by Melissa Hill
She sidled up next to the desk. A broad-shouldered man, apparently the concierge, was turned away and talking on the phone. Beth went through what she was supposed to say once more in her head, trying to figure out a way to make it sound somewhat less crazy, but she lost her train of thought when the concierge ended his call, hung up the phone and turned to face her.
Immediately recognising him, Beth’s eyes widened. ‘Oh my goodness. It’s you!’
Maybe explaining all this wouldn’t be as tricky as she’d thought.
Chapter 25
Sipping on her second drink, Jodi felt mounting dread in her chest. She stared intently out of the bar’s front window, considering every passerby who entered the subway. None of them was Beth. But all the same, she just knew her friend was getting one over on her. And she was going to get herself in trouble.
She decided that she could no longer sit here – drinking, waiting for something to happen. She scrolled through the contacts in her iPhone and found Beth and Danny’s home number. Without a further thought, Jodi pressed dial.
Holding the phone to her ear, she listened, mentally willing Beth to pick up. She wasn’t sure why she felt so strongly about this, but she was certain her friend was heading into dangerous territory with this treasure hunt, especially now that she knew that Beth didn’t suspect it was Danny behind it. Jodi didn’t want to see Beth compromise herself with a guy like Ryan after a seven-year relationship. That was something that you couldn’t get around, that you had to live with the rest of your life – just like Frank, the nasty rat that he was. And while it seemed nothing had happened yet, Jodi felt confident that this treasure hunt – if created by Ryan or even some other secret admirer – would lead to something bad.
Jodi listened intently: Beth’s home phone rang once, twice, three times. She wasn’t there – Beth had given her the slip.
Suddenly, though, the ringing stopped.
‘Hello? Harper/Bishop residence,’ chimed a young woman’s voice.
Jodi’s brow furrowed. That definitely wasn’t Beth.
But then she realised who it was. ‘Courtney? Is that you?’ She knew that a young neighbour and her family took care of Brinkley while Beth and Danny were at work.
Gum snapped on the other end of the line. ‘Speaking. Who is this?’
‘It’s Jodi. Beth’s friend. Is she there?’
The girl answered immediately. ‘No, she hasn’t gotten home from work yet.’ There wasn’t the slightest hesitation, which suggested she was telling the truth.
‘Are you sure?’ Jodi pressed, wondering if maybe Beth had popped in and back out again, without Courtney knowing.
‘Yes, I’m sure. I’ve been here for the past hour or so playing with little Brinkley. She hasn’t gotten home yet. Neither has Danny,’ she continued, as if anticipating Jodi’s next question. ‘Maybe they, like, met up after work and went for dinner or something?’
Jodi bristled. She doubted that very much. And what’s more, now she had confirmation that something very bad was about to go down. Beth had gone back on her word that she was done with the treasure hunt, and it annoyed Jodi even more that she had also intentionally given her the slip. Lying and sneaking around wasn’t the Beth she knew. Further proof that this thing had corrupted her friend.
‘I don’t think that’s the case, Courtney,’ said Jodi bluntly. ‘I’m pretty sure where Beth is – and I also know exactly who will tell me.’
And with that she said goodbye to the teen, threw back the rest of her drink – hiccuped – and grabbed her tab.
A few minutes later, Jodi threw open the glass doors of Beth’s apartment building. Immediately zeroing in on her target, she walked with determination across the lobby, heading directly to Billy’s desk, where he was on the phone to a resident.
‘Yes, Mrs Lovejoy, I can absolutely look out for that package for you. And no, Mrs Lovejoy, I will be sure that the UPS man doesn’t tamper with it. Ach, I hope you don’t think they do that? There are standards they have to adhere to,’ the concierge was saying, holding up a finger to Jodi to indicate that he would be right with her.
She tapped her foot impatiently. She was aware of Mrs Lovejoy – the woman was nuts, from what Beth had told her. Goddamn talkative too.
‘Mrs Lovejoy, of course – yes. Yes. Yes.’ Billy looked at Jodi and winked but as an answer she simply narrowed her eyes at him and gave the hand motion for ‘wrap it up’. When Billy continued on, she realised she couldn’t wait any longer, and she promptly reached across the desk and put her finger on the receiver button – ending Billy’s call.
