"No, that's not me."
He waits for me to explain but I'm not going to. He doesn't need to know why I'm here.
"This is a Kendal Property, right?" I ask.
"Yes." He folds his arms across his chest. "Why do you ask?"
I take the key from my pocket and hold it up. "I found this on the street. It's from one of the Kendal Properties. I wanted to return it to the owner but I don't know where to take it. There's like twenty Kendal Properties in New York."
He takes the key from me and smiles. "I remember these."
"What?"
"Keys." He turns it over in his hand. "Hardly anyone uses real keys anymore. Now it's either one of those key cards or people just punch numbers into a security panel. Some even use their phone to open their door. As for me? I like a key. An actual key you can put in a lock and turn. Why did they have to get rid of those? They're a hell of a lot easier to use than some high tech gadget that requires a code you can't remember."
"Yeah, so anyway, would you happen to know which building it belongs to?"
"Sure I do. It's the only one that still uses these." He hands the key back to me.
"So where is it?"
"Down in SoHo. I can't think of the street but you can look it up. It's an old brick building. Not too big. Has a lot of charm. You should think of living there instead of here. The rent's a lot lower. Of course you gotta give up some space."
"I'll think about it. Thanks." I hurry off before he starts talking again. He seems like a talker and I don't have time to listen. I want to check this place out before I go home.
It's rush hour and taking a cab will take too long so I hop on the subway. When I'm back on the street, I look up the address for the Kendal property in Soho. I know this area well because I dated a girl in college whose brother lived here. He traveled all the time so we'd stay at his place whenever we wanted a weekend in the city.
Making my way through the crowded streets, I finally reach the building. It's tall and narrow, maybe six floors high. There's no doorman but the entrance is locked. There's a place to swipe a key card, which I don't have. People are looking at me like I'm trying to break in so I stand by the side of the building and pretend I'm waiting for someone.
My phone rings. It's Kate.
"Hey. What's up?" I hold the phone closer to my ear. I can barely hear her with all the street noise.
"I was just checking in. Any idea when you'll be home tonight?"
"Probably in an hour or so."
"You're not working late?"
"No. I should be home around six." I'd like to tell her I'm done working late but I don't want to make promises I may not be able to keep. "You want to go for dinner?"
"I can't. I have to be here for the plumber. He has to fix one of the faucets. But if you're home at six, stop by the restaurant. I'll make you dinner. I'm testing meatballs tonight."
"Sounds good. I'll be there."
"Great!" She pauses, then says, "I miss you, Gavin."
"I miss you too." It's not something either one of us should have to say. We live together and yet we miss each other. That's not right. "I'll see you soon. I love you."
"I love you too. Bye!"
A woman walks up to the building and I quickly put my phone away and race up to the door.
"I forgot my key card," I say, smiling at the woman as she swipes her card.
"Yeah, right," she says, her back to me as she opens the door. "Go away or I'll call the cops."
"No, really," I say, hurrying to get my key out. "Look. I live here."
She turns around and sees the key in my hand, then looks at my face and smiles. "You do look familiar."
Is she flirting with me? After assuming I was a criminal just seconds ago?
"So can you let me in?" I ask since she's blocking the door.
She stands there, staring at me. "How do I know you?"
"I live in the building."
She continues to stare. "You look really familiar but I don't remember seeing you in the building before. I must've seen you somewhere else."
"No, it's here. I just haven't been here long. I moved in a few weeks ago."
She suddenly straightens her stance and points her finger at me. "Niles!"
"What?"
"Are you Niles' son? Because you look just like him."
So my dad was definitely here, enough times for this woman to know who he is and know his name. Maybe she's the woman he had the affair with, although I didn't think he'd pick someone so young. She's probably only a year or two older than me.
"Yeah. I'm his son."
She smiles. "I haven't seen Niles forever. What's he been up to?"
She doesn't know he's dead? She must not watch the news. It was a big news story for weeks.
"He passed away."
She sucks in a breath and covers her mouth. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I had no idea. How long ago?"
"Last fall."
"I'm so sorry." She frowns. "I always liked Niles. Whenever we'd pass in the hall, he'd always smile and say hi, which as you know is rare for New Yorkers. I always assumed he must be from somewhere else. Someplace friendly, like maybe the Midwest."
"He's from Connecticut. So um...you didn't know him that well?"
She shakes her head. "I didn't even know his last name. I'd just see him in the hall now and then, and one time he helped me carry my groceries. He was such a nice man. I'm really sorry for your loss."
I nod. "So can I come inside now?"
"Oh." She laughs. "Sorry. I keep blocking the door."
"Don't worry about it. I'm just kind of in a hurry."
"Go ahead. I have to check my mailbox. I'm Kara, by the way. And you are?"
"Gavin," I say, hurrying past her. "Nice meeting you." I search for the elevator but don't see one. I look around for the stairs.
"Need some help?" Kara asks.
"Nope, I'm good," I say as I spot a door that I'm hoping leads to the stairs. Why can't these old buildings label stuff better?
