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  She couldn’t not find out. Whoever had set this whole thing up realised that too; knew Beth well enough to know that she wouldn’t rest until she got to the bottom of it, which was reassuring enough in itself.

  No, Beth was going to the Waldorf Astoria, whether Jodi liked it or not.

  Chapter 20

  Jodi had insisted on taking the subway all the way to Beth’s stop in Lower Manhattan after they had ended their shift at Carlisle’s mid-afternoon, and had even got off the train with her – walking side-by-side practically to the front door of her building – even though she was supposed to be heading in the opposite direction, off the island to the Bronx.

  Beth knew what her friend was doing. She was babysitting her. Making sure that she didn’t pursue the next clue and go to the Waldorf. Right then, Jodi was walking next to her, eyeing her suspiciously. ‘So what are you going to do this evening?’ she asked.

  Beth shrugged. She was trying her best to look casual, nonchalant. ‘I don’t know, make dinner, take Brinkley for a walk. And then watch a movie.’

  ‘What movie?’ Jodi enquired with a sharp tone, as if daring her to say Serendipity.

  Well, Beth could play that game, too. ‘I don’t know, Maybe I’ll just settle in for a nice night of Rambo or Full Metal Jacket. Something with lots of blood and guts. That’s what I feel like at the moment.’ She looked darkly at her friend, but Jodi simply laughed it off.

  ‘Sure. Full Metal Jacket. That sounds like you. You might want to try out Platoon too, if you are on that kind of kick.’

  Beth waved her off. ‘So is this going to be a habit? You walking me home from work. I’m off tomorrow, do you need to pick me up the day after? I’m just wondering how much babysitting I require, that’s all.’

  Jodi stopped in her tracks and Beth turned to face her. ‘I’m not babysitting. I’m protecting you from yourself.’

  ‘You’re protecting me?’ Beth exclaimed. ‘I didn’t realise that I was in danger.’

  ‘Maybe not physical danger,’ Jodi chided. ‘But I have a feeling that this whole thing is going to land you in trouble. I don’t know how, but I just have a feeling that something really bad is going to come from this. So, like I said, I’m protecting you from yourself.’

  Beth started walking again. She saw her building ahead of her and decided that a different approach might work with Jodi, in an effort to get her off her back. She knew that Jodi liked to be in charge and she was likely to be much more accepting if Beth simply acquiesced. Or at least appeared to. If she continued to butt heads with her like this, well, then she was likely to have Jodi follow her up to her apartment and stand guard outside the door.

  ‘OK, fine. I understand that you’re just concerned about me, and that you simply care about my welfare. You’re a good friend.’

  Jodi’s eyes narrowed. She was clearly suspicious about Beth’s sudden change in tune. ‘So you give up? No more treasure hunt?’

  Beth nodded but said nothing.

  Jodi crossed her arms over her chest and considered her friend. She caught Beth’s quick glimpse over her shoulder, as if plotting an escape route and smiled. Beth was a bad liar, especially when working to fool someone like Jodi, who had an internal lie detector that could sniff any untruth out.

  ‘OK, fine. I only do this because I want to protect you, you know. I care about you. That’s all.’

  Beth nodded and reached forward to give her friend a hug. ‘I know, and I appreciate it. So now, if I have your permission,’ she teased, ‘I’m going home. See you at work, OK? Have a good evening and thanks for walking me home.’

  The women said their goodbyes and Jodi watched as Beth went through the motions of walking the remaining distance to her building, saying hello to Billy, and then disappearing inside.

  * * *

  Jodi turned round, heading back towards the subway. She knew exactly where Beth would go next: back uptown to the Waldorf Astoria. That meant she would have to head to the subway and return the way they’d come.

  Jodi considered the neighbourhood. Quickly she spied a bar on the opposite corner from where the stairs to the subway platform were located. She could go in there, have a drink, and wait for Beth to enter the subway, and then she could call her out on her lie and maybe embarrass her into giving this up once and for all.

  Feeling that she had a plan, she walked towards the bar, checking behind her every few feet just to make sure that Beth hadn’t immediately circled back, thinking Jodi was already gone.

