Echoes of Titanic (41 page)

“I'm sorry about that, ladies,” he said. “You're both otherwise engaged. I don't mean to interrupt.”

He turned to go, but Jocelyn spoke. “No, please. Obviously, Tad wants you to stay. Have a seat. I'm Jocelyn Brennan, by the way, and this is my cousin Adele.”

“How do you do?” the man replied with a polite nod. “Clancy O'Connell. I only met Mr. Myers yesterday, but I could tell straight off he was a man of ideas. Unfortunately, none of those ideas will fix my problems.”

He sat down on a chair to the right of the couch, hat still in his hands, and his eyes returned to the floor. “My music store is going under, you see, and I don't know how to stop it. I thought perhaps a loan or an investment might help, but Tad took a look at my financials and said I'm in such bad shape that I couldn't get money from St. Nicholas himself on Christmas Day.”

“I'm sorry to hear that, Mr. O'Connell,” Adele told him kindly. “I'm not sure why Tad thought I might be able to help. I've not worked in business and have no formal education on the topic.”

Clancy shrugged. “He said you had a natural gift.”

“Well, then, why don't you give me some background and I'll see if any suggestions come to mind?” Adele said. Her cheeks were flushed, but Jocelyn could tell she was deeply pleased.

Nodding, the fellow began his tale. From what Jocelyn could tell, it sounded as though the company had suffered several big blows in a row, including a dishonest cashier who had been dipping into the till and a piano factory that had gone bankrupt with numerous orders still pending. Adele asked the man some questions, and they were still exploring various options when Tad returned and took the space on the sofa next to her.

Eventually Mr. O'Connell said he had to leave to meet up with his wife, but he thanked them for their help and asked if they might talk again later. Once he was gone, Adele turned to Tad and said she appreciated the fact that he respected her abilities enough to suggest such an encounter.

He smiled shyly. “It's not exactly a secret. You just have a way about you. I thought he might find your assistance encouraging—and that you might even come up with a solution to his problems.”

Tad held Adele's gaze for a long moment, and suddenly Jocelyn felt very much like a third wheel. She wanted to slip away and give them some time alone together, but she needed to do so without being rude.

Then it came to her. Stifling a smile, she announced it was time for her to head to the enclosed promenade and help entertain the children. “Would you two like to come with me?”

“No,” they replied in unison, and then they all laughed.

Soon Jocelyn was on her way. She had accomplished her goal of moving them toward a relationship, which was a good thing.

So why did that thought make her feel so sad?

T
hriller looked as excited as Kelsey felt.

“See, as soon as you said that stuff this morning about “The Wonder,'” he explained, “my brain started working on it. I knew I had seen or heard that phrase somewhere before. Then this afternoon it hit me. It took a while to find a picture of it, but there you go. The Wonder safe, made by Cramer Brothers Company in Kansas City, Missouri, in the year nineteen fifteen.”

“Do we know where it is?” Kelsey whispered.

“Not yet,” he replied. “But hopefully we will by the end of the night.”

Kelsey continued to stare in shock at the photo of the old safe. Even if they couldn't find it, even if nothing came of this at all, just seeing that photo reaffirmed something far more important, that her father was still
there
, that he wasn't just a mindless shell who sat babbling nonsense. “The Wonder!” he had cried in response to her questions about the bonds. Looking at the photo, she felt a flutter of release, of hope, deep in her heart. Maybe he would never return to the man he'd once been, but at least a part of him remained. For her, that was enough.

Drawing in a quick breath to ward off happy tears, she asked Thriller if he had seen one of these before in person.

“One or two.”

“Where?”

“Let's just say I have some
familiarity
with safes.”

Kelsey looked at him, slightly startled, wondering if he'd been a thief or a
safecracker in the past. Cole had always been the type of person to give a fellow a second chance. For all she knew, he hired ex-cons.

“I used to work for a locksmith,” Thriller said with a faint smile.

“Ah,” she said, embarrassed for her assumption. “So what's our next move?”

“We'll get to that,” Cole said. “But let's finish up our review first. Thriller, why don't you tell us what you learned about the bonds themselves?”

Thriller retook his seat. “Flash, you helped me out on this. Why don't you explain?”

“Gladly.” The young man sat up a little straighter in his wheelchair and looked at Kelsey. “Good news. With some digging we were able to confirm that on April tenth, nineteen twelve, a Mr. Rowan Brennan purchased ten bonds for a thousand dollars each from a company called Transatlantic Wireless Limited, in England.”

Kelsey gasped. “Are you sure?”

Flash nodded, looking vaguely insulted at the question.

“Transatlantic Wireless?” she asked. “What is that?”

“Primarily, they sold telegram and telegraph equipment to companies like those owned by Marconi. In fact,
Titanic
was using some of their equipment on board, so we assume Brennan was able to see it in action during the trip.”

“Wow.” Kelsey sat back in her seat, astounded at what she was learning. “But how do we know if the bonds made it off the ship or not?”

Flash grinned. “Oh, they did. I tracked the serial numbers and found that two of them were cashed in nineteen twenty-nine, another in nineteen thirty-five, and yet another in nineteen seventy-three.”

“That means they were still worth something as late as the seventies,” Kelsey said softly.

“Yep,” Flash replied. “Three hundred and forty two thousand dollars each, to be exact. They would be worth more than that now, maybe even twice as much.”

“How about the other six bonds? Any idea what happened to them?”

