by Laina Turner
Tobey shrugged. “I have no idea.”
We got in the car and I started the engine. “I think we should check out one more place, if you have time.”
“I do, but where do you want to go?”
“Bethany’s real estate office. Maybe we can talk to some of her employees?”
“It can’t hurt. It’s on the other side of town, by the highway.”
“She wanted to be far away from Jonathan’s office, huh?” I said.
“It seems that way. I do find it a little strange that she became so successful so quickly,” Tobey said. “Real estate is a relationship business, and it doesn’t seem that it should have been that easy to steal those clients from Jonathan, who probably had relationships built with these people.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You know this town. It’s not that big and people have loyalties. Jonathan has been in business for a long time, and for her to take his business so easily, I don’t know, just doesn’t seem right.”
I thought about that for a minute and decided Tobey was right. In our town, folks were fiercely loyal and, unless Jonathan had done something outrageous, they would have needed a compelling reason to change alliances.
“Maybe her employees can shed some light on something we don’t know,” I said.
A few minutes later, we pulled into the Granville Group. In a newer section of town, it was definitely more opulent than the offices we had just come from.
“This is fancy,” I said.
“It was recently built. By the people that built that new section downtown. They are trying to give that old town feel with new construction.”
“I like it. I mean, the colors seem out of place at first, but I like the look.”
The buildings were connected, but instead of your regular rectangle strip mall, it was composed of units with completely different looks. Designed to look like different buildings that just happened to be connected. Each one was a different bright color and while it might seem obnoxious, it was actually a lot of fun to look at. If I were going to have an office in Alkon, this location would be my choice, just because of the atmosphere.
We pulled around back and parked next to two Mercedes, an Audi, and a Cadillac.
“They must be doing well here,” I said to Tobey.
“You know that it’s part of the image. Just like the billboards. Plus, Bethany deals in higher–end homes. People in that pay grade don’t want to ride around in a Kia.”
“Hey, now, I love my Kia and besides, it’s paid off. I wouldn’t be able to pay off one of those cars in a lifetime of what I do.”
“You could always change professions and become a realtor.”
“Ha! No thanks. Not my cup of tea. Though these days, I don’t know what is.”
We walked into the building and there definitely was a marked difference in the atmosphere of this office compared to Jonathan’s. I had expected it to be quiet, since their boss had just been murdered, but it was the opposite. The place had a receptionist, who was on the phone, and I could see three people in the conference room. The walls were glass, and there were at least two other people walking around that I could see. I looked over at Tobey, who raised his eyebrows, which signaled to me that he also found it interesting. We walked up to the reception desk just as the young woman got off the phone. She was blond, probably early twenties; I could see her as an ex–cheerleader type.
“Can I help you?” she said with a smile and energy that supported my cheerleader theory.
I faltered for a moment. I hadn’t expected so many people to be here and hadn’t thought about who to ask for, figuring there would just be one person here to talk to.
Luckily Tobey stepped in. “We were wondering if Connie Withers is in.”
“Do you have an appointment?”
“No, we just stopped by hoping she might have a free moment,” he said.
“Let me see if she’s available. One moment, please.”
“Who is Connie Withers?” I whispered to Tobey.
“She’s second in command here. I did a piece on her a few months ago for the paper. She hosted a charity function to buy books for kids.”
I nodded, glad he was with me.
“She will be right out,” the receptionist said. We stood there for just a few seconds until Connie came out to greet us. Another beautiful blonde, Connie was also young and dressed in a gorgeous suit that fit her perfectly. My guess would be custom fit. Maybe I should try my hand at real estate.
“Hi, Tobey,” she said, giving him a hug. I was surprised, not realizing they were such good friends. She turned to me and held out her hand.
“Connie Withers,” she said.
“Presley Thurman,” I replied, shaking her hand.
“Thurman. Is your mom Sue?”
“Yes, she is.”
“I think I’ve met her at a junior league event. In any case, she does great things for charity in this town.”
“Yes, she does,” I said, wishing I could go somewhere in town just once where people didn’t know my mother.
“Come on back to my office. Can I get you anything? Coffee, diet coke, water?”
“No, thank you,” I said.
“Me, either,” Tobey said.
“OK, then,” she said as we sat around the small table in her office. “What can I help you with today?”
I couldn’t help but wonder if her face muscles ever got tired from her constant smiling. It hadn’t left her face since she greeted us.
I looked over at Tobey, thinking maybe he should start since they knew each other.
He must have known what I was thinking because he went ahead and asked, “How is everyone handling Bethany’s death?”
“Oh, that,” she said with a detached air that to me seemed the wrong tone to have when talking about someone who had just died. Even if they were just co–workers and nothing else. “Yes, we are all broken up over it.”
“I’m surprised to see so many people in the office today,” I said.
“Things must go on. Bethany cared very deeply about the business and wouldn’t want it to suffer because of this,” she said. “She would have wanted us to keep working.”
