Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 05 - Gems & Gunshots (14 page)

“Oh. Now that’s interesting.”

“Wait.” I held up my finger for emphasis. ”It gets better. We snuck out the back so they couldn’t see us, and when they left we followed them. Rather, we followed Amelia. She went to this condo complex and gave an envelope to some guy whose door she knocked on. I couldn’t get a good look at him, but in a really strange coincidence I went to have coffee with Alan this morning, you know, to ask him how he knew Amelia, and that guy was with him. Alan went to prep school with the guy who Amelia gave some envelope to. Isn’t that weird? I mean, too much to be a coincidence don’t you think?”

“How do you know it’s the same guy?”

“After he got the envelope from Amelia he left the complex and I saw what he drove. I then recognized his car at Alan’s office. Not that there’s only one red Corvette in San Diego, but Haley wrote down the license plate and it was the same.” I slid the paper with the number on it to him. “So, see, Amelia and Alan know each other and Amelia and this guy, his name is Nate, know each other. Something’s fishy don’t you think?” I finished and leaned back, satisfied that he found at least a little of what I just told him to be interesting and hopefully something he might not know, so he would focus on the information and not on me being a snoop.

“A red Corvette? Are you sure it was the same car?”

“Yes. This guy was a real piece of work, too. He thought his car was impressive enough that I would want to take a ride with him, if you know what I mean,” I said, grimacing.

“I don’t care about the stupid car. It’s the guy. That’s Ganuchi’s son.”

“The loan shark Greg borrowed money from? How do you know?”

“Yes, because we’ve been following him and this is the license plate number.” “What would his son be doing with Amelia?”

“I have no idea. I need to make a phone call.”

Chapter 22

I
walked out, yawning, to the driveway to grab my bag out of the car. It wasn’t that early, but I had stayed up late waiting for Cooper to get off the phone, which took forever. I had hoped that by waiting up he would fill me in on whatever his call was about, and for once I wasn’t disappointed. He had gotten off the phone to find me patiently sitting in the same place at the bar where I was when he left to make the phone call. I had managed to consume another glass of wine in the interim, but that was how I was able to stay patient so I felt it was well deserved.

“So who did you call?” I asked, not willing to wait another second.

“First, Ganuchi and then Greg.”

“And?” I pressed. My patience had run its course and so had my wine. I either needed to know or I needed another glass.

“Ganuchi wasn’t happy to say the least. He doesn’t involve Nate in his business because, and I quote,
he is irresponsible and unable to think things through before acting
. Ganuchi assured me he would end the blackmail scheme on his end if that’s what Nate was doing and told me to offer his apologies to Greg for everything we had gone through over this.”

I furrowed my brow. “That seems so odd to me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. For a loan shark to call off a blackmailing in progress. Seems odd.”

“Just the glamour of my job,” he teased. “But you’re right, it is interesting.”

“So was Greg happy when you gave him the good news?”

“Extremely. Even though we suspected it to be an amateur job and weren’t planning on paying up, not knowing who was behind the blackmail was really getting to both of us, but especially him.”

“What did he say about Amelia knowing Ganuchi’s son?”

“I didn’t tell him.”

My eyebrows lifted in surprise. “Really?” Why not?”

Cooper shook his head. “I’m not sure. I just want to keep this to myself for a while until I can check a few things out. Ganuchi said he would ask Nate how he knew Amelia and would get back to me. I think that’s good for now.”

“You don’t think anything sinister is going on, do you?” While I thought it odd that Amelia would know Nate, I couldn’t see her doing anything sinister.

“Hard to tell.”

*****

I reached into the backseat where my bag was, when I noticed a piece of paper sitting on the drivers seat.
That’s weird
. I didn’t remember leaving anything on my seat when I got out of the car last night. I reached over the seat to grab the piece of paper. Walking back up to the house with my bag, I unfolded the paper and started reading. What the hell?

I stopped where I was in the driveway, frozen in disbelief as I read it:
It would be in your best interest to mind your own business. Bad things happen to those who interfere where they don’t belong.

