Chapter 21 #2
“I haven’t been able to get to her,” Gagnon said, “though I’ve been working the problem.
But on the off chance I can’t silence her permanently, I needed to dispose of the items I stole from Grace Ballentine that night.
I was trying to decide what to do with them.
I’d taken a box out of the safe to separate her jewels from the rest of my valuables.
I was still ruminating on the problem when William came in.
He’d been staying with me for a few weeks. His mother needed a break.”
“You’re divorced.”
“Never married her. Never wanted to get bogged down with all that.”
Right. Family could be such a drag.
“The kid wasn’t my idea, and if I’d known about him before he was born…
” He shook his head. “Anyway, I didn’t realize he’d seen the jewels.
He was involved in some great teenage drama.
” Gagnon smirked. “I was trying to be a good dad, trying to help. Later that night, I put the box back in the safe. I didn’t look inside it, never dreaming my own kid would steal from me.
When I took it out a few days later, I discovered the velvet bag and its contents were gone. ”
“Including the locket you’re so keen on getting back. You said it was your mother’s. Is that why it’s so important to you, or—”
“Please.” He waved off the suggestion. “Don’t accuse me of sentimentality.”
She should drop it, but she was about to die because of that stupid thing. She wanted to know why. Before she asked, he spoke again.
“Inside that cheap, tarnished locket is an SD card that contains all the information I’ve uncovered about all my…
shall we say, clients. My lawyers have access to a drive with the same information, which they’ll share with authorities in the event of my untimely death.
But I like having a copy with me, just in case. ”
Oh. Wow. She’d stolen the key to taking Gagnon down.
“You didn’t know what you had, but it was only a matter of time before someone opened that locket and found it.”
She was sorry she’d taken it, sorry Asher’d paid for that decision with his life. But if this situation ended in Gagnon’s defeat, she certainly wouldn’t grieve that.
“Can I ask another question?”
“Why not?” He swept his arm around the dingy room. “It’s not as if there’s anything else to do.”
“How did you keep finding us?”
“Oh, that’s easy. The SD card is programmed with a locator.”
A locator? All this time, they’d been traveling with a locator?
“It piggy-backs off phone signals,” he explained.
“We started tracking it immediately, guessed you were headed to the police station. We got there ahead of you, just barely. We lost you—the card has to be close to a phone—then picked you up again at a hotel. We were waiting in the lobby, and then you were on the move again. Your bodyguard was quick, getting you out the back and to that train. It took us a while to get ahead of you.”
She was reeling.
All that time, they’d been carrying a locator?
It was a miracle they hadn’t been caught. How hadn’t they been caught?
“We’d get an inkling where you were, then lose you,” Gagnon said. “You kept turning off your phones. It was maddening.”
Oh. That explained it. They’d been careful to keep their phones off when they weren’t using them.
“It triggered in that dinky little town last night—Nutfield, but the signal was never strong enough for us to find you. Then it triggered again a few times during your drive today. We finally caught up with you while you rested a few miles back. Gave us the chance to get in front of you and find this place.”
If only she hadn’t stolen that bag. If only she’d looked through it, maybe opened the locket. If only… There were too many if-onlys to enumerate.
“When your son sold your jewelry, he had no idea what he was setting into motion.”
Gagnon pressed his lips together.
“What did you do to him?”
“I found out where he pawned them.” Gagnon walked toward her. When he crouched in front of her, she ducked her head, avoiding his gaze. Afraid of what he’d do.
He gripped her chin with his thumb and forefinger, lifting it until she met his eyes. “Go ahead and ask.”
She swallowed hard. “Is he…is he still alive?”
He let her go. “I’m not a monster, Miss Wright.”
Wasn’t he, though? Asher was dead. Gagnon had just confessed his intention to kill Lois Whitmore. He’d threatened Souza’s brother’s life—a teenager.
How did Gagnon define monster, because in her dictionary, his picture would suffice for an illustration of the word.
“I told his mother to send him to rehab. My son, who’s always balked at the idea, must’ve realized he ought to do as I say.
He’s in a facility now, one far away from Philadelphia.
Maybe, by the time I see him again, my anger will have dissipated.
” He shrugged. “Maybe not. And yes, I recognize that, like everyone else in the world, I have that one vulnerability. As long as my enemies never discover his existence, I should be safe.”
“Souza was there, in the jewelry store with you, so—”
“I’ll take care of Souza.” He stood and brushed his hands off on his pants.
Meaning, he’d kill him. Just like he’d kill her, when he knew he had what he needed.
The thought of sharing a grave with that creepy man had her stomach roiling.
Since that was the case, she figured she might as well get all her questions answered. “What else was in the box? The one in the safe?”
He shrugged. “As much as I love technology, I know how an electronic file can be breached or wiped out. An SD card can be crushed. So I have paper copies of all the information I’ve uncovered, as well as all the physical proof—like The Crimson Duchess—of everything I’ve learned.”
He’d thought of everything.
The weight of it—Asher’s death, her own impending murder, the knowledge that her selfish need for recognition had caused all of this—felt as heavy as a lead blanket.
She closed her eyes, and her memory conjured the image of Asher outside the restaurant, the way he’d looked at her with such fierce protectiveness, such affection.
He’d died trying to keep her safe, and whether she managed to survive or not, there was nothing she could do to change that.