I settled down at my desk to get something accomplished. Mondays were usually so peaceful, since we weren’t open to the public-not that the patrons of the reading room downstairs were exactly a rowdy bunch. But there was something soothing about the silence of the place.
Until Eric came back with coffee-and with Shelby. She looked worried. My heart sank into my stomach. What now?
Before they could speak, I said, “Do I want to hear this?” I took the coffee that Eric handed me. He looked at Shelby.
“Probably not, but you should,” Shelby said.
I took a sip of coffee, sighed, and said, “What?”
“Eric just told me what you just talked about. About his arrest and all.”
“Did you know?” I wasn’t sure what answer I wanted from her.
Shelby shrugged. “Not in so many words, but I knew there’d been some trouble. That’s why I wanted to help him if I could, and I figured this job would be a great solution for everyone.”
So far I didn’t see any issues. “Then what’s the problem?”
Shelby looked away. “I figured this was as good a time as any to come clean. You know that résumé of mine? It’s kind of a fairy tale.”
Great. Another imposter. “You told me you didn’t have a criminal record. I remember distinctly asking you that.”
“I don’t! I’m as pure as the driven snow-at least as far as the police are concerned.”
“But Melanie checked out your references, right?”
“She did. But… I kind of, uh, enhanced some of my experience, and then I told my friends back in Virginia to back me up. Melanie did her job, so don’t blame her.”
This day just kept getting better. I slumped back in my chair. “Tell me.”
“Well, the general outlines are true. I didn’t even lie about my age! I’ve lived here for two years, and I’m married to John and I have a daughter, Melissa. But a year ago John got laid off, and we spent a whole lot on Melissa’s education, and now she wants this no-holds-barred wedding, so I’m really, really hard up for money. So when I saw this job listing, it sounded perfect.”
“Do I dare ask what real experience you have?”
“Back in Virginia, I was a society wife-lots of parties and good works. I helped raise money for a lot of things, and I did a good job of it. Except I didn’t get paid for it.”
“So you’re saying you have no professional experience in development?”
She shook her head. “Sorry, Nell. I was a member of my local historical society but never in any official capacity-not that they did much anyway. But I do love history,” she ended lamely.
Great. I’d made a total of two new hires, and both had turned out to be keeping secrets. What was I supposed to do now? One part of me said I should boot them both out because they hadn’t been completely honest with me. Another part said that I didn’t have time at the moment to dump them and try to find two replacements. Still another part of me told me that I didn’t want to fire them because I liked them both, and my gut said they were decent people who’d happened to get themselves into difficult situations and were just doing the best they could. Which sounded rather familiar.
Shelby and Eric were watching me like two cats keeping their eye on a large dog. I didn’t want to be a dog; I wanted to be on the side of the cats. But I’d given up that option when I’d said yes to the board last month.
I laid both hands flat on the surface of my desk. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I’m angry at both of you for misrepresenting yourselves to me, even though I understand the circumstances. I appreciate your coming forward, even though you might have been forced into it. To be honest, I need you both. Let’s just leave things the way they are for now, okay? And if either one of you has forgotten to mention some other big black hole in your past, or if I catch you taking any shortcuts now, or lying to me or to anyone else, you’ll be out of here so fast you won’t know what hit you. With no severance and no recommendations. Got it?”
Eric nodded.
“Thank you, Nell,” Shelby said softly. “I’m sorry.”
“That’s all we need to say. Now go get some work done, will you?” I said, trying to sound both benevolent and authoritative at the same time. It wasn’t easy.
They left, contrite. I looked at my watch: it was barely nine o’clock. What else was this day going to bring?
CHAPTER 25
I decided to work through the lunch hour, and sent Eric out to find a sandwich and bring me something back whenever he was done. He was still acting like a whipped puppy, and he was thrilled to be able to do something for me. He’d been gone for half an hour or so when Front Desk Bob called up to say that Caitlin Treacy was in the lobby. What did she want this time? “I’ll be right there, Bob.”
When I entered the lobby I found Caitlin standing there, dwarfed by a large basket of not only cookies and flowers but also what appeared to be a stuffed animal lurking amidst the greenery. “Hi, Nell,” she said. “Mother wanted to thank you for helping sort things out over the weekend.” She held out the basket. I took it-and nearly dropped it. Arabella must have been really grateful.
“So she told you about it?”
“You mean about my father? Yes. Anyway, I’ve got to get back to Let’s Play. And I’ve been using the advice you gave me the other day. It’s been a big help. Bye.” She turned to go, leaving me with a hefty basket and a lot of unanswered questions. Not much of a response for a woman who hadn’t seen her father in twenty years.
Eric pulled open the door from outside and stopped to hold it for Caitlin. He continued to hold it, staring after her, until I called out to him. “Eric? Is that my lunch?”
He started, then turned to me. “Oh, sorry, yes. Who was that who was leaving?”
“That was Caitlin Treacy, Arabella’s daughter. She works at Let’s Play-she’s the person who’s handling the Harriet exhibit.”
“Huh,” Eric said, still looking puzzled. “I thought she looked familiar, but I’ve never been to Let’s Play. Anyway, I assume you want to eat your lunch?”
“Definitely.”
Upstairs I took my lunch to the staff room at the rear of the building, both to keep my desk clean and to hide out from anyone who might come looking for me. Since it was past the lunch hour, there was no one around, and I managed to enjoy a few minutes of peace and a good sandwich. I was just folding up the wrapper to throw it away when Eric appeared, looking triumphant.
“I knew I’d seen her somewhere!” he announced.
“Who? Caitlin?”
He dropped into a chair across from me. “Yes, only when I knew her she was Kathleen Treacy. I didn’t put it together with Caitlin, or with Heffernan, her mother’s last name.”
“I thought you grew up in Virginia. How did you know Caitlin?”
Eric looked around, then leaned toward me. “It’s kind of complicated. Maybe we should take this to your office. And ask Shelby to join us. I think she knows Kathleen, or Caitlin, or whoever she thinks she is, too.”
“Okay,” I said, mystified. I gathered up my trash, threw it out, and followed Eric back down the hall. As we walked, I asked, “What’s with the confusion of names?”
“Something about honoring her Irish roots, I think. That’s what I heard.”
As soon as we reached his desk, Eric dialed Shelby, who appeared a few moments later. I led them both into my office and shut the door, and we distributed ourselves between the damask-covered visitors’ settee and the matching armchair. “What’s going on? Why so hush-hush?”
“Let me back up a minute,” Eric began. “Shelby, you can fill in as I go. You’re right, Nell-I grew up in Virginia. I knew pretty early that I was gay, but my folks thought that maybe a good private school could straighten me out-uh, pun intended-so for high school they sent me to Bishop’s Gate School. It’s a boarding school, and I think they were glad to have me out of the house. It was a good school academically, but it also had a reputation for helping out kids with issues, which I guess is what they thought I had. I did well enough there to get into a good college, even though it didn’t change the fact that I liked boys. I met Shelby’s daughter, Melissa, at Bishop’s Gate, although she was a year behind me-and Caitlin or Kathleen or whatever she wants to call herself was a year ahead. But it was a small school, so everybody knew everybody else.”