She came to an abrupt halt, stopping him in his tracks. “Hide it where? If we go back to your house someone might see us, maybe one of the guards. It will be obvious that we haven’t been at the party, especially since we’re not even in costume.”
“We’ll hide it on the third floor of the mansion. There’s a small safe—”
A hard shot of adrenaline raced through Lexi’s body followed by a cold shiver, a reaction that matched the look in Gable’s eyes. Someone had rattled the doorknob on the front door.
He grabbed her hand, his voice carrying a real sense of urgency. “Damn…we’ve got to get out of here. Come on, the back door is our only option.”
The sound of the lock being worked followed by the click of it opening told them they would never make it to the kitchen and out the back door without being detected. Her heart pounded and her mouth went dry as the adrenaline surged through her veins. The trepidation bordered on panic. Lexi looked to Gable for a decision. Anything to reassure her they would be safe.
Gable’s response was decisive and immediate. He shoved her to the floor and then the two of them scooted under the bed. Lexi pulled in deep breaths as she tried to calm her escalating panic. She felt Gable’s heart pound as he pressed his body against hers, covering her in a protective manner. She wasn’t sure what to think. If it hadn’t been such a dangerous situation it would almost have been weirdly surreal, as if it was a scene from a movie—the cheating wife and her lover being surprised by the husband who came home early, forcing them to hide in the only place they could find in a hurry.
But it wasn’t a movie, she wasn’t a cheating wife, and the consequences of being discovered could be deadly.
The sounds of drawers opening and closing and items being moved around filtered in from the living room. Lexi immediately recognized Brian’s voice.
“Whatever it is you’re looking for, we need to hurry. Hank or Dolly could come back here for something at any time.”
“They’re both occupied with the party.”
Lexi didn’t recognize the second voice. It seemed to be barking orders more than simply responding to Brian’s concern. She shot a quick glance at Gable who seemed as mystified as she was about who the voice belonged to. They continued to listen.
“What is it you’re looking for? Perhaps I can help you find it?”
“What I’m looking for, Brian, is my business! You keep a watch out the window for any unexpected visitors. I want you to keep an especially sharp lookout for Gable Talbot and Alexandra Caldwell.”
“No need to worry there, Mr. Prescott. I confirmed that they’re at the party, dancing in full view of all the guests. Besides, in those costumes they won’t be doing much in the way of sneaking around.”
The voices moved closer to the bedroom. Gable felt Lexi’s grip tighten on his hand. A sharp adrenaline spike of excitement shot through his veins when he heard Brian call the second man by name. The voice was not the Prescott imposter. That meant only one thing. The man Brian addressed as Mr. Prescott was actually Winthrop Hollingsworth who had finally returned to the scene of the crime. After all these years Gable would be able to come face-to-face with the chief nemesis of his life, the man who had cold-bloodedly murdered two people and deprived him of a father with callous disregard for everything other than his own greed.
Gable’s momentary excitement quickly turned to cold calculating thoughts. The next few hours would be critical. They would spell the difference between Winthrop merely being unmasked and them being able to prove he committed the murders. His thoughts jerked back to the present when the two men entered the bedroom. From beneath the bed he could see their feet, Brian’s boots and uniform pants and a pair of running shoes and jeans belonging to the other man.
Neither of the men spoke. Brian remained by the bedroom door as the other man walked around, opened dresser drawers, then finally opened the closet door. Gable listened as the other man moved things in the closet, then shut the door.
“Tell me, Brian. Is there some other place where either Hank or Dolly spend a considerable amount of their time?”
“Yes, sir, Mr. Prescott. Naturally Dolly spends a lot of time at Mr. Talbot’s house. I’ve already apprised you of the situation with his office safe and computer. But Hank uses the carriage house behind the mansion as a work shop and a place where he stores various tools and gardening supplies. He’s there several times a day and in bad weather he quite often works the entire day in the carriage house.”
“Excellent. I want to make a quick check of the kitchen. If I don’t find anything here, we’ll go to the carriage house.”
“Uh…I don’t know, Mr. Prescott. With the party in full swing at the mansion, this might not be a good time for you to go poking around inside the carriage house with so many people close by.”
Gable didn’t hear the other man give any response to Brian’s concerns. He watched Brian’s boots move from the bedroom door back toward the living room. Before he could breathe a sigh of relief the other man’s running shoes came to a halt only about two feet away. Then they turned toward the bed. He tightened his hold on Lexi, keeping her wrapped in the protection of his arms as he also held his breath. His heart pounded as the adrenaline pumped through his veins.
“We need to hurry, Mr. Prescott.” Brian’s voice called from the living room. “I’m due to check with each of the guards and need to stay on schedule so no one gets suspicious.”
The long pause seemed like it lasted forever, then the running shoes turned and walked toward the bedroom door. He heard the intruders move toward the kitchen. Another five minutes and the two men left the way they had come, through the front door. Gable continued to hold Lexi in place for several more minutes to make sure their adversaries wouldn’t be coming back.
They finally emerged from beneath the bed. Gable brushed his fingertips across her cheek. “You okay?”
