Chapter 47
FORTY-SEVEN
Zephyrine
Our whole group is assembled for Charlotte and Dakota’s presentation on the relics.
I helped them, spending time in the makeshift office we created out of the spare penthouse suite in the casino.
Charlotte brought what felt like half a library’s worth of resources from her home, and Grant and Dakota supplied anything else she needed to work.
It allowed the three of us to grind out long hours in a safe place where I could still be close to Levi during his recovery, and Grant could oversee progress, while their mutual teams maintained security over the relics.
Charlotte was too nervous to transport them out of state to her normal office while we waited for the governor’s next move.
I glance over at Levi, checking to make sure he’s comfortable.
He insisted on being here today, and I’m worried that he’s pushing himself too hard, too fast in an effort to seem unbothered by his near-death experience.
I get a look of reassurance from him when he sees me checking, and I run my hand over his knee under the table when I see it anxiously tapping out a rhythm as Charlotte explains how she drew her conclusions.
“Three relics were found in the vault along with several other antiquities I’m still researching.
But for our focus today, it’s these three.
” Charlotte brings a picture of the relics up on the screen at the far end of the table.
“This relic here belonged to Jameson Kelly, Hudson’s grandfather.
This relic was taken from the private collection of Edgar Markdale in a heist six years ago.
And this last one belonged to Charles O’Leary, Zephyrine’s maternal grandfather. ”
“There was paperwork in the vault alongside the O'Leary relic that leads us to believe it was kept in a safety deposit box as part of a collection willed to Zephyrine on her wedding day. At which point, we believe her former husband, working on behalf of her father, extracted it and delivered it to the governor,” Dakota adds as she passes around a copy of the paperwork, and my heart breaks to see my grandfather’s signature again.
“Zephyrine?” Charlotte looks at me.
“My grandfather was an antiques dealer, but according to his journal, he obtained this piece when he was deployed during WWII, when he won it in a card game. According to his notes, he and a couple of other men in his unit were playing. He couldn’t recall the names of the other men, except for one man, who he knew from back home, Abbott Schaefer Sr. My fraternal grandfather.
The same man who lost the game and paid off Charles O’Leary with the relic. ”
Rowan lets out a low whistle, and I see Grant’s eyebrow arch skyward.
“Schaefer Sr. continued playing cards that night after O’Leary turned into his bed after his win, and he believed that Schaefer Sr. may have lost additional relics in those games,” I explain.
“And my grandfather served around the same period, so you believe he was in the unit?” Hudson asks, turning his attention back to Charlotte.
“Yes. We can’t say for sure yet. There was a massive fire in the seventies at the National Personnel Records Center, and many of the enlisted men’s records from that time were lost. So we’re piecing it together with the help of some archives back East, but with what we know so far, yes.
We think that’s how Jameson Kelly ended up with one,” Charlotte explains.
“Markdale’s family doesn’t appear to have anyone connected to WWII service, though, so we think that it may have been a private purchase long after the war.” Dakota looks at Levi, and I glance between both of them. I’m unaware of anything new he might have, so I’m as curious as everyone else.
“And while I was searching bank records on another matter, I was able to find a seven-figure deposit that ran through an offshore bank account into Abbott Schaefer Jr.’s account. The same one he used to purchase the relic we put up for auction earlier this year.” Levi grins at my surprise.
“What a fucking coincidence,” Rowan muses.
“So Schaefer loses two relics in a card game, brings a third home, and gives it to his son. He sells it off in order to bail himself out financially?” Grant asks.
“Yes. It happens right around the time Schaefer Jr. got involved in politics, and it was not long after that he became involved with Zephyrine’s mother,” Dakota explains.
“Another coincidence?” Rowan asks.
“Unlikely. Given my family’s personal history and what I was able to glean from my maternal grandfather’s journal, I think my father pursued her in order to seek out the third relic,” I explain.
“Kelly’s and Markdale’s would have been inaccessible to him. He was a nobody at the time, politically and financially,” Charlotte interjects.
“But according to the journal, my grandfather said he was obsessed with it. He would ask questions about it whenever he saw it in his display cabinet and asked more than once what he planned to do with it and whether he’d ever considered selling it,” I add in.
“Why?” Grant’s brow furrows. “If he sold the other off. Why did he want another? The money?”