‘What the hell…?’ he exclaimed. ‘Don’t you know that you are going to get me in serious trouble with that woman? I need to call her back.’
But Jodi held fast. ‘Nope, not right now you aren’t. Not until you answer my question. I saw Beth walk in here a while ago. But she’s not at home. Don’t try to tell me she is because I just talked to the dog sitter and she never made it upstairs. So where did she go?’
Billy pursed his mouth.
‘Tell me, Billy,’ Jodi growled, her upper lip curling.
‘I can’t,’ he blurted, looking uncomfortable. ‘She swore me to secrecy. She said I can’t tell you.’
Jodi took a deep breath. ‘So, Beth said specifically that you couldn’t tell me?’
He nodded. ‘Yes. She said that if you came here asking about where she went, then under no circumstances should I tell you.’
‘Uh-huh, I see,’ said Jodi, considering her options.
At that moment, the phone rang and Billy seemed happy to have something else to do other than suffer under Jodi’s withering glare.
‘Hello, Mrs Lovejoy, ah, I’m so sorry, yes, the phone slipped, no, I didn’t mean to hang up on you. I’m terribly sorry, I—’
But Jodi snatched the phone away before Billy could say another word.
‘Mrs Lovejoy? No, this isn’t Billy. He’s indisposed just now. This is Jodi Cartwright, I’m a friend of Beth Harper; she lives in your building. Yes, on twenty-eight, that’s right. Hey, Mrs Lovejoy, I actually need a favour from you.’ She paused, listening to the woman on the other end of the line. ‘No, don’t worry, I don’t have to come up to your apartment. This favour can be done right over the phone.’ She nodded. ‘Uh-huh, the phone. Right. I know you love to talk. Mrs Lovejoy, I need you to ask Billy a question for me.’ Another pause. ‘Why won’t I ask him myself? Right. Good question. Because he won’t talk to me about this. But he will talk to you.’ Jodi looked up at Billy, who was looking decidedly uncomfortable, and smiled. ‘Sure. So I need you to ask Billy where Beth went off to. I’m pretty sure he put her in a cab. I need to know where she went.’ She smiled winningly at the Scotsman, feeling triumphant. ‘OK, I’m going to hand you back to Billy now. I just need to find out where she went. No, she’s not in danger, so you don’t need to call the police. All you need to do is ask him the question.’ Jodi smiled as she listened. ‘Well, that’s very nice of you. Yes, I try to be a good friend. Yes, maybe I will stop by to introduce myself one day. Sure, I absolutely love cats. Great. Talk to you soon.’
She pushed the phone back under Billy’s nose. He took it with visible reluctance, realizing that he was about to be harassed not only by Jodi but no doubt by Mrs Lovejoy too.
‘Hello, Mrs Lovejoy,’ Billy said his voice terse, while Jodi smiled triumphantly. ‘I’m sorry about that. Yes, I know Jodi. No, I’m not supposed to tell her where Beth went. Why? I don’t know. Beth just said – yes, it does indeed seem that she found a loophole.’ Billy paused and frowned. ‘I see. Well, that’s nice. You like a girl with some spunk – and smarts.’ Billy fell silent and Jodi leaned forward. She knew that Mrs Lovejoy was asking Billy the question that she needed an answer to right at that moment.
Of course, she should have figured out the answer, but she had to be sure. This treasure hunt was progressing rapidly; she had no idea what could have changed in the short amount of time that had passed since she last saw Be
th. Maybe another ‘gift’ had turned up?
‘The Waldorf Astoria,’ Billy confessed wearily. ‘She left about thirty minutes ago.’
And with nary a backward glance or indeed a goodbye, Jodi rushed through the doors, hailed the first cab that she saw and was off.
Billy felt as worn out as if he had just worked two ten-hour shifts. Trust Jodi to get the upper hand on him.
He bit his lip, hoping that Beth had had enough time to do what she needed to.
Chapter 26
‘Ah. I see you figured it out,’ said Steve, the Waldorf employee who had originally provided Beth with the book and the five-dollar bill on the street earlier.