Even so, I thought it strange that not even one day had passed, and judging by the level of activity here clearly no one was visibly mourning her. But I nodded anyway, pretending like I understood.
“Do you know if Bethany had any enemies?” I asked.
Connie frowned. “Not really. Everyone liked her.”
“Even Jonathan Mills?”
At that, Connie laughed. “Jonathan? His bark was worse than his bite, and he might have been mad at Bethany, but they weren’t enemies. If anything, he was jealous of her success.”
“Jealousy can sometimes make enemies.”
“You’re thinking Jonathan killed her? No way,” Connie said, shaking her head.
“Is there anyone else you can think of who might have wanted her dead?”
“Presley, what are you getting at?” she asked.
“Just wondering who might have killed her and left her in my friend’s salon,” I said, being honest with her as I was with Jonathan.
“Oh gosh, I don’t know. Like I said, everyone liked her.”
I didn’t really know where to go with this at this point. Connie didn’t seem to have any more information.
“Well thank you,” I said, standing up. “We don’t want to take up any more of your time.”
“Oh, not at all. If there’s anything I can do for you or if you’re ever in the market for a house, please think of me,” she said, as she walked us to the front of the bustling office.
As we walked out of our second real estate office today, I turned to Tobey and said, “Did anything strike you as odd in there?”
“Not really. I mean, I didn’t expect it to be so ‘business as usual,’ but everyone deals with death differently, and maybe they weren’t all that close.”
“That, too, but did
you notice the people there?”
Tobey looked at me like I was crazy. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“They were all women, and before you say that’s not unusual, let me add they were all gorgeous women under thirty.”
“So?” He shrugged. “Maybe she just hired a bunch of people like her. Young, pretty, female.”
“But that’s not good business. While that might appeal to all the male homeowners, there are a lot of women it wouldn’t appeal to.”
“Maybe Bethany wasn’t that good a business woman?”
“Tobey, she wouldn’t be so successful and have a place like this for her business if she wasn’t smart about it. Something isn’t right here.”
We were getting back in the car when I felt my purse vibrate. I pulled it out and saw that it was Katy.
“Hello?”
“Where are you?”
“Hanging out with Tobey, just getting ready to drop him off. Why? You have some wedding excitement planned for us today?”
“I was hoping you could swing by and pick me up. Chris took my car and I hate driving his.”
“Sure, I can be there in fifteen.”
Chapter 7
Where we headed?” I asked Katy when I got to her house.
“To the police station.”
“Oh, do they have some information for you on Bethany’s murder?”
“Not exactly.”
It was then I noticed a funny look on her face. I had known Katy pretty much all my life, so I knew when something was wrong. “Katy, what’s going on?”
“I got a strange phone call today. Congratulating me on my upcoming wedding.”
“And…?” I prodded, wondering what she wasn’t saying.
“And I think it was Dirt.”
My eyes widened. “Really?”
She nodded.
“Wow.” I sat there for a moment, not knowing what to say.
“They must not monitor who they talk to in jail.”
“That’s the thing, Pres. He wasn’t calling from jail.”
“What do you mean he wasn’t calling from jail? He had to be.”
“No.” She shook her head. “If he were calling from jail it would be collect and say it was a call from jail. This wasn’t a collect call.”
“How do you know about the collect thing?” I had never gotten a call from someone in jail, so that was news to me—a fact I guess I was thankful for.
“He’s called before.”
“What? And you’ve never told me? Why? What did he say?”
“I never told you because I didn’t want you to worry, and it wasn’t that big of a deal. But, yeah, he’s called a couple times, and it was collect. I knew it was him and I didn’t accept the charges.”
“What did he have to say this time?”
“Congratulations and he would be seeing us soon. That’s why I called the police and they asked me to come in.”
I was having a hard time taking all this in. Hearing it made me want to call Cooper. A thought I needed to put out of my mind. Dirt had been a friend of ours. We had grown up together, he and Cooper had enlisted together, and Dirt had eventually made his way back to Alkon and become a sheriff.
He had also become involved with the wrong people, and through a bad series of events, murdered a senator. The same Senator I had been sent to interview a while back.
Dirt had been sentenced with twenty–five years to life in a prison in the southern part of the state. After his conviction, I quit following what he was doing and tried to forget and move on. To find out he had tried to contact Katy before and then again today gave me a horrible pit in my stomach. I couldn’t imagine what he could possibly want from her.
It was a short ride to the station. Nothing in this town was too far away, except maybe the Dairy Queen, which was in the strangest spot out west of town, but close to the high school, so I guess that made sense.
When we walked into the police station and Katy said who she was, they were expecting her and quickly ushered her into a conference room. Probably more like an interrogation room, they just didn’t want to call it that when it was used with someone not suspected of a crime.
