Perfect Scoundrels

Page 3

Kat craned her neck and looked straight up at the building, utterly uncertain what to do. The height would not be a problem, of course, but there was something about the penthouse apartment that loomed over the east side of Central Park that left Kat feeling exposed and fragile. So she shivered, staring up, completely unsure how to find her way inside.
Oh, it would have been easy enough to purchase a bouquet of flowers, throw on an apron, and disappear into the parade of florists and caterers that had been filing in and out of the service elevators all morning. A window washer had left his rig on the third floor, easily within Kat’s reach. There were at least a half dozen ways for Kat to access the penthouse, but even Katarina Bishop knew there were some rooms she shouldn’t con or break her way into.
Besides, it was the only Hale family residence into which Kat had never been invited. Like a vampire, she felt that it would be almost impossible to enter. So she stayed on the corner, watching, staring at her phone.
“Hey, Hale,” she told the recording that answered when she tried his number, “it’s me. Again. Like I said in my last message, I’m back in the city and I heard about your grandmother. Hale, I’m so sorry.” Kat ended the call without another word.
Maybe he was busy.
Maybe he was sad.
Maybe he was grounded.
Maybe he was still in Argentina, lying in a roadside ditch and calling out her name.
Or maybe he was…
“Hale?” Kat said when she saw a pack of men emerge through the building’s glistening doors. They all wore dark suits and darker expressions, and they were so uniform in appearance that Kat almost missed the boy among their midst. She stared for a moment, uncertain at first that it was him. She’d seen him in so many situations—playing so many different roles—but Kat couldn’t help but realize that the boy who stood before her was someone she had never seen before.
The men were almost at the limo that sat idling at the curb, so she spoke louder. “Hale!”
Every man in the group stopped and stared.
“Sorry,” she said. “I meant that one.” She pointed to the youngest Hale on the sidewalk.
He stepped cautiously away from the others and asked, “Kat?” almost as if he didn’t recognize her.
“Hey,” she told him.
“Hey,” he said back. “How’s the Raphael?”
“Fine. Halfway to Mr. Stein and its rightful owner.”
“Any trouble?”
“There were dogs,” Kat found herself confiding. “We hadn’t been expecting dogs, but they took one look at Gabrielle and fell in love, so…we made it.”
“Dogs and boys, right?” Hale laughed a little.
“Right,” Kat said and mimicked his smile. “We missed you.”
“Son?” one of the men said. He was tall, like Hale. Flecks of gray mixed among his black hair. He stood at the limo doors, speaking in Hale’s direction.
“Just a minute.” Hale called over his shoulder and kept his hands deep in his pockets.
“That’s your dad?” Kat asked, but Hale acted like he hadn’t heard.
“Kat,” he said, voice low, “what are you doing here?”
He looked and sounded a world away from the boy who had left her in Argentina.
She swallowed and told him, “I heard about your grandmother. I’m so sorry.”
“Thanks.”
“I tried calling, but…I was worried, Hale. You just disappeared.”
“Son?” Hale’s father called again.
The first black car pulled away from the curb, and another appeared almost as if by magic.
“Look, I’ve got to go. The funeral is upstate tomorrow, and we’re all going up there today, so…”
“Are you okay?”
“It’s good seeing you.” He headed for the limo, but called back over his shoulder, “Take care of yourself, Kat.”
And then he was in the car.
And then the car was melding into traffic and disappearing down the street.
Kat felt Gabrielle come to stand beside her, a cup of coffee in each hand. She gave one to Kat and blew on the contents of the other. “How was he?” Gabrielle asked.
“Different,” Kat said, not sipping. Not smiling. “He was different.”
Chapter 4
Driving toward the big house in Wyndham Woods, Kat couldn’t help but think about the first time she’d ever been there. It had been dark, and she had been younger. But the biggest difference, it turned out, was that some places are far more intimidating when you approach them via the front door.
“Name?” the guard asked when Gabrielle pulled up to the gate.
“We’re here for the memorial service.” Gabrielle gestured at her black dress as if that should be explanation enough. Kat thought that perhaps Gabrielle should have chosen a longer dress if she’d truly wanted to send the right message.
“It’s a private ceremony.” The guard pointed to his clipboard. “Name?”
“We’re guests of Hale’s,” Gabrielle said.
“You’re going to have to be a little more specific,” the man told them.
“The Fifth,” Gabrielle added. “W. W. Hale the Fifth.”
“You sound very close.” The guard put his clipboard away.
“She’s his girlfriend.” Gabrielle jerked her head in Kat’s direction.
The guard leaned down to peer at Kat, then whispered to Gabrielle, “Between you and me, Mr. Hale the Fifth has a lot of girlfriends.”
