Chapter 49

Chapter Forty-Nine

“ T hanks for meeting earlier than we’d scheduled, Calvin. Sorry I hijacked our original plans for the night.” JT gave him his very best grin, eager to get this over with, but also ready to savor every moment of watching this guy squirm.

“No worries, JT. This was always your show. I’ve never been big into the holiday spectacle. Too much opportunity to fuck it all up.” He grinned at the obvious reference to what JT had done at the party years ago. “By the way, big congrats ongetting her to forgive you.”

“I’m a lucky man,” he said with absolute sincerity.

This sort of transaction was usually completed at a title company or other neutral office, with the seller signing first, but given the scope of this sale, they’d all—even the attorneys involved—agreed to do this in the office attached to the ballroom at the Mayflower, just prior to the start of the New Year’s Eve party.

JT had bumped up the timeline for the closing, but the party for T&D employees was still on if they wanted to attend. It also just so happened to now be a wedding reception.

In a few hours, JT would marry Alexandra, right after appearing to sell the company that had been his dad’s life work. He was sad his dad wasn’t here for this. Joe might not be pleased that JT intended to sell—not to Moss, but he’d find another buyer—but his dad had come to respect Alexandra. In their last conversation, Joe had urged him to repair the relationship.

Instead, the next day, within an hour of his father’s death, he’d torched it.

Life had given him one more shot, and he wouldn’t waste it.

The paperwork was endless, which was just what they needed to buy time. An hour and twenty minutes into the process, Alexandra entered the conference room.

“Are you supposed to be here?” Calvin said. “Shouldn’t you be hiding behind a veil or something?”

“No time for superstitions when you plan a wedding at the last minute like this.”

JT was glad for that. Waking up with Alexandra this morning had helped steel him to face the more difficult aspects of today, while feeding Gemma her breakfast had grounded him. He wasn’t in this for the big party. He was in it for the life.

He smiled at his bride. “What’s up, beautiful?”

“I hate to interrupt—I know how important this is. But the video we’re going to show during the reception was just finalized. JT, I really want you to see it in case we need to make any tweaks. We won’t have time later. Do you all mind taking a little break? You’re welcome to watch.”

“How long is it?” Calvin asked.

“Ohh, about fifteen minutes? It was really hard with so many years’ worth of photos to decide what to put in, but we really managed to pare it down. You’ll like it, Calvin. You’re even in a few of the pictures.”

“I am?”

“All those company events.”

“It’s fine with me,” he said. He turned to the attorneys. “You can take a break if you want.”

“I could use some food.”

“We’ve got snacks in the suite,” Alexandra said, giving them the room number for the suite they’d reserved for wedding prep.

She sat at the table next to JT and plugged a USB drive into his laptop. There was a frilly graphic with their names and the date in a script font popular for weddings.

The first image in the slideshow had been taken the night of the holiday party when they first met. An event photographer had taken candid shots during dinner, and there was a photo of JT with Drake and Calvin and a few other executives. The next image was Alexandra, laughing at a table with Brent, Russ, and Kendall. JT had never seen that photo before, but wasn’t surprised Lee had managed to find it in the archives.

“I get why you’re including photos from that night,” Calvin said, “but I can’t help but wonder if you really want photos of Drake, Russ, and even Brent to be shown at the reception?”

“JT and I discussed that, and we agreed everything is part of our journey. And let’s face it, if it weren’t for Russ, Brent, and Kendall, we never would have met. Besides, Calvin, you’re in there too.”

He chuckled. “Well, I’m not some high school senior scouring the yearbook for pictures of myself instead of seeing the shared moments with my classmates.”

“It’s only on the first pass that you look for photos of yourself,” she replied. “And I get your point, but the thing is, Kendall was and will always be my friend. We had our rough moments, but I’ll never have another friend like her. With her death so recent—which I don’t know if you heard about? It’s all so raw and recent, and I really want her to be part of this ceremony.”

“I ran into Brent Forbes a few weeks ago. He mentioned his ex-girlfriend had died. I remember Kendall from when I worked at T&D. I’m sorry she’s gone.”

Yeah. JT knew exactly how familiar Calvin was with Kendall’s work for T&D.

