Chapter 6 #2
‘No,’ Alice said lightly. ‘That was last year. This time it’s a chin implant, brow lift, that buccal fat bullshit, and something else I can’t remember.
It’s all being done at one of those boutique places that’s more like a hotel.
She’s staying there for two weeks so no one has to see her face all busted up from the surgery. ’
‘She couldn’t have just got a maid service to come in?’
‘Her usual service is taking the opportunity to vacation while Sienna is having her procedures. And she can’t get cover because of the snakes.’
My face dropped. ‘The what?’
Alice pointed to a terrarium that I’d somehow missed.
It stretched from floor to ceiling and contained a miniature ecosystem, complete with branches and leaves and rocks for things to hide behind.
‘How many snakes?’ I asked faintly.
‘Only two. And they’re just little bitty corn snakes. Atwood and Angelou.’
‘And they’re, like, actually locked up in there, right?’ I asked, feeling my heart start to beat a little faster with anxiety.
‘Are you scared of snakes, Kendra?’ Alice asked, teasing.
‘Not if they’re locked behind glass, I’m not.’
She laughed. At me, I was sure.
‘You’ll be fine,’ she said. ‘Do you want to see the rest of the place? It gets worse.’
‘I’m not sure how much worse than snakes in the living room you can get, but sure.’
‘They’re sweethearts really,’ Alice said, offering me a smile that was spilling over with amusement.
Snakes were not sweethearts, they were snakes, but I wasn’t about to argue with the girl who had the keys to the snake tank.
The kitchen had deep, dark-red cabinets and lots of wood and glass everywhere, with copper pans that looked like they’d never been used. If it was in any other apartment I would have liked it much more. Here it was another way of bashing my retinas.
‘There are two guest rooms,’ Alice said. ‘I’m staying in the bronze room, so you can take the library.’
‘That sounds promising.’
She winced and shook her head. ‘You’ll hate it.’
‘Are there snakes in there too?’ I asked, deadly serious.
‘No.’ Alice pressed her lips together to hide her smile.
‘Then I’ll be fine.’
I grabbed my bags from where I’d dumped them in the hallway, and, yes, the library room turned out to be a lot, with bookshelves across three walls and a daybed covered with approximately six thousand fussy pillows. But it was better than sleeping on the couch in the safehouse.
I needed, desperately, to get my thoughts in order, to make a plan on what I was going to do next. So much had happened in the past twenty-four hours, and my head was spinning.
‘Come on,’ Alice said gently, pulling me back into the present. I set down my bags in the library and followed her back to the kitchen.
There was an island in the middle of the room, two bar stools set against the side. I climbed onto one of them while Alice poured water from a jug in the fridge and set a glass in front of me.
‘Can I get you anything else?’ she asked.
‘Some Tylenol?’
Alice gave me a look that said she thought I needed a lot more than Tylenol, but she went to a drawer in the kitchen to get me the pills.
‘Thanks,’ I said when she slid the packet across the counter. I took three.
‘I’m so sorry about your apartment,’ she said, her eyes filling with sympathy. ‘I can’t even imagine how difficult things have been for you, and now this …’
‘Pretty fucking difficult,’ I muttered as she sat down on the bar stool next to mine.
She reached over and rubbed my hand, sending a jolt through me. She was clearly the touchy-feely type. I was not.
‘Do you think it was the same guys that have been following us?’ Alice asked, changing the subject, though not to anything easier.
‘I don’t know if they’re the exact same ones, but I’m pretty certain they’re all being sent by the same person.’
‘To scare you,’ she clarified.
‘Yeah.’
‘Are you scared?’
I smiled tightly and lied through my teeth. ‘No.’
‘We could go to the police?’ Alice suggested.
‘That’s not an option.’
‘Why not?’
I took a deep breath. I couldn’t hide the truth from her for much longer … I just had to figure out how much I could say without freaking her out any more than she probably already was.
‘I don’t exclusively work within the confines of the law.’
‘Right,’ Alice said flatly.
‘If I told the cops everything, they’d have to arrest me.’
‘Jesus Christ, Kendra. What do you do?’ she asked, sounding more concerned than scandalized.
‘Oh, you know, the usual. Handling of stolen goods. Forging of documents. And I have a not-really-legal handgun.’
