by K E O'Connor
“You raised Michael?”
Lonnie snitched his nose and waved his hand in the air.
“He’s been with you since he was young. And you think he’d remain loyal, no matter how much money could be his?”
Lonnie nodded.
“If you aren’t prepared to consider Carson or Michael, then look closer at your family.” I glanced at Elita. She was still asleep. “Ignatius mentioned something about you wanting to come clean. That would mean trouble for other people who were involved with your... business dealings. Coming clean about your criminal past would make you unpopular, and others would face the risk of prison.”
Lonnie floated to the other side of the desk and pulled open the bottom drawer. He gestured at the contents, and I walked around and took a look. Inside was a large metal box.
He pointed at it and gestured for me to lift it out.
I pulled out the box and opened the lid, discovering a big pile of papers inside. “The Academy for Creative Entrepreneurs.” I read through the first page of the document. “This looks like a charity for kids who’ve gotten into trouble.”
Lonnie nodded a look of pride on his face. He gestured for me to keep reading.
I scanned through more of the papers, and as I read, I saw how advanced the plans were. There was an outline for a school that would take in kids not thriving in the current educational system; a programme of apprenticeships and work placements for children who’d gotten on the wrong side of the law; a mentoring program, placing kids with reformed criminals and showing them there was a way to avoid getting sucked back into the criminal world. It sounded amazing, and what was more, funding was in place to get the charity started. Lonnie had set aside a million pounds a year to make this happen. I had to admit I was impressed.
Lonnie encouraged me to keep turning the pages, and as I did so, I saw his ambitions didn’t stop at one location; he had plans for a dozen of these projects. That was going to take a serious investment.
“Were you planning on using the stolen gold to finance this?” I closed the paperwork and placed it back in the box.
Lonnie shrugged and shot me a sly smile.
“I know you have the gold hidden somewhere,” I said. “I don’t approve of the way you got it, but what you plan to do with it is incredible. Do you still want this to happen? Is that why you’re here?”
Lonnie nodded but then wrapped his hands around his throat and mimed being strangled.
“But you also think your death wasn’t by natural causes.”
Lonnie nodded before his gaze shifted to the closed box full of his ambitions for the charity.
“I’m not sure how much help I can be with setting up the charity,” I said. “If the gold is hidden, it will be of no use to anyone. And the police want the gold back.”
Lonnie pressed a finger to his lips.
“I can’t promise I’m not going to tell the police if I find out anything useful,” I said. I wasn’t going to let Lonnie know I was helping Gunner, but he must know I’d have to report any gold bar discoveries, as tempting as the thought of vanishing to some sunny island with the gold was.
Lonnie dropped to his knees and held his hands together in a prayer position.
“I know this means a lot to you, and you don’t want your family getting into trouble. And I see how great this charity is. But it’s founded on crime; is that the right thing to do? What if the kids who benefit from this work discover their second chance came about because you stole?”
Lonnie leaned his head forward and rested it on my knees, sending a shard of ice cold through my veins as he made contact with me. He shot up and over to the pictures of his family, presenting them to me one at a time.
I sighed as I tried to ignore the sliver of uncertainty inside me. Stealing was wrong, and there was no way Lonnie could argue about that. But he had done it for a noble cause, to help not only his family but to support thousands of troubled kids who didn’t have anyone to turn to.
I placed the box back in the drawer, but it wouldn’t lay flat, so I couldn’t get it closed. I pushed a little harder but it refused to budge. Taking the box out, I pushed my hand inside and felt around, expecting to feel a pen or piece of paper was stopping the box going back inside. What I felt instead was a small piece of rough wood raised slightly on the side of the drawer.
Shivers flooded down my spine as Lonnie shot to my side and waved his hands in front of me.
I looked up, expecting him to be alerting me to someone coming into the room or that Elita was waking up. But no one came in and Elita’s snores floated around the study, confirming she wasn’t going to bother me.
I returned to my investigation of the piece of wood, prodding it and trying to get it to sit flat so I could get the box back in the drawer. But it was stuck in place. I gave it a thump with the side of my hand and heard the soft click of a latch opening.
Lonnie’s gaze turned panicked, and he hovered in front of me as if trying to block my way. He was hiding something from me, something he didn’t want me to see.
I dodged around him, but he blocked my path again. “What’s the matter with you?” I hissed at him. “I told you we need to be honest with each other if I’m going to help figure out who killed you.”
Every time I tried to dodge around Lonnie, he kept getting in my way.
I stopped trying to run around him and glared at him, my hands on my hips. “You do realize you’re a ghost? I can walk straight through you.” Not that I wanted to do that. When I’d experienced walking through a ghost in the past, it had left me cold for days, as if the ghost sucked some of the life out of me and gave me a shove towards the limbo afterlife they existed in. It wasn’t a place I ever wanted to visit.
Lonnie’s shoulders slumped before he stepped to one side and gestured me forward.
I walked slowly around the desk. The clicking sound had come from the other side as if me hitting the wood in the drawer released something. I carried on my investigation of the desk, creeping my fingers around the edge until I reached the front and discovered a small gap. I pushed my fingers inside and felt something cold and smooth.