Alexandra rewound to the photo that included Kendall and hit Pause. “I went to her house a week and a half ago. It was… the night. I’m sure you saw the news… Anyway, I took some things that she’d left for me. Important mementos. But they were stolen from my car. I’d give anything to get those back.”

“I’m sorry,” Calvin said, “that’s terrible. They didn’t show that part of the video on the news but mentioned a box had been taken. That’s what it was?”

She nodded. JT rubbed her shoulder in a show of sympathy.

It was that exact box the cops were searching for in his house. JT hoped to hell the man felt so secure that no one had a clue of his involvement that he’d hidden the box rather than getting rid of it when it didn’t contain what he was looking for.

Alexandra let out a soft sigh. “Yes. The box didn’t have anything important except to me. Framed photos. My mom’s copy of The Joy of Cooking . Mom wrote notes in the margins of the cookbook, adjusting the recipes. She has dementia now, and I want more than anything to make my daughter Grandma’s snickerdoodles. That might be the loss that hurts the most.”

“I forgot about your mother’s snickerdoodles,” JT said. “Those things were insanely good.”

“They tasted like love.”

Alexandra was good at this. JT didn’t see the act in her words. She was stringing Calvin right along.

“I won’t give up hope it will turn up. In the meantime, I went back to Kendall’s house a few days ago to get my wedding dress—which is amazing , by the way.” She laughed, her chuckle soft and fun, showing none of the strain that she must be feeling. “While I was in the house, I searched for anything that would offer a clue as to why a police officer would pull me over and then another person would kill the officer and steal a box that I’d taken from her house.”

“Did you find anything?”

She smiled. “Actually, I did. But we had to turn it over to the police. I didn’t even really get to look at it. I hope someday to get it back.”

She hit Play on the video. The next slide made JT laugh. It was a photo of him in a Santa suit with a grimacing kid on his lap. The girl clutched a present in one hand and Alexandra—crouched down in an elf costume—in the other.

He remembered that moment when she’d swooped in like Rudolph to save Santa. He’d been such a goner.

There were more photos from more holiday parties over the years. Photos of him and his father along with Alexandra and Lisa. So many political and charity events.

Then there was the engagement portrait that was taken years ago. There was a gap in time, and the next photo was taken the night his father had announced he was running for president. A newspaper with a front-page photo of Lee and Erica taken the same night.

Even a headline about Joe’s arrest side by side with the revelation that Ed Drake had murdered JT’s grandmother when his father was four years old.

Any time JT questioned whether or not Drake would have paid Spaulding to put a drugged woman in his bed, he reminded himself the man had committed murder at the age of sixteen.

“Edgy,” Calvin said.

“It’s kind of like a New Year’s Eve rewatch of It’s a Wonderful Life —but different in that no one gets wings,” Alexandra said.

“Oh, if we didn’t have plans tonight, I’d totally do a rewatch,” JT said.

She laughed and kissed him. “Then that’s how we’ll celebrate our first anniversary.”

They’d moved on to the last holiday party that both Alexandra and Calvin had attended. JT had been braced for it, knowing it was coming. He only felt a twinge of shame instead of the boatload that usually accompanied thoughts of that night.

If Alexandra could let it go, so could he.

There had been more photos of Kendall throughout, and now the screen showed one of her and Brent at that same holiday party, followed by photos from when Alexandra lived with Kendall full time again.

A handful of photos showed Alexandra in Switzerland. Pregnant in some, in the last, she held a newborn. Her return to the US was documented with a photo of her with Lee and Erica and their daughters.

Next up was a photo of Kendall taken by her photographer boyfriend and one with him by her side. It was followed by the photo of Calvin with Officer Corey Williams that Kendall had taken from the restaurant across the street. The image slowly zoomed in, using the Ken Burns effect.

“ What? What…what… What’s that doing there?”

Alexandra hit Pause, freezing on Calvin in a relaxed posture, smiling at his second cousin. “Kendall’s boyfriend, Mark, had that in his photos. He said it was important to her. He’d forgotten about it until we started working on this. Imagine his surprise when he realized one of the men in the photo was murdered just a few weeks after this was taken.”

Calvin started to rise. “I think…I think that should do it. We really need to wrap up signing the docs.”

