Shell Game – Chapter 5 – Katherine Gold
Evan arrived back at his office, looked over his shoulder one more time before fishing his keys from his pants’ pocket, and slipping the key in the lock. He then pulled open the glass door painted with “SILVER AND GOLD DETECTIVE AGENCY” in golden, block letters with a broad, black outline. He had long since stopped finding it funny that he somehow had let himself go into business with a man named Silver, let alone gave him top billing.
He was glad to see Sophie had already packed it in. It was well after five o’clock, and she worked too many hours as it was. Certainly, more than he was able to pay for anyway. Good thing for him that her loyalty seemed to be ironclad. He knew he would never find a secretary half as good as Sophie if he searched for fifty years. If he burned a bridge with her and Sophie left, Evan calculated he might as well lock up shop and ride off into the sunset. She was one of the good guys.
As he approached his office door, he stopped short. The door was ajar. His eyes darted for anything else out of place. It was a well-established practice that the last one out made sure all doors were closed and locked. He remembered locking his door before he left, which meant only one thing. A pit opened in his gut. He’d feared this moment for the better part of a month. Now that it was there, he didn’t know what to do.
Drawing a deep breath, he placed his hand on the door’s lock stile and pushed it open.
There, framed by the setting sunlight in his window, was the outline of a slenderly curved woman. She stood there, observing the activity shuffling back and forth along Commercial. Evan admired her statuesque stance, beautiful and aloof, adorned in mahogany hair cascading down her back in waves.
Evan scuffed his feet on the floor, and she turned. Her eyes were tired but still looked like sparkling emeralds. “Evan,” the woman said evenly. Evan hadn’t known what to say to his wife since she’d asked him for the separation. Even then, his heart both leaped for joy and cowered in fear.
“Katherine,” he said, flipping on the overhead light and trying to keep his emotions even, “as I live and breathe.” Evan took a couple of steps closer but was careful to keep his desk between them. “What brings you here?” he asked and set the flour sack of potential treasure on his desk.
“I’m sorry to bother you at work,” she said, “I know how busy you are.” She spat the word busy, which reminded Evan of the disdain with which she viewed his occupation. “I need you to sign something.”
Evan braced himself for what he feared was coming, “What is it?”
“Oh, nothing, I’m opening a bank account, and the helpful banker said that since I’m married, I need your signature to open it.”
“Why are you opening an account?” Evan asked. “You already have access to our money.”
“Yes, well,” she waved her hand and finally sat down, “that’s your money. I want my own. Besides, when I checked the balance this afternoon, it seemed that you don’t have any.”
“You have a job, then?”
“Not yet, but very close to one.” She twirled the end of a lock of hair, “I hate to bother you. Especially over something boring like this, but, as they say, rules are rules.”
Evan found this last statement grotesquely funny since she would still be living with him if rules were rules.
His marriage to Katherine had been strained almost from the beginning. There was a need in her that he just couldn’t seem to meet. Something told her that she was unworthy to be loved. Maybe it was a hurt deep within her that he couldn’t ferret out. Whatever it was, he had not yet earned the right to peek behind that wall.
“So, will you?” she asked. “I promise if you do, you’ll see much less of me and go about your business as you please without having to worry or keep up with me.”
“I enjoy worrying about you.”
She tilted her forehead down and looked through her eyebrows at him, “Let’s face it, we’re no good together. Maybe… I don’t know… It’s the odd hours, and my suspicions get the best of me. I get jealous… and lonely. You really can’t blame me too much, can you, Evan? I mean, you’re out at all times of the day and night. Who knows where you go and what you do and who you do it with? And you’ve told me you can’t tell me, and it plagues my mind. I don’t know if I should be mad, jealous, worried? If you’d let me in a little, maybe… I don’t know.”
“And I told you I’m working on it. Don’t get so worked up,” Evan said, resisting the urge to place a hand on her shoulder. “For crying out loud, a man’s got to work. Why does this job, something I’m good at, cause you so much grief? It’s not like this was a surprise when we got married.”
