Secrets of the Last Castle

by A. Rose Mathieu

  “Time to hit the road.” It was nearly five in the evening, and they would spend one more night ordering in at the hotel room that they shared with the senator. She was looking forward to a hot shower and a little private time for a conversation with Elizabeth. After going through the highlights of their days, their discussions evolved to intimate pillow talk, which helped fill the empty spot that took up residence in her chest over the last few days. After months of the tug-of-war that her mind and heart played, to not hold back and tell Elizabeth all that was going through her, from her deep emotions to her sexual desires, was in and of itself an unbelievable feeling, but for it to be returned was indescribable.

  “I got to use the john.”

  That was a buzzkill. Grace turned to Jack. “All right, I’ll walk with the senator to the car and pull up around the front and pick you up.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  She watched Jack head down the hall and then turned to the senator, who signaled that he was ready to go. She walked beside him as Senator McDermott discussed the lack of concern a number of his colleagues showed for the revelations about Judge Powers.

  “If this doesn’t matter, then what does?” he asked.

  It wasn’t a question that could be answered, so she stayed silent and held open one of the double doors that led out of the capitol. “The only thing I know is that when the vote comes tomorrow, we will have done everything that we could.”

  “I just hope it’s enough.”

  “Gun!”

  A single pop echoed through the air.

  * * *

  “Oh my God, this can’t be happening,” Elizabeth said in a continual chant.

  Her mother weaved through the pedestrians and moving cars in the parking lot, trying to get to an open spot before it was taken. Elizabeth was in no condition to make the hour-long drive to the hospital. This seemed even worse than the last time she rushed to the emergency room. This time, she had confirmation that Grace was shot. She had to be all right.

  A knock on her front door had alerted Elizabeth that something was wrong. She hadn’t turned on her television or listened to the news on the drive home. At first, she hoped that Grace had found a way to surprise her, but when she opened the door to find her mother standing on the other side, she nearly crumpled. Somehow she knew. She could count on one hand the number of times her mother had come to visit Elizabeth’s home, and never unannounced.

  “Is it Grace?” If it was her father or Raymond, her mother would be calling from the hospital.

  “There was a shooting at the capitol.”

  “Oh God, no.”

  Elizabeth turned on the television, but the news coming from the scene was sketchy, and she remained glued to her spot a foot away from the screen with the remote still clutched in her hand, hoping someone, anyone, would tell her that Grace was fine, but that didn’t happen. A reporter broke the detail that Senator McDermott was believed to be the intended target, but a detective standing near him was struck by the bullet instead.

  Elizabeth pushed open the car door just as her mother pulled into the parking spot and ran to the front door. The hospital was in full bloom with activity in all corners of the waiting room, but Elizabeth kept her eyes trained on the man behind the desk. “Grace Donovan, where is she?”

  The man spoke the letters as he typed them into the computer to ensure that he had spelled them correctly. “Donovan, yes, she’s in the ER. What is your relationship?”

  “I’m her girlfriend.”

  “Okay, ma’am, you will have to wait here.”

  “To hell with that, where is she?”

  “Ma’am, if you can just have a seat—”

  “I need to see her now.”

  “Ma’am, please…”

  “Sir,” Elizabeth’s mother said as she stepped up to the counter and gave him the look—the look that could make grown men crawl into a ball and weep. “I don’t think you understand,” she clearly articulated. “My husband, Charles Campbell, is the founding partner of Campbell, Roberts, Addelstein, and Krass, the firm that just won the largest judgment against this very hospital for negligence and cost the jobs of at least a dozen people.” She smoothly slid a business card across the counter, which Elizabeth assumed belonged to her father. “I do not seriously think that you want to leave his daughter sitting in the waiting room when her girlfriend is in the ER.” She made a show of reading the man’s name badge. “Do you understand me, William?”

  William visibly swallowed. “Well…ma’am, I just need to, um, call, um my supervisor.”

  “If you say so.” Elizabeth’s mother pulled out her phone and started dialing.

