Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 05 - Gems & Gunshots (2 page)

I was nervous, which was absolutely ridiculous. One of the goals of taking this vacation, besides seeing Cooper, was to really think about my dream of being a writer. A vacation would give me time to explore my goals. And if I didn’t realize my good fortune in Cooper giving me this opportunity, my mother would be certain to remind me, as she always did. When she heard I was coming out here, she went into her mantra of how great a guy Cooper was, and how I needed to be nice to him so he wouldn’t get away. As if I was ever anything but nice to anyone. Okay, well, maybe sometimes, but it usually wasn’t intentional. I was just a very direct person.

As well meaning as my mother was, it also gave me this feeling that I had this pressure to perform to 110% in whatever it was I was striving for. I always complained to my brother, Jesse, that it wasn’t fair that our parents seemed to put a lot more pressure on me than him when it came to achieving goals. As a result I went to college, majored in business, got a job right out of college and worked hard at trying to climb the corporate ladder. Then one day I’d just had enough and got myself fired for telling off my boss, who felt sexually harassing his female employees was part of his job description. So, I felt this was my one big chance as an adult to do what I wanted and I couldn’t afford to blow it.

I had started a few books over the years but never finished any. I felt that a new place, a new goal, a new idea might be the best course of action. I chose a purple glitter pen out of the twelve–pack of assorted colors Jared had given me, opened to the first page of my notebook—ivory–colored pages of course—took a sip of coffee, and started to write. Or rather, I would as soon as the inspiration hit me.

Until then I was doodling. And not very well, I might add. Doodling wasn’t exactly my forte and I was beginning to think writing wasn’t either, though I needed to banish those negative thoughts. That wasn’t how people followed their dreams. Besides, I wasn’t even thirty yet, and while I did have a mortgage, I didn’t have kids. This was the prime time to see if I could do what I loved.

I took another sip of my latte and tapped my pen against my notebook. I was staring off into space, still waiting for the one big idea to pop into my head, when the barista, who had made my latte, came outside and started to wipe down tables.

She caught me looking at her and smiled. “I like to pretend the tables need cleaning so I can come out here and get some sunshine,” she said.

I nodded my head. “That makes sense. I would probably do the same thing in your shoes.”

“My name is Haley,” the girl offered. “Are you new around here? I haven’t seen you before.”

“Yeah. Just got here yesterday from Chicago.”

“Come out here for a boyfriend?”

“Yep. How did you know?”

She shrugged. “I’m a good guesser.”

I laughed. “Since you knew I wasn’t a regular, I assume you have worked here a while?”

“Too long. I live in those apartments you can just barely see over there.” She pointed down the street. “I attend UC San Diego.”

“Wow, good school. What’s your major?” I was betting on art or film. She had an edgy look about her. She was thin, about my height, dark brown hair cut in a short pixie that not many could pull off.

“Good question.” She laughed again. “I’m one of those undecided folks. You know, the eight–year college plan. At this rate I will be paying student loans until I die. The positive is I’m learning about many different things and figuring out what I don’t want to do.”

“I’ve been out of college for a while now and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. Sometimes I think my college experience was what you just mentioned: a way to decide what I didn’t want to do with my life. What do you—” I was cut off by a loud popping noise that seemed to come from across the street. It sounded like gunshots. I looked at Haley. “What the hell was that?”

“I don’t know, but it seemed to have come from the jewelry store over there.” She pointed across the street to a storefront called Gemstones Unlimited.

All was quiet for a few seconds. Then the door to the jewelry store slammed open and a man ran out. What was happening?

Haley pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. “I’m dialing 9–1–1,” she said.

But before she finished dialing, we could hear sirens in the background, probably summoned by the alarm from the jewelry store. It had sounded right after we heard the shots. I hoped the police could get it to shut off as it was giving me a headache.

Haley snapped her phone shut and slid it back in her pocket. “My cousin works at that store,” she said, trembling.

“Was she working this morning?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so because she always comes in for coffee before work, and she didn’t today. I should call her.” Haley pulled her phone back out and punched in some numbers. She stood there, phone in one hand and biting the thumbnail on her other hand.