When I open the door, I'm relieved to find stairs but then realize I don't have an apartment number. I don't even know what floor to go to. I'm going to have to try the key in every door. Why can't the stupid key have the apartment number on it?
I stop to think. My dad didn't usually do something without putting a lot of thought into it. He was smart, and very clever when he needed to be; traits he would've used when trying to hide his affair. He'd try to make sure as few people as possible saw him going into his apartment, which means he might choose one on the first floor to limit his time in the stairwell. And he might choose a place close to the stairs to limit his time in the hallway. But Kara said she used to see him in the hall so maybe his place was on the first floor but wasn't the first apartment. Maybe it was the second or third.
I go down the hallway on the first floor, stopping at the second apartment down from the stairwell.
"Having trouble with your key?" Kara asks as she appears in the hallway. She motions to the key in my hand.
"Um, yeah. It wasn't working."
She comes over and takes it from me and puts it in the lock. "Sometimes you have to jiggle it." She unlocks the door and hands me the key. "There you go."
"Thanks."
"No problem." She walks over to the apartment next door. "See ya later."
"Yeah. Bye." I go inside and find an empty apartment. It's been completely cleaned out. My dad's mistress must've taken everything after he died. Or maybe this wasn't his apartment. Maybe it belonged to the mistress. But then why didn't Kara mention her? Why did she only mention my dad?
I go to the bedroom and see that it's also empty. Has this place been vacant since my dad died? He died almost a year ago. Who's been paying the rent? It's a tiny apartment but it's New York so the rent has to cost a fortune.
I go to the kitchen and start searching through the drawers. The second drawer has some takeout menus. So far they're my only clues so I stuff them in my laptop bag. Continuing to search both the cabi
nets and drawers, I find nothing until I reach the very last drawer. As I open it, I hear something rattling. I reach my hand way to the back and pull out a tube of red lipstick. Opening the door all the way, I run my hand along the bottom of the drawer and feel something sharp poke me. I pull it out and see it's a diamond earring. I find the other one and take it out.
Holding the earrings up to the light, it looks like they're real, but who would leave real diamond earrings behind?
Wondering if I might've missed something, I search every drawer again but can't find anything. I tuck the earrings in my pocket and toss the lipstick in my bag, then head to the door. As I'm walking, I spot something on the wood floor. It's a button; a cream-colored button with a silver edge around it, like something that would be on a woman's blouse.
I grab it and shove it in my pocket, then check the time. It's after five. I have to hurry or I'll miss the train back to Connecticut. I lock the door and go out to the street.
My search didn't give me many answers but it did confirm that my dad was cheating on my mom. The question is, why? He was risking everything by doing that. If someone found out and told the press, it would've caused a scandal that could've destroyed his chances for winning the Senate seat. It would've hurt his law business. Ended his marriage. Harmed his relationship with me, his one and only son.
Why would he risk all that for some woman? Who was this woman?
Chapter Twenty
Kate
"I'm here," Gavin announces as he comes in the back door that leads to the kitchen. I left it unlocked, knowing he'd be here soon.
I wipe my flour-covered hands on a dishtowel and give him a hug. "I'm so happy you got off early."
"It's not exactly early," he says, giving me a kiss.
"I know, but you know what I mean. Compared to midnight, this is early."
I'd like to talk to him about that, but not now. It could start a fight and I don't have time to fight. And I don't want to. I hate fighting with Gavin, although I like the making up part.
"I can't make any promises," he says, "but I think the late nights are over."
"Why? What changed?"
"I figured out I'm doing too much myself, so I started asking other people to help me out. So far it's working. We'll see if it continues." He smiles as he rubs his thumb over my cheek. "You're covered in flour."
"I am?" I try to wipe my face but he takes my hand and sets it back down by my side.
"Leave it." He kisses me. "I like it."
I smile. "You like me covered in flour?"
"Or covered in nothing at all." He kisses me and his hand wanders to my backside and gives it a squeeze.
"Gavin, not here," I whisper.
"Let's go in your office."
I sigh in pleasure as he kisses my neck. "I want to but..."
"We'll lock the door." He pulls my body against his and whispers in my ear, "I want you, Kate. I need you so bad."
It turns me on when he tells me that. And the way he's touching me? I'm tempted to do it right here in the kitchen.
Someone rings the back doorbell and I pull away. "The plumber."
Gavin sighs. "He has terrible timing."
I smile. "This was when he was supposed to show up. He's right on time."
"Can I pay him to go away and come back later?"
"He's already doing me a favor showing up here after hours." I give Gavin a kiss. "I'll be right back."
After letting the plumber in, I take Gavin to my office but leave the door open in case the plumber has questions.
"Can I close the door?" Gavin asks.
"We're not doing it," I tell him. "Not with the plumber just a few feet away."
"That's not why I wanted to close the door. I need to tell you something."
"What do you need to tell me?"
He closes the door, then takes something out of this pocket.
"What's that?" I move closer to him and see he's holding a tube of lipstick. What the hell? Is he trying to tell me he has someone else? I know Gavin would never cheat and yet seeing this lipstick is making my chest tight. "Why do you have lipstick?"
