I felt a vibrating near my leg. Looking down, I realized it was my purse so it must be my phone. I reached down to grab it and saw Cooper’s name on the display. A feeling of guilt washed over me. Not only should I have been home right now, which was no doubt why he was calling to see where the heck I was, but I had also just left a note for him that had been very vague. I either had to ignore the call or lie about what I was doing. Telling him I was following Amelia would not go over well. I hit ignore and tossed the phone back down in my purse. I could tell Amelia had started her car by the lights and I looked at Haley. “You up for some more secret agent tailing?”

  “You know it,” Haley said enthusiastically.

  “Great. Let’s see where she goes now.” I watched as Amelia pulled out of her parking space and saw the guy she had met get into a red Corvette. Both cars fell in line at the stop sign at the exit of the complex.

  “What if they go separate ways? Who are we going to follow?”

  “I think we’ll stick with Amelia, but hopefully they’ll save us the trouble and head the same way.” We were in luck for the first few blocks. The red Corvette stayed behind Amelia’s car. I reached down again and grabbed my purse and heaved it on to Haley’s lap. “Haley, do me a favor and grab the notepad and pen out of there and write down this license plate.”

  “Good idea. See, you really are a secret agent,” she teased.

  “Not hardly. There isn’t anything I can do with the plate number, but I could always give it to Cooper if it looks like it means anything.”

  Just as Haley stopped writing, the Corvette turned left. Amelia continued straight and headed right back to her house. As soon as I was fairly sure that was the direction she was headed, I turned and went back to drop Haley off. Then as I drove home, I wondered when would be the best time to tell Cooper about tonight’s events.

  Chapter 20

  Hey! You. Hold on a minute!”

  “I was walking out of the Coffee Break the next morning and heard someone yelling. I looked up to see it was Kendra. To say I was shocked was an understatement. In fact, in the few seconds that passed as she was crossing the parking lot from her car to mine, I was speechless. She finally reached me and stood there staring until I finally broke the silence.

  “Can I help you with something?” I said tentatively.

  “You can stay out of my business and away from me.”

  “I’m sorry. Do I know you?” I of course knew who she was, but I didn’t actually know her. I wondered how she even knew who I was.

  “You know perfectly well who I am. Kendra Thompson. You managed to take pictures of Greg and me last night. That ring any bells?”

  I winced. I knew when I had shown those pictures to Cooper this might happen, but I had been hoping it wouldn’t. Not that I cared if Kendra was mad at me. I didn’t owe her anything. I just knew it would eventually get back to Amelia, and I hated seeing her hurt. “Well, then maybe you shouldn’t be hanging out with married men if you don’t want people to care.”

  She snorted. “Oh please, Miss Righteous. I’m not the first, nor will I be the last.”

  “With Greg?”

  “I meant in general but with Greg, too. You think I’m the only lady friend he’s had outside his marriage? What business is it of yours anyway?”

  “Listen, while I don’t agree with your cheating with a married man, that has nothing to do with why I followed you and took those pictures.”

  “Then I don’t understand. Why?”

  “I’m trying to find out who killed Nicole.”

  “Who’s Nicole?”

  Seriously, Kendra was sleeping with Greg and she had no idea who Nicole was? Even if, and that was a big if, Nicole hadn’t also been fooling around with Greg, hadn’t they at least talked about the murder that took place in his business? Surely the subject had come up at least once. “The girl who was murdered in your lover’s store?” I said.

  “Oh, her. I forgot her name,” Kendra said as if a murdered lover of her married boyfriend wasn’t any big deal.

  I must have given her a look she didn’t appreciate because she immediately snapped at me. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m bad at names. Besides, what does any of that have to do with me?”

  “You were both having an affair with Greg and he’s married. Doesn’t that bother you?”

  “Men like Greg are never faithful. Besides, it’s me he really loves. What do I care if he finds the need to fool around a little on the side? I still get what I want.”

  What a piece of work this girl was. “Fool around on the side? That might have been Nicole, but the man is married. I’m not sure that qualifies for someone on the side.”