‘You!’ Beth exclaimed happily. ‘I saw your jacket. But I didn’t know you worked here.’ She smiled, revelling in the happy coincidence before she realised her error. This wasn’t a coincidence, of course. None of it was. The glove in the hallway upstairs, the Russian gentleman who had instructed her to come down to the lost and found, and now Steve, who conveniently happened to be waiting here for her.
It was all carefully scripted, she thought. And the mere fact that I am hitting these ‘markers’ means that I must be getting somewhere, doesn’t it? She felt her spirit soar – she was exactly where she was supposed to be.
‘Apparently,’ Beth continued, ‘I am pretty good at this. And yes, yes, I’m sure that you are sworn to secrecy by whoever has arranged all this, but I need to report that I found something – apparently lost on the twenty-third floor. This black cashmere glove. It needs its mate.’
Going along with the script, she winked at Steve and smiled, feeling very clever and confident.
But his face gave nothing away. ‘You said you found a glove? On the twenty-third floor?’ he repeated.
Beth nodded and placed it on the marble countertop. ‘Yep. Seems odd – a cashmere glove just lying around like that – very out of place. And so I knocked on the door. The glove was lying outside one of the hotel room doors – a suite. The gentleman who answered, well, he suggested that I come down here and turn it in. He said it wasn’t his, but I think that he is involved in this, just like you are,’ she added with a knowing grin.
Steve picked up a clipboard that was on his side of the desk. ‘The suite on twenty-three? Yes, Mr Yussopov. Nice gentleman.’
Beth’s eyebrows rose when she heard the name. The woman’s voice inside the suite had called him Yuri. And Steve just revealed his last name.
Yuri Yussopov. She had a full name, and, again, it was sounding familiar. Beth thought hard. How did she know that name?
Steve reached across the counter and picked up the glove. ‘Thanks. I appreciate you turning this in.’ Then he just smiled and turned back to whatever he was doing.
Beth suddenly felt confused. ‘What? I don’t get it. You’re just going to take it? There isn’t another glove? I don’t understand.’
He smiled again. ‘Actually, it was reported missing.’
‘By whom?’ she enquired anxiously.
‘By someone who thinks that you’re the most important thing in the world,’ Steve said slowly, with particular emphasis on the last half of the sentence.
‘Sorry – what?’ She blinked, hoping to catch what he was trying to tell her.
‘Someone out there thinks that you’re the most important thing in the world, Beth. Does that make sense?’
Beth narrowed her eyes. She was almost sure Steve was quoting something. A line from another movie? It had to be.
You’re the most important thing in the world. If it was another movie quote, then it was an incredibly obscure reference. Beth racked her brain. It definitely wasn’t from Sleepless in Seattle, or You’ve Got Mail, or An Affair to Remember – none of the easily identifiable New York movie classics. Maybe something more modern? Something Borrowed, Sex and the City or Definitely Maybe?
But again, nothing jumped out.
‘That’s it? That’s all I get?’ she implored. ‘But that makes no sense…’
Evidently feeling that he had toyed with her enough, Steve cleared his throat. ‘Actually, there is something else. My instructions were to give you this.’ He slid an envelope that had a noticeable bulge in it across the desk to her. On the front, there was some nondescript handwriting. Simple block letters that read ‘Beth’.
‘The person who believes that you’re the most important thing in the world left this for when you turned in the glove.’
Now what…? Beth reached for the envelope with shaking hands. She swallowed hard and felt Steve’s eyes on her, studying her.
‘This is pretty awesome, actually,’ he said, apparently to himself, and for the first time Beth looked up at him, wondering his age. Just then, he had sounded like a kid. A chink in his armour, perhaps?
‘How old are you, Steve?’ she asked. She’d thought that he might be around twenty, and his answer surprised her.
‘Seventeen. Just turned. This is just a part-time job for the holidays.’
‘As a concierge?’ Beth asked sceptically, suspecting Waldorf concierges usually had a few more years’ experience and grey hairs on them.
‘Not quite,’ he answered. ‘Bellhop. I just knew that I needed to look out for you. Needed to be around when you came looking for lost and found.’
