A Dangerous Widow (Dangerous #1)

by Christina Ross

  It took me a solid hour to tell Nick my story, and by the end of it, I was exhausted. Throughout it all, he asked me an intense host of questions, with Ben sometimes interjecting several questions of his own. We only stopped when my intercom sounded again. Since I wasn’t expecting anyone, I screwed up my face at each of them before I went to answer it.

  Ben and Nick followed.

  “Mrs. Stone?” a man said when I answered.

  I could tell from his voice that it was Christian.

  “Yes, Christian?”

  “A package was just delivered for you. Shall I bring it up?”

  I looked at Ben before I answered. “I’m not expecting a package, Christian. Can you tell me who it’s from?”

  “It doesn’t say, but it’s pretty clear what it is. It’s a long white box wrapped in a red ribbon, so I’m thinking it’s likely from a florist.”

  “Is there a card?”

  There was a pause before he said, “Actually, there isn’t. But there might be one inside. I’ll bring it up to you, Mrs. Stone.”

  “Tell him that Ben and I will be down to accept it,” Nick said.

  “But he’s happy to bring it up,” I said.

  “That box stays in the lobby.”

  “Why?”

  “I have my reasons.”

  “Are you saying that something other than flowers could be in that box?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

  “This place is a hive of gossip,” I said. “If you two show up to retrieve it for me, questions will be asked. After the press I’ve received today, I’ve given the fine people at the San Remo enough to talk about. At the very least, I need to go down there with you.”

  “Out of the question. You stay here. Tell him that Ben and I will be down to retrieve it.”

  “Fine.”

  But when I pressed the button to reach out to Christian again, he didn’t answer. I pushed the buzzer a few more times before another man answered.

  “Yes, Mrs. Stone?”

  It was the other doorman, Robert.

  “Robert, I was trying to reach Christian. He said that I’d just received a delivery of some sort. We were just on the line together.”

  “He’s bringing that up to you now, Mrs. Stone.”

  “But I didn’t ask him to.”

  “Then he must have misunderstood. Because he’s on his way with it.”

  * * *

  When the knock came at my door, it was Nick and Ben who insisted upon answering it. And when they did, there stood poor Christian, who was holding a long white box in his hands that indeed was adorned with a large red ribbon. He looked questionably at Nick and Ben until he spotted me standing behind them.

  Oh, look, Christian, I thought. It’s me, and with two hulking, threatening-looking men no less. Perfect! This should make the rounds, shouldn’t it?

  “Christian, this is Ben Cade and Nick Martinez,” I said.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet each of you,” Christian said.

  “The pleasure’s mine,” Ben said as he accepted the box from Christian.

  “Do you happen to know who delivered it?” Nick asked. “What florist it came from?”

  “Actually, it arrived by taxi.”

  “By taxi?”

  “That’s more common than most people think. If a florist is overwhelmed with deliveries and someone wants something delivered immediately, they sometimes use a taxi service instead. In this city, you can imagine how many florists and other businesses need that kind of assistance. For instance, take-out is delivered to the San Remo by taxi every day. If a customer is willing to pay the premium, so be it, I guess. I see it all the time.”

  Since I’d already become part of the day’s news and didn’t want to raise any other red flags with the door staff—assuming they’d even had time to read or hear of the news—I intervened before Christian was questioned any further.

  “Thank you, Christian,” I said. “Ben, after last night’s party, this is probably from the Witherhouses, don’t you think?”

  He caught my eyes when I said that, and nodded. “Could be,” he said. “Probably some roses. Let’s enjoy them.”

  * * *

  After Nick closed the door and locked it, Ben placed the box gently on the entryway’s side table.

  “Why are you handling it so carefully?”

  “Because it could be more than just a box.”

  “What else could be inside?”

  “How about plastic explosives, Kate?”

  My eyes widened when he said that. “Plastic explosives?”

  Before Ben could respond, Nick reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a small device just slightly larger than a BIC lighter. “This is a FidoX Explosives Trace Detector,” he said. “It’s small, but it’s powerful.”

  “You carry a bomb detector on you?” I asked.

  “What choice do I have? Look at the world we live in now, Kate—terrorist threats hit often and hit hard. If I’m to protect my clients, which include high-level elected officials and well-known CEOs of major corporations, I need to be prepared for anything that might affect them. Trust me, this is far from the first time that I’ve used this. So, let’s have a look.”

  He powered up the device, and circled it around the box. After a moment, he turned to Ben.

  “We’re good. Let’s open it.”

  When Ben untied the red ribbon and removed the lid, we were met with folds of bright red tissue paper—and then, when Ben parted them, the dead yellow canary that rested within.

  When I saw the bird, I covered my mouth with my hand. “Oh, my God…”

  A white card was pinned to the canary’s breast. When I saw the blood on the card, I knew that this pin was how the bird had died.

  Ben removed the card and read it.

  “What does it say?” I asked him.

  He showed the card to Nick before turning to me. “It says, ‘I’ve been hired to kill you at once, Kate, but for the sheer sport of it, I think I’m going to toy with you for a bit. So, good luck with that. Because you’re going to need it. —W.’”

