The Address(79)

Melinda had always been vague about the amount of money in her trust fund. But surely, there would be enough for both lines of the family to split the principal and still live well. Bailey would be able to put a security deposit down on a rental apartment and maybe even pay back Tristan for the cost of Silver Hill. The luxury of a financial cushion to break her fall.

Her cousin’s brittle voice rang out as soon as she entered the Dakota apartment. “Where the hell have you been?”

Melinda stood against the library windowpane, smoking a cigarette.

“You really shouldn’t smoke in here.” Bailey had spent longer than she’d meant to at the library, and the doorman had warned her Melinda was upstairs. “It’s a fire hazard, with all the work going on.”

Melinda inhaled again, her mouth forming a perfect pout. “It’s fine. Why aren’t the bamboo poles up yet?”

“Because I have to order them. It’s not like you can go into the bamboo store and just buy them. These things take time.” She studied Melinda closely. “What’s going on with you?”

“I’m hungry and I’ve been waiting for you when I’m supposed to meet Tony for lunch.”

“Okay.” Bailey spoke as if Melinda were a two-year-old on the cusp of a major meltdown. “What can I do for you, then?”

“I’m not sure about the koi pond anymore.”

Thank God, she’d seen the light. “That’s fine. I think we can find a way to incorporate a really cool aquarium, if you need fish.”

A drilling noise threatened to bring down the walls. Melinda shouted above it. “But I don’t want anything that looks like it belongs in the room of a disgruntled teenager. I want something that’s grown up.”

Bailey shouted back. “Of course. Let me work on it.” This was ridiculous. “Hey, I found something out that is amazing. I want to tell you about it. Can we talk outside?”

“I’m late. You can come to lunch with me, though.”

They met Tony at a bistro on Columbus. He was already seated and halfway through a martini. Once they’d ordered, Bailey dove in.

“I found something down in the basement of the Dakota. Something valuable.”

Tony swiveled his head back from watching their young French waitress sashay to the kitchen. “What might that be, a diamond tiara of Melinda’s mum’s?”

“I wish.” Melinda turned to Tony. “No, she’s found some silly photo. Bailey’s been digging around in the family business, trying to stir up trouble.”

She had expected Melinda’s resistance, and pressed on. “Down in the basement, there are three trunks. One belongs to Theodore Camden, one to his wife, Minnie, and one to the person who brutally stabbed him to death, Sara Smythe.”

Tony perked up. She hadn’t meant to be so dramatic, but she hated the way he had dismissed her. Melinda, on the other hand, rolled her eyes.

Bailey ignored her. “In one of the trunks, I found a letter, most likely from Sara Smythe, that was written to the ward of Theodore and Minnie. It says that the ward, who was my grandfather, was her son. Hers and Theodore’s.”

She waited a moment, to let Tony wrap his head around the various branches of the family tree.

Tony squinted. “Back up. Who’s who? How many generations are you going back?”

“Four, if you can believe it. Theodore Camden had Luther Camden, who had Melinda and Manvel’s father. So Theodore Camden is Melinda and Manvel’s great-grandfather. What I’m suggesting is that Theodore Camden and this woman, Sara Smythe, had Christopher Camden, who’s my grandfather.”

“That means . . .” Tony trailed off.

“That I might also be Theodore’s great-granddaughter.”

“Jesus, you’ve got to stop this; you can’t tell anything by old letters. Let it go, already.” Melinda lit another cigarette. “Tony, I was thinking it’d be fun to go up to Saranac, see the leaves changing. Don’t you think? We could do a weekend, just the two of us.”

“Hold on, I want to hear more.” Tony held up his hand. “Do you have the letter?”

Bailey took an envelope from her handbag and opened it up. She pulled out the letter and laid it on the table, smoothing it out with care.

Tony studied it and looked at Bailey. “It’s hard to tell what the signature is. It’s all blurry. Where was it found?”

“In a purse in Minnie’s trunk. But it’s obviously the word Sara. Look, here’s the S.

“Huh.” He didn’t seem convinced. “If it was written by her, how can you believe it? She obviously was a nutjob.”

He had a point.

Melinda balanced her cigarette in the ashtray, perilously close to the letter. “You said you found something valuable. This is a piece of paper. I don’t get it.”

Bailey folded it back up and put it in the envelope. “There’s something else. Did you see the article in the paper about how they had to stop the work at Strawberry Fields because they found an antique knife?”

Tony nodded, and Melinda, who probably had never read a paper in her life, stared blankly.

“Well, we found the sheath that goes to it. In Theodore’s trunk. As well as what we believe was Theodore Camden’s finger. Or what’s left of it.”