“My nerves are rattled, but everything else is all right.” She quickly pulled herself together and collected her composure. “That was Winthrop Hollingsworth with Brian, wasn’t it? I wonder how long he’s been on the island and where he’s been hiding?”
“I doubt he’s been here very long, probably only a few hours. Brian knows the location of the security cameras, so was able to guide Hollingsworth from the cove without being detected. The only place Brian could hide him—other than sticking him up a tree somewhere—would be in his own personal quarters and he certainly couldn’t keep him there for long if for no other reason than needing to feed him without anyone seeing Brian sneaking out food.”
“I got the impression that Hank and Dolly don’t know he’s here and that he didn’t want to run into them…at least not while he was with Brian.”
“Yeah, same here. I think that pretty much confirms that Brian only knows him as J.D. Prescott and Hank and Dolly only know him as Winthrop Hollingsworth and he needs to keep that separate for his own protection. And that leaves him in a very precarious position, treading a thin line. My guess is that he was searching for any records Hank and Dolly may have that would prove some of his manipulations with the money.” Gable started toward the front door. “Come on, we need to get out of here. There’s still work to be done before the big announcement moment tonight.”
They hurried back to the mansion, again accessing the secret stairs to the third floor. Lexi watched as Gable opened the hidden safe in the small office area and put the box inside it. She blinked several times and straightened to attention when he removed a holster containing a 9mm semi-automatic hand gun and surreptitiously clipped it to his jeans under his sweater before closing the safe. The anxiety shivered through her body. But before she could say anything, the vision flashed in her mind again, striking without warning. She squeezed her eyes shut and stumbled backward a couple of steps. The image attacked her senses. So vivid. So real.
A hard jolt of fear shot through her at the same time as the vision she had seen before of the man firing the gun point blank at Gable. Her enti
re body trembled to the point where she couldn’t control it. A sick churning knotted in the pit of her stomach. The single word came out as a frightened whisper.
“Gable…”
His arms circled around her, pulling her tightly into the comfort and security of his embrace, but alarm surrounded his words. “What is it, Lexi? What’s wrong?”
She desperately tried to bring some semblance of calm to her voice. They were in the final stages of his plan. He needed to feel confident that he could depend on her without her strange visions interfering. Somehow she had to control them, or at least control her reactions to them.
“The vision, someone shooting at you.” She squeezed her eyes tighter. “I can’t see any background. I don’t know where…”
“Don’t worry.” He brushed a soft kiss against her lips, then cradled her head against his shoulder. “Everything is going to be all right.”
Then another vision assaulted her…a new one creating a new level of fear inside her. She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face against his chest. Someone running…the unstable ground giving way and dumping the person into the ravine…mud sliding into the ravine and burying someone. Who was this person? She couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. Even though this vision of someone falling into the ravine and being buried by the mud was not from her point of view as the vision of the mud sliding toward her had been, her entire body shook as the cold wave crashed through her accompanied by the terrifying memory of what had happened.
The unwelcome psychic visions hadn’t finished with her. Yet another vision, equally frightening. Two bodies, a man and a woman. She couldn’t see any faces. The clothes they were wearing not clearly defined. Sprawled face down in the sand at the cove. Dead.
Someone being buried in a mud slide. Two dead bodies at the cove. New visions in addition to a repeat of the one with someone firing a gun at Gable. What the hell were they trying to tell her? How could she stop the events from happening? Hard spasms shuddered through her body as the fear coursed through her veins. But not fear for her own safety.
The words screamed inside her mind. How can I protect Gable?
She shoved away from his embrace. Somehow she had to shut off the frightening intrusions. Gable was depending on her to do her part. Her full attention had to be directed to the problem at hand—bringing the rest of the plan to fruition. But how? If anything happened to him…
“Lexi, honey…what’s wrong?” The alarm filled his voice. “You’re trembling and you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“It’s…visions…images…” She sucked in a calming breath as she squared her shoulders and clenched her jaw in determination. She put as much control into her voice as she could muster. “It’s nothing.” She offered what she hoped looked like a confident smile. “Just a little nervous tension. We have work to do.”
Even though she remained in the dark about several of the details of what was to transpire that night, she knew what he expected of her. She also knew Gable anticipated trouble. Or at the very least, had prepared himself in case something went wrong. There wasn’t any other way to interpret the hand gun he took from the safe. And since he hadn’t volunteered an explanation, she decided not to ask.
He placed a loving kiss on her lips. “It’s almost over. Another hour or two and we can put this behind us.” He glanced at his watch. “The Prescott imposter will be making his scheduled announcement in about ten minutes, then I make my surprise announcement which should force Winthrop out of hiding. Even though he has hired an actor to impersonate him, I have no doubts that he’ll be somewhere close by so he can hear what I’m going to say in response to his imposter’s announcement. That’s when I’ll draw him out into the open and we’ll have him.”
She couldn’t keep the gravity of the situation out of her voice. “Be careful, Gable. This isn’t a game. It’s deadly serious and I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
He smiled at her, a smile that melted her heart. “When this is all over, we have things to talk about…important things. I promise I’m not going to let anything happen to me, especially with so much to look forward to.”