  “Who is ‘W’?” I asked.

  “Good question,” Ben said.

  “Then this confirms it,” I said. “Michael was murdered.”

  “The only thing this confirms is that someone has just scared the hell out of you,” Nick said. “This city is filled with sick individuals. Maybe one of them read what was written about you today and got off on sending you something like this. It’s no secret where you live, Kate—it was, after all, noted in most of the articles I read this morning.” He motioned toward the box. “This might be the end of it—a one-off prank. But we can’t count on that, can we? We have to consider this as a credible threat.” He looked at Ben. “What do you have in mind going forward?”

  “Depends,” he said. Ben turned to me. “Does Lydia still have family here in New York?”

  “Yes—I send a Christmas card to David and the kids every year. They live in the Bronx.”

  “David was her husband?”

  “He was.”

  “I need you to set up a meeting with him.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I still find it strange that a woman in her mid-forties died at the Witherhouses’ mansion when Bill was present. I want to find out from David if Lydia had any health issues that might have led to her death. Can you make that happen?”

  “I can, but it will just upset him if he learns that Lydia also might have been murdered.”

  “Right now, if he’s read the news, he already knows that you’re questioning Michael’s death for a reason. If that’s the case—and since Lydia was the last person to see him alive—then it wouldn’t be a stretch for him to be questioning why his wife unexpectedly died six months later. I say we reach out to him on those grounds alone.”

  That made sense to me, so I acquiesced. “I can give him a call.”

  “I’d appreciate it.”

  “What else?”
Nick asked.

  Ben told him that Michael died the day following his decision to not sell StoneTech to Mark Dodd and Tom Smart, and also about how Michael was just two weeks away from a hostile takeover of MicroCom when he died.

  “I need to print out a list of the top people who were in control of QuantumCo and MicroCom at the time of Michael’s death. I want to see if any of those names overlap.”

  “How will you find such a list?” I asked.

  “They’re publicly traded companies. All I need is Google.” He nodded at the box. “As for our recent delivery, obviously a place like the San Remo has security cameras on site. With Kate’s insistence, we can view the video—and if we’re lucky, we’ll be able to see the number on the cab that delivered this box to her. That alone will lead us to the driver, whom I plan to question. Hopefully that will give us even more answers. As for the box, many people have handled it at this point, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t an intact print on it somewhere—especially if there’s one inside the box. One of my best friends is a detective at the NYPD who happens to owe me several favors. I’ll ask him to run the prints for me, and we’ll see if anything turns up in their database.”

  “I have a request,” Nick said to me.

  “Can we go into the living room first,” I asked, feeling shaken by how quickly things were unfolding. “I want to get away from that box and everything that it might represent.”

  * * *

  “This psychic of yours,” Nick said when Ben and I sat opposite him in the living room.

  “Her name is Rhoda,” I said.

  “Are you able to arrange a meeting with her today?”

  “You want to meet with her?” Ben said.

  “Rhoda is the woman who led Kate to this point,” Nick said. “We can’t dismiss that Rhoda nailed several things about Kate’s life that no one but she knew. Mediums do exist. There’s a reason that the police reach out to them to assist in many unsolved murder cases.”

  “My one major problem with Rhoda is that she has a storefront on Christopher Street,” Ben said. “Clearly, she chose that spot to bilk money from tourists.”

  “We all need to make a living,” Nick said. “And who says that she’s bilking them? Maybe she’s giving them correct answers. I’m not going to judge her until I meet her, and neither should you. I’d suggest that you keep an open mind when it comes to her, because if she’s good, she could help us right now.”

  “Rhoda is the real thing,” I said. “We’ve talked about this, Ben. You know that I was a skeptic before I met her. But I sure as hell wasn’t when I left.”

  “I’ve already asked Kate to meet with her,” Ben said. He looked at me. “Do you know how to reach her?”

  “She gave me her card. Let me call her.”

  “One thing,” Nick said to me as I rose from the sofa.

  “What’s that?”

  “See if she’s willing to come here. Tell her that you’ll pay whatever it takes for her to come here. I don’t want you out on the streets right now. For the time being, it’s best if you stay in your apartment so that no one can ‘toy’ with you. Are you all right with that?”

  “I’m fine with that. I’ve already accomplished my goal of setting things into motion by getting this into the news.”

  When I said that, I watched them exchange disapproving glances.

  “Look, I know it might be difficult for both of you to imagine what I’ve done, but if you loved someone as much as I loved Michael, and if you found out that person might have been murdered in cold blood, you wouldn’t believe what you would do. Trust me on that. How far would you go for your own wife, Nick?”

  “All the way.”

  “If you were in my shoes, would you put your life on the line for her?”

  “Absolutely, but not necessarily as you have.”

