Echoes of Titanic (56 page)

“Well, sure, but an initial dip was to be expected, especially after my dad's stroke. We've been rebounding lately.”

“Yeah, I know you have. That's what finally forced our hand. We knew if we didn't move soon, the value would rise so high that I'd lose any chance of buying back in forever. That's where your cousin Rupert came in.”

Kelsey's eyes widened. She wanted to stall so he would keep talking, but he was watching her too closely. When he slapped the tire iron in his hand again, she had no choice but to end the turn of the dial at the final number in the combination.

With a click of the tumblers, the safe was unlocked. Kelsey gripped the handle, twisted, and pulled the door open to reveal the small, empty chamber inside. She was tempted to say, “I told you so,” but she didn't want to antagonize Lou. Instead, she just sat back on her heels so that he could peer inside. “See? Like I said, they're not here.”

Bending, he craned his neck to take a look, his face hardening into stone. Terrified that his next move might be to rough her up as he'd done to Walter, she tried desperately to think of some way to change his focus and calm him down.

“Listen, Lou, we're not going to get anywhere if you keep insisting I have the bonds. I don't. But if we put our heads together, maybe we can still figure out where they are.”

He didn't reply, but neither did he strike out against her.

“Obviously, Gloria took them out of the safe and put them somewhere else,” she continued. “It would help if I understood why she did that. Can you explain it to me? What were you two planning, and how did Rupert Brennan fit into that plan?”

Lou stood up straight and walked to the doorway of the office. Then he gestured for her to get up and move to the nearest chair. Was it now her turn to be bound and gagged and beaten? Her eyes scanned the room for any potential weapons she could grab, but nothing was within reach that could begin to compete with his tire iron—especially given the muscle he could put behind it. She sat and waited for him to continue.

“Rupert, right,” he said, going on with his story. “Like I said, B & T was starting to rebound. We had to do something to reverse that upward trend,
so I came up with the Rupert idea. Gloria had dealt with the man in the past and had his address and stuff, so I made her type up a letter that would convince him to come to the meeting. She gave it to me, along with an invitation to the event, and I was supposed to add in some cash and send it on. But then, when it was almost time to put the letter in the box, she chickened out. Told me to wait, that there was something else she wanted to try first, something that would be far less damaging to the company in the long run.”

“What was that?”

“What do you think? The threat of a hostile takeover. She figured if Pamela Greeley started breathing down everyone's necks, B & T's board might just get nervous enough to accept my offer for a friendly merger instead. It wouldn't be ideal, as far as they were concerned, but it was still better than getting Clean Sweeped, if you know what I mean.”

Kelsey felt nauseated. She had played right into Lou and Gloria's hands, encouraging Walter to reconsider Lou's standing offer. She'd even said something like, “
A friendly merger has to be better than a hostile takeover.
” How could she have been so blind?

“But you got your hostile takeover attempt,” she said, shaking her head. “Why did you end up playing the Rupert card too?”

Lou switched hands with the tire iron and began slapping it against his other palm. “Because Pamela took too long. Gloria gave her the tip about making an offer almost a month ago, but the woman didn't act on it until Monday. By then it was too late. We had already given up on that and gone back to plan A.”

“But actually you got both—a takeover attempt
and
Rupert's outburst.”

Lou nodded gleefully. “I know! We didn't plan it that way, but it ended up being a real one-two punch. It worked like a dream. Between those two events, the value of B & T fell to an all-time low.”

Kelsey closed her eyes, terrified to ask the obvious question. “So if everything was going so right with your plan, what went wrong? How did Gloria end up dead?”

Lou began to pace, holding the metal rod in front of him as if he might strike out with it at any moment.

“Gloria killed herself out of remorse, I'm sure. She started going weak on me in the eleventh hour, losing her nerve.”

Kelsey held her tongue, waiting for him to continue. When he spoke, it was in a high-pitched imitation of Gloria.

“‘We can't destroy the Tate name just for our own selfish gains,' she told me. The closer it got, the more she kept talking about Adele and the legend and the legacy and all that. Give me a break.”

As he spoke, an idea came to Kelsey, a way that she could get in front of a security camera after all.

“The display case!” she cried suddenly. “What if Gloria hid the bonds in the display case?”

Lou hesitated, his eyes narrowing. “Out there in the lobby?”

Kelsey nodded. “Yeah! I saw the key to that cabinet just the other day in Gloria's desk. What do you want to bet that the reason she had it out was because she went in there the other night and hid the bonds inside?”

He studied her suspiciously, but after a few moments he nodded, gesturing toward the hall. “Worth a try,” he said. “Let's take a look.”

Kelsey stood and began moving up the hall, praying that Ephraim was still downstairs and that he was watching the security screen. Stopping by Gloria's office to get the key, she had to dig through the rubble but finally found it. Holding it aloft like a prize, she looked to Lou, who nodded approvingly. They continued onward. As they went past Walter's open door, she tried to look inside but felt the sharp jab of the tire iron. Even the brief glimpse she'd gotten told her that nothing had changed. The man was still bound and gagged in his chair.

Out in the reception area, Kelsey walked straight to the display case and unlocked it with trembling hands. She wasn't sure of her plan, but somehow she needed Ephraim to notice what they were doing. How could she send him a signal of some kind? As she swung open the mahogany-framed side door of the case, it came to her: The slower she worked, the more frustrated Lou would become. Eventually, he might even start waving around the tire iron or even push her aside and start trashing the case's contents himself, the same way he'd torn up the offices. Ephraim would never miss that.

