“No…” Kelsey whispered.
“I gave her a couple chances,” Lou continued, “but she just wouldn’t tell me. I guess maybe I choked her too hard, or one time too many. I didn’t mean to kill her. I only wanted her to cooperate. She did it to herself, really. If only she had talked.”
Kelsey had been right earlier. This man was an animal.
“Anyway, once I realized what had happened, it wasn’t hard to set things up to look like a suicide. I knew if it was going to be convincing there had to be a note, so I grabbed her phone and sent you that text.”
Kelsey remembered every word:
Goodbye, Tater Tot. I’m so sorry for what I’ve done. Please forgive me for taking what wasn’t mine and for ending my own life. With love and regret, Gloria
“It was pretty convincing,” she said evenly. “You even thought to call me Tater Tot.”
Looking less ashamed, he met her eyes and smiled. “Nice touch, huh? I had to find some way to make you believe it really had come from her. Then I remembered her pet name for you and that was that.”
Kelsey took a step back and placed her hands on her hips, in preparation for pulling the Taser from her pocket. “You even managed to write the note in such a way that it led all of us to put the full blame on her for everything.”
Lou straightened his shoulders, almost proudly. “Once I got over the shock of what happened, I realized my original plan could still work, even without having her help from the inside. I just needed someone else who would go to bat for me instead.”
Kelsey studied his face, trying to understand what he was saying. Then it hit her.
“That’s where I came in,” she said slowly. “You used me. Planted suggestions in my head. Tracked my every move.”
“Hey, it wasn’t hard to manipulate you five years ago. I figured it was worth a shot again now. I knew if I played my cards right, you could be my biggest advocate.”
Kelsey felt like such a fool. With anger rising up inside her, she slid her hand into her pocket and gripped the barrel of the Taser. Just as she was about to pull it out, Lou glanced over her shoulder and said, “Well, here’s lover boy. It’s about time.” Then he reached out, grabbed her arm, and jerked her back around against him and pressed the gun’s barrel into her back.
Heart pounding, she had no choice but to watch as Cole came walking toward them, an envelope in his hand.
“That’s close enough,” Lou said. “You have the bonds?”
Cole nodded as he came to a stop.
“Take ’em out so I can see.”
“Why don’t you do it yourself?” Cole challenged.
“Because my hands are full,” Lou replied simply. “Or at least one of them is.”
“He has a gun,” Kelsey added.
Watching Cole, she could see how hard he was working to restrain himself. He looked ready to pounce, but not at the risk of her life.
“Take out the bonds and hold them up,” Lou repeated evenly.
Kelsey knew it was the moment of truth. There were no bonds. No doubt, inside that envelope were just blank pieces of paper. Again, she slid her hand into her pocket and wrapped it around the barrel of the Taser.
Cole turned his attention to the envelope, pulling open the flap and then removing the folded-up contents from inside. Hands surprisingly steady, he unfolded the pages and then turned them around for Lou to see. Kelsey was shocked to realize that these weren’t blank pages at all but were instead what looked very much like the actual bonds themselves. Was it possible he’d found them in such a short time?
“All right, good enough,” Lou said. “Put ’em back.”
Cole did as Lou instructed and then handed over the envelope. Lou used his free hand to slip it into his inside jacket pocket.
“Nice doing business with you kids,” he said with a grin. Then he pulled out his car keys and tossed them to the ground several feet beyond where Cole was standing. “Here’s the plan. Cole, I need you to get in my car, the silver Lexus in the first row there, and wait. Don’t call anyone, don’t signal anyone, don’t tell anyone. Just sit and wait. I’m taking Kelsey on a little helicopter ride. Once I’m certain that my escape arrangements haven’t been compromised, I’ll drop her off and text you with instructions on where you can find her.”
“Don’t you dare hurt her,” Cole hissed between clenched teeth.
“I won’t unless you talk. Keep your mouth shut, and she’ll be fine. Otherwise, the deal’s off. Just ask Kelsey. She can tell you exactly what I’m willing to do to get away with these bonds.”
“Do as he says,” she pleaded.
Cole gave her a long look, picked up the keys, and began walking toward Lou’s car.
It was now or never. Summoning her nerve, Kelsey eased the Taser from her pocket and pushed the safety button forward to arm the device. Suddenly, it seemed to spring to life in her hand, a tiny green light glowing in the darkness.
Lou didn’t seem to notice. His hand tightened on her elbow, and just as he turned them to go, she suddenly twisted her body in the opposite direction and managed to break free. She raised her weapon and pulled the trigger before he even had time to react.
It worked!
Almost instantly, the gun fell from Lou’s hand and he fell backward against the low railing. As his back hit the rail, the momentum forced his body over the side of the pier and into the water. Except there was no splash.
Kelsey yelled for Cole as she ran to the rail and looked down to see Lou. He was flat on his back on some sort of dark gray metal support structure that surrounded the pier. The wires from the Taser were still hooked to his chest, and when he tried to sit up, she pressed the trigger again. In an instant, he was down. Cole appeared at her side, taking in what had just happened and giving her a quick hug.