  “Oh please. He hasn’t been in love with Amelia for a long time. He just doesn’t want to give her half of his wealth. But soon it won’t matter and he will be all mine,” she said smugly.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Greg’s coming into some money, and when that happens we are getting out of here, and that old hag can have everything.”

  “You do realize that half of whatever Greg has is hers until they divorce right?”

  Kendra looked at me like she finally realized she might be talking too much. “It’s none of your business anyway. Just stay away from me and Greg or you’ll be sorry,” she said hotly and flounced back to her white Mustang convertible.

  As I watched the brazen hussy—as my mom would have called her—walk away, I was glad her little appearance had helped me make one decision. I had been trying to decide all day if I should call Amelia and tell her I saw Greg and Kendra together. Cooper said it wasn’t my business and the bearer of bad news like that was often the one people got mad at. But I just could not stand by and see Greg do this to her. But then, what had she been doing with Alan? I wanted to ask her about meeting Alan last night, too, but I couldn’t think of a good reason as to why I would even know what she had been doing without revealing I had followed her, and I wasn’t about to do that.

  I hadn’t told Cooper about following Amelia or that she met with Nicole’s brother. He had already been in a bad mood over me following Greg, and since I didn’t know why Amelia had met with Alan, I thought I would wait until I had some more concrete evidence that there was even anything suspicious going on between Alan and Amelia. But busting Amelia’s womanizing husband? I didn’t want Amelia to hate me, but she had to know. I reached in my purse to grab my phone as I unlocked the door to my car. Maybe she could meet me so I could do this in person. I didn’t relish the thought of telling her, but if I were Amelia I sure would want to know.

  I slid in the driver’s seat, set my purse on the passenger side, and scrolled through my contacts to find Amelia’s number. When I got to her number, I clicked on it to dial and nervously waited for her to pick up.

  “Hello, Presley. So nice to hear from you,” Amelia’s voice came through the phone. “How’s your day?”

  “It’s great. Look, I was wondering if you’re free later today? I was hoping we could grab some coffee and catch up. Maybe meet at the Tea Room?”

  “Oh, Presley, I would love to, but I can’t. I was a bad girl and last night when I was supposed to be organizing the invitations to the upcoming charity luncheon at the aquarium I decided I deserved to relax, so I opened a bottle of wine and settled in with a good book. Now I’m behind.”

  “You spent last night at home?” I asked. I wanted to make sure I had heard right. That Amelia was lying to me. Why? Unless she had something to hide.

  Amelia laughed. “I know. I’m naughty, but sometimes a girl just has to enjoy wine and a good book. I had downloaded Fifty Shades of Grey for my Kindle and was dying to read it. Have you read it?”

  “Uh, no. I haven’t,” I replied, a little thrown off that Amelia would lie to me.

  “You definitely should, dear. How about we try and catch up tomorrow afternoon?”

  “That sounds good Amelia. I hope you get your invitations done,” I said, then pulled the phone away from my ear and hit the end call button. I sat in my car, my mind replaying the conversation I just had with Amelia. She lied about what she did last night, which could only mean one thing. That she had something to hide. Just like her husband did, but what? Maybe I should call Alan and find out. But then what if he told her he told me he had met with her last night and then she would know I knew she was lying. But at this point, if she was going to lie to me, did it really matter if she found out I knew she was lying?

  But who the heck was the Corvette dude, and what did he have to do with all this? So many buts. I rested my head against the steering wheel, hoping the solution would come to me. Screw it. I was calling Alan. I would just feel him out and see what resulted. Staring at the sign in front of me that said no loitering, and hoping that sitting in my car now for over forty–five minutes wouldn’t count, I dialed Alan’s work number.”

  “Monroe Insurance Services, Alan speaking. How may I help you?”

  “Hi, Alan. It’s Presley.”

  “Oh hey, Presley. What’s up?”

  I want to know what the hell you are doing with your dead sister’s lover’s wife is what! “Not much. I was hoping you might be free to chat for a few?”

