Bats and Bling Read Online Free PDF

and most of her friends are all on, and start making calls since there isn’t time to mail invites. Do you want to have a store wide discount or just selected merchandise?” said Yvette.
    “Let’s do store wide with a deeper discount on the markdowns. We need to get rid of that stuff to make way for the new merchandise that’s sitting in back or hasn’t even made it in. Might as well pull out all the stops. Even if no one shows up we can at least say we tried.”
    “Don’t be so negative, Presley. Things will work out. You’ll see. These women won’t be able to resist a sale. It’s in their DNA to shop,” Katy said.
    Yvette headed to the back to make some calls and a couple women walked in with a man following closely behind. I didn’t recognize any of them so I was excited. New shoppers. I loved it when new people came in. It made me feel I was doing something right and gave me the opportunity to win people over to regular customers. Even with the current drama surrounding the place I still got excited. Katy was right. I needed to have a positive attitude about things. Negativity didn’t get you anywhere,
    “Hello and welcome to Silk,” I said and then filled them in on the layout of the store. The two ladies headed back to the evening dress section while the man lingered in the front. I quickly got the feeling he wasn’t here to shop since he didn’t seem to be with the ladies as I’d first thought. I decided I might as well approach him and see what he wanted.
    “Can I help you find something, sir? Are you looking for a gift for someone?”
    The man smiled and held out his hand. “I’m Bert Tremain with Windy City Insurance. Are you Presley by chance?”
    My heart dropped as I shook his hand but I kept a smile plastered on my face. This couldn’t be good and just when my day was starting to look a little brighter with new customers. Windy City wasn’t my insurance company, so I could only assume it was Veronica’s. She certainly worked fast. “Yes I am.”
    He must have noticed the distress in my face because he quickly added, “Don’t worry dear. I’m just here to ask you a few questions about the brooch that was stolen.”
    That was his purpose for stopping by and he expected me not to be worried. I was confused by his demeanor.
    “My insurance company has the police report but I’m not yet sure what they are going to do,” I lied, not wanting to admit that they wouldn’t cover the loss and hoping he might not know that yet. I needed a little more time to think about all this, maybe find a solution, or find the brooch.
    “I’m not here about that exactly. I’m representing the jewelry store that gave Ms. Knapp the brooch on loan, not Ms. Knapp.”
    That took me by surprise. “I thought Veronica had said she had the piece custom made for her.”
    “She did, but it hadn’t quite been paid for yet. The store was just gracious enough to allow her to take it home before paying for it.”
    What kind of store let someone take an expensive piece of jewelry without paying? It seemed as if Veronica might also be in trouble over this. I couldn’t help but feel a glimmer of hope that if Veronica hadn’t paid for it, maybe she’d be accountable for the loss not me. I felt bad for even thinking that but I couldn’t help it.
    Bert pulled a notebook out of his pocket and looked back at me.
    “If you could please run down the events of how the brooch came to be in your possession?”
    I recounted everything from when Veronica and her friends came in the store to opening the safe the next morning to discover the brooch was missing.
    “And you have no idea who could have gotten into the safe?”
    “No,” I shook my head. “The police are of course investigating but I haven’t heard anything yet. There are only a few of us who have access and I can’t bring myself to believe it’s one of us but then that leaves me at a loss as to who could have not only got into the store but also the