“Jill? Thank God you answered,” Haley said, and I could see her body relax with relief. “I was freaked out because I’m at work and someone just robbed your store, at least that’s what I assume happened.” She paused for a minute and I could hear a voice through the phone talking, but I couldn’t tell what was being said. “I don’t know. I couldn’t tell from here. We just heard shots being fired, and then a man ran out of the store. But it all happened too fast, and he was too far away for me to see what he looked like. How am I supposed to know? Listen I’ll call you later.” Haley looked exasperated as she once again snapped her phone shut and put it in her pocket. She looked at me. “Family.”

“I feel you there. At least she’s at home and safe.” We watched as several police cars screeched to a stop in front of the store, followed closely by an ambulance. A few seconds later the alarm was silenced and news vans pulled up. The police who hadn’t gone inside were putting up police tape to keep the reporters away from the building.

“I wonder what happened?” I said to Haley.

“No kidding. We sure don’t get this kind of excitement normally. Oh my God, is that a dead body?”

The EMT folks were coming out of the store with a gurney and on the gurney was what I assumed was a body bag. I grimaced. “I don’t think they would have a body bag on the gurney if they didn’t have a dead body.”

“Now I’m doubly glad my cousin wasn’t working this morning. Even if she is annoying. Look, the news vans must be doing a live feed,” Haley said pointing to the television that was mounted in the corner of the coffee shop where we could see it from outside. I looked to see that a view of the jewelry store came on the screen. “Let me turn it up,” she said walking inside to the set and standing on a chair to reach the volume button. I followed her in so I could hear what they were saying.

“Shots were fired just moments ago at the long–standing jewelry store, Gemstone’s Unlimited. Police aren’t giving us much information yet, but it does appear as if there was a casualty. We will keep you updated as this story unfolds. Tune in tonight at six for more cutting edge news.”

The station then switched to a story of a recent school election. Haley turned the volume back down and walked over to where I was now standing. “Wow! How’s that for a morning’s excitement?” she said, shaking her head in disbelief.

“I guess it just shows that bad things can happen anywhere.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of freaky. We open at six in the morning and don’t close until midnight. Sometimes, during the odd hours, it’s just us employees in here. I’ve never been afraid before but this…” she trailed off.

“You don’t work alone during those odd hours, do you?”

“No, but they weren’t alone in the jewelry store either.”

“Good point,” I agreed.

“Oh, well. You can’t go around worrying about things that could happen. We’d never get out of bed in the morning if that were the case.”

I laughed. “Very true.”

Chapter 3

S
houldn’t you be getting ready?” Cooper asked, walking into the living room, looking surprised that I was planted on the couch waiting for the news to come on instead of in the bedroom primping for the evening’s gala. As much as I wanted to look good, I also wanted to get the scoop on the day’s crazy events and see if there was more information on the Gemstones Unlimited thing since the earlier news report.

“The thing doesn’t start until eight, I’ve got plenty of time,” I said, not even looking at him but keeping my attention focused on the television. After already watching twenty painstaking minutes of news covering things I wasn’t interested in, I kept diligently watching because I didn’t want to take the chance of missing what I was waiting for.

“Far be it for me to criticize, but since when did you become so interested in the news? And since when have you ever taken less than two hours to get ready for a special event?” he said with a smile on his face to show me he was teasing.

I turned my head toward him long enough to stick my tongue out to show him I wasn’t amused. “Since this morning, which you would know if you ever checked your voicemail. I went to that coffee shop you told me about. You know, the Coffee Break. Well, there were some exciting happenings across the street. All of which was in my message.” Cooper wasn’t the greatest about checking his personal voicemail. He had what could be a very demanding business, and I had learned that sometimes, even when he might want to, he couldn’t respond to my calls. He always told me that if it was an emergency to go through his assistant, Denise. So I wasn’t surprised when he hadn’t called me back today.

“Oh, you mean that mess at Gemstones Unlimited? Yeah, sorry I couldn’t call you back, but actually—that’s the reason I couldn’t call back.”