  But no, the path was clear.

  Jodi walked into the bar, ordered a JD and Coke, and sat next to the window, which looked out onto the street. Now she just had to wait. She stared in the direction from where Beth would eventually come. She took a long swig of her drink and settled in.

  * * *

  Beth stood in her doorway, feeling that she had been able to read Jodi’s mind. She crossed her arms, determined to wait it out.

  She smiled in the usual way at Billy, but there was no denying that she now felt hugely uncomfortable around him. Still, just then she needed his help. ‘Billy, there is somewhere I need to go, but Jodi doesn’t want me to. Can you go out onto the street and see if she is walking away? Just act as if you are doing your normal concierge thing,’ she added airily, referencing the way so many New York doormen would walk the path regularly in front of their buildings as if they were sentinels to the property.

  Billy considered the request, eyes twinkling. ‘And what is this thing that Jodi doesn’t want you to do, lovey? I hope it’s nothing that’s going to get you in trouble.’

  Beth tried to see if she could read anything into this response other than friendly interest. ‘No, nothing that is going to get me in trouble,’ she replied evasively. ‘No danger that I know of. Jodi is just being Jodi. Will you check, please?’

  Billy opened the door and casually looked down the block. He looked down the opposite way, waved to someone he obviously knew and then turned back towards the building.

  Opening the doors, Beth was all over him for an answer. ‘Well? Was she there?’

  He shook his head. ‘No, I didn’t see her anyway. The street was clear. She probably already went down to the subway.’

  Beth considered Billy’s words, but couldn’t shake the feeling that something didn’t feel right. Hell, these days it was impossible to take anything for granted. But she worried now that if she decided to go back uptown via the subway, her plans would be hijacked. She guessed that was exactly what Jodi was planning on, and wouldn’t even put it past her friend to be waiting close by, probably on the platform, hoping to catch her in the lie.

  So, she would just have to do something that Jodi hadn’t planned on.

  ‘Billy,’ she requested sweetly, ‘I need a cab.’

  Within minutes he had secured a cab for her and she was heading in the direction of uptown, leaving her friend – wherever she might be lurking – in the dust.

  She had also taken the opportunity to swear Billy to secrecy, although she wasn’t sure how long that could last against any subsequent assault from Jodi. Nevertheless, she would have to chance it. Beth hoped that if Jodi truly was looking out for her she would take her at her word, and just go home.

  Circling her thoughts around, Beth began to refocus on her mission. She pulled out the book and five-dollar bill that she had been given earlier that day and considered the two items again.

  Yes, the Waldorf was exactly where she was supposed to go. This was a clue that she felt very sure about. She wondered, though, what she would find when she got there. Jumping a little in her seat, her stomach fluttery with excitement, Beth placed the two items in her lap and took a deep breath, composing herself. Even though she still had considerable uncertainty about who could actually be behind all this, she had to believe that eventually it would all make sense.

  Just like a classic movie with a plot that featured countless twists and turns, Beth had faith that the path would lead her to answers. She was committed
to seeing it through.

  The cab slowed, and the driver turned round from the front to face Beth. ‘Sorry about this traffic. You said the Waldorf, right? I’ll get you there as quick as possible.’

  Beth smiled politely and shook her head. There was no way to control Midtown traffic at rush hour. ‘No worries, I’m not in a hurry,’ she said, even though she sort of was, but she had to keep it in perspective. It was her own internal deadline that was making her agitated – it wasn’t like there was any emergency.

  She looked out the window at Park Avenue to find something to entertain her thoughts; to distract her from wondering what was waiting at the hotel for her. Chances were it wasn’t Billy, she reassured herself with some relief, given that she’d just left him.

  However, almost as if serendipity was playing its own kind of trick, Beth suddenly got more than she bargained for.

  On the path, no more than twenty feet away from where she sat in the cab, was Danny.

  He was walking briskly, avoiding the tourists and crowds of Christmas shoppers that seemed to be crushing the space around him.