My heart sped up as I continued to feel around inside the gap. I’d never felt a gold bar before, but if I had, it would feel like this. I was certain of that. I looked at Lonnie, who was peering anxiously at me. “Is this where you’ve been hiding your gold?”
Chapter 13
“Gold!” Elita sat up with a start, blinking her eyes and looking around the study blearily. “Did you say something about gold?”
I spun around and concealed the desk compartment containing the gold bars. “I wasn’t saying anything.”
Elita’s brow furrowed. “I heard you talking.”
“I might have been muttering to myself. I have a habit of doing that.” I looked at Flipper. “Or talking to my dog.”
Elita smoothed her hair and gave a slight nod. “I was dreaming about Lonnie. He was telling me where he’d hidden the gold.”
“Did he give you any useful clues?”
“It was just a dream. It didn’t make any real sense.” Elita slipped her feet into a pair of fluffy black slippers sitting on the floor by the sofa. “You still want to work here? No change of heart since last night?”
“I do.”
Elita gave me a sharp look. “Why would you do that if you know we’re criminals?”
“Because you aren’t anymore,” I said. “At least, I don’t think you are. It sounds as if Lonnie pursued a criminal lifestyle to provide for everyone else.”
Elita sighed and stretched her arms over her head. “He didn’t do anything for the greater good to begin with. He was a rogue. But then things changed.”
“What happened to make Lonnie change?”
“I like to think I had something to do with it,” said Elita. “And, as you may have noticed, we don’t have any children. There’s no one to inherit the family name and take over the business.”
I hadn’t noticed that. I’
d been too busy worrying about my own safety and whether or not there was a killer loose in the house. “You never had a family of your own?”
“We tried for children.” Elita played with a button on her bright red blouse. “For years, and we had a lot of fun trying. But it never happened.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
Elita shrugged. “Although Lonnie never accepted it, he was the reason it couldn’t happen.”
Lonnie zoomed to Elita’s side and shook his head. Looked like he still wasn’t prepared to accept he was the reason they’d never had kids.
“Lonnie wasn’t fertile?” That question earned me an evil glare from Lonnie before he shot away from Elita.
“I had all the tests done, including spending a month in America having some specialist prod me, only for him to tell me what I already knew; I was fit and healthy and able to have children. When they did the same to Lonnie, the results showed he didn’t have any healthy swimmers. But he wouldn’t believe it and kept thinking he could defy the odds, and all the medical knowledge under the sun, and still have a family.”
“Male pride is a strange thing,” I said.
“It’s also a stupid thing,” said Elita. “What was worse, when I got past childbearing age, he decided he needed a younger model, someone who would give him children. As if that made any difference.”
“So he left you for Chelsea.”
Elita nodded, her lips pinching together. “But it didn’t happen with Chelsea either. And I know Lonnie was getting frustrated about that.”
“Is that why he was interested in setting up the charity for troubled kids?” I asked. “It was his way of supporting and raising children who didn’t have a good family to rely upon.”
Elita’s groomed eyebrows shot up. “How do you know about that?”
I looked back at the desk, where the box was still sitting. “I was looking for some spare paper and found a file all about it. It sounds amazing.”
“It was going to be one-of-a-kind.” Elita sat back on the sofa. “And I understood why Lonnie was so passionate about it. I was as well. We wanted to offer a place for children who didn’t have a good start in life and were heading down the wrong path, just like some of the Cornells have in the past.”
I smiled and waited for her to continue.
“We wanted to give them another option, and, in a way, create our own extended family and have the children we were never able to.” Elita brushed a finger across her cheek. “Lonnie would have been an amazing father, and he’d have loved those kids as if they were his own.”
I looked over to see Lonnie skulking by the desk, a scowl on his face. Men and their peckers, they always get so sensitive about them.
“Why isn’t the charity happening now?” I asked.
“Because I need the money to make it work,” said Elita. “That was always Lonnie’s big plan; secure enough money to make sure the charity would happen. But now the gold has gone and so has Lonnie. And unless we decide to pull off another gold heist, the charity will remain a dream, one that died along with my cheating ex-husband.”
“You could sell this place, move into somewhere smaller.” I looked around at the expensive furnishings. The house must be worth a good few million.
“It wouldn’t be enough,” said Elita. “And we need a regular cash flow. You don’t get rich helping troubled kids.”
The gold bars hidden in the desk behind me felt like they were alive, waiting to see if I would reveal their whereabouts and help the poor children. “Any ideas where Lonnie might have hidden the gold?”
Elita leaned forward. “Why the interest? Thinking you might run off with some of it?”
I stood up straight. “I don’t steal from my employer.”
“Make sure you don’t,” said Elita. “I’m not above setting you right if you double-cross this family. I will protect them until the last breath has left my body.”
I swallowed, noticing the steely glint in Elita’s eyes. She was a gangster’s wife through and through. “You have nothing to worry about. I’ll do the job you need me to do and that’s it.” That and try to solve her ex-husband’s murder.
Elita’s face softened. “I do trust you. And I follow my gut instinct when I meet a person. It has never let me down. You and Helen are good girls.”
