Echoes of Titanic (5 page)

“Finally, I'd like to thank my father, even though he couldn't be here with us today, and to pass along his regards to all of you. I miss seeing my dad around the office, of course, but I've never missed him more than I do right now.”

She shot a pointed look at Walter, who didn't flinch, though Kelsey noticed a few nods of sympathy among those sitting nearby. Her acknowledgments complete, she clasped her hands together, placed them on the podium in front of her, and looked out at the audience, allowing a moment of silence before delivering the most important part of her speech. In that moment, it was almost as if she could feel the room coming together as one, an eager and listening entity ready to hear whatever she'd come to say.

“Just about one hundred years ago today,” she began, her eyes slowly scanning the faces in the room as she spoke, “over in Belfast, Ireland, a young woman named Adele Brennan was getting ready for the most important voyage of her life. She was just nineteen at the time, a brave, smart, and resourceful girl who was fascinated with, of all things,
business
, something that was practically unheard of for a woman of her generation.”

Kelsey paused to let that thought sink in, and then she continued.

“Making the trip with Adele was her cousin Jocelyn and her uncle, Rowan Brennan. On April tenth, nineteen twelve, the three of them made their way to Southampton, England, and boarded the grandest ship that had ever been built:
Titanic
. They were bound for America, where Adele would be reunited with the father she hadn't seen for sixteen years.” Kelsey looked around at the silent, rapt audience. She would have liked to give a more detailed version of Adele's story, but today her time was limited.

“Four days later, as I'm sure you all know,
Titanic
struck an iceberg in the
North Atlantic and sank. Both Jocelyn and Rowan died that night. Of the three travelers, only Adele survived.”

Kelsey paused a moment to let that sink in, but as she took a deep breath to continue, she heard a strange sound coming from the back of the auditorium, a low, chanting drone that started out soft but quickly grew louder. Others could hear it as well, and heads began rotating to look. Even Walter turned around in his seat to see what was making such an odd noise.

Kelsey's eyes scanned the auditorium, trying to match the source of the sound with the person making it. Soon, she realized that it was a man, and he was repeating one word over and over. At first she thought it was “ire” or “fire,” but after a moment she realized what he was saying:
liar
.

The man stood, shouting the word at the top of his lungs, “Liar! Liar!”

Stunned, Kelsey looked to Walter, but he had already jumped up and was quickly striding up the aisle toward the back of the auditorium. She thought he was going to try and apprehend the man himself somehow, but instead he slipped out the back, probably to alert security.

Everyone else stayed where they were, clearly stunned at this odd turn of events. Suddenly, as quickly as the chanting had begun, the man stepped out into the aisle and pointed at Kelsey. She had never seen him before, and for a moment she was afraid he might pull out a gun and take a shot at her. Instead, he simply cried out, “Lies! It's all lies! The real Adele Tate did not survive
Titanic!
'

That earned a gasp not just from the audience but from Kelsey herself. What was this lunatic talking about?

“The woman who claimed to be Adele was actually an imposter,” he continued loudly, his eyes gleaming behind dark-rimmed glasses. “She stole the real Adele's identity, stole this company, and then lived out that lie for the rest of her life!”

K
elsey gripped each side of the podium, her mind racing. Someone needed to shut this man up—though a part of her very much wanted to hear what he had to say. He was lying, of course, but he must have some reason for making such a crazy claim.

Suddenly, the back door of the auditorium swung open and two security guards came marching in, followed by Walter. At that moment, as if sensing that the most interesting person at this event was about to be carted away, the media people hopped up from their seats and began moving toward the man, throwing questions at him.

“How do you know this?”

“Why have you come here?”

“What was the imposter's real identity?”

The nature of their questions sent a chill down Kelsey's spine. Were they really going to give this man's words credence? The very notion that the woman who called herself Adele Brennan had been an imposter was absurd!

The room quickly dissolved into pandemonium after that, with the guards grabbing the man's arms and trying to drag him out, the reporters continuing to shout questions, a woman Kelsey didn't know—a tall redhead with short cropped hair—begging the man to “Stop it! Stop it!” and the man himself still shouting even as he slumped down in the guards' grip. A heavy-set man, he used his dead weight to his advantage.

“I came here to tell the world,” he yelled as loudly as he could, “that I have
proof that the woman who called herself Adele Brennan was actually
Jocelyn
Brennan, Adele's first cousin! Jocelyn assumed Adele's identity after
Titanic
sank and came here to America
pretending
to be Adele so she could steal her inheritance!”

Fortunately, that was all he was able to get out before the guards finally managed to pull him through the door. The reporters followed, the redhead was now screaming at the guards instead of the man, saying, “Don't hurt him! Don't hurt him!” and the people in the audience chattered loudly about what had just happened. From the corner of her eye, Kelsey saw Lou jump up from his seat and join the fray, no doubt to help with damage control.

Someone needed to speak up quickly in Adele's defense. Kelsey thought about doing it herself, but she knew such words coming from the woman's great-granddaughter would be seen as biased and wouldn't carry much weight.

Mortified and desperate, Kelsey looked down to see that today's honored guests seemed decidedly uncomfortable. In the front row sat Pamela Greeley, the well-respected head of Queen's Fleet Management Group and one of the older people present here today. Pamela's career in the world of finance had overlapped with Adele's, maybe even as far back as the late sixties. Though they never actually worked together in the same place, they had numerous business dealings over the years, and Pamela had looked up to the legendary Adele Brennan Tate as her own personal hero and the kind of businesswoman she aspired to be. Kelsey knew this because Pamela had been one of the speakers at Adele's funeral and had said as much to the congregation gathered there. Kelsey had only been nine years old at the time, but she clearly remembered Pamela's heartfelt words because they had echoed her own thoughts. Grandma Adele had been Kelsey's personal hero too, the kind of woman
she
wanted to grow up to be.