  “What’s done is done, and I’ve already received a credible threat, which I consider to be a success.” I folded my arms in front of me and shrugged at them. “At this point, neither of you can deny that what I did last night has worked. If this ‘W’ person and his or her threat are real, then he or she wants me dead for a fairly obvious reason. However you want to proceed, I promise to listen to each of you and to do as you say so we can end this and give Michael the justice he deserves. I’m all in on this, so don’t be timid with what you have in mind for me. Now, let me go and call Rhoda. It’s noon so she might be at lunch. Hopefully, she’ll answer.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  My cell was on the kitchen island. I stepped into the kitchen, picked it up, and called Rhoda, but it wasn’t me who spoke first—it was her.

  “Kate!” she said when she answered her phone. “You’ve been on my mind since last night. I haven’t been able to get you out of my head, especially after what just happened to you. I’m so sorry you had to go through that. If this means anything to you, just know that the bird died quickly.”

  “You know about the bird?”

  “That and more. You’re in danger, and it’s more dire than you think. How can I help?”

  After my initial meeting with her, I was beyond wondering how Rhoda saw whatever the hell it was that she saw, so I just took a breath and accepted this odd, unlikely gift she’d been given for what it was—the real thing.

  But there are others who need convincing…

  “Rhoda, I’m here with two men who are skeptical about your abilities. Do you mind if I put you on speaker phone so we can just end their speculations?”

  “Time to prove myself again?”

  “I apologize, but I’m afraid it’s for the best.”

  “Don’t apologize, toots. I get this all the time. Let’s just settle it, OK?”

  I thanked her as I moved out of the kitchen and back into the living room, where Nick and Ben looked up at me.

  “I have Rhoda on the line,” I said. “I’m putting her on speaker phone.” I hit a button and said, “Rhoda, can you hear me?”

  “I can hear you.”

  “Have I told you anything about who’s with me now?”

  “All you’ve said is that there are two men with you who might be questioning my gift.”

  “Do you know who they are?”

  “One is Ben, for sure—and by the way, congrats on last night. What a rodeo that must have been for each of you. Memory lane, and all that. Good for you two.”

  When she said that, my eyes popped as wide as Ben’s while Nick just cleared his throat.

  “Look, I’ve already told you that I’m terrible when it comes to names,” she said. “I generally come close, but it’s going to be a toss-up when it comes to the other one. It’s either Mick or Nick. I think it’s Nick. Is it?”

  “It is.”

  “Well, there you go.”

  “Can you describe what he looks like, Rhoda? I’m not sure what you can see and what you can’t see, so that might not be a fair question.”

  “Oh, honey, I can see him. And what I’m seeing is a full-on stud. Tall, dark, and built. What you don’t know, Kate, is that he has two kids. Just ask him.”

  I turned to Nick, whose lips had parted slightly. “Do you have two children?”

  “I do.”

  “What are their genders, Rhoda?”

  “I’m seeing two little girls who love their daddy very much.”

  “Well, fuck me…” Nick said.

  “Do either of you want to ask her anything?” I asked them.

  “When was I born?” Ben said.

  “May,” Rhoda said at once. “And by the way, you’re a total Taurus, Ben. Straight to your core. You’re reliable, practical, ambitious, and—as Kate knows from last night alone—you’re also fairly sensuous. Would you disagree with me on that, Kate?”

  How in the hell does she know that we slept together…?

  “Probably not,” I said.

  “I didn’t think so.”

  “Rhoda, are you terribly busy today?” I asked.

  “Not too busy to help you
deal with the mess you’re in. I own this joint, and I can shut it down whenever I want. So, to answer the question you haven’t even asked me, yes, I’m willing to come to your apartment and help. When Nick, Ben, and I are on the same page about me, the four of us can sit down and talk. I’ve already seen some things, Kate, like the bird I mentioned a moment ago.”

  “She knows about the bird?” Ben said.

  “I do, Ben,” Rhoda said. “And it wasn’t Kate who told me about it. So, before I arrive, how about if you give that some thought?”

  “We need you, Rhoda.”

  “You need me more than you know,” she said. “Look, I’m way the hell downtown and you are…where? You never told me where you live, but I’m seeing the Upper West Side. I can see views of the Park from there.”

  “I live at the San Remo.”

  “Fancy,” she said. “Give me forty-six minutes, and I’ll be there. In the meantime, Nick needs to know that his youngest daughter has a cavity that needs to be tended to. If you’re listening, Nick, trust me on this—I’m right about that girl’s tooth. So why don’t you get off that pretty white sofa you’re sitting on, and call your wife to set up an appointment now before I get there? Because it needs to be tended to—and I’m leaving now.”

  * * *

  Exactly forty-six minutes later, my intercom rang. Five minutes after that, a knock came at my door. When I opened it, there stood Rhoda—her red hair swept behind her head in a purple kerchief, her full face free of makeup. She was wearing a flowing yellow skirt, a white, loose-fitting top, and a pair of worn Birkenstocks on her pudgy feet. Her toenails, I noted, were painted bright red.

  Before I could say a word to her, she stepped inside and gave me a hug that lasted a beat longer than it should have for a mere greeting. Rhoda was hugging me for a reason, likely to soak in my energy.

  When we parted, there was a deep well of concern in her eyes.

  “Thank you for coming,” I said.

  “I had no choice. You need me now.”