I looked around as if to see the culprit, though obviously whoever left this note was long gone. I rushed the rest of the way into the house, heart pounding. Who would threaten me like this? I started to panic and the all of a sudden a realization came to me and I started laughing. Kendra. It must be Kendra. She had already warned me once in person. Who else would be bold enough to come to the house and leave a note in my car? It had to be her. And to think I almost called Cooper in a panic. I tossed the note on the coffee table and sat down with my computer to get caught up on some emails.

Chapter 23

C
ooper was working late tonight so I was happy when Amelia called me wondering if I wanted to meet for a late dinner. She said there was this off–the–beaten–path seafood place she knew I would love, and we made plans to meet at eight.

When she said off–the–beaten–path she had really meant it. I was driving down a road that was sparsely populated with businesses and most of the ones that were there seemed closed. I finally found the address I was looking for and pulled in to an almost deserted parking lot. Was I really in the right place? Surely this wasn’t it. I put the BMW into park and looked at Google maps on my phone to check it against the address I had written down from Amelia. It was the correct address. Maybe I should call her. But then I saw Amelia pull in and relaxed. I locked the doors and started walking to her when another car pulled in. I glanced over and noticed it was Alan in the driver’s seat. Did he tell Amelia I knew they knew each other and she invited him along to dinner? I continued across the parking lot to Amelia figuring I would find out soon enough.

“This really is off–the–beaten–path,” I said as I reached her. “I hope the food is as good as this place looks bad.” I added, laughing so she wouldn’t be offended thinking I doubted her choice of restaurants.

“Unfortunately, we won’t be eating here,” Amelia said coldly, and I noticed for the first time a very odd expression on her face.

“Amelia what’s wrong?” I asked, concerned for my friend.

“What’s wrong is you screwed everything up and now I have to go to plan B.” She spoke calmly and softly in a very unnatural way, which made me very uncomfortable. I clearly wasn’t getting the meaning of what she was taking about, but her tone made me think that once I did get clued in, I wasn’t going to like it.

“Amelia, I have no idea what you’re talking about. What is going on?”

“You followed me. And then you told Cooper about it and got the blackmail called off because Cooper realized that Nate Ganuchi is a harmless incompetent twit who fancies himself a gangster like his father but poses no real threat on his own.”

“Amelia, I don’t understand. Why would not being blackmailed be a bad thing?”

Amelia sighed. “Really, Presley. I guess I gave you too much credit. I thought you were smarter than that. After seeing me with Alan and Nate, especially Nate, and knowing from Cooper that Nate was the one blackmailing Greg, you still don’t get it?”

“You?” I said, confused. Surely Amelia wasn’t the one behind the blackmail.

“Does that surprise you?” she asked as her way of confirmation.

“But why?”

“You think I don’t know the kind of person my beloved husband is?” she said with a sneer. “I wanted the money so I could get far away from him and start over.”

“Why go through all this? Why not just a divorce?”

“A divorce could take years and in the meantime, I would have nothing. This was faster.”

“Sorry, Amelia. I didn’t mean to ruin your plans. I guess now you’ll have to go the old fashioned route of divorce instead of blackmail,” I said somewhat sarcastically, thinking this was one of the more ridiculous things I had heard. Not that I didn’t understand that a divorce would take time but blackmail, really?

Amelia shook her head. “Oh, Presley. You didn’t ruin my plans. You just merely changed them.”

“What are you talking about?”

“If I can’t get my money with blackmail, then I will get it from ransom,” she said.

I looked at her quizzically and then looked over at Alan and was surprised to see Nate was also there. I hadn’t heard or seen him come up. He must have been in the car with Alan and I hadn’t noticed. It was starting to dawn on me what they were planning. “You mean me? You are going to pretend to kidnap me and hold me for ransom?”

“Yes. Well, all except for the pretend part. This isn’t a pretend kidnapping. It’s real, and if they don’t pay up, then it won’t be one of your best days.”

Amelia was crazy. How could she manage to act so normal and yet be so deranged? Even Cooper couldn’t blame me for this one. He didn’t see she was nutso either. I ran to my right, aiming to get to my car but didn’t make it more than a few steps before Nate grabbed me and jolted me to a halt.

“Not so fast, pretty lady. We’ve got money coming to us and you’re our ticket,” Nate said.

“Amelia, you don’t really think you will get away with this, do you?”

