Shell Game – Chapter 28 – The Exchange

As soon as Evan Gold stepped in from the street, the sound of the phone’s impatient ringing greeted him. He picked up the receiver and held it lazily to his ear.

“This is Gold.”

The woman’s voice spoke on the other end. Her smooth tone had just a hint of rasp brought on by a life on the wrong side of the tracks. Evan’s causal demeanor started to fade as the voice presented its threat.

“We know you have it,” the voice said. “You’ve been nosing around long enough. Time to get some of your questions taken care of so you can leave us alone.”

“What is this ‘it’ I have?” Evan asked.

“You’ll come to The Webster Hotel, room 1045. It’s Harold Huber’s suite. Be there in fifteen minutes. You’ll get your answers. Don’t be late.”

“What if I don’t come?” Evan started, but the line went dead before he finished the question. Evan put down the phone and checked his watch. He marked fifteen minutes and knew he had plenty of time to walk to The Webster. Just as he was about to lock up and head out, the front door burst open. Katherine Gold entered the office, smiled nervously, took one step toward Evan to embrace him, but then stopped herself.

“I’m glad to see you here,” she said.

“Katherine…”

“I didn’t know if I… Did they mistreat you?”

“Who?”

“The police.”

“When?”

“Last night.” She wrung her hands together, “I feel awful about it. It was a dirty prank. I know it was. So, I wanted to check on you and-”

“What are you talking about?” he asked.

“Last night,” she sniffed. “Oh, Evan, I was so mad at you I couldn’t think straight. I saw you with that woman, and I did my best to stab you back. It wasn’t right. Whatever is wrong between us, we’ve never treated each other cruelly. Please forgive me. I couldn’t stand it if I thought you were upset with me.”

Evan looked at her; her green eyes had never looked more lovely to him. Still, she wasn’t making any sense. “Breathe, Kathy. Take a seat. Talk to me like I don’t know anything.”

She sat in Sophie’s chair and sniffed again. “Last night. You remember last night? I came by, and you pushed me off. I mean, you said you weren’t pushing me off, but- let’s call a spade a spade, shall we? I admit I was jealous. I probably shouldn’t have been. So, I called the police.”

“You what?” Evan felt his neck start to burn.

“Just to give you a hard time. It was me that sent them to your place. But then, this morning, I thought- I didn’t know what they might’ve done to you.”

“You called the cops?” Evan crossed his arms, “Well, sister, you kicked up quite the hornet’s nest!” He sat down on the corner of his desk. “What on earth did you tell them to get them to come over in the middle of the night?”

“Well, I didn’t give them my name. I remember you told me that,” Katherine said.

“What did you say?” Evan’s impatience was growing.

“That if they wanted to stop the next murder in town, they should go by your place.”

“Anything else?”

She looked down. “I might have mentioned that you were meeting with someone and cooking up a plot.”

“That’s all? And they fell for that?” Evan rubbed the back of his neck. “They must be getting it bad from the DA to bite on something that flimsy.” Evan looked down at his wife. “I mean, thankfully, it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle, but you probably set me back a day or two. You nearly sent my clients into a panic. Not to mention I’m on thinner ice with the boys in blue. Not a position I’d like to stay in.” Evan checked his watch. Twelve minutes left.

Evan stood and put both hands in his pockets. “Listen, you’re catching me at a terrible time. Just so you know, I signed the papers. At the bank. You should be all squared away. I’d love to chat more, but I’ve got to get to a-”
“Do you really think we have a shot? I mean, why would you want to stay with me after what I just told you?”

Evan opened his mouth to reply, but the pearl in Evan’s hand started to warm up. He saw scenes in his mind of him and Katherine talking, then yelling, then Katherine storming out of the office. He saw himself with gray hair and no wedding ring on his hand.

“Yes?”

Evan snapped back to the present. At least he hoped it was the present. “What?” he said as casually as he could.
“Nothing. You just looked like you were going to say something. I wish you would say something. Tell me what a foolish woman I’m being. Tell me I need to pull myself together. Tell me you want me to buzz off and never come back.

Anything. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

The pearl warmed up again, and Evan saw a scene of him handing the pearl over to Katherine. The vision went blank before he could see what her reaction was. He continued to look silently at his wife. Was he supposed to give it to her? How would that keep it safe?

