Echoes of Titanic (29 page)

Putting that from her mind, Kelsey gave him a hug and told him she was sorry for dropping by without calling first but that she wasn't going to stay. “I just wanted to check on you and see how you were holding up,” she
continued. “Oh, and here.” She handed the boxed cake to him. “This is a little something to have in the house in case any guests come in from out of town.”

He seemed genuinely touched as he took the box from her and placed it on a hall table.

“I'd love to invite you inside, but I was just heading out,” he said as he grabbed his keys from a hook by the door and walked into the hall. “I'll go down with you.”

“How are you holding up, Vern?” Kelsey asked as they walked toward the elevator. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

He shook his head. “No. I've been getting by and I have a lot of support from family, friends, and people from the office.”

Kelsey considered the possibility that Vern and Yanni were having an affair. The two of them had certainly had numerous interactions over the years at various work-related functions. Many of those had ended up being a combination of social time and after-hours business, with Gloria being pulled away to handle some important matter or another, leaving Vern to fend for himself. It wouldn't have been unusual for his wife's secretary to step in and entertain the man in her absence. Perhaps something had developed between them. Of course, he was a good twenty years older than the strikingly beautiful Yanni, but some girls went for older guys, and he was a handsome man, his silver hair and lined face only serving to make him look more distinguished.

Then again, if he'd been having an affair with another woman, would he have been quite so distraught the night Gloria died? Kelsey had been by his side and had seen how genuinely heartbroken he was. Had that been the behavior of a man who was cheating on his wife?

Suddenly, a comment he had made that night popped into Kelsey's mind. He had asked the detective whether or not he thought Gloria had meant for him to be the one to find her body. Between sobs, Vern had said something like,
If that's what she was trying to do, I deserved it
. At the time, Kelsey had taken the comment generally, as in he hadn't been the best husband in the world. Now, she realized, he could have been speaking more specifically, and those were the words of a man who was guilty of some tangible act.

“So I ran into Yanni just now, outside,” she said nonchalantly as they stepped into the elevator and she pressed the button for the ground floor.

Looking completely unruffled, Vern nodded and said, “I asked her to come over and help pick out Gloria's burial clothes. I figured that since she
worked with her every single day, she'd probably know best what Gloria would have wanted. I'm hopeless at that sort of thing.”

She studied him for a long moment, knowing with everything in her that not only was he lying right now, he'd probably been lying to his wife for so long that he'd become a master at it. He stood silently next to her, watching the numbers change on the elevator display.

Finally, deciding that it was none of her business anyway, Kelsey let the Vern–Yanni connection go and asked about the funeral arrangements instead. He gave her the name and address of the funeral home and said that visitation would be tomorrow night from six to nine.

“The burial will be Saturday morning,” he added, “but that's for immediate family only.”

“Got it. Thanks.” Kelsey had to wonder exactly what constituted “immediate family” for the Pooles. Gloria and Vern had no children, and she knew Gloria's parents were gone. Outside the office, the woman's life must have been a sad, empty affair. No wonder her job was all she had lived for.

Kelsey had one more line of questioning for Vern. She tried to think how to phrase what it was she wanted to know. Finally, she just came out with it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

“Can I ask you a strange question, Vern? It's going to sound odd, but I really, really would appreciate an honest answer—a one hundred percent honest answer, okay?”

“Okay…” he said, suddenly looking nervous. Poor guy, he was probably expecting her to ask about Yanni. Instead, she launched into an issue of far more importance to her right now.

“Five years ago, when my father went into semiretirement, everybody at the company expected him to the fill his absence by promoting from within. Instead, he brought in Walter Hallerman from the outside and made him CEO.”

Vern nodded, and as he did she couldn't help but detect in his expression something like relief. She continued.

“I know Gloria was very hurt and angry about all of that back then. What I want to know is…well, it's kind of hard to say this…”

“It's okay, Kelsey. What do you want to ask me?”

She let out a breath and looked off to the side, a sudden sadness overwhelming her. “What I want to know is if she ever really got over that, or if she remained bitter for the rest of her life.”

“
That's
your question? I don't understand. Of course she got over it. It's been five years, for goodness' sake. She was none too happy at the time, you're right about that, but eventually she moved on. Why would you think she hadn't?”

Kelsey shrugged. “Because since she died certain things have come to light, things she did recently that seem, um, pretty malicious. What I'm trying to figure out is if she'd been acting out of anger—either at the company or at me—or if there was some other reason for her actions.”

Vern's eyebrows raised. “Malicious?”

Kelsey could feel her cheeks growing hot. As mad as she was at Gloria, it still felt terrible maligning the dead this way. “Malicious toward me, Vern. I don't want to go into detail, but what I'm trying to figure out is whether she was acting to hurt me personally or if she was trying to inflict damage on Brennan & Tate.”

Vern didn't answer but instead just looked at her incredulously.

The elevator reached the ground floor and the doors opened.

“I know it sounds crazy, but I have…evidence that she hasn't exactly been acting in the best interests of the company. I have a feeling I know why, but before I pursue that I just wanted to double-check with you.” Stepping out of the elevator, Kelsey turned toward Vern, locking eyes with him. “Was Gloria mad at me? Was she holding some sort of grudge against me? Did she hate me? Or was this all about what happened in the past and I just got hurt in the process?”

