Romance and Revenge, a Presley Thurman Mystery: First Chapter Friday
Chapter 1
“Yay, you’re here,” I said to my best friend, Katy, who had just arrived at my condo in Chicago to spend the time leading up to New Year's with me.
Before she even said anything to me, Katy leaned over and started petting Bella. I was used to it though. I was pretty certain my friends only came to see me so they could get some snuggle time with Bella.
“Hi, Bella. How’s my girl?” Katy talked babytalk to the giant beast who leaned on her so hard I was afraid she might knock her over. Bella wasn’t always aware she was well over one hundred pounds. Nope, she thought she was a lap dog.
I hadn’t seen Katy in a few months, since we'd planned her wedding and then unplanned it after finding out her fiancé was involved in an escort ring. I often marveled at the twists and turns my life took. I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried. The silver lining of that crazy mess was that our other friend, Dirt—real name Derick, who had earned his nickname as a child and never lost it—had been released from prison in a chain of events that put the real killer behind bars. Dirt had been in prison after confessing to a murder he hadn’t committed, but escaped to prove his innocence, which he eventually did. Thank goodness. It was hard to believe one of your childhood friends was a murderer.
I knew Katy had been spending a lot of time with him since all of that happened, so I was very curious to find out what was really going on between them. They weren't a couple I’d have put together, but sometimes those unlikely matches ended up being perfect for each other. They had been friends for years, and friendship was often the best foundation for a good relationship.
Let me introduce myself: I’m Presley Thurman, thirty-something redhead, lover of coffee, wine, and food—eating it, not cooking it. Meaning I am more often in my size tens than my size eights because exercise is not one of those things in my top ten “like to do” list. Like most women I know, I have quite the variety of sizes in my closet, as my weight tends to fluctuate. I can’t help it. I like food and dislike exercise. I manage an upscale boutique called Silk while I search for my true calling.
After Katy stopped fawning over Bella, much to her dismay, I put Katy’s things in the guest room and we went to the kitchen where I poured us each a glass of iced tea. Pulling a fruit tray out of the fridge for us to snack on, we both sat down at the kitchen table, with Bella slumping on the floor. She looked hopefully between the two of us for any stray piece of food that might drop on the floor.
“What is going on with you and Dirt?” I asked, jumping right into the topic that was at the forefront of my mind. I was dying to get the scoop, having waited to ask her in person, but it was going to have to wait just a little longer as I heard the door open and Jared walked in.
“What are you doing home?” I asked as he approached us and sat down. Even Bella looked confused as to why he was home. He rarely got in before six, and it was barely three.
“Remember Becky from my work? You met her when we went for drinks to celebrate Sally’s birthday.”
I nodded. “Petite brunette. Graphic designer but she also does the books.”
“Yep, that’s her. She never showed up for work today, nor is she responding to emails, phone calls, and texts. So, yours truly is the lucky one who gets to go by her house and see what’s going on.”
“Why wouldn’t she respond?” I asked.
“No idea. Though it’s not unusual for her to no-show. I like her but she’s a bit of a flake. Anyway, I thought I’d stop here first and see if Katy was here and if you guys wanted to go with me and then go out for a drink, maybe even dinner after.”
“I think that sounds like a great idea. Unless you’re tired, Katy, and don’t feel like going out.”
“Not tired at all. I’m game.”
About ten minutes later we were in Jared’s car heading to his co-worker’s. We’d left Bella at home since we planned to do something after.
“I get wanting to unplug and play hooky but it’s irresponsible, even for her, to go off the grid right before a big pitch to a client, when she has the materials we need. I usually just let her eccentric behavior slide but this time I’m going to give her a piece of my mind. She’s really inconvenienced the whole firm. We have a reputation to uphold as the top branding firm in Chicago. This behavior isn’t acceptable.” Jared was gripping his steering wheel so tightly I was afraid he’d snap it off the steering column.
I hadn’t been to Becky’s home before so hadn’t paid attention to where we were going until I saw sirens in the distance and could tell we were getting closer to them. A few minutes later we pulled into an apartment complex. Police cars, ambulances and quite a few first responders were rushing around. A police officer raised his hand to us to stop and walked up to Jared’s window as he rolled it down.
“Hi, officer. What’s going on?” Jared asked.
“Do you live here?” the officer said, peering in the car at the three of us.
“No, sir. My co-worker does. I need to get something from her for work.”
“What’s your co-worker’s name?”
“Becky Palmer.”
The police officer nodded and held up a finger to signal Jared to wait while he stepped out of earshot and spoke into his shoulder mic. A few moments later he came back to the car.
“Please pull over there to the left. A detective will be here momentarily to ask you a few questions.”
“What? Why? I don’t understand,” Jared said, and my fingers started tapping on my leg. Something didn’t feel right here.
“Just pull over to the left.”
Jared did what he said and parked. All of us looked at each other nervously but didn’t say anything, and a few agonizing minutes later a detective came up to Jared's window.
“Are you the co-worker of the victim?” the detective asked.
“Victim?” Jared said.
“Yes, victim. I am sorry to inform you that Becky Palmer has been murdered.”
Happy reading,
Laina
