A heavy mist hung over the streets of Arch City when Vic left the Double Majesty. The damp air and her fatigue weighed her down, but she was too close to the end to lie down now just yet. She pulled up the frayed collar of her coat and headed to her car. Although she thought she could trust Emerson Gunn to drop his tail, she knew better than to trust her gut when it came to crime lords, even particularly stupid ones. It would take a couple of hours to be sure no one was following, but she had the time to spare. Of course, she had no intention of going near Anthony Quinn, but she didn’t want anyone to see her destination until she was sure what she would find there.
After lazily criss crossing her way through dark back alleys and hazy city streets for hours, it seemed Gunn was good to his word. The only thing she’d seen regularly were junkies and napping patrolmen. The sun was just beginning to lighten the sky over the city when she parked her car at the already bustling Fred Jager Airfield.
Moving through the terminals she found what she was looking for, a long bank of grey lockers. Halfway down the third row, she found locker 72, the key missing and the red ‘rented’ tag showing. She dug a few coins from her pocket and deposited them in the closest available locker and pulled out the key. It was identical to the one Logan had shown her in his office. It was one small mystery solved, but it didn’t help much in finding Nicole.
Vic scanned the large departure board for Highline flights scheduled to leave at eight. There were two. Both were on time and not yet boarding, but the terminals were too far away from each other for her to watch both. She’d have to take a guess and hope for the best. She picked the destination that felt most like the place a love-sick gang leader would woo his mistress with and found an out-of-the-way corner to watch.
At half-past seven, the seats began to fill around her and by quarter till she was beginning to question her choices. If she picked the wrong flight, she could be waiting here while her mark was already sipping martinis in first class. Or she could be halfway across the world already, or chained in the basement of Anthony Quinns' estate, or laying in an alley off Kellerman, the victim of some random crime. Vic sighed. She was so sure she’d been right, but now, in the glare of artificial light and drone of a faceless crowd, she felt a bit ridiculous for her assumptions.
The last call for boarding sounded and people began moving more frantically around her. An elderly woman and her rather severe-looking helper rose from a seat near her. The old woman’s shawl covered her head and the shoulders of her shabby dress. A hint of red under her hem caught Vic’s eye, and she laughed.
“Hello, Mrs. Quinn.” The woman gave a start even as the younger tried to pull her along. “It’s alright. I’m not working for your husband.”
It was Nicole Quinn’s companion that finally spoke up. “If you are not of the police then you have no right to detain us.” She was a small woman with a heavy accent and, upon closer inspection, quite beautiful. Vic could see she had tried hard to cover it, but her tight bun and oversize clothes only worked from a distance. Her striking eyes and high cheekbones were harder to hide up close.
“Nadia Meriaz?”
“That is not my name,” she said defensively. “I have documents to prove it.” Nicole Quinn laid a hand on Nadia’s arm before she could continue.
“It’s alright,” she abandoned her stoop and turned to address Vic, “if you are not the police, then who are you, and what do you want? I have no money to give you if you were hoping for a bribe.” She spoke forcefully, but there was an edge of panic in her voice.
“My name is Vic Cross, PI. I was hired to find you by an…interested party,” Vic smirked.
“I believe it was not my husband. I doubt I’d still be conscious if you were in his employ.”
“No, not your husband. But someone who knows you as intimately.” Nadia tossed her head angrily but Nicole only nodded.
“I see. And what do you propose to do now that you have found me for this interested party, Ms. Cross?”
“Well, I’d like to ask you a couple questions if you don’t mind.” Vic ignored her shock. “Namely, what are you doing?”
“Obviously trying to get on a plane,” Nadia snapped.
“You’ll have to forgive Nadia. This has been a stressful few days for us. And to be so close to our goal and be delayed is especially upsetting,” there was an unspoken question in Nicole Quinn’s statement, but she continued, “but to answer your question properly, I am leaving Arch City and everyone in it forever.”
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“But why?” Vic wasn’t sure why she cared, or even if she did, but she hadn’t decided yet what to do with her quarry so a little more information wouldn’t hurt. “What are you running from? Embezzlement? Political scandal? Too many high-profile flings?”
Vic was surprised when Nicole Quinn laughed at her. “Is that really what you think? That my life is so enchanted I could not possibly want to leave unless to avoid disaster?” She sighed heavily. “I am sorry to disappoint, but there is no such drama here. The only thing I am running from is my own bad choices.”
