Chapter 24 Saturday, 13 June 2026
When Beatrice had vanished down the second-floor hall, headed to the Caraway Room, Edward returned to prowling the club’s first floor, taking his deputised role as NYPD errand boy with a touch too much solemnity for someone who was also a suspect, Hannah thought.
She looked around, waiting for her moment to slip upstairs after Elle and Bash.
Ami had found a plush throw and was dozing on a library armchair.
Alex paced the length of the lounge. At one of the dining tables, a game of gin rummy had broken out.
All around, guests were dozing or drinking.
Perhaps Elle and Bash had gone up to the roof, the most private part of the club. Hannah could still clearly picture Tyler Marsden teetering on the low wall, a shit-eating grin on his face. Fucking idiot.
Or even more likely, they were in the MacAllister Room.
It had been Bash’s preferred place to hole up senior year.
Now, a thousand bucks said Bash and Elle were holed up there, together.
Maybe they’d gone off to take advantage of an empty room in the same way she and Theo had earlier tonight.
But there was another possibility. Perhaps Elle and Bash intended to discuss their friend’s murder, away from the eyes and ears of the party – and the cops.
If it was the latter, she needed to hear what was being said.
Hannah paused, considering her next move.
Earlier, when Theo had opened the cabinet door to lift a brass key from its hook, no one had batted an eye.
He wasn’t a Beaumont, but he was Bash’s best friend.
A regular fixture at the Lenox Club and practically family.
Hannah, on the other hand, was very much an outsider here.
There was no way in hell she’d get away with snagging a room key without raising suspicion from Edward or the cops.
Reluctantly, she surveyed the club until she spotted Theo in the dining room, hand on a window curtain he’d pulled aside, staring out onto the nighttime sidewalk. She walked over and placed a hand on his elbow.
‘I need a favour.’
Three minutes later, Hannah and Theo were back in the staff stairwell, headed to the second floor.
‘You’ve been avoiding me,’ Theo murmured. ‘Ever since we…’
‘It’s not because of that.’ It was, of course, a little bit. Theo looked at her imploringly.
‘I’m sorry, okay? I’ve been a little bit busy trying to find Madison’s murderer.’
‘About that.’ They’d arrived at the top of the stairwell, but Theo paused, hand on the door. ‘When I was in with Wellesley and Crews, giving my statement, they asked me a few questions. About you.’
Hannah sighed. ‘That seems to be a theme.’
‘They wanted to know about your science background. Crews kept asking who you’d studied with at Prescott, did you take AP Chem, what science did you study in college.’
‘But – I took AP Bio senior year, not chemistry. They think I was, what, mixing poison in my bathtub?’
Theo shrugged. ‘I told them that. About bio, and how you’d probably taken some core science class at NYU, but you’d majored in journalism. He acted like that proved something, but they’re fishing.’
‘Of course they are.’ Hannah chewed her lip. ‘But if I can’t deliver something real, I’m the one who’s going to be walking out of here tonight in cuffs.’
Theo pressed his finger to his lips, then slid open the door.
They stepped out into the empty hall. She knew nothing about poison, obviously, but hadn’t Bruno mentioned some kind of chemistry major at Columbia?
The details had gotten lost in everything else he and Ethan had been flinging around about each other, but maybe that was something.
She drew out her notebook and paused to jot down a question by his name.
‘What’s up?’ Theo whispered.
She tucked her notebook and pen back into her bag. While her gut said to trust Theo, she couldn’t completely. Not until she asked about Instagram. ‘Oliver told me something tonight,’ she whispered. ‘About Madison’s brand partnership with Concord Hospitality?’
‘Oh, that.’ His voice had an uncharacteristically hard edge.
They followed the hall to the MacAllister Room, where a crack of light was still visible at the threshold.
Then they walked past it, to the room next door.
Theo turned the key in the lock, and they slipped quietly inside the empty guest room.
The door clicked shut behind them, and Theo secured the lock.
For a moment, they stood in the dark. The small hairs on Hannah’s arms bristled.