Vern slowly shook his head, and either he was a very good actor or he was genuinely stunned by her questions. “I honestly don't know what to tell you, Kelsey. You have to know as well as I do that Gloria loved you dearly. You were like the daughter she never had.”

Tears threatened at the back of Kelsey's eyes, but she willed herself not to cry.

“She loved the company too,” he continued. “She lived and breathed Brennan & Tate. I don't know what kind of evidence you have, but I'd have to see it to believe it. I mean, sure, she had her occasional irritations with management or frustration with a client or a coworker, but who doesn't? Gloria was as dedicated as they come.”

Kelsey nodded skeptically.

“I'm sure it's no secret that her career and her company ranked far above her marriage. Far above
me
. I learned to live with that a long time ago. But if
you're going to sit here and tell me she didn't love you or love that place with all her heart, I have to say you're wrong. Dead wrong.”

They grew silent as his words hung in the air between them. Kelsey wasn't all that surprised at what he was saying, nor at the conviction with which he was saying it. Before she found that letter on Gloria's computer, she would have said the same things to anyone else who asked.

But now she knew differently.

She walked silently through the lobby toward the door to the street, Vern following along behind her.

“Is there any chance your evidence could be wrong?”

“I found an incriminating document on her computer.”

“Someone else could have put it there, Kelsey. Someone else could have been trying to make her look bad, though I can't imagine why.”

“That thought crossed my mind at first, but so many things have come to light. Gloria was up to something before she died. I guess I just wanted your opinion as to whether her actions were against me personally or against the company.”

They reached the door and Vern pulled it open. “Well, as her husband, I'm telling you the answer to that question is
neither
. She loved you and she loved B & T. All the evidence in the world couldn't convince me otherwise.”

Kelsey nodded, moving out onto the sidewalk. When she turned back toward him for a thanks and a goodbye, she realized that an odd look had come over his face.

“What is it?”

He shrugged. “I was just thinking…well, she
had
been acting kind of strange the past few weeks. Very stressed, very anxious. It got so bad that the other day I told her she needed to go see her doctor and get something for her nerves.”

Kelsey thought about that. Though she and Gloria interacted frequently at work, they had both been busy lately on different projects and had barely done more than speak as they passed in the hallways—and even that happened only once in a while. The last time they had spent more than ten minutes together had been almost four weeks ago, when they had met up on a Saturday morning and gone to the Union Square farmers market together. Now Kelsey realized that if something had been bothering Gloria, she wouldn't have been around her enough to know it.

“Any idea what was stressing her out? Was it something to do with work, or maybe something personal?”

He shrugged, eyes darting away. “I assume it was work. She spent almost all of Monday night down at the office.”

Kelsey squinted. “This past Monday night? The night before she died?”

He nodded. “Yeah. I mean, she came home at a decent hour—earlier than usual, actually—but then she got a call around ten or ten thirty, one that got her all worked up. Said she had to get back to the office to handle a crisis. By the time she got home again, it was almost morning. She probably slept all of an hour, and then she had to go back to work.”

Unfortunately, he couldn't remember anything of the phone conversation that had sent Gloria to the office that night and didn't even know who she'd been talking to. Kelsey asked if they could check the caller ID, but he said it had come on her cell, and that was being held by the police for now.

Kelsey thought of what Ephraim had told her the day before, that Walter and Gloria had had a big argument in the auditorium on Monday afternoon. She had a feeling that the call later that night had been a continuation of their argument—though what had brought the woman back to the office and kept her there until dawn, she had no idea. At least that explained why Gloria had looked such a mess on Tuesday prior to the ceremony. She'd pulled an all-nighter, something she was too old to do.

With a final hug, Kelsey thanked Vern for his help, and he thanked her for the cake and the visit. Then she made her way back to the subway and down to the financial district as quickly as she could, thinking over their conversation all the way there.

T
he High Yield Cafe was located on Stone Street, a lovely little cobblestone lane about six blocks from the office. Lined with restaurants on both sides, the street was closed to traffic and was one of Kelsey's favorite dining spots, especially in the summer, when the restaurants moved some of their tables outside for dining alfresco.

In April, however, it was still chilly enough that she would have to be content with sitting indoors. Fortunately, their usual café was more of a lunch spot than a dinner draw, and at five fifty on a Thursday night it was half empty. The hostess was happy to set her up at a table for six, and soon she was settled in, facing the door and waiting for her group to arrive.

Despite the rush hour subway ride, she'd managed to make it to the restaurant a little early, and she was glad. Not only would she be here to greet her guests when they arrived, but she'd also have a few minutes to clear her head and focus. The waitress brought her a cup of decaf coffee, and she sat and sipped it as she thought about her research team.

Things moved fast in the world of investing, and lots of information had to be assembled quickly. Her group of highly skilled individuals, each with a different area of expertise, could research the various elements of a potential investment and help guide her to make wise decisions. Along with Sharon and herself, the team was comprised of a financial analyst, a background researcher, a technical expert, and an advisor, each one among the best in the company and handpicked by her.

With every prospect who came their way looking for financing, Kelsey and her team would go into action, whether that prospect was pushing an invention, creating a plan for a new business, or helping with the expansion of an established company. It was up to her and her team to evaluate the background of the prospect and their business or idea. Once that had been done, it was much easier to determine whether the proposal in question would be a good investment for Brennan & Tate or not.