“Well, between you and me—”
Kat leaned across her cousin and spoke through the open window. “Thank you.”
“But—”
“It’s okay, Gabrielle. We don’t need to be let in.”
It was easy enough to park the car and climb the fence. Even in heels, Gabrielle didn’t complain about the long walk through the forest and short stroll across the vacant side of the yard. It was almost like nothing had changed, Kat thought, when she reached the top of the trellis, forced open the window, and slid inside the empty hall. But walking toward the railing at the top of the stairs, Kat immediately knew that she was wrong.
The first time she’d been in that building, it had been dark and quiet. Sleeping. But now the main floor was wide awake. Gabrielle peeked over Kat’s shoulder, stared at the crowd that filled the foyer below, and said, “I thought we had a big family.”
There were men in dark suits, women in black dresses and the occasional veil. And yet it didn’t look or feel or sound like a funeral, not with the clinking of glasses and waiters making their way through the crowd with champagne and caviar on silver trays.
It seemed to Kat that it had taken a death to make the big, abandoned house come alive.
“So,” Gabrielle said with a deep breath, “this is how the other half lives.”
“No, Gabs.” Kat shook her head. “This is how the other half dies.”
“I guess,” Gabrielle said. “I haven’t been to a funeral since…” She looked away, unable or unwilling to say your mom. “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“No, seriously. I’m—”
“Let’s just find Hale,” Kat said and started down the stairs. Gabrielle fell into step beside her. “We should split up.”
“You sure?” Gabrielle asked.
Kat forced a smile. “Absolutely.” But as she watched her cousin walk away, she couldn’t stop herself from thinking about another day in another crowded room, when she’d sat between her father and her uncle Eddie, receiving guests, hearing condolences. Trying to ignore the fact that her mother was never coming home again.
But Kat didn’t want to think about that. She shook the memory from her head and started through the big house, wandering alone, almost invisible, until she found her way back to the painting that had brought her there years before.
“Do you want to know a secret?” someone asked, and Kat jumped, surprised to see a man standing behind her. He had white hair and a trim mustache. The buttons on his silk vest strained against the slight paunch around his middle, but his bow tie was perfectly straight. And behind Coke-bottle glasses, his eyes were bright and clear. Kat suddenly craved fried chicken.
“Excuse me?” she said.
The man looked around the crowd of people, who were indifferent to the girl and unimpressed by the painting, utterly unaware that at least one of them wasn’t what they seemed.
“It’s a fake,” the man said, then laughed a laugh that was completely free of pretension, utterly unself-conscious. To Kat, it seemed like the only genuine emotion in that big, cold room.
“Oh, is it?” Kat asked with a smile.
The man nodded. “Hazel had it made after she lost the original in a poker game.”
Kat laughed and, like Hale years before, she looked upon the painting—and the woman—with newfound admiration.
“Are you sure?” she said.
“I should be.” He leaned a little closer. “I’m the one she lost it to.” The man eyed Kat with amused interest. “Forgive me. Silas Foster. Friend of the family.”
“Kat Bishop,” Kat said, taking his outstretched hand. “Same.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Did you know Mrs. Hale well, Mr. Foster?”
He pondered for a moment before nodding. “You could say that. I met Hazel in…what was it? Spring of seventy-two, I guess. Of course, I was just a pup researcher then, and she was the boss’s widow.” He gave a little laugh. “She got lost her first day on the job and ended up in my lab. Spent the rest of the day hiding in there, plotting her escape. I offered to make her a rappelling harness, but the lab was on the thirty-sixth floor and Hazel was afraid of heights, so…she respectfully declined.”
“You work at Hale Industries?” Kat asked.
“Director of Research and New Product Development.” The man gave a little bow. “I’m the idea guy.”
“I like idea guys,” Kat said.
The older man cocked his head and gave a laugh. “We get all the ladies. But for some reason I don’t think you’re here looking for me.”
“I don’t know,” Kat said. “I’m always in the market for a good rappelling harness.”
“For you, my dear, nothing but the best.”
“But you are right about something. I’m actually trying to find—”
“Young Mr. Hale, I’m assuming.”
Kat blushed. “Let me guess—I’m not the only one?”
“Maybe. But you’re the one I hope finds him.” He gave a wink and walked away, and Kat didn’t feel alone anymore in the big room full of people.
“That pervy old dude wasn’t hitting on you, was he?”
Kat studied the girl who was coming her way. Her hair was red and her eyes were as black as her dress. She wasn’t necessarily pretty, but she was striking just the same, and something about her made Kat stand up taller and blurt, “He wasn’t pervy.”