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I PULLED ON THE FRONT door to the Riverside Inn and let Alex walk in ahead of me. We both made our way toward the front desk.
There was an older woman behind the desk. She smiled and said, “Welcome to Riverside Inn. Are you—”
“Sorry, we’re not staying.” I looked around the place, decorated with older decor, dark wallpaper with big floral designs and a few old couches setup around a fireplace that wasn’t lit. “I’m looking for Kathleen Valeriana.”
She moved her eyes to her computer screen and clicked on the keyboard in front of her. “Valeriana? With a V?”
I nodded. “Yes, with a V.”
Alex stood by. “Her last name’s Valeriana?”
The woman behind the desk opened her mouth to speak, but Alex tugged at my arm and gave a nod toward the stairs.
It was Kathleen, walking down the stairs with a travel bag over her shoulder. She stopped, mid-step, and looked right at me. “Henry?” she said. “What are you—”
“Kathleen Valeriana? Or do you prefer Kate? I would’ve never in a million years pictured you with someone like him.”
Kathleen took a moment before she spoke. She took another step down. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She glanced toward the woman behind the desk.
Alex looked back and forth from me to Kathleen.
“It never registered with me how interested you were in Philip’s business. Even when we first met, you wouldn’t stop asking questions about him. You acted as if you had no idea who he was. But you knew exactly who he was. I remember the conversation you had with him... You talked about the rare gems and crystals and the sculpture he wouldn’t mention by name. You knew exactly what it was.” I huffed out a slight laugh. “And here I was, thinking it was me you were after.”
Kathleen kept her gaze on me, but not saying a word.
Alex pulled her gun from the back of her waist and held it down by her side.
I said to Kathleen, “Philip told you all about that sculpture. He told you about the deal his father had made to get it. And what a big deal it was for his family to be in possession of a such a valuable piece created by the famous artist from France.” I thought for a moment. “At the time, it didn’t mean a thing to me. I sat quietly with Victoria. I barely paid attention.” I turned to Alex. “I had a lot to drink.”
Kathleen stepped off the stairs, but remained quiet.
I turned to Alex and said, “I guess I should’ve listened to you.” I looked back at Kathleen. “You knew about the pelican. Carla told Dominic about it. She knew him, didn’t she.”
Kathleen kept quiet.
“So you show up in Ocracoke looking for it. You saw me as a way to get to Philip, since he was already with Victoria. But the plans changed. And when you found out Philip and Victoria were in Florida...you both came looking for it. And you thought I’d be foolish enough to lead you to it.”
Kathleen squinted her eyes. “I guess you think you’re pretty smart.”
“It makes sense now,” I said. “You went for Frank first. You got him to come after me, thinking he’d already been burned by Philip. He’d easily turn against his brother. But he changed his mind...so you killed him, too.”
Kathleen said, “I didn’t kill him. Not personally.”
“I’m sure Dominic is quite capable of handling that,” I said. “The same way he killed that young girl at Darcy Rental for no reason.”
Alex raised her gun from her side and held it on Kathleen. “I could pop her right now.”
“Where’s Dominic?” I said. “Is he here?”
Kathleen turned and looked up the stairs, then shrugged. “I have no idea where he is.”
“No? Just like you have no idea where Victoria is? Or who blew up Philip’s boat?”
Kathleen looked past us, toward the front door. Her eyes moved to another door off to the side of where she was standing.
“I know all about Jayray and his bomb making skills.”
“We didn’t want Philip killed. How would we’ve found the sculpture if he’s dead?” Kathleen took a few steps sideways and moved toward the door just a few feet away from where she stood. She had one hand behind her back. “We always assumed Carla knew where it was.”
“But she didn’t have a clue,” I said.
Kathleen shook her head. “We made her a deal.”
“The diamonds?”
“If that’s what you want to call them.” She smiled.
“They’re not even diamonds, are they?” I said.
Kathleen laughed. “Genuine cubic zirconia. The only person Carla could go to who would’ve known the difference was Julie Sanders. But we set her up before she had a chance to figure it out...got her out of the way.”
“I’ll be honest, I thought Charles set her up.” I scratched my chin and thought for a moment. “So that kidnapping at the Gem and Mineral Society...it was all a set up?”
“Jayray was already working with us by then. Of course, Carla had no idea who I was and didn’t ask. She certainly didn’t know I was Dominic’s wife.”
