17. Kamaya
CHAPTER 17
Kamaya
This side of the park isn’t very populated at this hour. The playground is normally full of elementary-age kids but is completely desolate now. I hear the sounds of a basketball and sneakers squeaking in the distance. The fence separating the basketball court is far enough that I have to squint. Other than that, there isn’t much activity going on.
I decide to text the number Franco called me from earlier today. He should have beat me to this area by the fountain, across from the swings, and near the corner of Mulberry and Worth.
Nothing happens for a few moments. I decide to step closer to the direction Franco should be walking from. According to the maps on my phone, he should be arriving on the north corner from the restaurant.
I nearly trip when I spin around. When I look down, it’s a pair of feet. The body is obscured by a dark-colored bench. I open the flashlight app on my phone, and my hands are shaking when my fear is confirmed.
Franco lies slain behind the park bench. His throat has been slashed from ear to ear, and dark-red blood is oozing out.
I scream so loud I hope all of the city hears me. I call out Maxwell’s name because I know he’s listening and is probably on his way over after hearing my scream. I begin dialing emergency services. Before I can press nine, I feel the sharp, cold tip of a knife at my throat.
“I hate to do this to you, but you can thank that motherfucker,” says Zach. “He should have left well enough alone.”
“Why are you doing this?” I ask. I can’t keep my tears at bay. The sharp edge of the knife presses into my skin. One wrong move and my throat will be slashed.
Instead of the feel of Zach’s hands, it’s leather-clad fingers that grip my chin, turning it towards Franco’s slain body. It’s not my fault what happened to him. Zach is clearly an insane person to do this to someone, and even worse, someone he used to work with.
Zachary is a cold-blooded murderer.
“Your boyfriend can’t help you now. You’ll be next.”
I try holding back the tears springing to my eyes. It may be a futile exercise in holding onto my dignity in what could be my final moments.
Where was Maxwell? Surely, the feed was still going to him. Unless the sound cut out? I wanted to check the device in my pocket, but I didn’t need Zach’s attention on it because he surely wouldn’t hesitate to slit my throat right here.
The click of heels to our right has Zach turning at the sound. “What is taking so long?”
Cecily van Zandt appears in a dark-blue gown, looking every bit the society maven she pretends to be. If I didn’t make it out of this night alive, my only hope was that Zach’s and Cecily’s crimes would be exposed.
She stands before Zach and me, partially blocking Franco’s body from my view. “Well, well. Look what we have here.”
She looks at me with disgust. Like I’m not worth her time. If the situation weren’t deadly, it would be comical that the four of us were out here. Cecily in her gown and jewelry glinting in the twilight. She looked like she should be on a red carpet. Instead, she was here getting her flunky to kill me.
“You won’t get away with this,” I spit out.
Zach’s arm draped over me gets tighter and pulls me closer to him. So tight I can’t escape his grasp.
Crazy to think of how long I’ve wanted to be held by Zach. Little did I know it would be under these circumstances.
A sinister laugh erupts from the cold older woman. Her face looks disturbing despite the humor she’s conveying. As if laughing was a foreign concept to her in her miserable, rotten existence.
“I can get away with this and I will. You just had to get him involved,” she says, nudging Franco with her heeled shoe. She kicks at his lifeless body like he means nothing. I can’t imagine what his family will go through when he’s found by the police.
“Franco wasn’t supposed to be part of this. Not you either in fact. Now you’ll both be collateral damage.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
She was talking in riddles now. I just hoped Maxwell or the authorities were on their way. I could have kicked myself for not bringing my taser. I foolishly thought Franco and I could have met up here before the diabolical twosome showed up.
“You see, Harrison had to go. I wasn’t going to let his little…movement tarnish the Van Zandt name. I bet he didn’t tell you he’d been blackmailing me.”
“Blackmail? No—he never mentioned he was even still in contact with you.”
“Oh, of course not. At the rate he was going, he would have syphoned my publication for every cent we’re worth. People don’t have much interest in paying for news anymore, and he wanted to come and take what was left. I had to get rid of him. Now he’s in jail where he belongs.”
Cecily was behind this the whole time. Using us as a means to cover her tracks to get rid of her own child. What kind of people were these Van Zandts? A son blackmailing his mother for money and a mother plotting his demise to save her reputation.
They were both sick.
“Why did you hire us in the first place?” I ask, hoping to stall whatever they have planned.
“Well, you two were smart enough to figure out Harry’s involvement in all this, but what you probably didn’t know was our dearly deceased Franco’s involvement in my blackmail. They both had to go. You and your team were taking too long, but now my plan is complete.”
“Just have to tie up loose ends,” Zach adds.
I feel the cold metal of the knife at my throat, and Zach is using all his strength to bind my hands with one arm and hold the knife at my throat with the other. I desperately try twisting out of his embrace, but his grip is like a vice.
“I’m bored of all this and have a party to get back to. Zachary, finish her.”
I shut my eyes tight as I feel the shifting of the knife. The metal feels like ice along my neck, and I swear I can feel all my blood pooling south. I’m lightheaded. Is this what everyone experienced in their final moments?
The sound of sirens is sweet music as police run into our corner of the park, Max trailing alongside them. He’s a welcome sight for more reasons than one. I just wish we’d gotten here to save Franco, even though he had us fooled along with Harry and everyone else involved with this horrible publication.
“Police! Drop your weapon!” I hear the booming voice on a bullhorn, and there’s a light shined in my eyes by one of the officers taking in the three of us, plus Franco on the ground. Zach releases the knife, nicking my neck in the process. An officer kicks the large knife away as she handcuffs Zach and begins pulling him away. Another officer grabs Cecily’s arms, placing them behind her back.