“Not long after my fraternal grandfather gave my dad the relic to sell, he became sick. It was a degenerative genetic disease, one with no cure. My dad believed that selling the relic was linked somehow, that selling it had put a curse on him. At least, that’s what he told my mom.
He told her that if he wasn’t able to get them back, he feared that he’d die of the same disease, and his children would too,” I explain.
“When my mother, who was his mistress at the time, became scared of his obsession and tried to warn my grandfather and the authorities, he had her committed.”
There’s another low whistle from Rowan, and this time Levi presses his hand to my knee, gently stroking me with the pad of his thumb as I try not to get emotional.
“She died there, and I remember my grandfather and my father argued loudly at the funeral. My father used her death to solidify his custody, and I only saw my grandfather a few times after that.”
“I’m so sorry, Zephyrine.” Grant gives me a sympathetic look across the table. I give a small nod before I continue.
“When I turned eighteen, a lawyer visited me and gave me the terms of my inheritance from my grandfather. I’d get the entire fortune he’d amassed as an antiques dealer and several of his personal collections, but only when I moved out of my father’s house and was married.”
“Which we assume was because her grandfather was trying to keep Abbott from having access to the relic,” Dakota explains as Grant’s brow furrows.
“And when I married Corey, they had access to everything. Including the safety deposit box that held the relic.” I finish the sad story of how I not only fell for my father’s trap but also betrayed my grandfather’s wishes in doing so.
Levi squeezes my knee again the table, and I place my hand over his, linking our fingers. I only wish I could watch Corey suffer all over again for his part in this.
“Which would have been just before Schaefer contacted our father to steal the Markdale relic.” Levi makes the connection clear for everyone at the table.
“And was just before they burned my grandfather’s house down to cover the theft of the Kelly relic.” Hudson pushes another piece of the puzzle together.
“There’s a gap here because we don’t know for sure why he killed Mom and Dad.
But we can assume he incorrectly thought they had the relic in hand already and wanted to cover up the fact that he was the one to pay them to steal it.
Using the money he stole from Zephyrine’s post-marriage inheritance.
” Levi looks at Grant, and they exchange unspoken words.
“Fuck me. What a bastard.” Rowan shakes his head in disbelief.
“So then, after last summer, when we auctioned off the relic we had… He has all three. Why not leave us alone?” Grant asks out loud.
“Covering his tracks? I assume he knew we wouldn’t let Mom and Dad’s death go.” Levi offers his best theory.
“But why not Hudson, too, then?” Grant’s brow furrows.
“One giant problem at a time, I guess. We were an easier target given that we were in state, and he had Uncle Jay in his pocket to help him with his dirty work,” Levi posits.
“Fucking hell…” Grant scrubs a hand over his face. “So what now?”
“We wait to see what he does.” Rowan’s back up as part of our security council. “We see how he covers up our robbery. If he covers up or if he retaliates.”
“But we might have some hope there too,” Dakota pipes in.
“How so?” Grant asks.
“Some of the documents we’ve found look like off book transactions. I’m having an accountant friend go through them with Rowan.” Charlotte’s lips curl into a devilish grin. “Because if they are, we might have everything we need to destroy him.”
“Let me know whatever you need to speed that along.” Grant returns her optimism.
“Will do.” She nods.
“And the relics?” Hudson asks. “What do we do with them?”
“I’d like to take them back to where they belong. If we all agree,” I suggest.
“Which is where?” Hudson’s brows knit in confusion.
“Oh, we forgot to tell him the best part.” Charlotte looks at me with a smile.
“My grandfather spent a bunch of time traveling through Europe. Trying to figure out where they belonged because he suspected Schaefer stole them opportunistically at some point during the war. My grandfather went to the abbey several times to do research in the reliquary archives there, and between his research and Levi’s, we think he was on the right path.
I think the nuns there and the archive might get us the answers to return them to where they belong,” I explain, looking around the table to get their reactions.
“You have my support,” Hudson agrees easily.
“Mine too.” Grant nods.
“And you know you already have ours.” Charlotte gives me a look of encouragement.
I turn to Levi, and he gives me a conflicted smile. One I completely understand.
“You know I support you. I’ll take you myself as soon as the doctor clears me.” His eyes meet mine, and I nod because I don’t trust myself to speak.
“Perfect. Then let’s get this black book accounting sorted and end this mess for good,” Grant announces.