Stilettos & Scoundrels (59 page)

The
FBI caught
up to Garrison a
s he tried to get to his car
outside the warehouse
.
They had been building a case against him for a long time and, with Dirt’s help would hopefully be able to put him away for a long time.

To make things even more confusing
,
Chris
thought that Helen killed the Senator and was so in
love with
her that he wanted to cover for her
. He
had gone
to talk to Senator
Daniels
th
e night of the murder
about
his decision to fire
Tobey. Helen had left the front door open for him so he could catch Tom by surprise, so when he arrived, he went right into the house and walked to the study.
He saw that t
he Senator was already dead and assumed Helen had killed him.
Why?
Because when he went and found Helen
,
she was distraught and hysterical.
S
he played him
.
W
hile never admitting
that
she killed
her husband,
she had
made it seem to Chris that she had. She knew
that
Tom owed the Palazzo family a lot of money and assumed they were
the ones
who
had
killed him.
She wasn’t about to make waves. She especially
didn’t want that known because
she knew that
Simon
was working for Cooper
.

Simon, the one everybody thought
was
the killer, had wrangled a job with his old friend
Cooper so that he could
be with Helen
. Simon and Helen
had met one time when she was in Vegas with Tom. They had been having an ongoing affair. Helen really got around
, though since her husband did too, who could blame her? It was hard to understand why Helen and Tom had stayed together if they were both unhappy in the marriage
. Garrison kept pressuring
Simon
to kill Tom, saying it was his duty
, but
Simon, who wasn’t very involved with the family anyway, refused
.
That’s not the kind of person he was or wanted to be. T
hat’s when Garrison went to Dirt
and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse
. Simon had been the one
who
chase
d me
with the black
H
ummer
,
but he did it to try to scare me
off because he was afraid that h
is father or Dirt might hurt me if I
got to
o
close to the truth.

Bobby
was repaying his debt to Palazzo by making it
look as if he killed the Senator
. He was supposed to throw the authorities off the
scent
. Bobby had
walked in
to the Senator’s study
after Chris that night
and also found
the Senator dead. Bobby had seen Chris leave
,
and
he
assumed
that Chris
killed the Senator to have Helen all to himself.
Tobey had told him about
Helen and Chris’ affair
, and Bobby told Tobey that he saw
Chris leaving the Senator’s study. He had also been the strange caller, trying to scare
me
away
on Garrison’s orders.

Dirt and Garrison were in jail
,
and Helen and Simon left for the Bahamas.
Helen gave up on the idea of replacing Tom in the Senate. She had only planned on doing so because she was receiving pressure from the mystery man, Peter, one of Garrison’s cronies who still wanted that puppet on a string, which proved that paying off thugs wouldn’t always make them go away.
Devastated, Chris crawled back to Katy
,
and she finally told
me
why she kept allowing him to come back
, at least this time. She was pregnant. I
didn’t feel Katy needed to put up with such crap, ev
en in that circumstance, but I
also understood
.
Katy would always have that tie to Chris.
And maybe he had learned his lesson, finally.

Bobby and Tobey had finally come out to everyone
,
and while Ruth was still trying to deal with knowing her son was a homosexual
,
she was being supportive
of
both of them.
Both Tobey and Bobby just felt relief about not having to hide anymore.

Cooper had begun to consider Dirt a suspect after he had talked to Simon. He
had told the FBI where he was going after
I
had called him
,
and they had put a wire on him. They
had been
tracking his every move
,
which
was how they knew to come when they did. They were a little late busting in the room
,
b
ut at least they finally made it.
Now that all this was somewhat settled, I
finally got up the nerve to ask
Cooper
about the murder cha
r
ges
in his past
.
He explained that he had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time and had pissed off the wrong people. He didn’t go into too much detail, but I wasn’t going to push. I knew he was innocent and that was all that mattered. At least for right now.

Wow, what a week
, I
thought
,
sitting next to
Cooper
, his arms around
me, on my
favor
ite rock in the woods behind my
parents
’ home
.
I
had
finally
put the finishing touches on my
article and sent it to Trevor
,
who was thrilled and promised it would be the feature article in the next issue.
I had thought long and hard and finally took the angle of how good people can get involved in bad things. I chose my angle out of respect for Helen, and because I’d learned that many good people make poor choices and that doesn’t make them bad people. This angle also made me somewhat comfortable because no one would be overly upset or outraged by anything I wrote, which would make the police happy. Had Cooper not intervened, they might have stopped me from writing the article altogether. They had tried to say that it might impede their case against Garrison. But lucky for me, Cooper was a great guy, who might like me, at least a little. I was excited that I might finally be on my way to the writing career I
had always wanted
, though I had received a call from my old boss from McLaughlin, Gary, who said that the board had fired David Ritter and would like it very much if I would come back. Even though Gary was offering me David’s job, the one I had thought I wanted for so long, it wasn’t hard to turn down. At least I knew justice had been served and that David wouldn’t be harassing any more women—at least at that company.

