Page 75 of One In Vermillion

Franco was looking past me. “Why do you have that teddy bear in the back of your Gladiator?”

At least he knew the Jeep’s proper name. “I’m on a mission.”

Franco laughed. “Right. Are we done here?” He knew we were.

Yeah, we were done. I needed more. “Think about it,” I said, knowing he’d have to.

That little line stayed on his forehead as I pulled away.

CHAPTER 34

Ifinished the copy edits and packed everything up and headed for the factory to look through the last of the bookcases to save what books I could, stopping by the Pink House to pick up some of the boxes that Peri hadn’t used yet for the teddy bears. She rejected my Incomplete Data t-shirt as boring, and I told her they couldn’t all be Boyntons, and she accepted that. Very practical child.

Since it was Saturday, most of the factory crews were gone for the weekend, just the guys working overtime in the next room, breaking down the walls, probably for Cash’s demolition. I pulled books off the shelf, sorting.

And then things got very quiet.

I’d just put a book in a save box when there was a knock at the door. I opened it and one of the dust-covered guys from next door handed me a box.

“We found that in the wall between that room—“ he pointed over his shoulder—“and this one. Must have been some kind of safe in here.” He indicated Cleve’s office. “We was kind of hoping there’d be money in there, but it’s just papers, and Mister Porter said that’s your thing, right?”

“Right,” I said, taking the dust-covered box gingerly. It took me a moment to realize “Mister Porter” meant Cash. “Thank you very much.”

“Wish it had been gold or something,” he said, and I agreed that would better, and he went back to work. I closed the door. It did occur to me that a box inside a wall might have more interesting papers than the stuff I’d been going through, like maybe another ledger, this one in English, but a quick glance showed that these were all legal contracts dating back years, probably of huge interest to lawyers, not so much to me. But I went through them anyway and was surprised to find the deed to the factory shuffled into the middle. Cash was going to be thrilled, damn it—

I stopped, looking at the name written at the bottom of the deed.

It was a transfer deed, signed by Cleveland Blue, in that big slashing hand of his that I’d seen on a bunch of papers already, in blue ink as always.

And underneath that it said,Elizabeth Magnolia Danger, nee Blue.

It took me a minute to understand it, it was so unbelievable, but once I realized what it meant—I own this factory, Cash can’t destroy it—the other shoe dropped.

If Cash showed up, the workers would tell him they found a safe in the wall, and he’d come up to see what was in it, and I am a lousy liar, and Cash would take this badly.

I had to get out of the factory.

I ran for the Camry and peeled rubber to get to Ken Porter’s office.

* * *

When I gotto the agency, Ken was in the outer office with Elena, who said, “Honey, what’s wrong?” so I got the deed out and shoved it at both of them, and they both looked it over.

“What . . .” Ken looked at me, stunned. “Where did you get this?”

“Some workmen at the factory found it in a box in the wall,” I said. “That’s Cleve’s signature, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Ken was shaking his head, and I thought,Oh, hell, it’s a fake.

He took me back into his office and sat down, gesturing at the seat across from him. “This is crazy, Liz. Do you know what it means?”

“I owned the factory and he left it to Lavender instead?” I hazarded. On the drive over, I’d realized that if the factory was mine, it probably was going to be a mixed blessing. Lord knows what the taxes were and if they’d even been paid. My luck, there were probably back taxes. I was probably in debt to my eyeballs.

“The name,” Ken said, indicating the deed. He read it, “Elizabeth Magnolia Danger, nee Blue.”He looked up. “He knew you were Day’s daughter.”

“I think I’m Cleve’s daughter.”

Ken blinked. “What?”

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