“Better lie still, Lou,” he called out gleefully. “Something tells me Kelsey’s worked up enough to keep pressing that button for a good long while.”
CHAPTER
FIFTY-ONE
April 15, 1912
JOCELYN
With everyone moving upward, it was nearly impossible for Jocelyn to get down the stairs, but somehow she managed to push her way through and finally reached her destination. Breaking free from the crowd, she ran to the place where Tad had said he was would wait for her.
He wasn’t there.
In a panic she moved across the deck and into the smoking room, ignoring the rule against women. There were people in there, but no one seemed to notice or care. Her heart felt as if it would split in two, but then she spotted Tad across the room. Exhilarated, she ran to him and tumbled into his arms. He gripped her tightly in return. The ship was listing even further now, and he let go of her to steady himself against a table.
“Do you have the bonds?” he asked.
She looked at him, blinking. “The bonds?”
He nodded. “I saw your father in line at the purser’s desk. I know he must have retrieved them. Given that they are not letting men onto the lifeboats, I feel sure he handed them over to one of you.”
“He gave them to Adele.”
Tad looked at her in disbelief, disappointment shining in his eyes.
“They’re her bonds, not mine,” she hurriedly explained, though she didn’t know why it mattered. They needed to get outside. They needed to get in a lifeboat.
Fearing she might fall from the steep tilt of the room, she gripped his muscular arms and looked into his eyes. “Tad, we’re together now, and that’s all that matters.”
“That’s all that matters,” he echoed. “It would be good to find Adele too. Do you think I can locate her on the boat deck?”
“Yes. We should go now. There aren’t many lifeboats left.”
To Jocelyn’s surprise, Tad said no. He pointed toward a group of men sitting together across the room and explained. “They say a rescue ship is on the horizon. We should just wait for it here.”
“But I promised my father I would get on a lifeboat—”<
br />
Gently, Tad cupped his hands on each side of her face and gazed into her eyes. “Are you a child or are you a woman? Because a woman makes her own decisions.”
Her eyes filling with tears, she knew he was right. She’d already rejected Adele in Tad’s favor. Now she would reject her own father as well.
“I love you,” she whispered.
Stepping back and taking her hands in his, he helped her into a nearby chair and then knelt beside it.
“Tell you what,” he said, reaching up to brush an errant lock of hair from her cheek. “You wait right here. I’ll go find out for sure about that rescue ship and then I’ll come back.”
“Tad, no—”
“Shhh,” he said, putting a finger to her lips. “Don’t panic, don’t fear. Don’t move. I promise you that we will make it off this ship one way or the other. Do you trust me?”
Eyes swimming with tears, she nodded and whispered, “I do.”
“Then do as I say and stay here. I’ll be right back,” he said, and then he walked away.
She did as he told her, still feeling frightened but somehow safe in the protection of his love. Time moved slowly as she waited, the many minutes that passed clearly marked by the continued tilting of the room. She watched as items started to fall off the shelves. She watched as the men who had been waiting for the rescue ship left, one by one. She watched as no one came back for her.
She was still sitting there when a man approached, asking if she knew where he could find pen and paper.
“I need to write a note to my family in America,” he explained hurriedly. “If I can do that, perhaps someone can carry it onto a lifeboat for me.”
She directed him to the second-class library, and then she sat there and watched him go.
Looking around, she saw that the room was nearly empty. She saw the angle of the ship. Stunned, the reality of the situation finally closed in on her.
Tad had abandoned her. He wasn’t coming back. He lied.
Adele had been right about him after all.
CHAPTER
FIFTY-TWO
An hour later, Lou had been driven away in handcuffs, his car impounded, and Kelsey and Cole had been delivered back to the much warmer and brighter Brennan & Tate offices. They were sitting in a fifth floor meeting room and telling their story to Detective Hargrove while other police personnel once again processed the scene around them. At least there had been no deaths this time.
Kelsey had been concerned about the health of Ephraim and Walter, but according to the detective, both men had already been taken to the hospital, treated, and released.
“Released? But Ephraim was shot!”
“Fortunately, he was wearing a vest. From what I understand, he has a nasty bruise on his chest, but otherwise his biggest problem is the blow he took to the head when the impact knocked him onto the ground. He has a mild concussion.”
Kelsey nodded, just then realizing that would explain the lack of blood from a gunshot wound.
“Security guards in bulletproof vests?” Cole asked skeptically.
The detective shrugged. “What can I say? This is Lower Manhattan in a post nine eleven world. These days, that’s SOP.”
“Thank goodness,” Kelsey added.
To her surprise, the detective admitted they had known all along Gloria had been murdered but had kept the possibility of suicide out there, hoping that would allow the killer to let down his guard.
“The ligature on the neck for a self-inflicted hanging is completely different than that for a strangling done by someone else,” he explained. “So we knew right away what had happened. We just needed to find out who did it. Now we have our answers, thanks in a large part to you, Kelsey.”
