The Precipice (24 page)

Suddenly she started to feel faint and her knees were feeling weak. Kurt grabbed her around the torso and eased her into the nearest chair. “Breathe, Elizabeth, breathe. In through the nose, out through the mouth. Breathe.” He looked intently at her to see if she was doing what he was telling her to do.

Her head bobbed a couple of times and then stabilized. She blinked to try to stay focused and took deep breaths. He kept his arm around her back to support her. She raised her hand as if to say she was all right. He pulled his arm away, but kept it within a safe distance and watched her carefully. She seemed to be recovering nicely. Perhaps the wine wasn’t such a good idea but he thought she was a very strong woman, particularly under the circumstances.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

“Oh, Elizabeth, don’t worry about it. You’re fine. I know this is a lot to take in.”

Her head was still feeling a little light headed so she reached out and held onto his arm for a moment. She needed something or someone to hang onto. She was so glad to see him again, even if he was the bearer of bad news. She released his arm again.

He kept his eye on her and an arm within reach of catching her but she seemed to quickly come around so he pulled back and returned to his seat.

She looked into his eyes with a smile and shook her head slightly. “So Vera was never involved?” Elizabeth cringed when she thought back to her conversation in her boss’s office earlier that morning.

“It doesn’t appear so. Zoloft is a pretty common drug. Readily available. We have FBI agents tailing Armand and should have him in custody shortly.”

She smiled. Even so, she didn’t know if she could really trust Vera again. “It’s amazing how screwed up things can get, especially when you have no control over them.” She looked to see if he had a response.

“I think a very wise person once said that it’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s how you handle it that makes a difference.”

She considered his words of wisdom and sat silently for a while. She realized that at some point she would be able to understand that he was absolutely right. It would take some time, but she knew that eventually she would be able to accept what had happened at the inn during the last couple of weeks and also so many years ago with Renard and the missing student. She needed to move on. And maybe that meant moving on from Vera as well.

He glanced down at his cell phone and pressed a key to retrieve a text message. He looked up with a smile. “We just took Drescher into custody.”

Elizabeth thought about that for a moment, stood up from the table and moved around to the side of it. She smiled, took a deep breath and then leaned over and kissed him on the right side of his face, bushing the left side with her hand. She stood up straight again, looked directly into his eyes and said, “Kurt, I hope to see you again. Thank you for everything you have done. I really appreciate it.” She pulled his jacket off of her shoulders and draped it over the chair she had just vacated and turned away, leaving a half a glass of wine on the table.

A look of surprise came across his face. “Elizabeth…are you okay?” He was suddenly concerned about her leaving alone.

She lowered her head for a moment as if she was deep in thought and then smiled slightly. She turned back and looked into his eyes with one side of her mouth curled upward and said, “I’ll be fine.”

He watched as she turned, walked toward the door, and out onto the streets of Manhattan.

Glancing across the street to her building, she got a glimpse of Drescher being led out of her building with his hands in cuffs behind him. He looked rather humble between two uniformed New York City police officers. Half a dozen plain clothed men wearing black wind breakers followed behind. She assumed they were FBI agents. Several unmarked black Surburbans were waiting at the curb along with two New York City patrol cars with lights flashing.

He turned his head toward her and made eye contact.

She turned away from him and headed in the opposite direction down Lexington Avenue in the light rain

About The Author

M
s. Goetjen resides in Connecticut with her husband and their three children.