“Presley, I wouldn’t have this as a back up plan if I didn’t feel it would work. I need that money and nothing is going to stand in my way. Hopefully for you, Greg

will pay up and no harm done. You will just spend a few uncomfortable hours in the trunk,” she said walking over to the trunk of her car and opening it.

I looked at her, my hands on my hips. “You can’t be serious!”

“I know it’s not ideal, but I need to make sure you’re in a place where you can’t escape until I have the money. And, I think you probably already know these two can’t really be trusted.”

“Amelia, that’s not fair,” Alan said with a whine in his voice.

“Oh, Alan, shut up. Now hand me your purse,” she said to me.

I just looked at her.

“You’ll get it back. I just don’t think you need it in the trunk,” she said, sounding exasperated. “Besides, it’s a knock off. It’s not like it’s a real Louis.”

“Not all of us can afford designer purses,” I retorted.

She ignored me and instead asked, “Is your phone in here?” and rummaged around in my purse.

“Yes.”

“How the hell do you find anything in this mess? Ahh, here it is. Okay, I think we’re ready to go. Get her in the trunk, boys.”

“Amelia, I beg you. Don’t go through with this. It’s not going to end well for you.”

“The only person it’s not going to end well for is you if you don’t get in that trunk.” She pulled a gun out of her purse.

“Whoa there, Amelia. Where the hell did you get that?” Alan asked.

“Don’t worry about it, Alan. Just do what I said and get her in the truck. I’m tired of wasting time.”

Nate started pulling me toward the back of the car. I resisted. I knew that once they had me in the trunk my chances of escape would be gone, but while I couldn’t imagine Amelia actually using that gun, I didn’t really care to take that chance. How did my crazy meter not pick up on her? She seemed so normal when we had lunch and coffee I really thought she was friend material. I jerked away from Nate again and started to run to my car. I heard a super loud noise and a pinging sound and froze.

Did she just? No, she wouldn’t have. She was insane.

“Presley, besides playing tennis weekly at the club I also go out to the shooting range on a regular basis. I am actually second in my age group for amateur sharp shooting, which isn’t too shabby. So, I would suggest you get back here and don’t cause us any more trouble,” Amelia said as calmly as if she were asking me to tea.

Since it seemed to me, at this point, she was crazy enough to actually shoot me—a fact I wouldn’t have thought possible a few minutes ago—I decided it would be best to do what she said and hope that I would have another opportunity to get out of this mess. I shivered and felt tears welling up in my eyes, but I wasn’t going to let myself cry. Not in front of her. I needed a distraction.

“Alan, I don’t understand your involvement in this?” I said much more calmly than I felt.

“Well, you see…”

“Oh for God sakes, shut the hell up, both of you. Get in the trunk, Presley. I’m tired of all this chitchat. We’ve got to get rolling.”

Nate for the third time started to pull me back toward the trunk and this time I didn’t resist. I wasn’t giving up, just looking for the right time.

“Get in,” he said, still in that smarmy voice. It was hard to take him seriously as a gangster, and it was obvious Amelia was the brains of this operation.

“I’m going, I’m going, you don’t need to shove me,” I said, hiking my leg over the back of the car to get in the open trunk. Thank goodness Amelia’s car was a large sedan or I would be cramped. I lay down on my side facing the back of the car, and Nate closed the lid. I was hopeful I would still be able to hear what they were saying outside the car. I could hear noise and strained to listen.

“Where are we taking her?” I heard Alan ask.

“Just follow me, Alan,” I heard Amelia say and then the sound of car doors shutting. I felt the vibration of this car as Amelia got in and shut her door. After a few minutes I could hear Amelia talking to someone on her cell phone. Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell what she was saying. I was just thankful it was much more comfortable than I would have thought. I was in a luxury vehicle that probably cost eighty grand so I guessed even the trunk should be luxury.

I noticed the pull handle that was designed so people wouldn’t accidentally get locked in the trunk, or rather where the handle had been. Amelia seemed to think of everything. The handle strap had been cut off. If only I could use my fingertips to try and grab it, but there wasn’t enough material left. At least I wasn’t claustrophobic or I would have probably been insane by this point. I tried to just relax and think about positive things. I knew that Cooper wouldn’t let anything happen to me.