Chapter Twenty-Three
“I HAVE AN IDEA,” Grace said. “But we’ll need to make a stop first.”
She directed him to the location she had in mind and hopped out. Made a transaction. Safely hid it within her purse.
Then they were on their way again.
They disembarked at the Lindell turnstiles, and Theodore hired a gondola to take them the rest of the way through the fairgrounds. The teal and gold dome of Festival Hall loomed over them when they came to a stop in front of the Palace of Electricity.
There was a line forming in front of a security detail at a private entrance for the dinner.
“No safer place to confront a murderer,” Theo murmured as he helped her out of the boat. “There will be so much security there tonight.”
“That is, if I can get past it,” Grace whispered.
“We’ll invent an alias for you,” he said, drawing out his invitation. He whispered into her ear, “Think of something outlandish.”
She scoffed. “As if I would miss this opportunity.”
“Theodore Parker,” he said to the guard, flashing his invitation. “And this is my guest…” He turned to Grace.
“Mitzi Ramsbottom,” she said primly.
Theodore’s eyes widened. He choked on a cough, and she waltzed in front of him with a straight face.
They stepped inside and were thoroughly frisked for weapons. She held her breath, waiting for the guard to find the purchase she had just made, which would lead to some uncomfortable questions, but ultimately it remained hidden in her makeup compact and he let her through.
They were escorted through the palace to the second floor, which had been transformed.
Grace had been to many fancy balls at the fair, but this one surpassed them all.
There were fountains where the water had been almost entirely replaced with flowers.
Sharply dressed waiters with trays of appetizers that looked like crystallized candy.
Candelabras studded with orchids and draped with crystals.
Fizzing drinks in elegant, impossibly long-stemmed glasses.
Butter that had been pressed into delicate molds to resemble swans.
There were ambassadors and diplomats mingling amid famous families swathed in jewels and silks from New York, Chicago, Philadelphia.
She spotted the Chinese prince Pu Lun, Thomas Edison, the vaudeville performer Will Rogers, and the Chiricahua Apache Chief Geronimo, who was both a guest and a prisoner of war, and therefore accompanied by his own guards.
“Grace!” Lillie said, parting the crowd. “You’re here!”
“I’m afraid you’re mistaken,” Grace said in a low voice, glancing over her shoulder. “It’s Mitzi tonight.”
“Well, Mitzi, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I brought the letter from Walt. Maybe you can give it to Grace when you see her,” Lillie said.
Lillie slipped the envelope out from her handbag. Grace recognized Walt’s handwriting on the front.
“I’ll get you a lemonade,” Theo whispered into her hair. His hand grazed the curve of her back.
Lillie looked between them and gave Grace a single, subtle look. She accomplished it with the slightest lift of her eyebrow.
“There’s a lot I need to tell you,” Grace said, biting her lip.
She trailed off as Earnest came up behind them.
“Grace, I didn’t realize you would be here tonight,” he said, smiling.
“It’s Mitzi,” Grace and Lillie said at the same time.
He didn’t miss a beat.
“Rumors are that President Roosevelt isn’t here yet, but he will be arriving soon. In the meantime—care to dance?” he asked Lillie.
She took his hand. “I want to hear everything,” she said to Grace over her shoulder as he led her away.
Grace wove through the crowd, past the formal musicians with their gleaming instruments. All the while, she was surreptitiously looking over her shoulder for Frannie.
Instead, she caught the profile of the man who had approached her at the diner. She froze. He was turning toward her.
She backtracked, whirling on her heel until she found the ladies’ room. She slipped inside and locked herself into a stall so she could think.
How much trouble would she be in if they found her here? Could she be arrested?
As she waited, heart hammering, she reached into her bag and slit open the envelope Lillie had put into her bag.
Walt’s handwriting was still the same, albeit a little shakier.
I’m sorry for everything, Gracie. I did get some information—writing it down before I forget.
I found someone who saw Harriet Forbes that morning in the Tunnels.
She met with a man and spoke to him for five or ten minutes.
The man was tall and had no distinguishable features other than reddish hair. Not bright red but reddish gold.
Hope this helps.
Walt
She looked up.
Red hair.
So Harriet hadn’t gone to meet her sister Penelope in the Tunnels. Grace thought back to what she had seen written in Harriet’s planner. Harriet had secretly planned to meet someone named Penny in the Tunnels.