“Are you okay? Do you need some water?”

“I’m okay,” he said. Evan paused. So far, the pearl had been right about everything, and if Katherine had it, there was possibly even less chance of the bad guys getting their hands on it. At the same time, he didn’t have long to explain anything to her.

Evan pulled out his hand. “Here,” he said. “Open your hand.”

Confused, Katherine did as she was told. Evan placed the pearl pendant in his wife’s hand.

“What’s this?” she asked. “It’s beautiful.”

“It’s… for you.” Evan offered, not knowing what else to say.

“For what?”

“I’m not sure,” he hesitated, “but I think you should have it.”

Katherine rolled the gem between her thumb and forefinger. “It’s big. I mean, I don’t know much about pearls, but it’s big, right?”

Evan nodded.

“Where’d you get something like this? How much was it? How much does this little find put us back?”

“It doesn’t put us back. It was a gift.” Evan felt the time to get to his meeting at The Webster slipping away.

“Did she give it to you?” Katherine prodded.

“Who?”

“The woman you were with?”

“No,” Evan said. “Got it while treasure hunting.”

“I see,” Katherine said. She examined the pearl some more. Evan almost wanted it to light up blue just to see if Katherine saw it too. If she did, then he would be sure he wasn’t crazy. The pearl just kept looking like a pearl.
“I know this doesn’t change anything,” Evan began, “but maybe consider it a down payment for when this case is over, and we can start to work on things.”

“Maybe,” Katherine said. “Want to grab a bite?”

Evan slid his hands in his empty pockets. “I really can’t. Later?”

Katherine stood and sighed. “Sure.”

“What, now?” Evan asked.

“Nothing. You just know how to kill a moment. You make this very kind gesture after telling you I told the police you had something to do with the murders, and now you’re pushing me off again.

Evan gritted his teeth, “Katherine, I promise you that is not what’s going on. I have a job-”

“I’ve heard this song before. I’m going to go.” She turned to leave and was halfway to the door when Evan called her, “Katherine!”

She stopped and turned. “Yes?”

“You should get a lawyer.”

Katherine laughed cynically and said, “I already have one. Are you forgetting that I-”

“Not that kind of lawyer. I mean because of the police. You called them. You’re my wife. Sooner or later, they’re going to come calling anyway. You should get a lawyer who deals with this kind of thing.” He fished in Sophie’s desk, found a business card, and handed it to Katherine. “This is my guy. Talk to him. He can protect you from the fire that’s likely to come if I can’t get these murders solved soon.”

“Evan, really. I think one lawyer is good enough for-”

“Talk to him. And for goodness’ sake, be honest with him. He can only help you if you’re honest with him,” Evan noticed Katherine’s face progress from worried to frightened. “Look,” he said, “you don’t have to tell him everything, though it would be fine if you did. He doesn’t tell me anything he’s not supposed to. But if you’d like to stay out of prison, please don’t make anything up. Do you understand me? This is very important.”

Katherine looked at the card in such a way Evan wondered if she was trying to memorize it. “Do you understand me? There are some bad characters out there, doing who knows what. I may not be able to protect you from all of it,” he said.

She looked up. “Yes.” Then, “I’ll talk to him.”

Evan’s face warmed a bit, and he said, “Now, I’d better scoot. I have somewhere to be, and I can’t get out of it. If I don’t show up, this whole situation could just get messier. I promise we’ll talk. But I still have a few days before the week is out.”

She looked up at Evan. Her eyes were searching for any trace of a hint about what kind of mess Evan was in. She found nothing.

“Thank you,” Katherine said, holding up the lawyer’s card. “You know how to charm a lady.” She smiled. “And for the pearl.”

“I’ll get you a chain for it later,” Evan said and helped his wife up.

Katherine turned and headed out the front door of the office. Evan watched her until the door shut softly behind her, and Katherine was once more out of view.

Evan quickly checked his watch. Seven minutes left. He did a quick calculation in his mind of the fastest route to The Webster Hotel. He thought if he ran, he could make it there in three minutes. So, he stepped out the front door to see if Katherine was still around. Seeing that she was gone, Evan bolted back through his office and out the back door. He then darted down the alleyway and turned onto Mechanic. From there, Evan took off running and hoped he would be on time for this meeting.