A few minutes later, we were joined by Officer Schultz who had been at the crime scene at Katy’s salon yesterday. Was that only yesterday? It seemed so long ago but had barely been twenty–four hours. Schultz had also been the one to help the FBI arrest Dirt in the first place, so I wasn’t surprised he was the one here now talking to us.
“Katy, Presley, thanks for coming in. Katy, you said on the phone that Derrick called you?”
“Yes,” she said, telling him what she had told me earlier.
“Katy said the call wasn’t collect. Does that mean he’s out of jail?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, yes it does. He escaped only this morning during a routine transport for a medical checkup. I got the call a couple hours before Katy called us. You were both on my list of people to contact.”
“Why?” I didn’t understand why he would contact us. We weren‘t victims or anything.
Schultz sighed. “Dirt has been vocal in prison about coming back to Alkon and getting even. When I saw you back in town, Presley, I included you in the group of people he might want to get even with, even though you don’t live here anymore.”
Katy and I just looked at each other, taking this in. It was so hard to comprehend the person Dirt had turned into. When you had known someone for as long as we had known him, it just didn’t make sense. We had grown up together. We all used to have sleepovers before we got to the age boys and girls didn’t have co–ed sleepovers.
“So, what should we do?” Katy asked. I felt bad. This was one more thing she didn’t need to deal with during her wedding week. What else could possibly happen to make things any worse for her?
“You need to be diligent about noticing your surroundings. If he does come back here, he will likely try to make contact with you when you are alone or in a compromising place. Somewhere without a lot of people around. He can’t afford to be seen. Not in this town where too many people know him. Since he contacted you by phone today, I fully expect for him to contact you again.”
“Do you think we’re in danger?” I asked.
Schultz hesitated, and I was sure he probably didn’t like to tell people they should be on the lookout for a crazy convicted murderer.
“I think it’s a definite possibility, especially with him on the run. He’s going to be more desperate, and desperation does things to a person, causing them to do things they wouldn’t normally do.”
Which was what had gotten Dirt in trouble the first time and led him to the point of committing murder. Something Schultz knew as well as we did.
“I will call you if I hear anything and please call me if he tries to contact you again. Either one of you.”
He stood up to leave, but I didn’t want to let an opportunity pass, so I went ahead and asked, “How is the investigation coming on Bethany Granville’s murder?”
Once again he hesitated.
So I added, “Katy’s salon being closed hurts her business, as you can imagine, and the quicker this gets solved, the quicker she can re–open.”
“We should be finished with the crime scene by tomorrow and she can get back in, but as far as the case—no comment.”
“What about unofficially?” I pressed.
Schultz gave me a small smile. “Just know we’re working on it.”
He clearly wasn’t going to tell us anything, but at least I tried.
We walked back outside. The sun had really warmed things up so I took off the jacket I was wearing to enjoy the warmth on my arms.
“Presley, I’m a little freaked out about this.”
“Yeah, me, too. I can’t believe he escaped from jail.”
“You need to call Cooper.”
I knew she was right, but things were so strained between us, and I didn’t know how to deal with that, so I wanted to play the avoid
ance game. “I will. Later. Now is there any wedding stuff we should be doing?”
“Yes, but I can’t think right now. You want to grab some coffee and I can look at my list and regroup?”
“You know me, I’m always up for coffee.”
A few minutes later we were settled in the local coffee shop. Me with my standard sugar free vanilla non–fat latte and Katy with a café mocha.
“Wedding dress be damned, I’m splurging,” she said, when she ordered the calorie rich drink.
“So, pull out your list. Let’s get this wedding stuff taken care of,” I said, full of enthusiasm.
“Presley, stop. I can’t even begin to want to think about wedding stuff. With everything else that’s happened on my mind, I feel like a ball of anxiety.”
“Maybe we should be drinking wine instead of caffeine?” I joked. “I know it’s hard. I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes and I can’t imagine how you must be feeling, but this is the day you’ve been looking forward to for a long time. There’s nothing you can do about Dirt or Bethany’s murder, so try to not think about it. Focus on the positive. This awesome day coming up.”
“You’re right,” she sighed.
“Of course I’m right. Focus, wedding, marriage. All the good stuff you’ve been looking forward to. That you deserve. What can I help with?”
“Can you pick my mom up from the airport and entertain her?” Katy said with a grimace.
“When is she flying in?”
“She wasn’t supposed to come until Friday, which is the way I wanted it. But when she heard about what happened, she decided to change her flight, come in early, and help. I didn’t know how to tell her that coming would be more stressful than helpful. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the sentiment, but you know my mother drives me nuts, and dealing with her is the last thing I need right now.”
“Trust me, I get it.” I did understand, as I had my own issues with my mom. I mean, who didn’t? Katy’s mom was, however, a little nuttier than the average. She was a control freak with a capital C. I always thought that was part of why Katy always caved to Chris when he screwed up and conned her into taking him back. Because she was used to not taking a stand, not having her own opinion.