  “Okay, ma’am, I’ll buzz you through those doors,” he said, pointing to a set of double doors. “The nurses’ station will be on the left.”

  “Thank you,” Elizabeth’s mother said as she replaced her phone in her purse and linked arms with Elizabeth, walking her to the door.

  “Mom, I had no idea there was such a lawsuit.”

  “There wasn’t, but William didn’t know that.” She loved her mother.

  Once at the nurses’ station, she allowed her mother to do the talking because she seemed to have lost her voice from fear of what they might tell her.

  “Elizabeth, fancy meeting you here.”

  She turned to see Jack casually strolling toward her.

  “Jack,” she croaked out. “Where’s Grace?” She desperately grasped at him, as if trying to feel if he was real.

  “Right over there.” He pointed to Grace leaning against the wall, talking to a uniformed officer.

  She launched herself across the room and leaped at Grace, who managed to catch her, and she held on tight, afraid to let go. In the warmth of her embrace, she allowed herself to fully unravel and openly cried. Grace stroked her back and offered soothing words until Elizabeth pushed herself back. “God damn it, Grace. You scared the hell out of me. They said you were shot!”

  It was then that she noticed the bloody shirt and bandage wrapped around Grace’s arm, and her emotion catapulted back to fear. “Oh my God, Grace, you’re hurt.”

  “It’s nothing, just a couple of stitches. The bullet grazed me.”

  Elizabeth began to fuss with Grace’s shirt and wiped at the dried blood until Grace stilled her hands with her own. “Honey, I’m fine. I promise.” Keeping a hold of her, she guided Elizabeth to a set of plastic chairs that provided some privacy from the bustle around them, and Grace wrapped her good arm around her shoulders. Elizabeth tucked inside, a position in which they remained, until the uniformed officer gingerly approached them.

  “I’m sorry to disturb you, Detective Donovan, but the doctor wanted me to let you know that the senator would be ready to leave shortly.”

  Grace nodded and the officer slipped back into the crowd. Knowing Grace still had a job to do, Elizabeth took a fortifying breath, wiped at her eyes, and pulled herself up straight. She needed to be strong, and focusing on the case helped. She would wait until she got home to fall apart again, and with her newfound resolve, began peppering Grace with questions.

  Grace described how she dove at Senator McDermott when she heard the word “gun” yelled from the crowd. That warning, as brief as it was, allowed her to move the senator from the crosshairs of the kill shot, causing the bullet to skim past Grace as they fell to the ground.

  “My phone shattered when I hit the ground or I would have called you. I meant to call as soon as I got here, but things got a little chaotic,” Grace offered in apology, and Elizabeth squeezed her hand in acceptance.

  “What about your father?”

  “Jack said he called him.”

  Elizabeth was relieved that George Donovan wasn’t sitting around fretting about whether Grace was seriously injured or worse.

  “With the confusion that followed the aftermath of the shooting, no one was able to get a description of the shooter, other than an individual wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt who had been hiding in a set of
bushes. No one could even say for certain if the shooter was male or female. The gun was discarded at the scene, stolen from an off-duty officer’s vehicle this morning.”

  “So this person is still out there.”

  “I had to let my sergeant and Detective Martinez know where I’d be in case something came up,” Grace said in response to the unasked question that sat heavily between them—who knew Grace was going to be there?

  Senator McDermott approached them, looking ragged, but alive. Although he wasn’t hit, the doctors conducted an exam to ensure that he wasn’t injured in the fall, and fortunately, he only suffered moderate bruising on his hip where he landed.

  Elizabeth pushed herself up and hugged Grace fiercely before she walked out the double doors. Her mother appeared at her side and wrapped an arm around her before guiding her to the car. She was thankful because she had no idea where they parked. Her mother, her rock.