Grace stood.
Penny.
Red hair.
And suddenly, it clicked.
She emerged from the ladies’ room, keeping her head down and skirting along the wall.
As the crowd parted, she saw him. A tall, handsome man with red hair.
Of course. Penny. A clever pseudonym for Copper, if you didn’t want anyone to know.
Harriet had gone and secretly met Earnest’s friend Copper.
Copper, who trained with the athletes. Who would therefore have had plenty of access to strychnine.
And the man had been by Frannie’s side this whole time.
They must have been working together.
Grace moved toward the door.
But for what purpose? What was their motive?
There was still a piece of the puzzle she was missing.
She smiled demurely as she approached Theodore. He was talking to someone she didn’t recognize, a drink in his hand. She pulled him aside and whispered into his ear.
“I’m even more certain now that it was Frannie,” she said. “But she wasn’t working alone. Can you get her upstairs?”
She’d seen a large balcony that wrapped around the circumference of the palace, overlooking the Grand Basin and Festival Hall. It would be a good place to have a private conversation—and stay hidden from the man who had tried to bribe her in the diner.
“Grace—” Theo said. “Be very—”
“I know,” she said. “I will.”
Her anger quietly simmered as she gathered her gown in her hand.
She found Lillie next. “Can you do something for me?”
Lillie smiled. “Anything for Mitzi.”
“I need you to find Copper and send him upstairs. Tell him that Frannie wants to speak to him privately,” Grace instructed. “And if we don’t come down in twenty minutes… send a policeman up.”
The smile faded on Lillie’s face. She paled. “Grace…” she said.
Grace kissed her cheek.
“For Oliver,” she whispered.
She climbed the stairs to the balcony, feeling the weighted tug of her gown trail behind her.
The fair was lit up around her with the incandescent bulbs of the electric lights.
They dimmed and glowed like lanterns and fireflies, glittering in the dark as night fell.
The Cascades were illuminated as they rushed down their banks into the Grand Basin.
It was dark and cool up there on the balcony, enclosed within a rim of carved ivory balustrades and unfurling flags.
There were guards stationed below, but they looked small from this distance.
No one could spot her standing in the shadows.
The president was arriving in a cavalcade, but on the other side of the palace.
All attention would be on him for at least a few moments.
When Grace turned the corner of the balcony she came upon Theodore.
He was speaking quietly with Frannie, and the moment caught her breath.
It was just like watching them through the hours and months that had transpired since December that fated Chicago evening.
Frannie glanced up and, seeing Grace, scowled.
She was wearing a teal oyster silk gown with pearls dangling in her dark red hair.
She touched the place at her neck where her stolen necklace should be, as though surprised to find it still missing.
Frannie looked at Theodore.
“What’s she doing here?” Frannie asked.
“We wanted to talk,” Grace answered coolly. She was having an almost visceral reaction to the sight of this beautiful, venomous woman. She had hurt everyone Grace loved in different ways, like the shards of an elegant vase that shattered out and cut wherever they landed.
“Well, I can hardly stay,” Frannie said, shifting. She glanced behind Grace, as though hoping someone else would come up behind to save her. “The president is almost here. We can’t miss that.”
“Actually, I think we can,” Theodore said.
Her face whipped toward his, and for the first time, she saw his cool disdain directed toward her.
“What is this about?” she asked, face flushing.
“I know you lied to Theodore about me that night at the Winter Ball in Chicago,” Grace said, taking a step toward her.
Frannie let out a mirthless laugh, but she almost seemed relieved. “Is that what this dramatic confrontation is about? A tiny white lie I told months ago?”
“And yet it was much more than that. You tried to poison Mr. Parker against me,” Grace said, taking another step toward her. Frannie retreated with one of her own in response. “But that isn’t the only person you poisoned. Is it?”
Frannie’s eyes narrowed for a split second before Grace’s meaning hit home.
“You think I killed Harriet?” This time when Frannie laughed it was laced with genuine surprise.
Her eyes widened. “She was climbing well beyond her social bounds but that doesn’t mean I wanted her dead.
” She shook her head as if they were ridiculous.
“Fine, I’ll admit that I lied to Theodore about you that first night at the Chicago Ball.
It was clear you had set your sights on him, and it bothers me when people don’t abide by the social rules.
They are there for a reason. But that doesn’t make me a murderess. ”