“I know, I know, I know,” she waved off, “I’m a mess.”
“I didn’t say that,” Evan said.
“Didn’t you?”
“Listen,” Evan smiled curtly, “there is nothing I would enjoy more than to have a jousting match with you…”
“But you haven’t got time for me,” Katherine said. “I understand.” She turned back to look out the window.
Evan sighed loudly. “Which bank?”
“You really should get these windows taken care of.”
“Which bank?”
“Capitol Federal.”
“I’ll see if I can get over there tomorrow.”
Katherine nodded, and Evan went to his door to let Katherine out.
Evan couldn’t bring himself to turn the knob. He stopped and looked at Katherine.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said — a lot. I want to make you happy, and I want this to work. But the business is not doing well. I’m busy because I’m trying to provide for you. But the job is the job. I’m sorry. People’s lives don’t follow a nine-to-five schedule.”
“I get all that,” Katherine said. “But even if you told me what was going on occasionally. Look, my father was a fun-loving, charming man. But then, four years of fighting in the French wilderness changed him. He’s not the same man my mother married. He’s distant, cold. I can tell he’s hurting, but he insists on carrying it all on his shoulders, you know, ‘be a man,’ and I think it’s killing him.” She looked into Evan’s eyes. “I don’t want that kind of marriage. I can’t have that kind of marriage.”
Evan looked back into Katherine’s green eyes. “How about this? I wrap up the cases I have on the books. Trust me, there aren’t that many, and when they are buttoned up, in say, a week, I’ll pay my bills, shutter the business, and walk away.”
“Evan, I don’t want you to give up what you love.”
“I love you, Katherine. This is just a job. It’s something I enjoy, but it’s just a job.”
Katherine looked away and thought a moment and then turned back to Evan, “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“One week. Close the place down. We start over.”
Evan smiled.
“I don’t love this plan,” Katherine warned, “but it’s a start. Maybe we could go into business together?”
“Is that a thing people do?” Evan asked.
“Yes, I’m almost certain husbands, and wives have worked together for thousands of years. It’s how family businesses became a thing.”
“But not private detectives.”
Katherine shrugged, “Who knows? After a week. Who knows? In the meantime, I’d appreciate it if you’d sign those papers with the bank.”
“I’ll see if I can get over there tomorrow,” Evan said.
“It’ll be a long week if you don’t,” Katherine said. “By the way, what’s in the sack. That’s an awful big dinner.”
“Flea market,” Evan said, looking back at the flour sack.
“More buried treasure?” she mused.
“Something like that.”
“I’m sure it will take your mind off things.”
“That’s the plan,” Evan said.
Katherine looked at him. “Are you sure you want to do this? You could do better than me, Evan Gold. Maybe someone with more adventure.”
“I didn’t sign up for better than you. I signed up for you. Win, lose, or draw.”
Katherine looked again at her husband. Her face had softened quite a bit. “I really shouldn’t have bothered you. Sophie said you’d be right back, and she let me stay here.”
“You’re not a bother,” Evan said.
“Yes, I am. At least that’s what I tried to be.” She placed her hand on his lapel. “You’ll go by the bank?
Evan nodded.
Katherine Gold turned and walked out of the office. Evan smoothed his hair back, let out a long breath, and stepped to his desk.
There, waiting for him, was the flour sack full of the necklaces and other whatnot.
Evan didn’t have it in him to mess with all of that now that he’d run into Katherine. He decided he would have plenty of time to look through it all later and placed the sack in the safe hidden in his lower desk drawer.
After locking up the merchandise, he turned and stared for a long minute out his office window.
One week. Could Evan walk away from all this in one week? Evan’s mind raced with the number of details he would need to put a bow on. The thought struck him how he was going to explain this arrangement to Sophie and Gabe. Evan knocked twice on the top of his desk before locking up the office and heading back to his apartment to grab some shut-eye before Gabe reported in.