I had to agree with that. Although being called a girl when I was closer to thirty than twenty was pushing it a bit.
“Well, I need to get ready for my date.” Elita stood from the sofa. “Since I’m no longer a gangster’s wife, I need to relax and have some fun. Threatening the staff is something I’ll let Michael do.”
I ignored her last sentence. I was more interested in who Elita was seeing. “Is it someone special?”
She winked at me. “Don’t they always think they’re the special one?”
I grinned at her. “I hope he’s taking you somewhere nice.”
“I’ll be going to my favorite place.” Elita raised her hand before leaving the study.
I glanced at Lonnie, who was still sulking by the desk. “Stop being so childish and help me figure out who killed you and who is after the gold.” I jabbed a finger at the desk.
Lonnie glowered at me and then vanished. So much for getting any help from him. I slid the wood back into place over the hole in the desk, making sure no one else would stumble across my find. I was still undecided about what to do about this discovery. Gunner would kill to get his hands on evidence like this, but if I let him in on the find now, I’d never get a chance to figure out who killed Lonnie. Although, from the way he’d just been behaving, I wasn’t sure he deserved any help. Stubborn, annoying ghost.
Still, I had something more urgent to investigate; who was Elita now dating, and what would he be prepared to do to get Lonnie out of the way and himself into Elita’s arms?
***
I did a speedy tidy of the desk, made sure the box was back where it should be, and then dashed upstairs with Flipper. My room looked out over the front driveway so I had the perfect view for when Elita’s suitor arrived for their date. I settled myself on the window seat, Flipper resting his head on my knee, and waited.
Half an hour later, I was bored. No one had arrived, and Elita hadn’t left in a car. Maybe they were running late or had decided not to pick up Elita. I pitied any man who stood Elita up. He’d end up with no knee caps and concrete shoes for committing such a felony.
There was a knock on my bedroom door, and I turned, trying to make myself look as innocent as possible and not like I was spying on my employer. “Come in.”
Helen poked her head around the door. “You finished for the day?”
I let out a relieved sigh and gestured her to the window. “I’m waiting for Elita’s boyfriend to arrive.”
Helen’s eyes widened, and she dashed over. “Who is it?”
“Elita didn’t tell me. But she let slip she’s seeing someone, and I want to know who.”
“Someone who might want the criminal ex-husband out of the way?” Helen peered out of the window.
“That’s what I was thinking,” I said. “But he’s a no-show, so far.”
“Maybe Elita and her new man worked together to get rid of Lonnie.”
“That’s possible,” I said. “And I found some damning evidence that puts Lonnie in the middle of the gold heist.”
“What did you find?” asked Helen.
“Gold bars.”
Helen opened her mouth. “Wow! That’s some evidence. Have you told Gunner?”
“Not yet. I want to help Lonnie first.”
Helen grabbed my arm. “Gunner needs to know about this.”
I grinned at Helen. “Since when have you been so interested in helping Gunner? I thought he was a thorn in your side, sent to cause you misery at every opportunity.”
“He’s all of that.” Helen’s cheeks glowed. “But this gold will help him solve a huge case.”
“But Lonnie’s dead,” I said. “Aren’t we better focusing on
finding his killer first? Then Gunner can come in, swoop up anyone who helped Lonnie steal the gold, and show you what a hot hero he is.”
“He’s not hot,” muttered Helen.
“He’s a little bit hot.” My grin only widened when Helen refused to comment. “Let’s go downstairs and see what Elita’s up to. I might have missed her date arriving.”
We worked our way through the downstairs rooms, looking for Elita and her mystery man.
Helen stopped by the back door. “I can hear voices outside.”
I hurried to join her and tilted my head to one side. “It’s Elita. She must be having her date here. She said she was going to her favorite place, and this must be it.”
“We can’t see anything from here.”
“If we skirt around the edge of the garden, we can hide behind those bushes.” I pointed to the large bushes shaped like hares. “We’ll be able to see who Elita’s with, without being spotted.”
We scuttled around the side of the house, being sure to stay out of sight of Elita and her mystery man. I kept running through cold spots, hitting five of them, and slowed. It felt like I was running through ghosts, but I couldn’t see any.
“Hurry up!” whispered Helen.
Ignoring the feelings, I sped along. It took about five minutes to dash past the flower beds, but we were soon hidden by the giant green hares.
I settled on my knees, spotting a gap in the hedge, which gave me a good view of the terrace Elita was sitting on. She had a glass in one hand and wore a fitted cream silk dress, her dark hair pinned on top of her head.
“Who’s she with?” asked Helen. “I don’t see anybody else.”
“Neither do I.” I waited a moment to see if anyone would come out of the house, but other than Michael standing guard by the door, no one was around. She couldn’t be having a date with herself.
Elita’s laughter drifted towards me, and I watched as she raised her glass at Michael. He nodded at her, and then slid his own glass out and took a swift sip before it vanished from sight.
I groaned and clamped my hand over my mouth. I was such an idiot.
“What did you see?” Helen shoved aside some leaves. “I can only see Elita’s legs from here.”