“Oh my,” the woman on the other end said. “Well, I’m certainly sorry to hear about the suicide, that’s for sure. But I also know that Mr. Fairfax will want to know this as soon as possible. I’ll be sure to have him call you at the very first chance he gets.”
“Well, the day is coming to a close,” Ava said. “Do you know where he might be? Maybe I can speak with him face to face.”
“Oh, sure. He’s been over at the Empire State Building all afternoon. He had some business over there and, just between you, me, and the wire, I think he just likes to be around the construction.”
“That’s an enormous help. Thank you so much.”
Ava hung up the phone so quickly that she barely had time to hear the secretary as she said: “You’re welcome.”
Ava looked to Pawlowski with a nervous smile and said, “Looks like we’re headed to the Empire State Building after all.”
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
Ava had driven by the Empire State Building multiple times, but just like with the Chrysler Building, she’d never had any reason to step inside. She knew through the news that it, like the Chrysler Building, was not yet completed. From what she understood, there were some businesses being conducted out of its lower floors and offices, but it was not yet the large, thriving epicenter of business it was expected to be when it was finally complete.
When the cab dropped them off, Ava studied the exterior. From what she could tell, most of the construction was much higher up on the left side. She craned her neck to look at the uncompleted floors far, far above her head as she and Pawlowski made their way inside.
If Ava had never seen the active construction outside, she would have never known the place was incomplete. The lobby waiting for them beyond the main doors was pristine, although a bit empty. Ava attributed this to the fact that it was the end of the business day, her watch now reading 4:51.
There were two people moving around behind the front desk that sat just in front of the main doors after an expansive lobby opened the place up. One was a man, the other a woman, and they both greeted Ava and Pawlowski warmly.
“How can I help you?” the man asked. He was a bit older but still made very little attempt to hide the fact that he was admiring Pawlowski’s form.
“We just spoke with the secretary over at Henry Fairfax’s office,” Ava said. “We were told Mr. Fairfax was here.”
“That he is,” the man said, delighted to be of service. “If you’ll just walk around the lobby to the right, you’ll see a short hallway that leads back to a few elevators. Take those up to the sixth floorand you’ll see a conference room along the main hallway. You’ll find him there. Now, there’s a chance he’s still in a meeting, but I don’t think so. I think just about everyone in that meeting has left for the day.”
“Thanks so much,” Pawlowski said, smiling at the man. She’d apparently noticed his lingering gaze and was trying to use it to her advantage. Ava wondered if that was why the man and woman had not bothered asking who they were or why they needed to speak with Fairfax.
They followed the directions and came to the elevator easily enough. As it rose up to the sixth floor, it was far too similar to the ride up in the Chrysler Building—only much shorter. Ava was relieved when it came to a stop and the doors slid open in front of them.
The space within the hallway was wide and open, nearly making Ava forget about the sprawling amount of floors ascending over her head. When they came to the conference room, they found the door standing open, revealing one of the biggest rooms Ava had ever seen. The two tables pushed together in the center were littered with notebooks, binders, and papers—some of which looked like blueprints. Despite the mess, there were only three people in the room.
Ava raised her hand to knock but found herself frozen for a moment. As she looked in at the three men, she found herself focused immediately on one of them more than the others. They all appeared to be middle-aged—somewhere between forty-five and fifty.
The one standing closest to them had Ava’s full attention. And as she stood there, momentarily frozen, Pawlowski’s voice spoke softly behind her.
“Gold…you see it, right?”
Ava only nodded as she knocked. By the time she’d been able to knock, all three of the men had turned her way. Two of themwere smiling. But the man that she’d taken instant notice of did not.
This man wore a nice, navy-colored suit. The jacket was open in a casual manner and his tie was loosened, a sign of the day coming to an end. But what had caught Ava’s attention was the button-down shirt he wore beneath it. It was an off-white with a subtle cross-stitched pattern of diamonds.
It was the exact same material and design of the fabric that had been found clutched in Alfred Perkins’s hand. At first, it seemed like one of those too-good-to-be-true moments. Surely, she was seeing things,makingherself see a link that wasn’t there.
But then something O’Hare had said rocketed through her head.
“…it’s all been such a whirlwind, there are days I forget to even change my damned clothes!”
Maybe, if this was indeed Fairfax, he’d been living that same sort of life as of late, trying to salvage his own fortunes as well as those of his clients and ignoring the simpler luxuries in life.
“Hello, ladies,” one of the other men said. He was stacking up a few papers, giving them a curious glance. “Anything we can do for you?”
“Yes, actually,” Ava said. “We need to speak with Mr. Fairfax.”
When it was clear no one was going to leave the room, Pawlowski spoke up and said, “Privately.”
The man stacking papers chuckled at this, giving Fairfax a devilish grin. The third man laughed a bit, too, but was more agreeable. He nodded to Ava and Pawlowski without even asking who they were and made his exit. When he did, he turned to Fairfax and the other man, giving them a wave.