Kelsey dragged things out as long as she could. Slowly, she began by removing Adele's old Bible with care, and then she flipped through the pages one by one, searching for the bonds inside.

“Hurry up,” Lou barked, crossing to a nearby chair and having a seat. Though he rested the tire iron on his lap, on the camera it probably just looked like some innocent cane or a pole.

Kelsey set down the Bible and moved on to the next most logical hiding places for the bonds—the memoir, the menu, and the stationery. As she
carefully flipped through each, she glanced at Lou, looking for signs of frustration to appear. Nothing else yet.

The clothing would have to be next, she realized, so she started with the hat, and even as she reached for it, she wondered if perhaps she might actually be onto something. This case would have made an interesting hiding place for the bonds—at least on a temporary basis. With trembling hands, she lifted the hat from the display but was disappointed to see that it was empty.

She reached for the hand muff and then the gloves, also to no avail. Finally, she was just peering down inside the second glove when she heard the “ding” of the elevator. The doors whisked open and off stepped Ephraim. Immediately, he came through to reception.

“Kelsey, what are you doing with those things? I'm not comfortable with this, not comfortable at all.”

At that moment he glanced over toward Lou and something seemed to register in his face. Was it the tire iron? The aggressive posture? Whatever it was, Ephraim reached for something at his waistband just as Lou's hand slid into his jacket. In a flash, Lou drew his hand back out, bearing a gun.

Then he shot.

Ephraim crumbled to the ground.

Not caring if her actions ended up getting her shot as well, Kelsey dropped the glove and ran to her friend, trying to cradle his massive frame in her arms. As she did, her fingers grazed something hard and square at his back. Heart racing, she discreetly pulled it loose from where it was clipped to his belt, praying it was a Taser. As she bent over Ephraim, she slipped the device into her pocket.

He was either unconscious or dead, but before she could figure out which it was, Kelsey felt the cold steel of the gun against her temple.

“Enough talk,” Lou said softly. “I love you, kiddo, but I promise I'll pull this trigger if you make me. I'm asking you one last time. Where…are…the…bonds?”

She closed her eyes, praying God would protect her.

Then she heard the click of the safety being released.

April 15, 1912

A
DELE

A
dele hovered there, stunned and furious as she continued moving with the mass of people toward the waiting lifeboats.

She could hear the crew yelling for women and children. She could see the men and older boys being pulled from the line. She could feel the push of the hands behind her, everyone impatient to get off the sharply tilting ship before it went down. She looked back and could no longer see Jocelyn. She looked forward but saw no sign of Rowan.

Then she looked to her right and met the eyes of the crewman who was assisting people into the lifeboat. He nodded at her and she knew her time for a decision had come.

He reached for her, and after a moment's hesitation, she took his hand. He guided her into the boat, and she dropped onto a seat. Another young woman was pushed in next to her, and Adele turned to look at the terrified stranger.

A shiver ran through Adele's body. The person sitting next to her should be
Jocelyn
. Instantly coming to her senses, she jumped up and grabbed onto the crewman's arm. She knew what she had to do. She had to get out of this lifeboat and go back and get her cousin.

She wouldn't leave without her, even if it meant not leaving at all.

O
kay, okay!” Kelsey cried, wincing at the feel of the metal against her skin. “You win. Cole has them. Cole Thornton. We found them last night and decided he would hold on to them for safekeeping.”

With that, she felt the gun being removed from her temple.

“Thank you,” he said softly. “That's what I needed to know.”

Eyes still closed, she buried her head against Ephraim's broad shoulder, praying she hadn't just taken them from the frying pan into the fire. And while she would never, ever want to put Cole in danger, at this point he seemed to be their only hope.

“Call him.”

Opening her eyes, she looked up to see Lou with the gun still in one hand and her cell phone in the other.

“What?”

“Call Cole. Tell him you need him to bring you the bonds right away. Have him go to the back door and tell him you'll meet him there.”

Her hands trembling so violently she could barely function, Kelsey reached up for the phone.

Trying not to fall apart completely, she dialed Cole's number. As she did, she discreetly turned down the volume with her thumb in the hopes that she could pull this off without Lou being able to hear what she was doing.

“Put it on speaker,” he commanded, dashing her hopes.

She did as he directed, her pulse surging at the sound of Cole's voice.

“Kelsey? Hey. That took longer than I expected. You okay?”

“Hi, Cole. I'm here at the meeting and need you to do me a favor. Lou and Walter need to see the bonds. Can you bring them over to B & T?”

“Bring you the bonds? What are you talking about?”

Kelsey took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
Please, Lord, help him understand what I'm doing
.

“It's okay, Cole,” she said. “I've already told them. In fact, they're here on the speakerphone with me now. You don't have to pretend. I just need you to bring us the bonds right away, okay?”

Please let him get the message loud and clear
.

After a beat he said, “Sure, but it might take a while. I moved them to the safe down at the office.”

Kelsey looked up at Lou apologetically. Then she said, “I thought we agreed you'd keep them at your place, Cole.”

“We did, but I got nervous. Sorry for being extra cautious. I was trying to protect them.”

“Well, whatever. Go get them and bring them here as quickly as you can. Come to the back door. Text me once you've arrived, and I'll come down and meet you there.”