She pressed down on his shoulder, nudging him back into his seat. “But wait, there’s more!” Her voice had taken on the tone of an infomercial. She hit Play again, and there was the video of Kendall kissing Brent in the garage.

“I think that the best part of this video is the voiceover that plays next.” She hit the Volume button that had been playing generic wedding slideshow music until now. Kendall’s recorded conversation with Brent played. The conversation that mentioned Calvin Moss.

Calvin looked ready to crawl out of his skin. Had he recognized the same thing Eden had about the angle of the camera in the garage? He had to know that was where Kendall died. Corey Williams would have told him exactly how he’d killed her.

“What’s this about?” Calvin asked.

“It’s a wonderful life, isn’t it, Calvin?” Lex’s voice was silky smooth.

“Best of luck to you both.” He rose. “We can finish the signing later.”

“But we need to do it now,” JT said, “while the numbers are settled to the day. Before the end of the year. Close of business is in an hour.”

“I’ll get the attorneys, then.” Calvin took a step toward the door.

Alexandra was closer and blocked him. “Sit. Stay. I’ll get them for you.”

“I’m not a fucking dog.” His voice was low and menacing.

“Careful there, Calvin, or someone might think you have something to be afraid of.” She smiled innocently.

JT took a position behind Calvin. “Yeah. Very, very careful. Unlike the others, she hasn’t been drugged into submission. And I will never let you lay a fucking finger on her.” JT wasn’t armed, but he had thirty years of martial arts training on his side. “Now, do as she said. Sit. Stay. Alexandra will fetch your attorney.”

Calvin lunged for Alexandra. She pressed the bar on the door with her hip and stepped backward into the promenade, a wide, ornate hall just off the hotel lobby.

Calvin stumbled forward, still reaching for Lex. She evaded his grasping hand as JT caught him and spun him around. “Fight me, not her, asshole.”

This began sixteen years ago with Lex as the victim, but the target had always been JT. Kendall had suffered and paid the ultimate price because of this man’s greed and Edward Drake’s need for power.

JT threw a punch that bloodied Calvin’s nose.

The man grinned through the blood. “You’ve got nothing on me, JT. But my attorneys will be thrilled to hear you assaulted me.”

“Why did you kill your cousin, Moss?”

“Who?”

“Stupid to lie about things that are a matter of public record. Suspicious that you didn’t mention your connection to Officer Williams to Lex when you had the chance.”

“Of course I didn’t say anything. I’m in the middle of buying your company. What my distant cousin did has nothing to do with me.”

“Second cousin isn’t so distant,” Lex said. “Did you kill him because he fucked up when I knocked him out and escaped?”

“You’re out of your mind.”

“Did you order Williams to kill Kendall,” she continued, “or was he acting on his own?”

Moss opened his mouth to answer but he saw the trap and snapped his jaw closed.

“Forbes is talking,” JT said. “You and Spaulding are going down for murder.”

“Bullshit.”

Lex stood in the promenade behind Calvin, who faced JT standing in the office doorway. She glanced toward the lobby and grinned. “Oh, good. They’re here.”

Calvin turned and saw the approaching officers. He blanched and twisted, grabbing Lex and holding her in front of him before JT could stop him.

He pulled a gun from the inside pocket of his jacket. Before he could bring it up, Lex swung out with her right arm, shoving the gun up. She pivoted to face him and kneed him in the balls. JT made his move, grabbing Calvin’s gun hand and twisting his arm behind his back.

Then the cops were upon them, completing the takedown. Moss was cuffed and patted down as his rights were read. Carrying concealed in the District of Columbia would be added to the charges that included murder, extortion, embezzlement, industrial espionage, and accessory to murder.

Kendall’s camera had been found in Moss’s home, as had Alexandra’s laptop and a box of memorabilia that included her mother’s copy of The Joy of Cooking .

Moss’s business attorney, who had been present for the signing, made it more than clear he didn’t handle criminal law, but he agreed to accompany the man to the police station for booking and advised his client to say nothing until he found an attorney who could give him proper representation.

Good luck finding a defense attorney on New Year’s Eve.

Next week, JT would begin the search for a new, far better, buyer. He would make sure his employees were taken care of. And then he would bow out.

But for now, the only thing on his agenda was getting ready for their wedding.