  “Sure. I was just about to leave to go to an appointment, but if you’re close to here, drive over and we can grab a cup of coffee at the Starbucks on the first floor of the building. I’ve got some time before I have to be there and it’s too nice of a day to stay cooped up in here.” I could tell he was smiling into the phone. He did seem like a decent guy.

  “Okay. Give me fifteen.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll meet you on the first floor.”

  I hung up and started the car. Setting my phone in the cup holder, I pulled out of the parking lot and merged into traffic. It was before lunchtime so the roads weren’t busy, and I arrived with five minutes to spare. I parallel parked in an open spot right I front of the building. I was lucky, not only that the spot was open but also that there were actually two opens spots so I was able to pull right in. I was not the best parallel parker and would have been afraid to attempt it with Cooper’s beemer. I fed the meter and walked into the building noticing that I was parked right behind a red Corvette.

  Funny, once an object is brought to your attention you tend to see that same object over and over, even though you hadn’t really noticed it before. I started walking toward the door and stopped. Wait a second. Hadn’t the plate on the red Corvette from last night started with a BA? I spun around and retraced my steps back to the front of my car and looked at the Corvette’s plate. It started with a BA. Now really, what were the odds? Maybe all vette’s started with BA in California. Haley had written the plate number down, so I started riffling through my purse for the pad of paper she wrote it on. Ah–ha, here it is, I thought, as my fingers felt it and pulled it out. I opened it up and read the letters and numbers. BAQ — 439. I looked up to the license plate for the Corvette parked in front of me: BAQ — 439. Holy crap. This was the same car.

  “Hey, Presley!” I looked up and saw it was Alan calling me. He was standing in front of the door with another guy. He waved at me to come join him and since it would be hard to explain why I was staring at the license plate of the Corvette, I walked up to join him.

  “Good timing, Presley. My friend Nate stopped in to see me and I was just walking him out so that I could meet you.”

  “Yeah, good timing.”

  “Nate, meet Presley. Presley, meet Nate. Nate and I went to prep school together.”

  “Hi, Nate,” I said, holding out my hand.

  He shook my hand and said, “You like Corvettes?”

  “Of course. Who doesn’t? Why?”

  “I just saw you staring at mine over there,” he said, pointing to the red Corvette, which I now knew was the one belonging to the man Amelia had met last night—which had to be this man. Oh my. “She’s is a beauty.”

  “Yes, she is quite a beauty,” I said with mustered enthusiasm. I had never been a car fanatic even under normal circumstances.

  “See, Alan. I told you the Vette was a chick magnet,” he said leering at me. “Any time you want to go for a ride, baby. You just call me up. Alan will give you my number.”

  Ewwww. I tried not to shudder. I looked over at Alan, and to his credit, he looked a little embarrassed.

  “Thanks for stopping by, Nate. I’ll call you later and we’ll have that beer,” Alan said with forced joviality. It made it seem like they weren’t as good friends as he’d implied, or maybe Alan was just embarrassed by Nate’s chauvinistic behavior. In either case, I needed to find out more about this Nate guy. Was that how Amelia knew him? Because of Alan? That still didn’t explain how she knew Alan, but it was one step closer to explaining the triangle of relationships.

  “Sorry about Nate,” he said to me as Nate walked away. “He really is a good guy at heart; he’s just a little rough around the edges.”

  “That’s okay. Some people are just like that. So, how did you say you knew him?”

  “I’ll tell you as we walk over to Starbucks, so follow me. Nate and I went to the same prep school for high school and played on the hockey team. We met during freshman hockey try–outs and have been friends ever since. Like I said before, he’s a bit rough and sometimes comes across as crass, but he’s really a good guy. You know, one of those friends you might not talk to for a while but then if you need something, he’s there?”

  “I know exactly what you mean. That’s a good friend to have.” We got to the Starbucks and walked in.

  “Which is why I’m used to him,” Alan chuckled.

  “What can I get you, Presley?”

  “Venti skinny vanilla latte, please.”

