Etiquette for Runaways by Liza Nash Taylor

Author:Liza Nash Taylor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Published: 2020-05-14T17:45:31+00:00

TWENTY-FOUR

May exited the BOI office clutching her bag, fighting the urge to bolt. A Biltmore waiter and Larry the bellhop were waiting to be interviewed and she walked past them with a thumbs-up, mustering an encouraging smile. It was past nine o’clock when the agents dropped her back at the Hotel. In the lobby, the piano underscored the return to business as usual as May walked through with measured steps, determined to appear normal and calm, certain that people around her must hear the panicked banging of her heart. In the basement, the laundry room lights were dimmed. The hallway was empty and she slipped inside the storage room, her chest constricting as she saw that the dozen or more cots that had been there earlier were now only eight.

Watching the door behind her, she ran her hand between the identical folded mattresses, one by one, as desperate images flashed of her handkerchief, tumbling onto a room carpet, somewhere on the fifth, or twelfth, or fifteenth floor, begging a logical explanation. She froze, holding her breath, at the sound of a squeaking cart wheeling down the hall from the service elevator. It passed, and she continued. In the fifth cot she found it, and she closed her eyes and exhaled, weak with relief and exhaustion. Back in the hallway, a laundry cart overflowed with towels and sheets from the chute above. If she tossed the cufflinks in, no one would ever connect her to them. It could be that simple. She could walk out and buy a one-way ticket home and leave this behind. She could even write a note of resignation, right now, and slip it beneath Mrs. McPhatter’s office door. May loosened the knot in her handkerchief and the diamonds tumbled into her palm, still heavy and cool, nonplussed by the drama of their recent adventure. The lobby door squealed open above, and she closed her fist.

A loud whisper; Rocky’s voice. “May? Is that you?”

“Yes!”

He hurried down the steps, loosening his bowtie. “I thought I saw you. I just got back from speaking to the BOI. Larry said some men were chasing you.”

She told him what had happened, then held out her hand. “I was going to toss them into the laundry cart.”

“Are you crazy? You didn’t say anything to those agents, did you?”

May shook her head. They didn’t even know her real name.

“Listen, those diamonds are of no use to Mr. Faranelli anymore.” May nodded. Rocky looked over his shoulder, up the stairwell. “So this is your lucky break, Kiddo!” He put his hands over May’s fist and squeezed. “Hide ’em in a safe place for a couple weeks, till things die down. I’ll listen out for someplace you can sell them. Now, I’m going to change, and I’ll walk you home.”

As May waited, exhaustion began to sink in, and her head cleared. There was logic in what Rocky had said, yet she knew she was crossing a line. She was choosing to cross a line. I’ve been handed a golden opportunity.

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