Tom Wakeling was pacing frantically in Tiffany’s living room, gesturing toward various mementos on display. Every time he waved the gun around, Laurie flinched.
“How much is this tiara worth? What about this signed photo with Frank Sinatra?”
Tiffany’s eyes widened. She was shaking with terror. “I have no idea,” she said. “These things meant the world to my grandmother, but I don’t think they’re valuable.”
“What about that bracelet you stole from the museum? It has to be worth a fortune.”
“It’s not, I promise!” Tiffany broke into sobs. “I was telling you the truth that night. It was a cheap souvenir. I gave it to my grandmother.”
“What money or real jewelry have you got here?” Tom demanded.
“There’s two hundred dollars in my wallet. My jewelry is on the dressing table upstairs. It’s all costume.”
Laurie was trying to remain calm, but inside, she was even more terrified than Tiffany. She knew what Tiffany did not. He wasn’t looking for money. He was on the rise at Wakeling Development. Whatever he was planning, it had nothing to do with these knickknacks. Laurie realized that he was going to stage a home invasion gone wrong. He would make it appear as if someone had ransacked the place in a search for valuables, left with a couple of mementos, and killed them both.
“Your plan won’t work,” Laurie muttered.
“Shut your mouth!” he snapped.
“Listen to me. There was another woman here,” Laurie said. “She has a recording of Tiffany talking about the bracelet and about where she was at the time of the murder. The police will know that Tiffany lied about being with you when Virginia went to the roof. If you hurt us, they’ll put two and two together.”
“The tall woman in the blue coat?”
“Yes.”
“Who is she?”
“Jane Martin,” Laurie said, recalling the name Charlotte had planned to use for her undercover work. “She works at my television studio. She tricked Tiffany into believing she was a book publisher asking questions about her grandmother.”
Laurie did not reveal that she also had a copy of the recording in her email. Tom hadn’t seemed to notice when she dropped her cell phone as he grabbed her on the sidewalk. Her only hope was that someone would find it and try calling the home number stored in her phone to return it. Her father would know something was terribly wrong and send police to the spot where the phone was found. On the other hand, maybe no one would find it, or the finder would make no attempt to return it. She shook away the thought. She had to cling to any sliver of hope.
“I saw her leaving when I arrived,” Tom said. “I should have stopped her the second I saw her speaking to you. Call her,” he demanded, picking up the handset of a cordless phone on the end table. “Make up a story to get her to come back here with that recording. If you say one word to indicate something’s wrong, I’ll kill you both.”
Laurie felt her hand tremble as she took the phone. She quickly scanned the other areas of the house visible from this vantage point. She did not see another handset.
This might be her only shot to save them.