by Laina Turner
“I will.”
Chapter 14
After walking around the hotel for what seemed like forever, I finally found Cooper in our room. “There you are!”
“Was I missing?” he joked.
“Well, you weren’t where you told me you would be and I just walked ten miles to find you,” I joked, once again wishing I wasn’t wearing heels.
“Sorry about that. We had a bit of an issue in the practice room and had to deal with that and then change rooms.”
“What happened? More pranks?”
“Unfortunately.” He frowned. “Someone pulled the fire alarm, and when all the girls were outside waiting for the firemen to clear the building, that same someone I’m assuming, or I guess they could have a partner in crime, trashed all the stations. Though they didn’t do that until after they broke the security cameras. Our prankster is getting smarter.”
“Oh no! I bet Harvey was none too pleased.”
“That’s an understatement. It’s been a while since I’ve had an onsite job with this many problems after I arrived. Not reflecting well on Sands Security plus with the extra people I’ve brought here, I’m going to lose money. This person—or persons, whoever they are—is finding ways to get people, including my people, out of the building to continue the harassment. It has to be someone with a decent knowledge of the hotel to be able to move around without being seen.”
“Maybe the mystery maintenance man? Maybe he’s the one who knows about the access panel in the foyer by the fireplace?”
“Maybe. But if he’s not really a maintenance man than how would he know about it?”
“Good point. I was thinking; we looked into the backgrounds of the people working for Pageants Unlimited, but do we know who might have started working here around the time of the first prank? Maybe there is a connection there.”
“Good thinking. I still have the employee files in my briefcase. Let’s look,” Cooper said, pulling a thick stack of files out of his briefcase and setting them on the table in two piles. One for him and one for me.
“The pranks started in March, so let’s make piles for employees with start dates January, February, and March. The rest can go over here and then we can go back further if need be. The hire date is on the top of the New Hire Information sheet stapled to the front cover,” I said, pointing this out to Cooper. We sat in silence until we sorted all the files. We were left with three files.
“This employee, Don Smythe, started in February, but is currently on a leave of absence according to his paperwork,” I said to Cooper. “That leaves us Ellen Perks, a part time makeup person, and…” I paused.
“What? Who is the other one?” he asked.
“It’s Elaine. She started in February, right before this all began. I knew there was something off about her. She must be the person we are looking for!” I said, springing out of my seat.
“Calm down, Presley. It could just be a coincidence. After all, you’re the one who said she told you her aunt knew Harvey and that’s how she got the job. Just because she rubs you the wrong way doesn’t mean she’s the one doing these things.”
“I know, but I just have a feeling about this.”
“To prove it’s more than a coincidence we need to be able to connect her to each incident.”
“Then let’s figure out how to do that,” I said. “She works here, so she would have had access to each of the girls and knows their schedules and where their stuff is.”
“But so do a lot of other people.”
“Do you think whoever is doing this wants to hurt the girls or Harvey?”
“I think it has to be Harvey. Since there have been different girls targeted and no one twice, it doesn’t add up that this person would be after a contestant, or the pranks would be happening to the same person. Someone is trying to ruin Harvey’s reputation and his company.”
“So if we find out who wants to ruin Harvey, we find the killer?” I said. “It sounds so simple.”
“If it were that simple I would be out of a job.”
Chapter 15
Ahhhhhh!” I heard a shriek from inside the practice room and my heart jumped. I was talking to Linda in the hall about logistics for the rehearsal and jotting down times the different parts of the pageant would take place. Then I was to give them to Cooper and he could work with Bob in making sure we had security where they were needed.
Linda and I looked at each other and ran into the room to see what had happened now. What had happened was immediately clear. One of the girls was standing in the middle of the room crying hysterically and with good reason. Her skin was orange from head to toe.
“Looks like someone used too much self tanner,” I murmured to Linda, thinking I would be crying just as hard if it were me.
“I think that’s more than just a liberal application of tanning cream.” She turned and walked up to the girl. “Calm down, Shelia, and tell us what happened.”
“I put on my tanning cream like I always do twenty-four hours before the pageant, and all of a sudden I turned this hideous color. What am I going to do?” she screamed, and once again I could sympathize. I would be screaming, too.
“Calm down, Shelia. We will figure out a way to fix this,” Linda said and then looked at me. For what I don’t know, as I had no clue as to what to do in case of too much tanning cream. I thought it had to wear off.
“Shelia, did you say you just put this on?” I asked.
“Yes. Just a few minutes ago.”
“And it immediately turned orange like this?”
“Uh-huh.”
I looked at Linda.
“It’s not tanning cream,” she said, reading my mind.
Tanning cream took time to activate with your body heart and while some acted quickly, they weren’t instantaneous. At least not any I had heard of.
I grabbed Shelia’s arm and brought it to my nose and smelled. “It’s betadine.”
“Who would put betadine in her tanning cream?” Linda asked me, though her question was rhetorical. She knew as well as I did it was the same person who had pulled the other pranks. Again, Hollie notwithstanding, this was immature and relatively harmless. More annoying than anything else. My first thought went to Elaine. I immediately looked around for her but didn’t see her.