And about me
and
Cooper? When I
thought for that split second
that
he might be hurt
, I
realized
that I
liked him a whole lot more
than I thought. We
hadn’t had much of a chance to talk with e
verything else going on, but I hoped that we
would now have that chance.
I was going to stay at my parents’ a little while longer so I could spend more time with Cooper and see what happened.

“What are you thinking?” Cooper asked.

“Um, nothing really. Frankly, I’m tired of thinking.”

“Want some help clearing your mind?” Cooper asked mischievously.

“What did you have in mind?” I answered playfully. Cooper leaned over and started kissing me with those wonderful soft, yet strong, kisses of his. Yes, this definitely would clear my mind. At least of any thoughts but of him.

Get a sneak peek at the next Presley Thurman novel
, Necklaces & Nooses
.

Coming October 2011

Solange liked to turn and look at her boutique before walking out the door. It was a ritual of sorts to walk to the front of the boutique and pivot to take in all that was hers and to breathe in the smell of success from all her hard work. She’d be damned if she was going to let that asshole take it from her. He didn’t do a thing except complain the entire time about how stupid she was and the sheer fact she would take money out of her trust fund and throw it away on something as frivolous as a clothing store proved how stupid she was. He had sorely underestimated her then and certainly was underestimating her now. She turned back around to walk out the door and go home for the night and slammed right into a man.

             
“Who the hell are you?” She exclaimed. Wondering who this guy was sneaking up on her.

             
“That’s not important. What is important is that you give me what belongs to me.”

             
“What are you taking about? I don’t even know who you are. You better just leave buddy before I call the cops.”

             
“I told you I’m not leaving until I get my merchandise. Now I know you have it so turn it over.”

             
“Have what?” Solange was very perplexed. She had no idea what he was talking about.

             
“My ivory. I know you got it in your last shipment. Now hand it over or you’ll be sorry.”

             
“For the last time I have no idea what you are talking about. This has gone far enough, I’m calling the cops.” Solange reached into her purse and grabbed her cell. She pulled it out and started to dial 911 and the intruder knocked it out of her hand. “Now wait just a minute.”

             
“No, I’m done waiting.” The intruder stepped closer to Solange and grabbed her around the throat.
Oh my God
, she thought, and everything went black.

Get a sneak peek at the
third
Presley Thurman novel
, Handbags & Hooligans
.

Coming November 2011

“Where is it bitch,” he snarled.
Taking Ashley’s purse and dumping the contents on the ground she watched as my wallet, lipsticks, compact, and other toiletries fell to the ground. She hoped someone would notice she was gone and come look for her before he realized he wasn’t going to find what he was looking for.

             
“I told you I don’t have it,” Ashley said.

             
“You’re lying,” he walked closer causing her to back up to the building.

             
“Sweetie knows I just stepped out for a smoke. He will be coming to look for me if I’m not back in a few minutes.”

             
“You’re lying sweetness. I know you don’t smoke. I noticed that night you didn’t smoke or drink. Care to tell me why.”

             
Damn she never in a million years would have thought anyone at that party would notice. Shit! Who else had? She was running out of options. She had no doubt he would kill her if he thought she was of no use to him. “Don’t come any closer. I’m warning you.”

             
“Ha! Like I have anything to fear from you.” He took another step closer.

             
Ashley reached behind her back hoping he wouldn’t notice but he was too busy trying not to stare at her cleavage to pay attention to her arms. Guys. She put her fingers around the butt of the gun she had stuffed in the waistband of her shorts. She drew her arm out and said in her best Dirty Harry voice, “Go ahead asshole, make my day!”

             
He started to laugh again but then realize she was holding a gun. He put his arm up to try and knock it out of his face but her arm barely budged. She was stronger than she looked. His eyes widened in surprised.

             
“Maybe you should rethink the being scared part, asshole.”

             
He recovered quickly and made another step toward her.

             
“Don’t move one step closer. This is your last warning.”

             
“Or what?” He walked toward her.