Chapter Twenty-Three #3
He shrugged, but there was something in his eyes. He didn’t quite meet her gaze.
Grace saw the moment that the realization hit Frannie. “No, wait… I see. You would never marry me if this didn’t work out. The Carter money was for you, too.” She stumbled a little, as though he had struck her.
“Frannie—” Copper said, but she turned away from him. Angry tears were glittering in her eyes.
“Like I said, Frannie. I never wanted you to know any of this.” Earnest turned softer, pleading.
“I wanted this for your happiness, and mine. And now it’s done.
As long as I can continue to successfully court Lillie, you can live the life you’re accustomed to.
So, on that front”—he laughed bitterly—“you might want to start being a little nicer to her.”
Frannie swallowed hard.
She looked once more toward where Grace and Theodore were standing. Where they had heard everything.
“Earnest,” she said. “I didn’t know.”
He froze. Seeing the guilt in her face.
“Is there someone there?” he asked.
He strode toward the place where Theo and Grace were hiding, pulling out a flask from his inside pocket as he walked. His nose was beginning to bleed, crimson trickling to his lip.
“Earnest!” Frannie screamed. “Don’t!”
“Get her out of here,” Earnest snarled to Copper.
Copper grabbed Frannie, pulling her arms behind her back.
“You don’t want to see this,” Copper said. “Go down to the party and make sure no one comes up here.”
He pushed her toward the door. But first, he wrenched the baggie of strychnine from her hand.
Frannie turned and ran.
“Stay hidden,” Theo whispered roughly at Grace as Earnest came closer. Then he stepped out of the shadows.
“Theodore?” Earnest asked in surprise.
Theo threw himself at Earnest, tackling him with his full weight. Grunting, they struggled against each other, rolling on the balcony floor.
“Theodore!” Grace cried.
Copper came up behind her, trapping her arms behind her back. He pulled them tight. She could barely breathe.
“You couldn’t stay out of it, could you?” he hissed in her ear. “Even after all of those warnings.”
Copper and Earnest had seemed so brave that night at the Japanese gardens, winning her trust and her esteem when the robber approached them.
Now she knew why. They had arranged it all with him beforehand.
She could see it now—Earnest inviting them to the concert, knowing they would be dressed in their finest jewels.
Telling Sylvestor right where they would be, so he could rob them and take the jewels as repayment for the money Earnest had lost. And deliver a warning to her at the same time.
“Did you kill him, too?” Grace asked. “The thief who threatened me?”
“Grace,” Theo gasped, struggling with Earnest. Her eyes fell on the flask, where Earnest pulled out a hidden knife.
Copper’s arms tightened around her, wrenching her shoulders out of place.
“Copper will give her the strychnine unless you sign a confession that you killed Harriet,” Earnest said.
“I’ll do it,” Theo wheezed. “Don’t hurt her.”
“Good,” Earnest said.
Then he turned and stabbed Theo in the leg.
Theodore bit down on his fist and muffled his scream. Grace cried out, seeing the blood immediately begin to flow from his thigh. The sound of it was drowned in the crescendo of the organ from Festival Hall.
“That will keep you from getting any ideas,” Earnest said, pulling the knife from Theo’s leg.
He brought out a small notebook and pen and stood over Theo while he shakily wrote a confession. Grace’s eyes filled with tears, spilling over and slipping down her cheeks.
“Good,” Earnest said, tucking the note into his waistband.
The stress seemed to be getting to him. He was sweating, and trembling, and all Grace could think about was Lillie, unwittingly marrying the murderer who had framed her brother.
He had fooled them all, pretending to look at automobiles he could never afford; pretending to consider Harriet’s plea to invest in her theater.
Just like Sylvestor had conned poor Harriet into believing he was a connected, wealthy gentleman who could introduce her to the talent manager if she passed along his threat.
“Now this whole mess can be put behind us,” Earnest said.
He stole a look at Copper. It seemed to be a signal of some sort.
Copper loosened his grip on Grace, and she took in a gasping breath.
But then he opened the bag of strychnine.
It was in her face before she could take another breath. Coating her nose. Being shoved down her throat. She was coughing, choking on it.
“Grace—” Theodore cried. He tried to stagger to his feet but couldn’t.
“It was a sad end to the affair, with a murder-suicide. But at least now there will be no evidence.” Earnest wiped the sweat from his face. He swayed a little.
Then he turned and stabbed Theo again. He was aiming for Theo’s heart, but Theo rolled at the last moment, and the knife hit him instead in the side.
Grace collapsed to the ground.
Copper released his hold on her and stepped over her spasming body.
She folded, trying to clutch her arms to herself. Knowing what was coming next.
Instead, her hand grazed a door stopper.
It was made of iron and shaped like a ship.
Her fingers closed around it.
“How long does strychnine take to be fatal?” Copper asked.
She could see, hazily, through the balustrades. The lights in the Grand Basin shimmered like fireworks.
“She’ll be dead within fifteen minutes,” Earnest replied. He bent down as she was spasming. Tucked Theodore’s written confession into where her handbag had fallen open next to her.
Grace’s hands closed around the door stop.
She whirled around with all of her might and brought it against his head.
It made a sick cracking sound.
“What?” Copper cried in disbelief as Earnest crumpled next to her.
She picked up the doorstop and rose to her feet.
She had brought the strychnine herself, and it was fake. A mixture of flour and powdered sugar. It hadn’t felt good to breathe it in to her nostrils and airways, but it certainly wasn’t a neurotoxin paralyzing her spinal cord.
She heard the distant pounding of footsteps, but it might have been her imagination. She held up the doorstop, preparing. “You can try to fight me,” she said. “But you have a better chance if you run.”
Copper looked at Earnest’s body, knowing that their tidy explanation was no longer an option.
He swallowed, then stepped forward and grabbed Earnest’s knife where it had fallen.
Grace couldn’t help Theo in time and fight off Copper simultaneously. She sank down beside Theodore and tore off pieces of her dress to bandage him. There was so much blood everywhere.
Copper began to approach them, his knife out.
“Don’t you see?” he said, snarling. “I can’t run if there’s still someone left to talk.”
“Please, someone, help us!” Grace screamed.
She bent down as Copper neared, raising the knife. She sobbed, trying to staunch the bleeding from Theo’s leg, his side. It was impossible. She could feel Theo’s pulse flagging, hear the organ notes and the distant cheers of the crowd below. The president must have arrived.
And then the door exploded on its hinges.
“Get down!” someone yelled. The police poured onto the balcony.
Grace held desperate pressure on Theodore’s wounds as someone knelt beside her. “Please. He’s been stabbed, he’s hurt,” she said.
Theodore’s face was white. His blood was everywhere.
Theo reached for Grace’s wrist with his hand. His grip was growing weaker. She had to lean down to hear him.
“I need you to know,” he said, his voice faint and raspy, “that I’ve always wanted you. Since that very first night.”
“Shh,” she said. “Please.”
She couldn’t stand that the words he was saying to her might be draining what life he had left. They had used their words against each other so many times, to spar and to wound. But now he was speaking his life into her. Using his last bit of strength to tell her who she was and what she was worth.
“It’s done,” he said. “You did it.”
He was slipping away. She leaned down, bringing her ear to his mouth. He closed his eyes and then his fingers around hers and used his last breath to say the words she had always most wanted to hear.