Satisfied by this – if not terribly illuminated – Beth nodded. If she only had a vague idea of the script that needed to be followed by the supporting characters in her journey it would help, and now she had confirmation that someone really was pulling a lot of strings and incorporating quite a few people into this quest.
‘So how did you get involved in this, Steve?’ she enquired, hoping to take advantage of the teenager’s youth to get him to say something he shouldn’t. But he wasn’t going to be tricked.
‘Let’s just say that helping out with your treasure hunt will put some money in my pocket that will help me buy something nice for my girl this Christmas.’
Beth narrowed her eyes, trying to figure it all out. She was hoping there was some hidden meaning to everything that Steve was telling her now. All of the supporting roles she had come across thus far in this story did have meaning, and she was becoming surer all the time that nothing and no one involved in this quest was placed there by chance.
So if it was Ryan, how did he know Steve, or the Russian guy, or the woman from Tiffany’s? Especially as a supposed city newcomer. Beth’s thoughts swiftly switched back to Billy then, and how the very nature of his job put him in touch with people from all walks of life.
Something to consider?
Steve cleared his throat, and in an obvious effort to get the attention away from himself he pointed to the envelope. ‘Don’t you think it’s time to open that?’
Nodding, Beth mentally filed away her thoughts. She would have to mull over all the angles again later and track back through all of the clues so far. Maybe that would help her achieve some clarity.
But for now, here was another mystery. ‘Let’s see what you have for me now,’ she said softly, focusing on the envelope.
She opened it quickly. Whatever was hidden within was round and hard. Peering inside the paper envelope, she quickly discovered her latest prize.
A single red marble.
Chapter 27
Heading back towards the apartment, Danny felt as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He wondered if Beth would be home yet. He really hoped not. Today if she was there, there would be no way to hide how he was feeling.
She wasn’t stupid. One of these days he knew that she was going to press him for answers. And he just wasn’t ready yet. He’d been waiting for the right moment just to sit her down and confess everything, but he’d really thought he’d had a bit more time. And that whole thing he’d witnessed at Carlisle’s with the guy Beth worked with had thrown everything off …
But today had changed things completely, and Danny now knew he could avoid it no longer.
As he rounded the corner of Gold Street, he saw Jodi suddenl
y rush out through the doors of his building. She was alone, but her bustling demeanour suggested that she was being chased by the devil himself. Danny stopped in his tracks, wondering if she’d seen him, and for a moment he considered ducking back around the corner to avoid her.
He really didn’t feel like exchanging pleasantries – actually, knowing Jodi, unpleasantries – or playing a game of twenty questions with anyone, especially not now.
But she didn’t notice him approaching at all. Instead, she was solely focused upon hailing a cab, which she did impressively quickly considering it was still rush hour.
Without further delay, she jumped into the back of the cab, and the car jolted forward a moment later as if Jodi had just thrown a directive at the driver that ended in, ‘And step on it!’ Which she probably had.
Danny wondered what her rush was. And why she’d been at his place anyway.
He closed the remaining distance between himself and the front entrance, and through the glass doors he could see Billy standing behind his desk, his head propped on his hand, looking worried. The moment the front door opened, the Scotsman jumped to attention. However, upon seeing Danny, he appeared to deflate even further.
‘Hey, Billy. You OK, man?’
Billy shook his head. ‘Forgive me for saying so, but no, it’s been a horrible day,’ he said in his drawling brogue.
Danny’s brow furrowed, wondering what was up. ‘Wasn’t that Jodi I just saw running from the building? Where’s the fire?’ He gave a small smile, trying to inject some levity into the conversation, but if anything the man appeared even more frustrated.
‘Yes, it was Jodi. And apparently the “fire” is at the Waldorf Astoria. That woman should be locked up,’ he added, his tone heavy.
‘The Waldorf?’ Danny asked, his mind working. ‘Why?’
Billy, his vow of silence already craftily broken, shook his head. ‘I wasn’t supposed to say anything but … Beth is there. Please don’t ask me what she’s doing, or why she’s avoiding Jodi or anything else, because I’ve already been involved in enough shenanigans for one day.’ He sighed tiredly.
