Echoes of Titanic (42 page)

“
That's
what I'm talking about!” Thrilled cried, slapping a hand on his thigh.

“Thanks, Kelsey,” Flash said from where his wheelchair had been strapped in behind her.

Cole gave her a wink and said, “I'll pass, but that's kind of you to do that for the guys.”

“Aw, shut up, boss,” Thriller said. “If you don't want it, Flash and I will split your share.”

They all laughed.

As they continued onward, Cole asked Kelsey about her other assignment,
the confrontation with Pamela. She sighed and then related their entire encounter, and by the time she was finished, they had nearly reached their destination.

When they were just a half a block from the office building, Thriller said, “Looks like we got lucky, boss,” as he pulled into an open parking place. Kelsey stifled a smile, not bothering to explain that in this business-centric area, empty spots could almost always be found at night.

As Thriller cut off the engine, Cole handed Kelsey a piece of paper, explaining that he'd jotted down a simplified version of the office layout and put an
X
everywhere that there was enough excess wall space that a recessed safe could possibly fit. Next, he gave her a small flashlight, saying she should turn on lights only where they wouldn't shine through to the areas seen by the security camera. She nodded, remembering at that moment that she was going to have to access the fifth floor via the same conference room where she'd found Gloria's dead body. Swallowing hard, she tucked the flashlight into her pocket.

“And I guess that's it,” Cole said, giving her a reassuring smile.

She nodded again, her heart racing.

“Quick sound check,” Flash said from behind her, and she turned to see that he was now unhooked from the safety straps and facing the equipment as though it were a desk. He handed two headsets to Cole, who kept one and passed the other up to Thriller. Then each of them put them on and spoke to her in turn.

“Why can't we just use cell phones?” Kelsey asked once they were finished.

“Not secure,” Flash replied. “Trust me. I know what I'm doing.”

“Oh, I believe you,” she said, gripping the door handle. “Do you think I'd do something like this if I didn't?”

Cole placed a warm hand on her arm. “You'll be fine, Kels.”

Looking into his eyes, she very much wanted to believe that. With a final nod, she slid open the door, got out, and started walking.

A
s Kelsey went toward the building, clutching Flash's iPad to her chest, she wanted to look over her shoulder toward the van, but she resisted the urge. When she arrived at the door, she tried to act nonchalant as she punched in her code and waited for the click.

Oddly, nothing happened.

She must have keyed it in wrong. She tried again and waited. Nothing. She tugged on the door handle, but it was locked up tight. Unbelievable.

“I think Walter invalidated my security code,” she hissed, heart pounding. “What now?”

“Hold on,” Flash's voice said in her ear. “Let me see if there's anything I can do.”

She waited, trying not to look guilty or feel paranoid, grateful at least that the street was deserted for the moment. Inside, her blood was pumping, not just with fear but with rage. Walter had canceled her code! If her father knew about this, he would—

Kelsey gasped, the idea coming to her in a flash. Quickly, she keyed in her father's code. Almost instantly she heard a soft click in response. Swinging the door open, she whispered, “Crisis averted. I'm in. Walter may have canceled me, but he forgot about my dad!”

In her ear she could hear the guys softly cheering. When the cheer faded, she gave them the code that had gotten her inside, just in case they might need to come in after her.

She sprinted silently up the stairs, but after two flights she began to feel
a sharp pain in her left heel. Oh, great. One of the Band-Aids must have slipped out of place. Slowing slightly, she continued onward, wondering why she hadn't thought to shove a few extras into her pocket.

When she reached the fifth floor, she again used her father's code.
Please, please, please, let it work
.

Click.

“I'm in.”

“Fantastic!” Flash replied.

Not until she pushed the door open did she realize what room she was entering—that it was the place where Gloria had died. Hand to the wall, she fumbled around for a light switch and then flipped it on, exhaling in relief to see that there was nothing amiss now. No dead bodies. No hanging cords. Instead, in the wall where the screen had previously been mounted was just a row of empty holes.

Kelsey pulled the door shut behind her, stepped to the nearest chair, and sat.

“Okay, signing into the network now,” she whispered as she pushed the button and the iPad sprung to life. She went into the settings, waited until B & T's wireless network popped up in the list, clicked on it, and then entered her password. Holding her breath, she feared that Walter might have canceled this as well, but after a moment it was accepted and she was in.

“Done,” she whispered.

“Good,” Flash replied. “Now log into your inbox and look for something from Superstudonwheels.”

Smiling, she did as he said, and once she'd clicked on his email, she watched as he took control of the screen from a block and a half away.

“Cool,” she whispered.

“Okay, Kels,” Cole said. “You can leave the iPad where it is for now. We need you to keep moving.”

“All right.”

She placed it on the seat of the chair next to her and then slid that chair under the table so that it was out of sight. After that, she forced herself to walk across the room, but when she reached the other door, she realized that this next part of her task would have to be done in the dark.

Pulling the flashlight from her pocket, she turned off the light switch in the conference room, plunging herself into blackness, and then she quietly opened the door and peeked out into the hallway. At least it wasn't totally
black out there. Safety lights glowed softly from several places along the wall, and at the far end of the hall she could see light flowing in through the windows in the front offices facing the street.