She’s yelling expletives and screaming about her lawyer. “You can’t do this to me. I’m a Van Zandt. You won’t get away with this!”
“Are you okay, ma’am? Do you need medical attention?” asks a burly officer. His loud voice as he comes up behind me makes me jump. My nerves are already so frazzled.
“No, I think I’m alright,” I say, feeling for the cut, but there’s no blood. The sharp knife didn’t get a chance to penetrate deeply.
“Well, we’ll have to bring you in for questioning.”
I nod my answer, prepared to respond to anything they ask of me. I’ll gladly help put Zach and Cecily away.
“Kamaya!” I see Maxwell waving his arm up over the growing crowd of law enforcement surrounding Franco’s slain body. I run towards Max, slipping under the caution tape.
“Thank God, you’re okay,” Max says, embracing me in his strong arms and wrapping them around me. In his arms feels like the safest place, and I start crying because moments ago I could have been killed by a madman. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.
I could have died without Maxwell knowing how I felt. I pull back to tell him, realizing now more than ever how precious each moment we have together is.
“Max, I?—”
“I love you, Kamaya,” he says, cutting me off. Not that I mind at all because it’s the best reason to be interrupted. “I love you so much, and I can’t believe that tonight could have ended without me being able to tell you how much I love you, Kamaya Blake.”
I peer up into his dark-brown eyes that convey more love than I’ve ever felt in my life. As my friend, I knew Max battled doubt about his capacity to love. Not having any decent examples deeply affected him well into adulthood, to the point where he felt he couldn’t ever love.
I’m so happy to be alive to witness his transformation. So happy to be loved, in love, and hopefully be around for many more years to experience moments like this.
“Maxwell Scott, I love you too. You better get used to hearing it because I will never stop saying it.” Better yet, I will never stop loving this man.
“You’d better not,” he says before tilting his head down to kiss me.
Our lips stay locked in a tight embrace until we hear the low sound of someone clearing their throat.
“Sorry to interrupt. I’m Officer Bailey, and I’m going to need you to give an account and statements as to what happened here tonight.”
Maxwell slides his arms around me and reaches into his pocket, pulling out his phone. “Actually, we can play exactly what happened for you.”
The aftermath of the Financial Journal assignment caused great fervor in the local news and even national, since the publication was known in rarefied circles. The CEO and widow Van Zandt was a crook behind the scenes. Her son that she hid from the public was much like his mother by way of blackmailing. The only difference was he was taking the money from her and giving it to the underprivileged and charities. The New York media dubbed him Gen-Z Robin Hood for all he’d done. Now there would be criminal charges for extortion.
Cecily and Zachary were on trial for the murder of Franco DiLaurentis. They also faced racketeering charges since they reported the missing funds from the subscription leak to their insurance and now also faced fraud charges. Both of them were up for long sentences, and I for one couldn’t wait to see them both behind bars.
Franco’s involvement, we later learned, came when Harry sought him out after being fired from the Financial Journal . Harry had promised to pay Franco for assisting him. He was murdered before receiving the funds.
A sad case all around.
Jacob Reyes was thankfully cleared of any wrongdoing, along with Katie Lucas, who’d worked with Zach but knew nothing of his crimes. I was glad that he was exactly who he presented to us, and now I’d made a new friend in Jacob. I felt bad that he trusted Franco, but many people from Financial Journal had us all fooled.
The last update from Jacob that we received a few days ago told us that the board of trustees and shareholders were scrambling to keep the publication afloat. The negative press had people unsubscribing, citing that they didn’t want anything to do with Financial Journal .
I hoped those remaining with the company didn’t have to worry about being out of a job. It wasn’t fair to any of them that the people they’d worked for were criminals.
As for us over at TSS, things were changing here as well. Brandon finally found an office space for lease in central London, not far from where his wife Ava’s television show would be filming. Brandon was one of the best bosses I’d ever had and one of the friends I’d made since I’d started working in the city. Ava’s addition to our office family would be missed as well, but I was happy for both of their career opportunities and knew that they’d be back to New York later on in the year, and they were just a text or call away.
Today Bree, Harlowe, and I were returning from lunch together since, earlier this week, she’d accepted a position with TSS. As soon as Brandon made the announcement, Bree exclaimed, “Finally Kam and I are no longer outnumbered!”
During our girls-only celebration, Harlowe opened up about her past of growing up in Atlanta and meeting her husband there, who, funnily enough, was from New York. Now they’d decided to make New York their permanent home. I felt that the three of us would all get along swimmingly, but there was something guarded about our new coworker.
Hopefully, she would feel trusting enough to open up to Bree and me in due time.
I had my own secret that I hadn’t shared and decided lunch away from the office, and especially the guys, was as good a place as any.
“I know today is about Harlowe, but I think this is as good a place as any to let you both know that Max and I are…dating.”
Bree squeals so loud that a few patrons in the restaurant turn to look over at our table. Poor Harlowe, not used to Bree’s outbursts, plugs her ears with her fingers.
“I knew something was up!” Bree says in her inside voice.
“How did you know?” I ask. I thought Max and I appeared like close friends. Had others noticed like Bree?
Bree shrugs. “I have a knack for these things. I can sense it.”
Harlowe and I laugh. I never knew what crazy thing my friend would say next. “Well, then we should toast,” says Harlowe. “To new opportunities, new friends, and most importantly new loves.”
“I’ll drink to that,” I say as the three of us clink our glasses together.