  Beth’s expression dropped when she noticed he looked incredibly stressed, completely out of sorts, as if something terrible had just happened. She could see it in his face. The cheery twinkling fairy-lit trees along the avenue seemed even brighter against the grey misery of his demeanour.

  Forgetting her own mission at that moment, Beth had eyes only for Danny. What was wrong, what had happened? She hoped it wasn’t more bad news from the office, and that all those extra hours he’d been working had ultimately been for naught … She started to roll the window down so she could call out to him, make him stop so she could get out of the cab and find out why he looked so upset and preoccupied.

  She could go to the Waldorf another time – tomorrow – whenever. ‘Just a minute,’ she said to the driver. She had just got the window down halfway, and she started to stick her head towards the opening to call after Danny, but someone beat her to it.

  ‘Wait!’ cried a woman’s voice from nearby. ‘Hold on.’

  Beth pulled back from the window and watched as a beautiful, dark-haired woman rushed after her boyfriend. She had an arm up in the air and seemed desperate to reach him – to get his attention. Beth’s brow furrowed and she looked around in confusion, suddenly realizing that this part of town was quite some distance from Danny’s workplace. What was he doing here?

  Her attention was very quickly dragged back to the scene in front of her. The dark-haired woman had been successful in getting Danny’s attention. She had reached him and grabbed his arm, pulling on him, trying to get him to face her. And Danny’s face was just … ashen, Beth thought; it was hard to describe how he looked. And not only that but he seemed dishevelled, not at all as groomed as he usually was, his shirt hanging out as if … As if he had got dressed in a hurry or something. What on earth…?

  But notwithstanding how he looked, it was also crystal clear that he knew this woman.

  Who was she? Beth studied her. Dark and Mediterranean-looking, she had long, silky hair and wore a pencil skirt and high heels. Beth focused in on the woman’s face. She handed him something and she and Danny were talking now – no, not talking, remonstrating. Something was going on and it was heated. Beth tried to remember the last time she and Danny had communicated like that, openly and unrestrained, the way these two people were interacting. It reminded Beth of something, it was like two lovers in the throes of a passionate discussion. A dramatic outburst on the city streets – followed by making up somewhere private.

  Beth felt as if she was holding her breath.

  Danny was clearly upset and Beth wished that she could hear their words. How did they know each other? Was she a workmate of his? What was going on?

  And then the realisation hit Beth. Danny was … involved with this woman. She swallowed hard, trying to understand it, trying to make sense of it. Suddenly his behaviour over the last few weeks made perfect sense.

  ‘Oh God…’ she gasped out loud.

  ‘Miss?’ the driver suddenly said, interjecting into her thought process. ‘Do you want to get out here or what?’

  But Beth turned away from the window and shook her head violently. ‘No, no. I don’t.’ Her fear and confusion escalated as she turned back. She had to get away from here – she wasn’t ready to deal with this. She wasn’t sure when she would ever be ready to deal with this.

  Danny cheating on her …

  And right then, she came to the crystal-clear realisation that Danny didn’t plan this treasure hunt – he certainly wasn’t behind it. Evidently he had moved on, was making plans for – or more to the point, with – someone else, and Beth wasn’t included.

  ‘Sorry, no, I don’t want to get out,’ she managed to the cab driver. ‘Keep going. Please. I have to get out of here.’

  As the cab continued on its journey, and Beth scrambled to get her thoughts together, suddenly she felt very sure of one thing.

  As her world was crumbling around her, she would continue on with this hunt, she decided, swallowing the lump in her throat and hardening her heart.

  Anything that would offer her a respite from this terrifying new reality.

  Chapter 21

  The cab driver practically had to snap his fingers in front of Beth’s face as a signal that they had arrived, so fraught with confusion was she.

  ‘Miss, we’re here, the Waldorf,’ he said. ‘Miss? Miss? You OK?’

  Beth came to attention and stared blankly at the man talking to her from the front seat. She was still trying to process what she had just seen. It didn’t make any sense.

  Or did it?

  ‘Sorry, what?’ she mumbled, honestly forgetting what she had originally set out to do.