It was Vic’s turn for amusement. “Bad choices? You are the richest dame in all the land. I’d say you’ve done alright.”
“Maybe you would. And I would have agreed with you not so long ago. I thought power and money were the goals and I would have sacrificed anything to get them, including myself. Do you truly believe me, the empty-headed beauty with no aspirations beyond my next dress or expensive bottle of champagne?” She toyed with the fringe of her brown shaw, “I would not blame you if you did. I am that person now, after all. It is the price I pay for being the ‘riches dame in all the land’, as you say.” She shook her head, “it is a high price to pay, too high I think now. But by the time I realized my mistake, it was too late. My husband controlled everything. Not just the money but my public image, my friends, even my looks were dictated to me daily. I was a tool, and he worked hard to make sure I did the job he designed me for.” Nadia looked at her sadly. “The harder I pushed back, the tighter his grip became. Can you imagine, Ms. Cross, expected to be someone you are not, someone you don’t even like by those you love the most, to be molded into a facade of a person?”
“Maybe, yeah,” Vic rubbed the back of her neck, “I guess I can.”
“Well, I couldn’t imagine it anymore. I was going to put an end to it however I had to,” she touched Naida’s shoulder affectionately, “Nadia saved me. She refused my husband's bribes and ignored his threats. She was the first person to see under the mask he’d created for me, the only friend I’d had in years, and the only person I’ve ever truly loved.”
“Then why have her fired?”
Nadia laughed bitterly, “is that what the bastard told you? Are you not listening? Nikki has no control. She was told I was fired, and it was what she wanted. She had no choice.”
Nicole nodded. “I believe Anthony got suspicious of our time together. It was then I knew we had to leave, and soon.”
“And that’s where Emerson Gunn came in?”
“Yes, and no. Emerson was supposed to be a cover only. A way to keep my husband’s eyes distracted from the real plan and my small communications with Nadia.”
“Your husband didn’t care you were sleeping with another man?”
“No, Ms. Cross. I know my husband. In Emerson, I chose a man powerful enough to have some protection, but not attractive enough to bruise Anthony’s ego. My husband cared little. He saw it as a laughable attempt to break his grasp on me and he was well aware it would never work.”
“But it is Gunn’s ticket that’s getting you out, right?”
“That was very lucky for us indeed,” Nicole answered. “We found ourselves quite stuck. We had intended to leave as soon as we had new documents. I stared at that date in my book for weeks. It was all I had,” she shook her head sadly, “but it cost more than we had hoped. Nadia’s severance was only enough to pay for our new identities and I could not handle any of my own money, or even take my own things out of the house without my husband growing suspicious. Then Emerson gave me exactly what I needed, even if it will not end the way he had hoped. I left his room that night and came straight here. The contents of the locker were enough for a second ticket. I went home intending to stay there until our flight left but I could not…” her eyes glittered with unshed tears, “I could not face another night there surrounded by all the things I had come to hate.”
As she finished, the final boarding call was repeated. Nicole Quinn pulled her shaw closer around her, never taking her eyes off Vic. “Well Ms. Cross, that is my story and I believe your questions answered. You have solved your mystery and now you have a choice. Let me start over or turn me over to Mr. Gunn or my husband.”
“Nah, not your husband. He picked the wrong horse for this race. I don’t answer to him.”
“Then Mr. Gunn. Will you deliver me to him?”
“I imagine very soon Mr. Gunn is going to be too buried by his work to care about you or me or a stolen plane ticket." Both women looked at her curiously. “I’d hurry if I were you. They won’t hold that gate forever.”
Nadia’s dark eyes widened in surprise, “you…you would let us go then?”
Vic laughed, “what would I do with you, turn you over to Arch City PD? They already know I’m better than them, so there’s no point in it.”
Nicole Quinn grasped Vic’s hand in two of hers, all pretense of age lost as she beamed up at her. “I don’t know how to thank you, Ms. Cross.”
“Don’t thank me yet. You are off to a foreign land with nothing but the clothes on your back and each other. I can think of about a hundred ways this could go south in under a week.”
“You may be right, Ms. Cross, but at least the choice is mine to make, wherever it leads.”
Vic watched them disappear down the ramp hand in hand and wondered how long it would take Logan to swallow his pride and ask her if she ever found Nicole Quinn. She smiled to herself and thought she might even tell him the truth.