  Alan gave the barista our orders and told me to grab a table. I of course gravitated to the ones outside. I was already halfway through my two–week vacation and I didn’t want to miss a minute of this great weather. Going back to Chicago weather would not be the same. Just a few minutes later Alan came walking out to me and sat down with our drinks. We took a few minutes to enjoy the outdoors, at least that’s what I was doing, and then Alan finally broke the silence.

  “So what did you want to talk to me about? Not that you need an excuse,” he said, smiling.

  Now came the uncomfortable part. How much should I tell him? I didn’t, of course, want him to know I followed him and Amelia, but I sure wanted to find out how he knew her, especially after meeting his friend Nate. How could I even bring this up in a natural way? He was probably going to find it odd, no matter what I did, so I might as well just come right out and ask. “Alan, this might seem to be an odd question, but do you know Amelia Anderson?”

  He looked at me for a minute with a puzzled look on his face. “She’s one of the owners of Gemstone’s Unlimited, isn’t she?”

  “Yes. She and her husband Greg,” I replied and then stayed silent. One of those HR tricks I had. When things are quiet, people feel compelled to talk. If I were the one staying silent, he would probably continue talking, and I wanted to hear what he had to say.

  “I believe she sent a condolences flower arrangement to Nicole’s funeral, but I don’t know her personally,” he said casually.

  Okay, so now I had two liars on my hands. What should I say next? Should I confront him and let him know I knew he was a liar? Or should I wait? If I waited what was I waiting for? What the hell? I needed to get to the bottom of this. “Are you sure you don’t know her?” I pressed.

  “No. Why?” he said again, but this time he looked uncomfortable.

  I sighed. “Alan, I saw you with her last night. You were at this bar/restaurant over on Fifth Avenue. I was there eating and I saw you come in.” I saw several emotions flit across his face. Disbelief, anger, wariness. I wondered how he would act now that he knew I knew he was lying.

  “Were you following me?” he said indignantly, which I found interesting because it didn’t seem like the normal reaction someone would have.

  Okay, now I knew. He was going to try and diffuse the situation by acting mad and put out. Well, that was a start. “Oh Alan, don’t be silly. I wasn’t following you. I just happened to be at the same place at the same time you were. It was a coincidence, that’s all.”

  “Then why the big deal with you calling and wanting to talk to me and all? Why didn’t you just ask me on the phone?” he said, still with an attitude, which just made him look like he had something to hide.

  Now, I was getting annoyed. Partly because he was right, it was a big deal. I just didn’t want him to know it. “Because I thought it would be nice to grab a cup of coffee or something. Just to see you. I didn’t realize that this would be such a big deal,” I said kind of throwing it back in his face. Take that, Alan.

  “I’m sorry,” he said not as blustery. “You just caught me off guard.”

  “Why did you lie about knowing her?”

  “I don’t know. I guess it seems kind of weird that we would be sort of friends after, you know, what happened to my sister in her store. I didn’t want you to judge.”

  I couldn’t tell if he was being sincere or just telling another lie, but it seemed plausible. “How did you meet her?”

  “She reached out to the family after all that had happened and asked if she could meet us and offer her condolences. I was the elected family member to go. My parents didn’t want to. They don’t blame her, but they are still pretty upset and not talking to people.”

  Again plausible, but it didn’t make complete sense. If that was how she and Alan knew each other, then what about Nate? Amelia knowing Nate on a completely unrelated note would be way too much of a coincidence, wouldn’t it? Unless she met Nate like I did, but then why would she have headed to his house and given him something if she didn’t actually know him?

  Chapter 21

  I heard Cooper’s car in the driveway. I had been anxiously waiting, ever since I had arrived home from coffee with Alan. I was somewhat apprehensive about his reaction once I came clean. This time I didn’t even try to pretend I could soften him up or distract him with homemade mojitos or anything else he liked. He was definitely going to be mad that I was still snooping, as he liked to call it, but I hoped once he heard my information he would get over it and focus on the information rather than the method by which it was obtained.

 

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