‘How can a handgun be not really legal?’
I tried to be charming. ‘It’s not actually mine. And not technically registered.’
‘Why do you have it?’
‘Protection.’ I didn’t make a habit of using it. I hadn’t actually ever shot anyone, though I’d definitely thought about it a few times.
She gave me an incredulous look. ‘Protection from who?’
‘The type of people who are stalking me.’
‘Well, that’s terrifying,’ she muttered. ‘Did your mom know?’
I had to laugh. ‘Alice, my mom was the one who introduced me to all of this. Walker Antiques is …’
‘Is?’ Alice prompted.
‘We sometimes deal with some of the more shady individuals in our city. The Irish mob, the Italian mafia, gangs, corrupt city officials –’
‘So, criminals,’ Alice said, cutting through all my pretty euphemisms.
‘Yeah,’ I replied bluntly.
‘Why?’
‘It wasn’t my decision,’ I said with a wry smile. ‘It’s been like this since my great-grandfather established the company. I don’t have much of a say on who we do business with.’
She didn’t look happy with that, and I watched in silence as she got up and went to unload the dishwasher. There was something so innocently domestic about it that I felt like I was intruding.
I forced myself to think about the brooch instead.
It was a miracle that Abigail De Lacy had managed to escape off the Titanic with it.
Though I’d never be able to prove it, it felt likely that she was wearing it that night, when the ship struck the iceberg and she’d had to board a lifeboat.
She probably wore it all the way back to New York.
Now that was the type of storytelling that Signor Giordano would love.
As my thoughts wandered to New York, the connection between the brooch and Grand Central suddenly clicked.
‘What?’ Alice asked, noticing the shift in my expression and coming back over to me.
‘This is just a hunch,’ I warned her.
‘Go on.’
‘Where were the survivors of the Titanic taken when they got to New York?’
She frowned in confusion. ‘What do you mean?’
‘The survivors,’ I pressed. ‘Of the Titanic. Where did they put them when they came off the ship? They must have gone somewhere, a hotel or …’
‘You think they went to the Biltmore,’ she said, catching on quickly.
‘Yeah, I do. I think the ladies from the first-class cabins were probably taken to one of the newest and fanciest hotels in New York. One where they’d immediately be able to meet their families as they arrived into the city on trains, rushing to support their recently widowed sisters, mothers and daughters.
Women who must have been in a massive amount of shock and grief. ’
‘And they put their valuables that they managed to save from the Titanic into the vaults at the Biltmore,’ Alice finished, leaning on the counter opposite me on the kitchen island.
‘I can only imagine what some of those women had on board with them.’
‘Everything,’ Alice said with a sad smile. ‘They would have wanted to show off. It was the maiden voyage of the world’s most famous ship, and some of the most famous people in the world were on board. They would have been dripping in jewels. But why does that matter?’
‘There was a reason why my mom sent me to Grand Central. It wasn’t random. It’s an important part of the journey Abigail De Lacy went on.’
‘You know what … that actually makes sense,’ Alice said, sounding impressed. She pulled out her phone and typed a quick search into Google.
‘What are you looking for?’ I asked.
‘I want to see if I can find out more about the Biltmore in connection to the Titanic. Your theory makes sense.’ She glanced up at me. ‘But let’s check we’re on the right track.’
She was thorough, if nothing else. I let her scroll through a few pages, then she shook her head and set the phone aside.
‘Nothing relevant is immediately showing up. I’ll look into it more tonight. My head’s not in it right now.’ She paused then asked, ‘What about the library book? Are the letters a code?’
‘It looks that way, yeah.’
‘Do you know how to crack it?’
That made me laugh. ‘It’s not that easy, Alice. It could take days. I’ll try to solve it later, while you’re doing some more research.’
‘That works. But I think we should order that food now.’
I took a deep breath. ‘Yes. Please.’
‘Leave it with me. Do you want to take a shower?’
I nodded, feeling painfully vulnerable. I’d never let someone other than my mom look after me, and Alice’s gentle caretaking poked at an ache deep inside me.
‘You do that. When you’re done, I’ll have dinner waiting.’
‘Thank you,’ I whispered, and very carefully stood up, not wanting anything to hurt more than it already did.