I was still a little freaked out myself.

“I’m positive.”

“Did he see you?”

“I don’t think so. He was in the parking lot at Charlie’s, and I don’t really think he noticed my car even. Not that I’m the only black Kia in town, but I think had he seen and recognized my car, I would have been able to tell by his body language.”

“Did you call the police?”

“Of course I did.”

“What did they say?”

“They would check it out. I’m presuming he was gone by the time they got there or they would have let us know, but at least we know where he is for sure. Well, semi–sure, I guess.”

“Yeah, here. That doesn’t make me feel good.”

“I know, but since the police know he’s here they can hopefully spend more resources looking for him. It narrows the area they would be looking, or at least that’s what sounds logical to me.”

“Presley, this scares me. What do you think he wants?”

“I don’t know, Katy. I think we just need to be careful and observant. I don’t think he would be here to hurt us or anything.” At least I was telling myself that. There was nothing for him to gain by doing so, but then he had obviously come back here for a reason. I just couldn’t even begin to guess what that could be. “What are your plans today?”

“Well, your mom called mine and, thankfully, she is going with her to these meetings most of the day. I owe you one for that. So Chris and I were going to do some last minute shopping for vacation clothes. He has to work later today and when he’s at work, I was just going to finish up some of the decorations. The centerpieces for the tables still need assembly.”

“Why don’t I come over and help you with that so you’re not alone. I can stay until Chris gets home.”

“OK, we can open some wine and make a fun evening out of it,” Katy said.

“Sounds good.”

By the time we got off the phone, I was in the parking lot waiting for Tobey, who had texted that he was running late.

I went in to grab us a couple of coffees, even though I had drunk three cups already this morning. You could never have too much coffee, and my body was so used to it that the caffeine didn’t affect me. Unless I didn’t have any. Then I was a bit of a wreck.

By the time I walked out with two large cups in my hand, Tobey was pulling up. As I walked over to his car, he rolled the window down to take one of the cups.

“Wow, such service,” he said with a chuckle.

“I try.”

“Hop in.”

I walked around to the passenger side, got in, and looked at Tobey. “So what did you find out?”

“One of the ladies and one of the men don’t seem to be in the area any longer, but the other three are,” he said, grabbing a legal pad from the back seat and handing it to me. “It’s better than nothing. Here are the names and addresses. I thought it best to surprise them by showing up instead of calling. They probably aren’t going to want to talk to us. I wouldn’t if I were them, so the element of surprise would work best.”

“Or maybe not. We will just have to be persuasive,” I said.

Tobey pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward the first destination, which was in the next town over in Clermont, where the real estate company had been located.

“Thank goodness for smart phones with GPS,” I said. “Makes finding places so much easier. So who are we visiting first?”

“First on our list is Celeste Thomas. Worked at Clermont City Reality with Bethany and the other ladies. She’s twenty–six and was the receptionist.”

“I find it interesting that in small towns such as Alkon and Clermont there could be something like a prostitution ring. I think of that as big city activity.”

“Everyone wants sex, Presley, and some people are willing to pay for it. Where there’s a demand there are often people who want to cash in on filling that demand.”

“I guess. We could have our own episode of
City Confidential
here. I loved watching that show with my dad. I don’t think it’s even on anymore.”

“Especially with the Dirt thing. Are you worried about him being around?”

“Of course I’m worried,” I said, “and maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t think he can stay around here for long without being spotted by the police. So either they will soon catch him or he’ll leave for somewhere safer and farther away.”

“Let’s hope. It’s kind of creepy knowing he’s out there.”

“I agree.”

“OK, look for 26573. Even and odd numbers are divided and it looks like odd are on the right.”

Tobey slowed so we could read mailboxes.

“Don’t you think these houses seem a little high end for a twenty–six–year– old?” I asked. The homes were in a newer development with those extremely large custom homes that were way, way above my pay grade.

“Maybe she still lives with her parents.”

“True. Stop! We just passed it.”

He put the car in reverse and backed up, then pulled forward a bit, parking next to the curb.

“What exactly are we going to say?” Tobey asked me as we got out of the car.

“The truth? That we want some information on Bethany. If you think that will work?”

“I have no idea so we might as well just be up front. The worse she can do is slam the door in our faces,” he said cheerfully.

We walked up to the house and rang the doorbell. I heard what sounded like small dogs in the house reacting to the sound with yappy barking of their own. A few seconds later, we heard footsteps and talking. I couldn’t tell what was being said, but I assumed it was someone telling those dogs to stop barking, because that’s what I would be saying. I loved animals, but the high–pitched barking of small dogs was really annoying after about two seconds.

The door soon opened and a beautiful blonde, whom I presumed was Celeste, stood before us. What initially struck me was how she reminded me of all the women who had been working at Granville Group. Blonde, young, beautiful. It was almost a cookie cutter effect and made me feel trumpy in my Hudson jeans, cute strappy high heel silver sandals, and layered tee shirts. When I got dressed this morning I had liked the way I looked. Now I almost felt insecure next to this beauty.

Did you have to be a beauty queen to work for Bethany? The dogs, Jack Russells it looked like, were jumping at her feet. Cute but annoying.

“Hush!” she said to them, which really had no effect. “Sorry about that. They get a bit excited when we have new visitors. What can I help you with?” she said, smiling, seeming friendly. Which was a good skill to have if she indeed had been an escort, I couldn’t help but think. Each to his own and I didn’t think less of anyone for choosing that profession, but I did have a hard time understanding it.