Echoes of Titanic (6 page)

“Lou! Are those Testonis?”

“Berlutis,” he replied. “Not the cheapest doorstop around, but it was all I could think of to do.”

He gestured inside, and she moved forward up the narrow, grungy hallway that ran past the building's HVAC system and maintenance supply area.

“Where are we going?”

“They need you in security, but this was the only way to get you there without going through the lobby.”

They continued forward, finally coming to a stop in front of the door at the end of the hall. Lou reached across Kelsey to give it a sharp knock, and it immediately swung open to reveal the imposing figure of Ephraim Jones, head of security.

“Hey, Kelsey,” he said in his low rumble of a voice. “You okay?”

“I've been better,” she replied with a wan smile.

“I hear that.”

Moving back, he swung the door open all the way and gestured for them to come inside. Kelsey stepped forward but then glanced back to see Lou hesitating in the hallway. For the second time today, someone she needed and trusted was about to stay behind at the worst possible moment.

“Oh, no you don't. You're coming with me,” Kelsey said to him, grabbing his wrist and pulling him inside.

“I don't work here anymore, remember?”

“That doesn't matter right now, Lou. I need you.”

He hesitated and then did as she asked. “I'm here for you, kiddo. You know that.”

Together they followed Ephraim around the corner to the security office.
Standing nearby was Walter, a security guard, and a woman named Carole from the public relations firm. At the far end of the room was the man who had disrupted the meeting, deep in conversation with the spiky-haired redhead who had also been part of the ruckus. The two of them were arguing in hushed whispers, and at the moment they were so focused on each other that they didn't even seem to notice Kelsey had come into the room.

Walter, however, greeted her with a hug and an apology, much to her surprise. “I'm sorry I abandoned you in there,” he said in a low voice. “Carole told me you did an excellent job of calming everyone down and wrapping things up. I knew you would.”

Kelsey glanced at the PR woman and then back at Walter. “Thanks, but I don't know what good it did. All the media people had already left by then.”

“They didn't go far,” Ephraim said, gesturing toward a bank of security screens. The image on the left was coming from one of the lobby cameras, and Kelsey could see that the space was packed wall-to-wall with people. No big surprise there. They had gotten a whiff of a big story and weren't going to go away until they knew who this man was and what it was he'd been trying to say.

The next screen over showed the lobby at a different angle, near the doors to the auditorium. Moving closer, Kelsey could see several members of her investment research team, along with her EA, Sharon. They were huddled together talking, and when Sharon glanced up toward the camera, the worry on her face was clear.

“So what's the plan here?” Kelsey whispered, looking apprehensively toward the pair at the other end of the room. Now that she was getting a closer look at them, she could see that the man was in his mid-sixties with messy gray hair, thick glasses, and cheap, ill-fitting clothes. The woman looked to be a few years younger than he was, though that might have been because of her more youthful orange hair color—obviously from a bottle—and the spiky style she wore it in. How had these two possibly slipped past security and into the ceremony?

“The plan,” Walter said, “is to get this man out of this building and then out of New York City before any reporters can get their hooks into him.”

“Where does he live?”

“Florida, but that's not where we want him to go just yet. Too easy for the reporters to track him there. Instead, I offered him a limo to Vermont, a week at my sister's bed-and-breakfast near Burlington, and five hundred
dollars spending money for while he's there if he'll keep his mouth shut. He's not having any of it, but the woman with him is trying to talk him into it.”

Kelsey's eyes widened. Walter was trying to pay off this lunatic? That was absurd! The man had come here, made libelous accusations about her great-grandmother in public, and disrupted a big corporate event in the process. Now he was getting
rewarded
for it? Before Kelsey could voice her objections, Lou muttered, “Excuse us, Walter,” took her by the arm, and pulled her out of the room and around the corner.

“Don't blow your stack here, kiddo,” he whispered. “I don't always see eye to eye with Walter Hallerman, as you know, but I think in this case it's the right move. This kook's done enough damage already. Let him get shuttled out of here and tucked away till the dust settles. You can follow up more privately later.”

Kelsey wanted to scream, but she knew Lou was right. She fully intended to question the man now, before he left, but otherwise the only real move they had was to get him as far away as possible from that crowd of reporters in the lobby.

“Fine.” Though she agreed to the plan, she still wasn't happy as they returned to the other room.

“I suppose I'd better get back out there,” Ephraim said in his deep voice, still eyeing the milling crowd on the screen. Looking at Walter, he added, “Are you sure you don't want us to call the police?”

“Nope. We'll handle things in here ourselves. But thanks anyway.”

Nodding, Ephraim headed to the main security door that led to reception. As soon as he swung it open, the noise of the crowd came rushing in.

“Sounds like the vultures are circling,” Lou said as the door fell closed behind him. “I don't get it. Why is this turning into such a big deal? Adele's been dead for more than twenty years. Whether this guy's telling the truth or not, it's practically ancient history by now.”

The PR lady turned and addressed Lou and Kelsey as well. “I'll tell you why it's a big deal,” she hissed softly. “For starters, we're not just talking about Adele Brennan Tate, well-known Wall Street icon. We're talking about a woman who also happened to be a survivor of
Titanic
. This man just served up the juiciest
Titanic-
related scandal anyone's heard about in years. To make matters worse, the world's already in a
Titanic
frenzy right now because of the anniversary.”

“Anniversary?” Lou asked.

“Yes,” Kelsey told him. “We're coming up on one hundred years since the ship sank.”