He brushed another brief kiss against her mouth, then his manner became somber…the type of seriousness that left her very uneasy, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop. “But for now I need to have you do something for me. You’re not going to like it, but it’s very important.”
She tried to swallow the anxiety that had suddenly invaded her awareness. That other shoe was about to drop. “Of course. I’ll do anything you need.”
Gable placed his hands on her shoulders, his face showing his nervous tension. “I need for you to stay here where you’ll be safe.”
His words caught her by surprise. “You want me to stay here on the third floor, tucked away from what’s happening? What about the tasks you gave me to do…my part of the operation for tonight?”
“We don’t need to have the electric carts disabled. They can’t get anyone off the island. I’ve already stationed Ralph at the dock. The guard on duty at the security office has been stationed at the cove and he’ll alert me to anyone in the vicinity, whether approaching the cove from the ocean or headed to the cove from the island. The thing you can do now that will help me the most is to stay here so I’ll know you’re safe.”
An increased level of apprehension welled inside her. “But I want to help. And what about my vision…the one where someone is shooting at you—”
He placed his fingertips to her lips to stop her words. “I promise you, no one will shoot me. Now, I want you to promise me you’ll stay here until I come and get you. Okay?”
“But I—”
“Please, Lexi…promise me you’ll stay here where you’ll be safe.”
She glanced down at the floor, then expelled a sigh of resignation. “Okay, I’ll stay out of trouble.”
“Nice try, but that isn’t what I asked. Promise me you’ll stay here.”
She forced out a barely audible response. “Okay, I won’t leave.”
Gable gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, then returned to the hidden stairs. She watched him disappear behind the sliding panel. Lexi wasn’t sure exactly what she felt. It seemed to be part anxiety, part irritation and part stubborn determination. I promised not to leave the mansion, but that doesn’t mean I won’t leave the third floor. Maybe Gable didn’t take her visions seriously, but she did. She had no doubt that the vision she saw of a gun being fired at Gable foretold a very real incident. A very frightening incident. She had no intention of sitting there and letting it happen.
She could easily reach the ground floor from inside the mansion without using the secret stairs and being outside, so technically she wouldn’t be breaking her promise to not leave. After all, she didn’t specifically promise not to leave the third floor. She only promised not to leave. So, as long as she remained inside the mansion…
A little twinge of guilt told her she had drawn a very thin line.
The wide curved staircase from the ground floor went up to the second floor landing, then continued to the third floor with a door between the staircase and the third floor hallway. That door could be locked from the third floor side. It prevented someone from gaining access from the floors below…what could be construed as a private residence within the mansion…rather than keeping anyone from leaving the third floor to go downstairs.
And she knew just the place to hide where she could keep an eye on the activities in the ballroom without anyone being able to see her.
And her previous explorations of the mansion told her how to get there without being spotted.
****
“Okay, Gable. Stand over here and we’ll give this one last run through before…” Robert Stinson paused as he stared at his nephew for a second. “Not to change the subject, but what do you plan to do about your name when all of this is over? It’s taken five years, but I’ve finally gotten use to calling you Gable. Are you going to have your name
changed back to Jonathon Stinson?”
Gable wrinkled his brow in a moment’s concentration. “I don’t know. I haven’t really given it any thought. I haven’t been able to think beyond seeing Winthrop Hollingsworth in jail. Except for one thing…”
Robert cocked his head to the side and raised a questioning eyebrow. “And would that one thing be Alexandra Caldwell? Even a blind man can see the way you look at her and every time you mention her name that look comes into your eyes.”
A moment of uncertainty accompanied his words. “It’s that obvious?”
“It is to these eyes and they have exceptional vision.”
Gable glanced at his watch and attempted to change the subject. “We don’t have time to be discussing abstract things. The Prescott imposter will be making his announcement in ten minutes. Then it’s my turn to draw Winthrop out of hiding.”
He sucked in a deep breath, held it for several seconds, then slowly exhaled. If this doesn’t work…if Winthrop is on to us…if he doesn’t take the bait…Gable shook away the negative thoughts. There was no room or time for doubts.
Robert and Gable did a last minute check of the equipment Robert had set up in the windowless room off the ballroom, a secured location where they could observe and control everything without anyone else having access to the locked room. In the prime days of the mansion parties, the room was used to store the musicians instruments and as a lounge where the band took their break.
As soon as Robert and Gable were satisfied that everything was ready, Gable spoke into the miniature earpieces worn by both his and Lexi’s stand-ins in the ballroom.
“As we discussed, when I stop the music you ask for everyone to move to the sides of the dance floor, then call Prescott front and center to make his announcement. The assembled guests will most likely applaud his statement when he’s finished. At that time when all attention is on him, the two of you slip out the side door and head straight for the dock. Ralph will hand you a check for your services and see that you’re immediately transported back to the mainland. I thank you for your fine performance and remind you of the confidentiality agreement you signed preventing you from talking to anyone about this. I’ll be stopping the music in five minutes, so get into position.”
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