Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 06 - Tiaras & Texans by Laina Turner Read Free Book Online Page B

finished drying my hair and doing my makeup. I felt extra pressure here to look as good as I could, being around all these beauties. It didn’t help that they were all ten or twelve years younger than me. Today I decided to pair a deep red sheath dress with silver sandals. It was a little bit fancy for the daytime, but in this glamorous setting I didn’t think it would be a problem. I made my way to the meeting room where Linda was waiting for me and with her was a young lady. Another beautiful blonde with green eyes. They were all starting to look alike. Still not sure if her eye color was real, but it looked more realistic than Allie’s violet ones.
    “Presley, meet Janine. Janine, Presley from Sands Security. She’s here to help find out who’s behind all that’s been going on lately,” Linda said. “We would appreciate it if you would tell her everything you can.”
    “Nice to meet you, Janine,” I said, holding out my hand. She took it, and surprisingly had a firm handshake, and not so surprisingly a beautiful manicure that made me immediately cringe, thinking of the chips in my polish I had noticed this morning.
    “Likewise,” Janine replied in a strong Texas drawl. “Linda said ya’ll had some questions for me?”
    “Yes, we do.”
    “I don’t know how I can help, but I’m sure sad about what happened to Hollie. Poisoning seems such a bad way to go. I want to do anything I can to help find her killer.”
    Well, the gossip mill was starting to make the rounds. Just like we had assumed. “What have you heard, Janine?”
    “Just that Hollie was poisoned. I tell ya, lots of the other girls are scared to eat. I told one that being scared to eat would just help us fit in our clothes better.”
    That was one way to look at it I guess. Janine came across as not being too concerned for her own safety. And it was evident either Allie or Elaine or both couldn’t keep a secret. Though to be fair, it could have been any number of people talking. “I wanted to ask you, Janine, about what happened to you in the last pageant.”
    “Oh, you want to know about my stolen dress?”
    I nodded.
    She shrugged. “It was stolen. I’m not sure what more to say.”
    “Was it worth a lot of money? Where was it the last time you saw it? Can you think of anyone who would want to steal your dress?”
    “It was my evening gown, and by far the most expensive clothing item I have for pageants, but not overly expensive. I think my mom paid a thousand for it.”
    I almost choked. A thousand for a pageant dress, and she didn’t consider that expensive? “Go on.”
    “I last saw it in my dressing station and it was in the blue garment bag I keep it in. It’s a specially designed garment bag, lined and all, to not rip the beading on my gowns. The bag was there before I went out on stage for the swimsuit competition, but when I came back to change into it to get ready for the finals, it was gone. Lucky for me, many of the girls bring more than one dress and I was able to borrow one from Allie. I still came in third.”
    I was writing all this down so I wouldn’t forget what she said later, but it was hard to focus on writing and not let my mind wander about the possibilities. Both girls had something happen that was relativity easy to fix, and they still came in among the top three. To me it seemed a significant bit of information.
    “Can you think of anyone who might have done this? Anyone who was desperate to beat you maybe?”
    “We all want to beat each other. Of course I always want to come in first place, but not at the expense of others. And I can’t think of any of the other girls who would ever hurt anyone else either just to win. Besides, it’s not uncommon to have a last minute rip in a dress and borrow someone else’s. That’s why many of the girls bring more than one. I, myself, normally have more than one, but my backup dress tore at the last pageant and the seamstress hadn’t returned it yet.” Janine