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Elizabeth stomped around the clinic looking for something to take out her frustration on. She knew the state senate was in the process of voting on Judge Powers’s confirmation, but she was completely in the dark. It seemed that the breaking story of a car chase through three counties took precedence over a state Supreme Court nomination. Every local news channel and website dedicated itself to aerial coverage of the driver, carelessly whipping through the roadways with a platoon of police following closely behind. She couldn’t call Grace because she didn’t have a working phone. As she passed a hammer resting on the kitchen counter, she snatched it up and eyed a small nail in a cabinet door that could use one more good hit. She lifted the hammer above her head, but before she could bring it down, Amy grabbed it from her.

  “I don’t think so. Why don’t you go play in the street or something? That’s less dangerous than messing with your mother’s kitchen.”

  “Whose side are you on?”

  “Your mother’s of course. Need you ask?”

  Elizabeth returned to her office and clicked on her computer in hopes that the idiotic driver was apprehended and the rest of the world could resume, but no such luck.

  “There you are,” Danny said as he took a seat. “Jack’s been trying to get a hold of you. Said he left you a couple of messages and finally called me.”

  She began riffling through her bag that rested near her feet and then turned to her desk and did the same. “Damn it! Where did I leave my phone?” She tried to mentally trace its last known location and resigned herself that she left it at home, which wasn’t a surprise, given her current mental state. “What did he say?”

  “He said that he was going to the plantation, and he wanted us to meet him there. He said there’s something we need to see.”

  “The plantation? What in God’s name for? Between us and the police, what stone hasn’t been unturned?”

  “Don’t know.” Danny shrugged. “Something about the woods, I think. I just know he said it was important.”

  She turned to her computer and searched for an aerial map of the plantation, wondering if they literally missed the forest through the trees in their explorations of the property. After scanning the map, she looked to Danny. “I don’t see anything out of the ordinary, but then again, I don’t even know what I’m looking for.” She grabbed her bag and didn’t bother to shut down her computer. “All right, let’s go.” She kept a brisk pace through the clinic, stopping at Amy’s vacant desk to scribble a note, before continuing to her car, leaving Danny to keep up.

  “Should I call Camille and have her meet us there?” he said breathlessly as he settled into the passenger seat.

  “No.” She never told Danny about Camille’s betrayal and didn’t feel like explaining now. “But call Jack and let him know we’re on our way and get some more info out of him,” she said.

  Danny complied and pulled out his phone from his jacket pocket. “He’s not picking up. I got his voice mail.”

  Elizabeth listened as Danny left a message with instructions to call him back immediately. She couldn’t imagine what Jack could have learned about the plantation during his time at the capitol, but assumed it involved Judge Powers. During the course of their drive, Jack never returned the call, and as they approached the road to the plantation, Danny hit redial on his phone. “I’ll try him again. His phone skills are underwhelming, and who knows if he even knows how to listen to a message or if he even knows he has one.”

  She couldn’t argue that one.

  “Oh hey, Jack, where are you? What?” Danny covered his other ear. “We’re at the plantation. Where are you?” He turned to Elizabeth. “He says he’s about fifteen minutes away.” She guessed more like ten given his penchant for ignoring lights.

  “Ask him what we’re doing here?”

  “Elizabeth wants to know what we’re doing at the plantation.” Danny stuck his finger in his ear. “Say that again. You’re breaking up.” He looked at his phone before he stuck it in his pocket. “We lost the signal.”

  She would just have to wait a bit longer to learn the big mystery. She drove through the now familiar stretch of trees that formed a canopy above and pulled up next to the white horse statue in the center of the drive.

  “I’m going to look around while we’re waiting for Jack,” she said, pushing open her car door. She glanced over the open fields before heading toward the wooded area beyond the stable. She heard Danny jog to catch up, but he stayed behind her, as she ducked her head into the dilapidated structure that Samuel had warned her to stay clear of. As he described, she could see a large pile of broken wood below a gaping hole where the ceiling used to be.

  “Elizabeth, look over here.”

  She turned and scanned the property. “Danny, where’d you go?”

  “Over here.”