Flash shook his head. “My search was pretty exhaustive. I found no other evidence of the remaining serial numbers. There's a chance that only four of the bonds made it off
Titanic
, of course, but it seems unlikely they would have become separated. Our conclusion is that your father was correct. Some of the bonds still exist, unredeemed, and they are being stored somewhere in a Cramer Brothers safe.”

Closing her eyes, Kelsey verbalized the one question she was afraid to ask.
“Is Transatlantic Wireless still around? I can't imagine that bonds from a telegraph company would be worth anything in this day and age.” She opened her eyes, and once again she realized that the three men were all smiling at her.

“The good news,” Cole said, picking things up from there, “is that TW is now part of a larger conglomerate. They're owned by BAE Systems, which is one of the UK's largest corporations.”

“So it's a viable company?” she said.

“Quite.”

“And they would honor these bonds?”

“We believe so.” His smile faded. “There's just one big problem.”

“What's that?”

Cole glanced at Flash and Thriller and then back at Kelsey. “The bonds purchased by Rowan Tate were hundred-year bonds. If we can't find them and cash them in by April ninth, two thousand twelve, they'll expire.”

Kelsey swallowed hard. “Expire? Then what?”

He shrugged. “Essentially, they'll become worthless.”

“You could probably sell them on eBay, as collectibles,” Flash interjected. “But you wouldn't get that much for 'em. Maybe forty, fifty bucks a piece.”

Kelsey's mind was whirling. April ninth? That was…“Cole, today is Friday the sixth, right?”

“Yes.”

“That means we have to find them and cash them in by Monday or we lose everything.”

He nodded grimly. “Guess you could say we have our work cut out for us. It's time to take a good look at these floor plans to see if we can figure out the most logical places where that safe might be hidden.”

Cole then unfolded the plans Kelsey had brought and spread them open on the table. As he and Thriller studied them closely, Flash suggested it might be a good time to wire her up. Soon she had a transmitter/battery pack tucked in a pocket, a tiny mic fastened inside her collar, and a small, flesh-colored triangle wedged in her ear.

Using a headset and his laptop, Flash had her walk through the Thornton offices as he tested out the sound. And though the vibrations of the earpiece tickled a bit when he spoke, otherwise she was amazed at the quality of the reception.

“What exactly do I do once I'm in there?” she asked Flash when she rejoined the others in the conference room.

Handing her an iPad, he said, “The first thing is to use this to log onto the network and go into your email. You'll accept an email from me, and that will serve to open a channel. After that, I'll take over and get the electronic info we need remotely.”

“Remotely?”

“From the van. We'll be parked right outside.”

She was suddenly nervous. “Will I be able to talk to you while I'm in there?”

“Absolutely, like you did just now.”

“Okay.”

“After that I may need you to take other actions, depending on the data that comes back to me. Otherwise, Thriller will be guiding you to look for the safe.”

She nodded, the butterflies in her stomach suddenly going wild.

“I was able to get information about the security system the B & T building uses,” Flash continued. “Fortunately, you can still get in the doors with your regular code, and there's only one security camera on the fifth floor. It shows the elevator landing, the restroom doors, and the reception area. Avoid those, and you won't be spotted.”

Kelsey nodded, remembering that from a conversation with Ephraim.

Glancing at his watch, he added, “The security team doesn't start making rounds till midnight, and the cleaners come on Sundays rather than Fridays, so you should be clear of all interruptions. Unless some employee decides to come back to the office, you'll have the place to yourself.”

Kelsey sank into a chair. “You guys certainly seem to have thought of everything,” she said gamely, wishing she felt more confident.

Flash nodded. “That's our job. And we're as thorough as they come.”

They both fell silent, and Kelsey turned her attention to Cole and Thriller. The two men were leaning intently over the plans, deep in discussion, pausing occasionally to make notes on a pad.

“How are you guys coming over there?” Flash asked, glancing at his watch. “We ought to roll soon.”

“Just about finished,” Cole replied. Then, after another minute, both men sat up straight and Cole gave Kelsey a nod. “Just one more thing, and then we can go.”

Nodding, she moved back to her place at the table.

“No offense, Kels, but I need you to sign this.” Cole pulled a piece of
paper from a manila folder and slid it in front of her. “It's a waiver, and it says you have the authority to grant us remote access to your computer network. What we're doing is legal as long as it's done with the permission of someone who already has access to the data.”

“We won't be hacking any firewalls,” Flash added. “That's why you have to be inside, online, to grant us the permission electronically.”

Kelsey nodded, skimming the wording on the form. It all looked reasonable to her, and she had no hesitation in signing. Not only did she feel that she had every right to do this, but she had also obtained permission from her father, who was still the president of Brennan & Tate, technically speaking. Cole handed her a pen. After she had signed the document and handed it back to him, he thanked her, adding, “I won't work outside of the law, and I can't have my employees doing so either. I'm glad you understand that.”

She nodded, their eyes holding for a long moment. “Knowing you, Cole, that doesn't surprise me in the least.”

Smiling, he tucked away the waiver and then stood.

“Guess that's it, folks,” he told them, eyeing his troops one by one. “Let's roll.”

Soon the four of them were in a dark blue, handicap-accessible van, Thriller at the wheel, driving down Broadway toward the financial district. The back of the vehicle was filled with all sorts of electronic equipment, and the more Kelsey took it all in, the more confident she began to feel about the whole thing. These guys really did seem to know what they were doing. Glancing at Cole, she felt her heart surge with gratitude.

“Thank you,” she whispered when he returned her gaze. “I know you guys offered to do all of this for free, but I say if we find those bonds, you've earned yourselves a finder's fee.”