Looking to Pamela now, Kelsey implored her with her eyes, wishing she would come up and publically refute the claims of the man who had just disrupted the entire ceremony. Anyone who had known Adele knew that she was a woman of honesty and integrity. To call her an imposter was like saying Mother Teresa was selfish or Babe Ruth wasn't much of a hitter. Adele had been the very
embodiment
of ethics, and everyone who knew her knew that. Pamela didn't take the cue, however, so Kelsey gave up, knowing it would be rude and presumptuous to call the woman out by name and specifically ask her to come up and defend Adele's honor.

If only Gloria were here! She, too, had known Adele, had known the kind of person she'd been. Why wasn't she around to help?

Walter had only been with the firm for about five years, so Kelsey wasn't sure if he'd ever known Adele personally or not. Regardless, he was missing at the moment too, having stayed with the security guards and the raving lunatic who had ruined her ceremony. Ditto with Lou, who was also MIA.

Feeling like a deer caught in headlights, Kelsey looked out at the whole auditorium, which was now half empty. The roar of the voices of those who left could still be heard coming from the lobby, and those who remained were perched in their seats and looking up at Kelsey, unsure, as if they were too polite to leave but hoping she was about to dismiss them.

Finally, she took a deep breath and said the only thing that came to mind. “I'm so sorry about all of this. I suppose we'll have to speak with the caterers about what they put in the punch.”

Her joke landed a few chuckles, but mostly the crowd looked antsy and ready to bolt. Growing more serious, Kelsey continued.

“Obviously, there is no truth to that man's allegations. I'm not sure what he was hoping to achieve here, but rest assured we'll get to the bottom of it. In the meantime, maybe we should go ahead and try to wrap things up. I apologize that our ceremony has been cut short.”

Glancing down at her notes, Kelsey tried to decide what parts—if any—of her talk she could salvage. “Before I was interrupted,” she said, lifting her eyes and looking out at the audience, “I was telling the story of my great-grandmother, Adele Brennan. Why don't we just jump ahead to the part of that story that, to me, most clearly demonstrates her tremendous gifts and talents as a businessperson.”

She went on to tell that part of her tale, how Adele's husband, Edwin, was happy to be the behind-the-scenes administrator and facilitator while Adele was the star rainmaker. “They made quite a pair, and between the two of them managed to keep this company afloat through the crash of nineteen twenty-nine and the Great Depression.”

Scanning the faces in the room, Kelsey was pleased to see that she seemed to have regained their full attention. She continued.

“When this company was at its lowest point, it was Adele's idea to invest in businesses run by women, immigrants, and minorities. That's part of what helped save Brennan & Tate at a time when other investment firms were going belly up all around them. No other company would take a risk on
these types of businesses, but my great-grandmother knew her roots and knew who to believe in. With that vision, not only did she and Edwin bring this place through some difficult years, but they also gave a chance to so many who came to them for financial help. For the second time in her life, Adele had been brought down to nothing and found the will and strength to survive and ultimately thrive. Her legacy is still with us today.”

At that, the audience surprised Kelsey by bursting into enthusiastic applause. Smiling, she waited for the applause to wind down, and then she added, “It's in the spirit of that legacy that I'd like to make the following announcement on behalf of the Adele Brennan Tate Foundation. My great-grandmother created the foundation when I was just a little girl, but I well remember her enthusiasm for its goal of empowering women in business. On tables out in the lobby, you probably saw some reports about many of the good works the foundation has been able to do. Now I'm thrilled to announce their newest effort: The Adele Brennan Tate Scholarship Fund, which will provide up to ten substantial scholarships per year to young women who demonstrate academic excellence in business-related courses and clear evidence of an entrepreneurial or investment-related spirit.”

More applause, and though Kelsey was still devastated by the bizarre turn of events, she was glad at least that she'd managed to get to the main part of the ceremony anyway.

“I know this has been one of the more, uh,
unique
events you've probably been to this week,” she quipped, “but I hope what you remember most from this afternoon isn't the outburst of a stranger but the legacy and generosity of a truly upstanding, ethical, and memorable woman, Adele Brennan Tate, who was brilliant in business, charitable in life, and absolutely, positively who she said she was. I'd stake my life on that.”

With those words Kelsey thanked everyone for coming. The members of the audience leaped to their feet and gave her a standing ovation. Yet, as convincing as she felt she'd been, she knew it wouldn't count for much because none of the media people had even been in the room to hear her wrap things up.

Now that the ceremony was finished and she was coming back down from the adrenaline rush of her closing words, she found herself feeling momentarily disoriented. What should she do next? Mingle with those who had stayed? Go out to the lobby and help handle the press? She was trying to decide when she heard her name being called, and she turned to see Lou standing off to the side of the stage, right where she had stood during Walter's introduction.

“Come on, kiddo,” Lou said, and that was all she needed to hear.

With a final smile and a wave at her audience, Kelsey walked out the way she'd come in, giving Lou a quick embrace and then letting him lead her through the backstage shadows to the stairwell door. She thought they would be going upstairs or maybe outside, but instead he led her to the one door of the four she never, ever used, the one for the maintenance area.

The door didn't even have a keypad for entry, but instead just a regular knob and deadbolt that were always locked. At the moment, however, the door was propped slightly open by what looked like an Italian leather shoe. To her surprise, Lou pulled the door the rest of the way open and then slipped his foot into the shoe.