  She followed the sound of his voice around the corner of the stable and was startled when Danny grabbed her arm and snapped a cuff around her wrist. “What the hell!” She ineffectively tried to pull away, as Danny encased the other half of the cuff around his wrist.

  She could only stare at him as he smirked. “Funny isn’t it. This is how it all started.” He held up their joined hands. “I swiped them from Jack after Beadle was arrested.”

  “Very amusing, Danny,” she said nonchalantly, but alarm bells were screaming in her head. “Where’s the key?”

  “That’s exactly what I asked, remember? Then you dragged me to the clinic. I have to admit, the handcuffs were an unexpected turn of events. I thought you were just going to talk me into not hurting you, like a normal person, and then I would show you that I really didn’t have a weapon. You would take pity on me when I told you I was hungry and take me under your wing. Well, it worked in the end, better than I expected.”

  A wave of vertigo passed over Elizabeth at the realization that in a matter of seconds, her world had been turned upside down and shaken, and she desperately turned toward the house, searching.

  “Oh, silly you, he’s not coming. Jack didn’t really call. He doesn’t even have my cell phone number, and I don’t have his. Fooled ya.”

  Elizabeth couldn’t even swallow, much less speak, and began pulling away, towing Danny with her in the direction of the car.

  “Stop.” She ignored him and kept moving, which took all her effort. “I said stop!” He yanked her back, causing her to lose her balance and fall to her knees. Her free hand scraped on a rock, and she clutched it.

  “Stand up.” He pulled on her cuff, digging it into her wrist, and the pain of it forced her to comply. She tried to conceal the rock behind her back as she stood, and he shook his head. “Seriously, you don’t think I know you by now. Drop the rock.”

  They were in a standoff as she glared back at him. He pulled out his other hand that had been tucked in his pocket. “Check and mate.” He gripped a green oval in his palm. The missing grenade. He put his hand in front of her, and she could see his index finger firmly stuck in the ring. “Grenade beats rock.”

  She released the rock. “What
do you want?” she croaked out.

  “You’re going to help me figure out the map.”

  “What are you talking about? What map?”

  “Webb’s secret room, the map on the wall.” Danny jerked on her cuffed hand, as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. His thumb glided across the screen, as he navigated it and then held out the phone to Elizabeth. She could see the photo she had taken of the hand drawn map that hid the Booth papers.

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “Deadly,” he said, caressing his thumb across the grenade for show.

  She never gave much thought to the map and wasn’t even convinced it was a map. “Assuming you’re right, what do you expect to find with a hundred-and-fifty-year-old map? Some long lost Confederate gold?” Her voice rose as she spoke. “Seriously? This is all about some silly legend?” At this point, she was yelling and flailing their joined hands.

  “Well, the Confederate gold would be a bonus,” he replied in an even tone, unfazed by her tantrum.

  She took in a sharp breath and mentally scolded herself when it hit her. “How could I be so dense? The money from the bank robbery is still here. It was assumed that they laundered it through some offshore account right after, but what better way for Webb to turn the tables and gain the respect and power he thought he deserved than by hiding the money instead. Then Senator Powers and the others in the group would be at his mercy. That explains why they didn’t want the property sold.” She was talking more to herself at this point. She looked at Danny. “I take it that Reverend Rick didn’t put much stock in the theory that the money was on this property.”

  “He should have listened.”

  “Danny, you didn’t.” He refused to make eye contact. “Oh, Danny, no. Olivia, did you kill her too?” His silence and continued refusal to look at her answered her loud and clear.

  “Oh God, why? What…who?” She wasn’t even sure what she was trying to ask at that point. “I need to sit down.” She turned to a fallen tree a few yards away, and Danny capitulated, allowing her to lead. She sank down onto the log and cradled her head in her hands. The murders made more sense in retrospect. They were hasty, with no common theme, indicating inexperience and improvisation. The knife and gun were weapons of convenience. She understood the killing of Reverend Rick; he had gone rogue and had become a liability, much like Webb, but Olivia, how did they know about her? “How did you know Olivia came back?”