She took two steps and stopped, listening. At that moment she felt more like an intruder than the rightful heir. The honk of a horn reached her from far away, but inside all she could hear was the pounding of her own heart. Her knees felt weak, and her breath came in short gulps. Was she in danger?

She stood for a long time, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.

“Kelsey?” She jumped. It was Flash who spoke softly into her ear.

She hauled in a deeper breath and whispered, “If I say the word ‘help,' you guys will come running, right?”

After a couple of seconds, Cole's voice came over the earpiece. “It's me, Kelsey. Trust me, I won't let anyone or anything harm you. Do you want me to come up there now?”

“No, I'm okay.”

“Does something seem wrong or unsafe?”

“No, not really. I'll be fine. It's just…creepy. Keep listening though, okay?”

“I'm not going anywhere,” Cole said, the tone of his voice helping to calm her beating heart.

Slowly, she tiptoed down the long, dark hallway toward the executive suite up front. She kept the flashlight off but clutched it like a weapon just the same.

“You okay?” Cole asked in her ear.

“Halfway there,” she whispered in reply.

It wasn't until she had to walk past the open doorway that led to reception that she saw something in her peripheral vision. She swung her head to the right and gasped, freezing in her tracks.

“What is it?” Cole asked.

She didn't answer immediately but peered toward a human form standing in the corner, past the reception desk.

“Kelsey, are you okay?” Cole asked more insistently.

Then she realized what she was seeing. Blowing out a long, slow breath, she continued down the hall.

“Yes, but for a moment I thought I was done for,” she said, chuckling softly.

“What happened?”

“I saw the glass display case with the
Titanic
memorabilia. Do you
remember the mannequin wearing Adele's outfit? I thought it was a person standing there.”

He chuckled as well. “I guess that could be pretty startling.”

“Yeah, well, it's not the first time that's happened,” she admitted.

She reached the executive hallway, turned right, and walked all the way down it, past Gloria's office and the executive washrooms, to the last door on the left. The placard read “Nolan Tate,” but long before this had been her father's office, it had been used by Adele herself. The guys all thought this room was their first, best chance for finding the safe. Placing a hand on the knob and giving it a twist, she whispered, “Made it to the office. I'm going in.”

“Roger that.”

She opened the door and stepped inside, breathing in the stale, unused smell that hung in the air. Closing the door behind her, she was glad she didn't need the overhead lights or her flashlight. The wide front windows let in so much brightness from outside that she could see just fine.

Kelsey pulled the paper Cole had given her from her pocket. She unfolded it and studied the diagram, searching for
Xs
. Instead, this entire room had been circled.

“Cole, I thought you said this was the best place to start,” she whispered. “You don't have any places marked in here at all.”

“That's because three of the four walls are deep enough to handle a recessed safe. If you can't find anything in there, the
X
s will guide you to other places in the building where you could also look.”

“Okay.”

Shoving the diagram back into her pocket, Kelsey slowly circled the room, lifting framed art out from the walls and checking behind each one. She peered around all of the furniture.

Nothing.

Next, she opened the door to the closet and was hit with an even staler whiff of air. She clicked on her flashlight and shone it on the shelves that lined the closet walls from ceiling to floor. They were packed with office supplies, manuals, and old boxes.

Nothing.

She stepped out of the closet, her flashlight beam sweeping across the floor as she did, and she noticed something gray on the carpet. Kneeling, she studied it more closely. Dust. Lots of dust. Like a squared off ridge of dust.

“Kels?”

“Just a sec. I have an idea.”

Shining her flashlight on the lower shelves, she saw that they were packed tightly with old records and file folders, all coated in a deep layer of dust. She tried to see if any of them looked as though they had recently been disturbed, but she couldn't tell. Still, she had a feeling that the dust mark on the closet floor had come from a stack of these old papers that someone had placed there. Given that the things in here were ancient, and the fact that this office wasn't currently being used anyway, she felt that the dust marks had to be significant.

With a heavy sigh, she began removing items from the shelves so she could peek at the walls behind them. She started at the bottom right, pulling boxes out, looking, and putting them back. Pulling out, looking, putting back. It wasn't until she got to the second shelf, left side, that she pulled a stack of file folders out, looked, and gasped.

Black. She could see black. The black of metal.

The black of an old safe.

“I think I found it!” Heart pounding, she pulled out more and more things from the shelves until she had exposed the recessed wall safe in its entirety. It was about two feet high and a foot and a half wide, and it was in better shape than the one in the photo. The letters on this one had barely worn off at all. The “Cramer Bros.” was clearly visible on the door. And above the door, across the top, were the words, “THE WONDER.”

“Do you have something?” Cole asked urgently.

“Do I ever!” Kelsey replied, grinning. “We found it, boys. We found The Wonder.”

Another cheer rang out from the van, this one louder than before.

She reached out and touched the cool, black metal. Could it possibly hold the bonds? Or had whoever made that dust mark on the floor already gone inside and taken them?

Gloria's words rang in her memory, “
Have you ever done something bad out of good intentions?
”

Please, let the bonds still be there. Please
.

“Guys? What do I do now?”

“Okay, Kelsey, it's Thriller here. We have two choices. One, you close things back up the way they were and we come back tomorrow with a locksmith.”

She sighed. She was unwilling to wait that long—not to mention that she
couldn't exactly sneak one in through the back door. “You said you used to work for a locksmith, Thriller. Can't you crack this safe yourself?”