“In about a week and a half,” Carole said, “April fifteenth. I have you booked solid for that whole weekend, the fourteenth and fifteenth.”

Kelsey nodded, resisting the urge to groan, as Carole continued.

“Anyway, with this big hundred-year anniversary coming up, there's not a media outlet in existence that wouldn't kill for some huge story they could tie in with it—and the more outrageous that story, the better.”

Lou sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. “Got it. Wow. Talk about bad timing.”

Walter, who had been studying the screen, interrupted their conversation. “Carole, why don't you go out there and spread the word to all B & T employees that they should get their things and go on home? I don't want anyone hanging around tonight. Have them leave the building as quickly as possible. I know they are curious about what's happening, but we need to clear out the lobby as much as we can—plus I don't want any of them getting questioned by reporters.”

“Agreed.”

“Then see if your people need help schmoozing our special guests out the door. I know the reporters and photographers aren't going anywhere, but if we can at least get everybody else out, it'll help.”

“Will do.”

As she headed for the same door Ephraim had used, Walter added, “After you've done that, Carole, you and your people are free to go too. We'll deal with all of this tomorrow.”

“Good idea,” she replied, “though I'll wait to take off until after the caterers have all their stuff out.”

With that she was gone, and Kelsey was glad. More than anything, she wanted to talk with the man who had ruined her speech with his insane accusations about her great-grandmother, but there was no reason for the PR woman to hear all the gritty details, whatever they might be.

“Where's Gloria in all of this?” Lou asked Kelsey softly. “I didn't even see her at the ceremony.”

Kelsey was trying to decide how to reply when Walter answered for her.

“She's up in her office. I just talked to her. I told her what happened and that we needed her down here ASAP to help with damage control, but she said she wasn't coming. She's not feeling well.”

Kelsey could feel heat rising in her cheeks. Though she was as put out with Gloria as it sounded like Walter was, she felt the urge to defend the woman. She was obviously dealing with something difficult. If she wasn't up to attending the ceremony, it stood to reason that she wouldn't be coming down to help out in its aftermath, either.

“You know she would be here if she could,” Kelsey replied, but as soon as she said it, she remembered the woman's odd behavior before the ceremony and wondered if that were really true. Something weird had been going on with Gloria today.

“All I know is that she's been extremely unhelpful in all of this,” Walter snapped. “If she's so sick that she can't get herself down here, then she needs to go home.”

“I'll talk to her once we're done,” Kelsey assured him.

“Well, well, well,” the man said suddenly from the other end of the room.

Kelsey looked up with a start, her heart pounding. Apparently, he had just realized she was here.

Putting a halt to his discussion with the redhead, he stepped forward and put out an arm as if he intended to shake Kelsey's hand. In response, she simply stood where she was and clasped her hands behind her back. She had no intention of doing any such thing.

“Miss Tate,” he said with a nod, getting the point and letting his hand drop. He didn't seem embarrassed—nor hostile, for that matter. Mostly, he just looked pleased to see her. “How do you do? I'm Rupert Brennan.”

She'd been all ready to go on the attack, but then she faltered at the mention of her great-grandmother Adele's maiden name. “Did you say Brennan?”

“Yep. Rupert Brennan. I'm your second cousin, once removed.”

K
elsey was dumbfounded, staring at the stout little man in front of her. Her
cousin
? This lunatic was a
relative
of hers? Trying not to look as astounded as she felt, she cleared her throat and asked the man in an even tone if he would care to sit down so they could talk.

“Certainly,” he replied, as jovial as if they had just met at a family reunion picnic.

“I don't think this is a good idea—” Walter began, but Kelsey cut him off with a sharp glance. It was
her
great-grandmother the man had impugned out there. She had a right to know what he'd come here to say.

As Walter backed off and Lou moved up and to the right in a more protective stance, Kelsey pulled out two rolling chairs from in front of the security screens and placed them facing each other a few feet apart in the middle of the room. They both sat.

“Why did you do this?” she asked, taking the lead. “Why did you come here and disrupt our ceremony like that?”

The man looked at her for a long moment, all traces of warmth disappearing from his gaze. “Because it was time for me to be heard. It was time for the world to know the truth about the woman who came to America claiming to be Adele Brennan.”

Kelsey could feel anger boiling up inside of her, and she knew it was coming not just from this man's words but his odd attitude. Still, letting him see that anger would get them nowhere, just as she would never wear her heart on her sleeve in a negotiation with a potential client.

“Let's back up a little, Rupert,” she said, keeping her voice even and trying not to choke on the man's name. “Will you tell me exactly how you think you and I are related?”

He nodded, almost eagerly, saying that he was the grandson of Quincy Brennan, who was Jocelyn's brother and Adele's first cousin.

“The same Jocelyn who was traveling to America with Adele when
Titanic
went down?” she asked.

“Yes! When Jocelyn made that trip, her father came along but her mother and baby brother, Quincy, stayed home in Ireland. Eventually, Quincy grew up and fathered a son, Ian, who grew up and fathered me.” Smiling, he added, “Lucky for my dad, when he immigrated to America as a young man,
his
ship made it all the way here without hitting any icebergs.”

Kelsey cringed at this guy's lighthearted attitude about one of the saddest, most senseless tragedies of all time.

“Anyway,” he continued, oblivious to the effect he was having on her, “because my grandfather Quincy and your father's grandmother Jocelyn were siblings, that makes your father and me second cousins, which makes you and me second cousins once removed. Simple. See?”