  ‘We’re here, at the Waldorf. It’ll be fourteen dollars.’

  Beth shook her head in an effort to get rid of the cobwebs that cluttered her brain and reached for her purse. Pulling a twenty out of her wallet in one absent motion, she handed it to the cabbie, not asking for change, and getting out of the car before he had time to thank her for the tip.

  What was it she’d just seen? Danny – with a woman … No, it couldn’t be; Danny wasn’t like that. He wouldn’t cheat on her.

  But then she thought again about his recent strange behaviour. She had been well aware that, of late, things had been off with how he acted: those long nights at the office, the fact that he’d jumped all over her that time she’d offered to go through his pockets, not coming near her until he had a shower. Indeed, if Jodi had been here at that moment, assessing the situation with her, she would have been screaming ‘cheater’ at the top of her lungs.

  Standing on the path in front of the hotel, the reality once again hit Beth and left her weak and breathless with horror.

  Oh my God, he truly was having an affair. This wasn’t just a rough patch in their relationship. Danny, her boyfriend of seven years, was cheating on her.

  With that woman. That stunning-looking woman who looked to be Beth’s opposite in every way. Stylish, beautiful, poised … everything she wasn’t.

  Feeling crushed afresh, she chided herself then, unable to believe that she had felt so guilty about her steadily growing feelings for Ryan. Now, in light of all this, she found it so embarrassing that she felt stupid for worrying. When she was dealing with all of this internal conflict, Danny had already taken the lower road. He’d betrayed her, kept secrets from her, cheated.

  Cheated …

  Yet still, even with everything that Beth had just seen, her subconscious was telling her not necessarily to believe her eyes. Maybe she wasn’t seeing the whole picture. Talk to him. Maybe there’s more to it.

  But how could she talk to him? How could she tell Danny that she’d seen him on the street with some woman? It would open up a can of worms that Beth wasn’t sure she was ready to deal with.

  Now, she peered up at the façade of the hotel, festooned with twinkling holiday wreaths and garlands. Just a taxi
ride ago she had wondered, but now Danny’s name was definitely crossed off the list of possible suspects behind this treasure hunt. After all, why would he bother doing something fun and romantic if he was falling in love with someone else?

  Falling in love, thought Beth, and a sob caught in her throat. He had fallen in love with me at one time, too.

  She thought back to that time in Venice: to their locking their love on that bridge; tossing the key in to the canal below. To that moment when she thought it would be the two of them – for good. So much for the love of a lifetime.

  But what did that matter? What did any of it matter now? Against her will, a tear escaped from her left eye, and then her right. She put a hand to her face quickly, afraid of what bystanders on the street would think of her standing in front of the Waldorf crying.

  It was almost like a piece of a movie-reel, Beth thought. A tearjerker, to be sure. And she was the loser in all of this – she was the one who was going to be left on her own. She was the one who wouldn’t have a happy ending.

  She swallowed hard and took a ragged breath when suddenly her subconscious chimed in again. Maybe this – the reason she was here at all – was leading her to another, better ending?

  Beth faced the hotel once again and steeled her features into an expression of resilience. She supposed there was only one way to find out.

  Casting Danny from her mind, and instead calling upon Scarlett O’Hara’s famous mantra to ‘think about that tomorrow’, Beth stepped forward towards the building, determined to find the answer to this latest clue.

  As she approached the ornate entrance to the famed New York hotel, she looked up at the art deco angel standing sentry above the doorway and was immediately struck by a sense of history – and also longing – as she pushed her way through the revolving door, and was deposited into the opulent lobby.

  There was nothing that quite epitomised the luxurious, classic and iconic New York like the Waldorf Astoria, Beth thought. A study in elegance and luxury, with soft lighting from table lamps, dark wood, potted palms, and sumptuous seating, this place had featured in so many of her favourite movies – had been the focal point for so many wonderful New York love stories: Serendipity, Maid in Manhattan, Catch Me If You Can – the romance of it was cemented in her mind. And at this time of year in particular it was even more magical.