“Where’s Elaine?”
“I sent her to the florist’s on an errand. Why?” Linda replied.
“No reason.” I wasn’t ready to share my suspicions with Linda. “Shelia, you need to get some rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide and take a shower using it to scrub all this off. It’s going to dry out your skin and it takes a lot of scrubbing to get it off, but it will come off.”
“Come on, Shelia, go to your room with Allie, and I will run down and see if the hotel store has either of those. If not, I can run down the street. I think there’s a Wal-Greens a couple blocks down,” Janine said to her, surprising me by her niceness.
“Okay, girls. Nothing else to see here. You only have twenty minutes left until the next session,” Linda called out. “Back to work.”
“How can we be sure our products haven’t been tampered with?” one of the girls whined at Linda. “We don’t want to end up like Shelia.”
“Yeah!” joined in another.
“Ladies, ladies, calm down. I understand you’re upset and you have every reason to be, but the show must go on. We can’t give whoever is behind this the satisfaction of getting us to stop what we all love.”
I had to admit, Linda was quite persuasive, and the girls started to calm down.
“How come no one has been able to catch who keeps doing this to us?”
“What about Hollie?” another one yelled.
“Yeah, what if someone tries to kill another one of us?”
This was almost turning into a mob scene and I couldn’t blame them. We needed to find who was doing this before it ruined the pageant and Cooper’s reputation.
“Ladies, I understand you might be worried, but w
e are doing everything in our power to prevent anything else from happening. I know it may not seem like it right now, but you just have to trust me.”
The girls were still grumbling but seemed to accept what Linda had said, and a few of them turned back to head to their stations. The rest were talking among themselves, but no one starting yelling again so that was a good sign.
“Are you guys any closer to figuring out who is behind this?” Linda asked me.
“That’s a loaded question. We’ve made progress, but obviously not enough. I know it’s only a matter of time and we’ll catch this person, which I also know doesn’t help the current situation. I’m sorry, I don’t have anything better than that to tell you.”
“I understand. You’re doing the best you can.”
We were, but sometimes your best just wasn’t good enough.
Chapter 16
I need to go back to The Gallery greenhouse,” I said to Cooper.
“Why?”
“I didn’t have a picture of Elaine when I went out there to show them the photos of potential suspects. I just got one from Linda.”
“And because you think Elaine is guilty you think they need to see her picture? I’m just not sure you would advocate making a special trip if it was Linda or someone else. You just don’t like Elaine. In this business we need to have reason to back up opinion.”
“Even if I didn’t, it wouldn’t be very thorough work to just shrug off a picture.”
“True. Then go ahead and run out there. Plus I know you said you liked those ladies. It might be fun for you to visit them again.”
“You do listen to what I tell you,” I teased him.
“I listen to every word!”
“Right,” I said holding my hand out for the keys, which he took out of his jeans pocket and dropped in my hand.
“Try not to scratch it. It is a rental.”
I looked at him in mock horror. “How could you say such a thing? As if!”
“As if it cost me a thousand dollars to fix the scratch in the BMW you drove in San Diego.”
“That wasn’t my fault. That other car was parked way to close.”
“Sure it was.”
“Whatever. I’ve already driven it once with no mishap. I’ll be back,” I said. It was true, I had scratched his BMW, but he wasn’t mad about it. He just liked to tease me about it mainly because he knew it annoyed me, as I had felt horrible.
This time I made it to The Gallery without any help from Bertha and felt so proud of myself. It was the little things sometimes. I pulled up to see Izzy pulling out. She stopped her car next to mine in the driveway and rolled down her window.
“Sorry I can’t visit, but I have an emergency delivery to make for a wedding. Maddie is inside and she’s better with faces than I am anyway.”
“Okay. Talk to you later, Izzy,” I said and waved as she drove off.
I pulled the rest of the way in and parked next to Maddie’s white Range Rover. I pushed the door to the greenhouse open and called out. “Hey, Maddie. It’s Presley.”
“I’m back here. Come on in.”
I made my way down the aisle between two rows of beautiful multi-colored roses to reach Maddie, who was bent over, sweeping up a mound of dirt.
“I was repotting some of the buds over here and dropped a bag of dirt I was lifting. It made quite the mess,” she said, standing up and wiping her brow, leaving a dirt smudge on her forehead.
“Here, let me help,” I said, bending over for the dustpan.
“Thanks. It makes it easier with two sets of hands.”
Together we made quick work of the mess, and I went to wash my hands and then met Maddie back in the office where she handed me a cold Diet Coke.
“Izzy said you were going to show us a picture you didn’t get a chance to yesterday?”
“Yeah. I know it’s an inconvenience, but I want to be thorough. You know, cover all my bases and all that.”
Maddie smiled. “No inconvenience. We love visitors. I’m glad you had to come back. Show me that picture.”
