Finding Gracie's Rainbow (20 page)

Chapter 10

Carolyn Young looked up as
Gracie walked into her office with Addison. She smiled as they
shook hands. “What do I owe this pleasure?”

“
As I mentioned on
Saturday, the last manuscript you sent me was my own.” Gracie sat
down in the chair that Carolyn pointed to and Addison sat down
beside her. Gracie studied the agent whom she trusted. She had
never noticed how gray her hair was or how her eyes were filled
with laughter even when she was serious.

Carolyn was serious as she
talked to Gracie. “I do remember you telling me that.” She picked
up a piece of paper. “I've just found the contact information.
Susan Cameron is the name you want.”

“
I’ve never heard of. . .
Wait a minute. Cameron?” Gracie stood up. “That’s Mark’s new wife’s
name. I thought she was in jail.”

Addison was watching as
Gracie started pacing the length of the office while rubbing her
temples in an effort to ward off a headache. Gracie walked back
over to them and looked at Carolyn. “Can you set up a
meeting?”

“
When and where?” Carolyn
highlighted the number written on the paper in front of
her.

“
Here and whenever you
can.” Gracie listened quietly as Carolyn called Susan to ask for an
appointment with her. Addison wrote down the time while Gracie
started pacing the floor again.

Carolyn looked up at Gracie
after she placed the phone back in the cradle. “I know you'll
probably be here with the police.”

“
Fifteen minutes after
your meeting begins. I don’t want her getting suspicious.” She
stood still as she talked to the agent. “I never even missed it
until you sent it to my office.”

Carolyn pointed to the
chair as Gracie still stood. “Sit down, Gracie.” She waited until
Gracie sat down before she started speaking to her again. “Your
manuscript grabbed my attention.” She held up a hand when Gracie
started to speak. “I’m not done.” Carolyn stood and asked Gracie a
very simple question. “Were you not interested in it enough to take
it home over the weekend?”

“
I guess so.” Gracie
glanced over at Addison, who was smiling. “But that was before I
realized that it was mine. I wrote it.”

Carolyn pointed to the
stack of books lying on the table beside her. “You approved all of
those manuscripts for the company you work for and in my opinion,
there isn't but a couple of stories there that holds a candle to
the one I just read of yours.” She smiled then, “Even if I couldn’t
read the last two chapters.”

“
I never wrote the
ending.” Gracie watched as Carolyn studied her. “Which is why I'm
going to ask you why you sent it to me.”

“
There are two chapters
written in a code, and I want to know what they say. What is the
rest of the story, Gracie?” She had copied the story and handed
Gracie the last two chapters. “I thought I was on my way to finding
out if we had worked something out with Susan.” She noticed that
Gracie was frowning at her.

“
The work is not
complete.” Gracie handed the chapters back to her. “Those chapters
wrote in code are something else altogether. We'll see you tomorrow
at the meeting.” She shook Carolyn’s hand after she
stood.

“
Gracie, I really want to
know the ending.” Carolyn walked them out to the door.

“
I’ll think about it.”
Gracie walked out of the office with Addison.

“
I thought you didn’t have
time to write.” Addison was smiling as they walked towards Gracie’s
car.

“
I don’t.” They rode to
their office in silence as Addison was trying to figure out a way
to convince her boss to finish the story she started.

Gracie told no one in her
family about what she had just found out or of her plans to meet
with Susan Cameron the next day at Carolyn’s office.

Annie was watching her
after they had put their children to bed. “What’s the matter with
you?”

“
Nothing.” Gracie looked
over at her. “I just have an important meeting, and I'm going over
it in my head.”

“
You could practice on
me.” Annie stood, picking some of Garrison’s cars off the couch.
She already figured out that Gracie liked everything put up at the
end of the day.

“
Maybe I'll just go for a
walk.” Gracie knew that Bea was already asleep by then. She found
that even though she didn't have the privacy, she was used to that
there were advantages of having a roommate. “Unless you're going
somewhere,” she added before walking to the front door.

“
Not tonight. Go on.”
Annie watched as she opened the door before calling Jackson to
check in.

~

Gracie made sure to carry
her boxed up manuscript along with her CD, which had the date of
when her story was complete. She met up with the police officers in
the main parking lot before walking into the office building with
Addison.

Carolyn was watching for
them and smiled as Gracie was shown into the office by her own
assistant.

Susan looked up as Carolyn
openly greeted the new arrivals. She studied the woman who looked
like the pictures in the apartment that she had helped her husband
break into. She watched with amusement as the police officers came
into the office with Addison. She knew then that she had been
busted and there was nothing to blame besides her own
greed.

Susan was prepared to stall
as she played innocent by asking why there were police in the
office.

“
You took something out of
my apartment.” Gracie wasn't in the mood to play the game that
Susan had just started.

“
And you can prove this.”
Susan was not disputing what Gracie said.

“
I can more than prove
it.” Gracie looked over at Carolyn after she studied Mark’s wife.
She looked like all the rest of the women whom Mark had cheated on
her with. A big chest and no brains. Gracie smiled as she unboxed
the original manuscript. “I have three ways that I can prove it
even though all I really need is one.”

Addison watched as Gracie
held one of the papers towards a fluorescent light showing the
McBride watermark, “My maiden name.” She then took out the CD that
she copied the story to and had Carolyn load it into the computer
showing that it had been done four years ago.

Susan still wanted to
stall. “That was only two, where’s the third?” She knew that Mark
would be in the office in less than five minutes.

“
I said all I needed was
one.” Gracie looked over at Carolyn before she took out one of the
chapters that was still in her code. She decoded one sheet as they
all watched her.