“Kathleen, you have to tell us where Victoria is. Unless you want us to—”
Kathleen dropped her bag and moved her hand from behind her back. She held her arms out straight and pointed a gun straight at me and Alex.
Alex didn’t budge, her Glock still on Kathleen. “There are at least six officers waiting for you outside,” she said. “They’re expecting us to come out with you. But if for some reason we don’t...”
I was in the line of fire. I lifted my arms up on either side of me, one hand out toward Alex, the other toward Kathleen. “Can we wait a minute here with the guns?” I looked at Kathleen. “You have what you want, assuming you know where Dominic is? Just tell me where Victoria is. That’s all I care about.”
Kathleen and Alex held steady, neither one putting down their gun.
“Kathleen, please,” I said. “Just tell me where she is.”
I looked past Kathleen. Over her shoulder I saw Jayray come down the stairs. He had a semi-automatic rifle in his hands.
I said, “I guess you like the big toys, huh Jayray?”
He stepped slowly down the stairs and stood next to Kathleen. They both turned and looked back as Dominic turned the corner.
He had a gun pointed at the head of Philip’s fiancé, Victoria.
Tears ran down her cheeks.
“Victoria?” I said. “Don’t worry, you’ll be okay.” I glanced at Alex and nodded toward Dominic. “You have what you want. Let Victoria go.”
He shook his head. “We get out of here without being followed by your friends out there, then we’ll see...maybe we’ll let her go.”
“What’d you do with Philip?”
Jayray spoke up. “He’s putting some ‘shrimp on the barbie’.”
“What the hell was that?” Dominic said as he stared down the stairs at Jayray.
“Sorry, that’s my Australian accent. Not bad, though, right?”
Dominic let out a breath and shook his head as he looked toward Kathleen. “I’ve had enough of this kid, you know.”
I took a step back and stood beside Alex. “Victoria, Philip flew out to Sydney. He told me you’d called him...”
She nodded. “They made me call him. I told him that’s where I was, that he had to fly out there right away.”
Kathleen smiled and glanced back at Victoria. “She was really quite convincing.”
Dominic moved down the stairs, the muzzle of his gun still against the side of Kathleen’s head. He gripped her arm with his free hand and guided her down each step then stood next to Kathleen.
My eyes moved to Dominic. “Where’s the pelican?”
He turned and looked toward the door as he said to me, “You ask a lot of stupid questions, Walsh. You really think I’m going to tell you?” Dominic had a limp in his step as he moved toward the door.
I turned and glanced at the woman behind the desk, visibly shaken, her eyes glossed over with tears. Both of her hands were down behind the desk, and she was somewhat hunched, leaning down.
She gave me a subtle nod...and I hoped I knew what she meant. I looked on the wall behind her and saw a framed photo of an older gentleman. I couldn’t quite make out what was etched on a gold plate underneath, but it appeared to be a birthdate followed by an end date.
Her husband, I wondered.
I nodded back at her, knowing we had a small window. As I looked across the faces of Kathleen and Dominic and Jayray and Victoria I turned and lunged at Alex, bringing her down to the floor and out of the line of fire.
It was the old woman behind the desk who came up with what appeared to be a 12-gauge shotgun. It kicked up on her as she fired, missing all humans—probably a good thing considering the mess it would’ve made—but instead blew a hole the size of a softball through the wall just over Dominic’s shoulder.
The sound that followed was pure silence, my ears ringing inside my head as I watched from the floor.
Alex came up firing and hit Dominic somewhere in the upper body.
He let go of Victoria as he grasped his chest and stumbled backwards, one step after the other. His foot caught the bottom step. He reached for Victoria to catch his fall but she pushed his hand away and ran up the stairs away from him.
Dominic laid on the floor. Blood soaked through his shirt.
Jayray ran past Kathleen and knocked her down.
She got up on her feet and followed Jayray toward the door. But the door swung closed on her as she tried to get away. She stumbled backwards and fell to the floor.
Alex didn’t waste a second as she jumped toward Kathleen and kicked the gun from Kathleen’s hand.
Alex lifted her shirt, pulled a small thirty-eight from her waistband and tossed it in the air to me. I moved toward Dominic and I stood over him with the gun pointed right at his face.
But his eyes were closed. He wasn’t going anywhere.