"I found it," he says as he sets some takeout menus on the desk. "It was in a drawer at my dad's apartment. All this stuff was." He sets a pair of earrings down next to the lipstick.
"Your dad had an apartment?"
"Yeah." He folds his arms and leans against the desk. "Remember that key I found? It's for an apartment in SoHo."
"How'd you figure that out?"
"I went to one of the Kendal properties near my office and the doorman told me. I didn't know which apartment was my dad's was but I figured it out."
"Was anyone there?"
"No. The place was empty, which doesn't make sense. With my dad gone, who's paying for it? And why hasn't it been rented to someone else? Anyway, I searched the place and this was the only stuff I found."
I pick up one of the earrings. "Are these real?"
"I'm pretty sure they are. My dad wouldn't buy a woman fake diamonds."
"So you know for sure he was cheating on your mom." I set the earring down. "I'm sorry."
He shrugs. "I kind of already knew. This just confirmed it. But I have no idea who she is. I was hoping this stuff would give me some clues."
"Do you really want to know who she is?"
"Yeah. I want to talk to her and find out what she knows about my dad. If he was living some kind of secret life, I want to know why."
Gavin can't be doing this. He can't start digging for information about his dad. If he does, he risks finding out about that secret group, which could put us both in danger.
"He was having an affair," I say. "That was his secret life. There's nothing else that woman can tell you. I doubt she'd even talk to you."
"Maybe not, but I still want to try. My dad was doing more than having an affair. Remember all those guns I found in his trunk last year? There had to be a reason why he had all those."
"But why does it matter now? He's gone. And do you really want to find out stuff about him that may turn out to be bad? Don't you want to remember him for all the good things he's done? For being a good father?"
"Yes, but I still want to know what he was up to. I have to at least try to find out."
"This stuff doesn't tell you anything about the woman he was seeing," I say. "Earrings? Lipstick? Any woman could have those things."
"I know, but it was all I could find at the apartment. And maybe there's a clue in there I'm just not seeing."
"Like this?" I hold up a menu from a Thai place. There's handwriting on the back. Someone wrote, Make sure to get brown rice, not white.
"Let me see that." Gavin takes the menu and studies the handwriting. "My dad didn't write this. It was her. I wonder if there's a way to find someone based on handwriting."
"There isn't. I asked my dad about that once and he said it's not possible. He said there'd have to be a database to match it up to. If you thought it was someone you knew, you could compare this handwriting to something they wrote and find out, but in this case, that's not possible."
"Maybe it is someone I know. Maybe it's someone my dad used to work with on the campaign."
"Does the handwriting look familiar at all?"
"No." He sets the menu down.
I pick it up and look closer at the handwriting. "It does to me."
"What are you talking about?"
"The handwriting. It looks familiar."
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah." I look at him. "I wonder if I saw this handwriting at a party I catered."
"Why would you see someone's handwriting?"
"Sometimes people would scribble down their name and number to give to someone at the party and they'd use my tray to write on. Or they'd sign a guest book at an event. It's possible that's why this looks familiar, but I have no idea who the handwriting belongs to."
"If that's true, then this woman is someone my parents know. It could even be one of my mom's friends."
"It's possible."
"If that were true, my mom would be devastated. It's bad enough my dad cheated, but if he did it with one of her friends..."
"You're not going to tell your mom, are you? About the affair?"
"No, but I'm worried she'll find out. If it was someone she knows, chances are someone will tell her eventually."
"Maybe nobody knew. Maybe your dad hid it well and so did this woman."
"Or maybe it wasn't someone he knew. Maybe it was some woman he met at a bar and ended up having an affair with."
"Could be," I say, but honestly, I think it was someone Niles knew. And someone he trusted. He had too much at stake to trust some random woman he met at a bar.
Gavin's phone rings and he checks it. "Speaking of my mom." He puts the phone to his ear. "Hey, Mom, what's up?" He nods, then looks at me and puts the phone on speaker. "So you're going out with Craig tonight?"
I roll my eyes. I can't believe she's dating my dad. And why are they going out tonight? I thought their next date was Saturday?
"We're going to dinner, then the opera," Celeste says.
The opera? My dad has never been to the opera. I haven't either. I don't even know what you wear to the opera, and if I don't, then my dad definitely doesn't. He doesn't like having to dress up so I can't believe he'd agree to this.
"So is that why you called?" Gavin asks. "To tell me about your date?"
"I called because I want you to babysit your grandfather while I'm out tonight. The other night he had not one, but TWO women over to the house! It was simply disgraceful!"
I cover my mouth to hide my laughter. Gavin is smiling.
"Gramps really had two women in his room? At the same time?"
"Not in his room! He had them over for dinner, which is bad enough. And then they had drinks and became obnoxiously loud."
"He just had some company over. It's not that big a deal."
"If your grandfather wants to entertain multiple women, he can do it at his own house, not mine. And I don't want him doing it again tonight, which is why I need you to come over and keep an eye on him."
"I'm not babysitting Gramps. He's a grown man. He can do what he wants. If he were trashing the house, that's one thing, but having people over? I don't think that's a problem."
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