Carolyn looked up and waved
the officers to them. “Gentlemen, she's all yours.” They watched as
Susan was read her Miranda Rights.

Susan smiled when she saw
Mark walk up to the doors of the office. “Hey, officers, that guy
out there helped me steal her story. He was the one that carried it
out of the apartment.”

Gracie turned around and
saw Mark sneering at her. “Nothing is ever simple, is
it?”

Addison watched the panic
come into Gracie’s eyes. “They're going to arrest him,
too.”

“
On what charges?” Gracie
asked packing her box. “On her accusation? That would be too
easy.”

“
How about the restraining
order you have against him?” Addison asked as she took a copy of it
out of Gracie’s briefcase. She handed it to the nearest officer who
gladly escorted him out behind his wife.

Carolyn picked up the paper
that Gracie had decoded if front of her and read it before Gracie
turned around. “Brilliant.”

“
What’s brilliant?” Gracie
asked before she spotted the paper that was in Carolyn’s
hands.

Carolyn handed her the
paper. “Seriously, Gracie, I want the rest of the story. Does your
Princess find her happily ever after?”

“
I wrote that for my
daughter and nobody else.” Gracie was being stubborn as she shoved
the paper into her briefcase that was still open. “If I have time,
I might write it and answer your question.”

“
I'm not giving up that
easy, Gracie.” Carolyn was smiling at her as Gracie shut her
briefcase angrily.

“
There are other authors
out there that are dying to be published. Why don’t you concentrate
on them?” Gracie smiled as she shook Carolyn’s hand. “Thank you for
letting us attend your meeting.”

“
Only too glad to help.”
Carolyn watched as they left. “I’ll let you know when the court
date is.”

“
Court?” Gracie turned
around towards her as she hadn't thought about their being a
case.

“
You were witnesses.”
Carolyn turned to walk to her desk.

Addison watched as Gracie
turned back around and started to walk over to where she was. They
had walked out to the parking lot before Addison spoke up. “Why do
you not want to publish your story?”

“
Because I’m happy doing
what I'm doing.” Gracie answered her. “And I wish you’d drop it.
End of subject, so don’t bring it up again.”

“
I won’t have to. You
heard what Carolyn said as clearly as I did.” Addison was laughing
at her as they started to drive away.

“
As far as I'm concerned
the box will stay locked up in the trunk of this car.” Gracie was
relieved when they finally pulled up at their own office. True to
her word the box stayed in her car as they walked in. “Let’s do
some work. If I'm not mistaken there’s a magazine that’s due in six
hours.”

“
Slave driver,” Addison
was quiet as she watched Gracie walk off to her own
office.

Gracie sat behind her desk
and looked at the page that she had decoded while they were at
Carolyn’s. It had surprised her that she was able to decode as
quickly as she did. She swiveled the chair to look out towards the
pond and closed her eyes as she thought. What had she been doing
four years ago to have written that? What had caused her to write
down those feelings that she had buried deep inside herself? She
was interrupted as her cell phone broke the silence that she had
let envelope her. She answered the phone after looking at the
caller ID. “Jackson?”

“
How are you doing,
Gracie?” Jackson had missed not going over to the house last
night.

“
I'm doing fine, but you
didn’t call about me, did you?” She let her voice go cold as she
answered his question.

“
Did you just open the
freezer? I thought I caught a chill there.” Jackson frowned into
the phone. “But you're right. I just called to see if I could take
your daughter out tonight.”

“
Are you that desperate?”
Gracie smiled into the phone. “Because if you are I'm sure that
Steven can set you up with somebody.”

“
Funny.” Jackson was
relieved to hear a hint of laughter in her voice.

“
Do I need to go over the
rules with you to refresh your memory?” She had grown serious again
as she added. “Home by eight and absolutely no junk
food.”

“
I know the rules, Gracie.
I’ll pick her and Garrison up at your sister’s house around four
thirty.” Jackson said as he prepared to leave his doctor’s office.
“Call Kim and let her know that I have your permission.”

Gracie stared hard at the
phone after Jackson hung up. Addison walked up to the office doors
and knocked before she entered. “What did the cell phone
do?”

Gracie just looked up at
her. “I didn’t hear you knock.”

Addison frowned. “You also
didn't hear me buzz your phone at least three times.” She handed
her the message that she had written down and watched as Gracie
read it over.

She laid the paper down.
“Call her back, Addie. I made up my mind about that, and I'm very
serious.” Gracie picked up the paper and crumpled it. “And tell
Carolyn that I can be just as stubborn as she can.”

Gracie stood and watched as
Addison picked up the phone and talked to Carolyn. She started to
pace the floor knowing that her friend would come back into the
office after she hung up.

Glancing at the clock,
Gracie grabbed the briefcase and walked out of the office doors.
She noticed the look that Addison shot in her direction.

“
I told you I wasn’t going
to talk about it anymore.” Gracie said as they walked out
together.

“
And Carolyn told you that
she wasn't going to give up easily.” Addison smiled. “The problem
is that you're both mules.”

“
Heehaw,” Gracie said
sarcastically as they walked out the door. “Let’s make a deal right
now. Okay?”

“
That depends on the
deal,” Addison stopped at her car.

“
You and Carolyn can stop
butting heads about that stupid story and leave me alone about it.”
Gracie looked at her not as her boss but as a friend.

“
What’s in it for me?”
Addison asked as she opened her door.

“
I’ll buy you supper at
any restaurant of your choice.” Gracie left after Addison nodded in
agreement. “Then I'll see you tomorrow.”