“How did you hear about it?” I wasn’t too surprised. Cooper usually knew everything. Especially where I was concerned and especially when I didn’t really want him to know. He had some kind of sixth sense about certain things. A trait that I was sure helped to make him a success in his security business.

“Gemstone’s Unlimited is one of my clients. Or rather, the owner, Greg Anderson, is. He called me as soon as he found out what happened, and I was helping him sort things out today at the jewelry store. That’s what prevented me from returning your call,” he said, finally making his way over to me on the couch and dropping a kiss on my forehead.

I turned to face him, not worried about the newscast now when I had a much better source of information at my fingertips. The trick would just be to get him to share what he knew. I smiled at him, and he started laughing.

“Is this where you start to pump me for information and then get annoyed when I won’t give you any?”

My smile turned to a frown. I didn’t know why he always had to make everything so difficult when all I wanted was a little insider’s report. “C’mon, Coop. You should know by now that I won’t tell anyone what you tell me. I was right there when it happened. I have a right to know what’s going on.”

“I’m not sure that being an observer to a crime gives you a right to information. Did the police talk to you?” As usual, he was ignoring my questions by asking questions of his own—an infuriating habit of his.

“Of course they talked to me. I was sitting right across the street with Haley, the girl who works at the coffee shop. I saw everything. At least everything that took place outside the building, and I heard the gunshots and saw the ambulance guys bring out a body bag on a gurney. I assume there was a body in that bag. Do they know who did it?”

“What did you tell the police?”

“Pretty much what I just told you. Do you know if they have any leads? Who was the person murdered? Was it random or do they think it was planned?”

“Presley…” he sighed, shaking his head. “Please go get ready. We need to leave in forty–five minutes, and it wouldn’t look good for one of the nominees to be late.”

“Fine. But only because I have an amazing dress to wear and I want to look fabulous. I’m not giving up asking questions. You know you can only resist me for so long.”

“Don’t I know it.”

*****

Forty–five minutes later, I was almost regretting I had wasted time watching the news. I should know better than to rush getting ready. I was trying for the dramatic effect with my makeup and a smoky eye look that was turning out to be more like a black eye. I was redoing them for the third time and was beyond frustrated, especially since Cooper kept coming in to check on me and see if I was ready. He wasn’t helping any. I ended up locking the bathroom door so he couldn’t give me the hurry up look. I finally finished my makeup, slipped on my shoes, and walked out of the bedroom to find Cooper. He was lounging on one of the barstools at the breakfast bar. Impatiently waiting, he looked at his watch and then at me.

“How do I look?” I asked, walking toward him and twirling so he could see the full effect of my gorgeous gown.”

He shrugged. “It’s okay.”

My eyes narrowed. I put my hands on my hips and glared at him as he burst out laughing. “Okay, okay. I’m kidding. You look gorgeous as always and definitely worth the wait.”

“Good answer, pal!” I smiled. “You don’t look too shabby yourself.” He was wearing a charcoal gray suit with super thin pinstripes, a light gray shirt, and a black tie. While he typically preferred casual clothes of jeans and button–down shirts, he looked good dressed up.

“Well, m‘lady, c’mon then,” he said, offering his arm to me. We walked out the door and got into his BMW. A short drive later we pulled into the parking lot of the San Diego Convention Center, which couldn’t have had a more beautiful backdrop than the San Diego Bay if someone had painted one.

“This place is huge,” I said as we were walking around looking for the right room.

“Yes, it is. I’ve been lost in here many a time. I see our room over there.” He pointed down the hall where there was a big sign announcing the event.

I could hear music playing. “It sounds like fun in there at least.”

“It’s open bar, so I’m sure it will be.”

We walked in the room and there was a festive air. This was the awards banquet given by the Association of Security Professionals that Cooper belonged to. People were coming up and greeting Cooper and congratulating him on his nomination. I was so proud of him. He was being a great boyfriend, introducing me to everyone, and I was playing the ever so proud girlfriend, when a handsome–looking silver–haired man came up to us.