I reached into my tote and pulled out a manila folder that contained a picture of Elaine, which I then pulled out to show Maddie. Maddie looked at it for a few seconds before speaking.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t recognize this gal either. I’m afraid we aren’t all that much help. I wish we could help you solve things.”
“That’s okay. I knew it was a long shot.”
“You have any other leads to who might be causing all this trouble?”
“No. Neither do the police. It’s frustrating. Makes me almost want to go back to my retail job. Selling expensive clothes to rich women wasn’t nearly this hard,” I joked.
“Just stick with it. You’re a smart gal. You’ll find out who is behind all of the bad things that are happening.”
“I need to head back. More pageant practice.”
“I won’t keep you, then. But do make sure to get back before you leave if you can. I know Izzy would love to see you.”
“I will, Maddie, thanks,” I said, giving her a quick hug and walking back out to my car. I was half way back to the hotel when something Maddie said struck me as odd. She said ‘all of the bad things that are happening.’ But I didn’t talk about anything except Hollie’s murder, and no one—and by no one I was mainly meaning the news folks—knew about the other stuff going on at the hotel. It had been kept very tightly under wraps. So why did she say “things” plural? It seemed inconceivable Maddie was involved in this in any way. I was sure it was just the way she spoke, not her actual meaning. Cooper would probably say I was being overly suspicious of everyone, but it struck me as odd.
I reached the hotel just in time for rehearsal. I ran up to Cooper, who was standing with Bob at the entrance of the auditorium.
“We aren’t letting any outside guests in to watch rehearsal, and some people are not too happy with us,” Cooper said.
“Really?”
Bob chuckled. “He’s serious. I would rather face an army of insurgents than some of these stage moms one-on-one. They’re fierce. I think this is the roughest job I’ve ever worked.”
I laughed. “I know exactly what you mean. Many of them have been backstage the whole time. I can’t believe the daughters haven’t kicked some of the moms out. They aren’t the easiest to deal with. They would make me a nervous wreck.”
“Presley, I need you to go in and keep an eye on things until I get back. These doors lock from the outside, so once we shut them, no one can get in without us allowing it.”
“Okay. I can do that.”
“I want you to stay inside and keep an eye on the stage until I get back.”
“Got it, boss.”
Chapter 17
I appreciate all of you being here today. I know the last few days have been stressful for all of us and we will greatly miss our pageant pal Hollie. But you know she would have wanted the show to go on and…”
It was a few minutes before dress rehearsal and Harvey was giving what I assumed was a “rally the troops” speech and I had to give him credit. He was doing a good job. I didn’t envy him being in this position. A few girls had dropped out of this pageant after Hollie was murdered and a couple more after Camille was attacked. Linda told me several had dropped out of the next one, saying they were going to switch their alliance to Pretty Girls Pageants instead. Harvey was getting worried that his livelihood would be ruined if we didn’t figure out who was out to get him and fast. I was half paying attention to Harvey while scanning the crowd for a sign of Elaine. I had the suspicion she was avoiding me. Since the first day I was here she was a chatty Cathy, but the last couple days she acted like she was too busy to talk to me. Guilty conscience? I thought so.
Cooper told me not to jump to conclusions, especially since she had a solid alibi for when Hollie went back to her room, but I didn’t see the harm in jumping to conclusions when I knew in my gut it was the right conclusion. She just wasn’t in it alone. It wasn’
t possible. I just had to prove it, and the first step in proving it was to figure out why she would want to ruin Harvey in the first place. I saw Elaine standing at the bottom of the steps to the stage. She was talking in her headset and looking at a clipboard she had in her hands. Probably talking to whoever was backstage organizing the girls in their places. My attention was drawn back to Harvey as he concluded his speech. Something about his motions caught my eye, and realization dawned on me as I noticed him once again fidgeting. I was supposed to stay here and watch the dress rehearsal until Cooper got here. He was having a quick meeting with his men, but this couldn’t wait.
“Linda,” I whispered, as she was standing next to me. “I will be right back. I need to make a quick phone call.”
“Now? I thought you said you had to stay here until Cooper got back?”
“I will be right back. I promise!” Luckily, I was on the outside of the aisle so I didn’t have to disturb anyone in the audience as I practically ran up the aisle to get outside the auditorium to make my call. I propped the door open with my shoe so I could get back in and the door didn’t lock me out.
After what seemed only moments later, the door burst open. It was Linda. “Presley you need to come quick!”
“What happened?” I said, holding my phone and grabbing my shoe to follow her back into the auditorium, down to the stage where a group of people were gathered.
“The contestants were coming out on stage, making their debut presentation, and one of the girls collapsed!”
“Oh no.” Cooper was going to be pissed. I had only left for a second and something had happened with me not here.
“She’s still breathing and we’ve called an ambulance.”
I heard Cooper calling my name from behind me as I made my way up the stage steps. He quickly caught up to me.
“What happened?”
“One of the girls collapsed. Other than that, I just got here myself.”
“What do you mean you just got here? I told you to stay put until I was done with my touch-base meeting,” he said angrily. “You were our look-out.”