She’d needed Theo to get her in here, so she could eavesdrop on Elle and Bash, but perhaps raising his public feud with Madison the moment they’d entered a locked room – a room to which no one else knew she’d gone – hadn’t been her smartest move tonight. She was getting tired. And sloppy.
‘Madison only ever looked out for herself,’ he said after a moment.
He switched on a lamp, and Hannah exhaled.
He looked annoyed, but not angry. ‘She knew I was counting on her reach to help secure funders for the foundation. But of course, when Henry asked for a favour for his old high school friend, she didn’t think twice about ending the partnership.
It’s not like George Sinclair needed the business. ’
‘Oliver said you and Madison weren’t on speaking terms.’
Theo sank down on the bed. ‘True, but I’d never kill her over it – I just needed some space while I searched for a new brand partner.
Which I still haven’t found, by the way.
But like I told the detectives, killing my former brand partner in cold blood would be instant death to the foundation, and Concord Hospitality.
Whoever killed Mads tonight planned it in advance.
They brought poison to the party. They got into the lighting system.
This wasn’t an act of heat-of-the-moment rage.
And planning her murder would be the stupidest possible thing I could do for business right now. Believe me?’
His face was open, his voice earnest. Hannah sank down on the bed beside him. She still didn’t entirely trust Theo Fitzgerald, but she needed him. ‘I believe you.’
Then she looked to the wall separating their room from the MacAllister Room. ‘This place is sealed like a sound booth. How exactly do I listen in?’
‘Privacy, preserved, right? It’s been the club’s motto since 1896, but like I promised, there’s a workaround.’ He got up and walked to the closet door. ‘In here. There’s a vent. It’s the only way you can eavesdrop.’
Hannah opened the door and slipped inside. ‘I’m not going to ask how you know that.’
Theo grinned. ‘It’s more innocent than you think. I spent a lot of time here as a kid, playing hide and seek, getting in the staff’s way.’
Hannah pressed the two plush, LC monogrammed robes hanging inside the closet to the end of the rail, then knelt down and pressed her ear to the vent, bracing herself for the possibility that whatever she heard was going to be more than she’d bargained for.
But it was the opposite. Bash and Elle were mid-argument.
‘She told me in good faith,’ Elle was saying, obviously upset. ‘She knew you’d be too proud to ask me yourself.’
‘Beatrice had no right,’ Bash snarled. ‘That was my call to make.’
Hannah glanced at Theo, still hovering in the closet doorway. She was pretty sure he wasn’t a threat to her, but she wasn’t sure she wanted him here for this. ‘You should get out of here. Plausible deniability and all that.’
‘Fuck no.’ Theo stepped inside and crouched down by the vent. ‘Shove over.’
She frowned. ‘He’s your best friend. Don’t you—?’
‘No way. If Bash or Elle had something to do with Madison’s murder, I need to know.’
She shrugged, then pressed her ear back to the vent.
‘But Madison knew,’ Bash was saying. ‘How?’
Elle’s sigh had a hollow ring, echoing through the vent.
‘I brought it up at lunch, as a friend, in confidence. I told her the same thing I’ve been telling you – that Beaumont Capital’s only way out of the mess your father left behind was for you to come clean.
But Madison acted as if I was behaving like a foolish child.
Not as your financial advisor, which I am.
As if we haven’t all been friends for years.
As if I wouldn’t have your best personal and professional interests at heart!
Her reaction was frankly insulting – and unhinged. ’
Hannah and Theo exchanged a glance. Exactly what mess had Richard Beaumont left behind?
‘Christ,’ Bash muttered. ‘How did this get so fucked? I was trying to spare you from this, Elle.’
Elle’s voice was thin. ‘Spare me from what?’
‘My father’s mess? The one you’ve been helping me untangle? That was Henry Alcott Winslow’s doing.’
‘It – what?’
‘He roped my father into an investment scheme. Insider trading benefitting Beaumont Capital’s biggest clients – and Beaumont itself.
Winslow had the connections, Richard had the cashflow.