Though the police would be keeping the Taser and eventually returning it to Ephraim, they let her have her cell phone back. She also learned the truth about the bonds Cole had given to Lou. Thinking fast after her strange phone call earlier requesting the bonds, Cole had scanned the photocopies, pulled them into a photo editing program, and quickly played with the images. Then he’d printed them out in color and shoved them into an envelope. Voilà. At a quick glance in dim light, they had looked like the real thing, which was all he’d needed to accomplish.
“I guess we may never know where Gloria hid the real bonds,” Kelsey said sadly.
“Don’t be so sure about that,” Cole replied. Eyes twinkling, he added, “I have an idea, anyway.”
Rising, he led Kelsey and the detective back out into the reception area. Things were a mess there, the items she had pulled from the case at gunpoint exactly where she’d left them. Only now they were marked with little plastic numbers, which the detective explained had been added by the crime scene photographers.
“May I?” Cole asked, looking to the detective as he gestured toward one of the items on the floor.
“Go ahead.”
Carefully, Cole picked up the white fur hand muff that had once belonged to Adele. Kelsey’s heart sank.
“The bonds aren’t in there,” she said. “I already looked.”
“Maybe so,” Cole replied, “or maybe I know something you don’t.”
“Oh?”
“When you walked out of my place earlier, you accidentally left the diary behind,” he explained. “I saw it on the couch once you were gone and took a quick look inside. Mostly, I was just interested in reading the part about the sinking of Titanic before I returned it to you.”
“I hadn’t reached that part yet,” Kelsey admitted. “What did it say?”
“It told how, once the ship hit the iceberg and Adele’s uncle realized it would sink—and that only women and children were being allowed onto the lifeboats—he gave the bonds to Adele and told her to hide them in a safe place. I didn’t think much more about it until just a little while ago, when you were explaining to the detective about Gloria’s change of heart after reading the diary. I realized that maybe, just maybe, when Gloria started looking for a hiding place for the bonds, she took a cue from Adele.”
With that, Cole turned the hand muff on its side and felt around on the inner silk lining until his thumb slid under an open seam. Pulling that seam wider revealed the perfect hiding place for a woman’s valuables. There, tucked inside the muff under the fabric of the liner, were six of the most beautiful papers Kelsey had ever seen.
The bonds.
Another half hour passed before they were finally finished and free to go, the bonds securely given over to Mr. Hu, who had come the moment they had called, accompanied by Thriller and Flash. First thing Monday morning, London time, Mr. Hu would initiate the necessary steps to cash in the bonds on B & T’s behalf.
While they were there, Kelsey thanked all of them for their efforts. “I haven’t forgotten about that finder’s fee I promised.”
“Neither have we,” Thriller replied with a wink and a smile. “We can discuss the terms next week.”
Once they were gone, the detective offered Kelsey and Cole a ride to wherever they wanted. They thankfully declined, knowing they had some business of their own to settle and preferred to walk.
When they stepped outside, they realized it was even colder than before. Cole insisted on placing his jacket around Kelsey’s shoulders. They were trying to make their way through the gauntlet of reporters clustered near the entrance when a taxi pulled to a halt at the curb and out jumped Matt and his girlfriend, Tiffany.
Matt explained that as soon as they had heard on the radio what happened, they had grabbed a cab to head straight over. The four of them talked for a few minutes, and then Matt offered to go from there to their parents’ house to give them the full story so they wouldn’t worry when they saw it on the news. Kelsey thanked him gratefully.
“But before you go,” she added, pulling him over to the side and lowering her voice so the reporters couldn’t hear, “you have to explain your part in all this. Why were you and Gloria talking so much on the phone lately?”
“Aw, man, I knew you
were going to bring that up,” he replied, his face turning beet red. “Mostly, we were playing phone tag. Why do you always have to be so pushy anyway?”
“Answer the question, little brother. Why were you trying to reach Gloria?”
Swallowing hard, he leaned close and whispered, “Because I needed her advice.”
“Advice?”
Without another word, Matt reached into his jacket pocket and discreetly pulled out a small velvet box, which he popped open with his thumb to show to Kelsey. Inside was a beautiful diamond ring, the telltale logo of Gloria’s sister’s jewelry store embossed in the satin lid.
“What is that?” Tiffany asked, stepping toward them.
With a heavy sigh, Matt turned toward his girlfriend and slowly lowered himself to one knee right there on the sidewalk. Holding up the box, he said, “This isn’t exactly how I planned for this to go, but, Tiffany, will you marry me?”
Instantly, the throng of reporters and photographers raced their way, snapping pictures and milking the moment for all it was worth. Kelsey was thrilled, especially when Tiffany responded with an enthusiastic “Yes!” After a few minutes, Cole suggested to Kelsey that this might be a good chance for them to slip off. With a final hug for her brother and her future sister-in-law, Kelsey moved in step with Cole and they continued on their way alone, side by side, leaving the happy couple and the reporters behind.
They both seemed to have the same destination in mind, Battery Park, just a few blocks ahead. They were quiet as they walked, and as they reached the Promenade, Kelsey could feel her phone vibrating in her pocket. She glanced at the screen, surprised to see Walter’s name there.
“Sorry, I need to take this,” she said to Cole, and then she answered.
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