Do You Want to Know a Secret? (51 page)
Read Do You Want to Know a Secret? Online
Authors: Mary Jane Clark
He repeatedly reminded
himself that nothing should surprise him, but this did.
Detective Colburn stood in Tiffany’s business office. The name and the return address registered to the key ring were well known. Extremely well known.
Eliza Blake,
KEY News
, New York.
When the plane landed
at LaGuardia, Eliza and Yelena went directly to
KEY News
. Yelena opened Pete’s empty office.
Eliza sat at the computer, Yelena kept guard at the door. Eliza clicked and double-clicked her way through the directories and subdirectories on Bill’s hard drive. She made her way to the
REMEMBER
directory, with an alphabetical list of files staring back at her from the screen.
Now came the hard part.
Password.
It could be anything. What would Bill choose? Something he wouldn’t forget. Eliza thought of Bill, the man, the professional, the friend, the father.
When she double-clicked on
ETHICS.PC
, the first file in the list, a Password Dialog box appeared. She typed in
K-E-N-D-A-L-L
.
No.
K-E-Y-N-E-W-S
.
No.
N-E-B-R-A-S-K-A
. Nothing.
“How about ‘William’?” volunteered Yelena.
No go.
Eliza tried
F-R-A-G-I-L-E-X
.
Zip.
Eliza thought of Bill’s son. Louise said he was still struggling with his father’s death. He was repeating over and over, “An elephant never forgets. An elephant never forgets.”
Elephant!
Eliza typed in the eight letters.
“Somebody thinks I
know something. I hope these notes tell me who.” Eliza opened the door of the cab that pulled up in front of the broadcast center. “I’ll call you.”
“I have some work to do. I’ll be here in my office.” Yelena closed the car door.
On the ride home, Eliza began to read the hard copy. The
ETHICS.PC
file confirmed everything Yelena had said and more. Pete had threatened Bill with going public about his—
AIDS?
Bill? AIDS? God help him. Her mind raced, but that meant Joy Wingard could be at risk.
And the future president!
The cab reached its destination. Eliza stashed the rest of the papers in her bag.
Eliza could hear Janie laughing through the apartment door. What a joyous sound her giggles were! She eagerly put her key into the lock.
“Mommeeeee. You’re home!” Janie, dressed in violet sunsuit and pink sneakers, ran to her mother. Eliza gathered the child into her arms, hugging and kissing her and holding her tight. Oh, it felt good!
“Thanks, Mrs. Twomey. It’s good to be back. I missed my little sweetheart so!” Eliza gave Janie another squeeze.
The housekeeper stared at Eliza. “You look pale, Mrs. Blake.”
“Our vacation next week will be a good remedy for that, won’t it, Janie?” Eliza forced herself to take her eyes off the child, turning to Mrs. Twomey. “Thank you for taking such good care of my baby. Talk about me,
you
look tired! You must be eager to get home.”
“Oh, that can wait a bit. Janie’s already had her supper, but I thought I’d stay and get supper ready for you.”
“You are so good, Mrs. Twomey. Okay, if you don’t mind, while you get dinner ready, I’ll give Janie her bath.”
Mack hailed a
cab on the arrivals platform at LaGuardia Airport.
Once settled in the back of the car, he took out his cell phone and called his office.
“Any messages?”
He listened as a fax from
The Record
was read to him. The newspaper article was an in-depth interview with Dennis Quinn after his appointment to the Superior Court bench. Mack was bored until Quinn spoke of his background. The man who would be a Bergen County Superior Court judge had suffered the loss of his father when he was very young. His mother had remarried. Quinn’s stepfather died of congestive heart failure.
“What was Quinn’s stepfather’s name again?” he asked incredulously.
Two New York
City detectives stood in the offices of the president of
KEY News
.
“You missed her. She was just here,” Yelena answered Detective Colburn.
“We’ve already tried her apartment. She wasn’t there.”
“Well, you must have passed each other on the way here. What’s this all about?”
“We want to question her. A key ring registered to Ms. Blake was found next to the body of Dr. Leo Karas.” Colburn looked uncomfortable.
Yelena jumped from her seat. “What! I don’t know what you’re thinking, but if you think Eliza Blake had anything at all to do with the death of Dr. Karas, you’re completely wrong. Ms. Blake and I have just returned from Houston. She’s scared out of her wits herself.”
She took a breath and stared into Colburn’s eyes. “She’s not a murderer. She’s a
victim!”
“Please understand, Ms. Gregory, we’re certain that Ms. Blake only lost or misplaced the key ring. We just need to speak with her to clear this matter up.”