That series of shadow accounts my father set up, the ones you’ve been closing, were all tied to Winslow. And all illegal.’
‘And Madison knew what her husband was up to,’ Elle said quietly. ‘She knew if the truth came out, it would destroy Winslow’s political career.’
‘Precisely. And after you told Madison you were advising me to come clean about the illegal activity on Beaumont Capital’s accounts that had pre-dated my takeover of the company, she reacted in the only way Madison DuPont knew how.’
‘Insulting my professional credibility.’
‘And blackmailing me. She threatened to bury Beaumont Capital in the ground if I did anything to tie the company’s illicit affairs to Winslow. She insisted I pledge my public support for his mayoral run, as a show of good faith. An endorsement, by the end of the month.’
Elle snorted. ‘Which of course you weren’t going to give. Winslow’s far too moderate for your tastes.’
For a moment that stretched into two, then three, and only silence seeped through the vent.
‘Bash? You weren’t going to endorse him, were you?’
‘It hardly matters now, does it? Madison’s fucking dead. All her threats, and everything she knew about Winslow’s scheme with my father, will go with her to the grave.’
Theo sucked in a sharp breath. In the semi-darkness of the closet, Hannah studied his face. Did Theo think…
Elle’s voice rose. ‘Why did you keep all this from me?’
‘Because the less you knew, the better. I was trying to protect you, as a professional.’
Her voice softened. ‘We’re more than that, Sebastian. We’ve always been more than that.’
‘Oh, fuck you, Elle. Whatever we could have been, you destroyed years ago.’
‘You mean Edward.’
‘Of course I mean Edward. You knew I had feelings for you. When you and Theo ended things, I hung back. He was my best friend, and you were hurting. I thought, after graduation, we’d give it a chance. But you chose my brother.’
Hannah’s eyes widened. Edward and Elle? She stole a glance at Theo, but he was unfazed. Of course he already knew, had probably known for years.
‘That first year at Harvard was the hardest of my life. Edward reached out. He was there for me.’
‘I was at Cambridge. I did my—’
‘No. You never told me how you felt,’ Elle hissed. ‘I gave you the portrait. A nude. And you did nothing! What was I supposed to think?’
The wall vibrated, and Hannah and Theo both jerked back. Something had slammed into it, on the other side.
‘Fucking Madison,’ Bash growled.
‘What does Madison—?’
‘It doesn’t matter. You chose Edward, and you stayed together for four years. Nothing can ever happen between us, and I have to live with that.’
‘Because Madison told you to stay away from me,’ Elle said flatly. ‘And ten years later, she was still calling the shots.’
‘Don’t act like she didn’t push your buttons too. We all hated her sometimes.’
‘And the endorsement?’ Elle asked, bringing the conversation back around. ‘You were going to give it, weren’t you?’
‘No,’ Bash snapped. ‘I vowed that this time, I wouldn’t let Madison win.’
Hannah sucked in a sharp breath. On the other side of the wall, Elle’s voice was low, soothing.
‘It’s okay. It’s going to be fine. When we get out of here, I’ll get to work. We’ll clean this up, together.’
Three hard raps on the door. Hannah’s back stiffened, but Theo pressed his finger to his lips. ‘Next door,’ he mouthed.
‘Bash, open up!’
Hannah exhaled. It was Edward.
‘I know you’re hiding out in there.’
‘Hang on,’ came Bash’s voice.
‘You abandoned me downstairs, you know? I can’t be assisting Crews and Wellesley and also managing the crowd.
People are losing their patience. They’re exhausted and hungry and Chef Bernard is fussing over the tenderloin like it’s a little baby.
He just kicked me out of the kitchen, and we need service, now. ’
‘Give me three,’ Bash snapped. ‘I’ll talk to Bernard.’
The sound of Edward’s footsteps retreating down the hall was followed by silence in the MacAllister Room.
Hannah and Theo locked eyes. Bash had refused to give into Madison’s blackmail, which could only mean one of two things: either he’d been planning to put his family’s company on the line, or he’d shut up Madison DuPont for good.