Chapter 41

No one could say that Ranger's proposal had been romantic, but he made up for it that evening. I was fed, watered and thoroughly loved well into the night until exhaustion took over. As I woke the next morning my eyes immediately went to the ring now surrounding my finger. It was beautiful as it glinted in the sunlight as I moved my hand around. A blue diamond with surrounding black diamonds set into white gold exemplified who we were. That Ranger even had the ring here surprised me but his explanation that he'd kept it in his safe for a long time brought tears to my eyes. He had been fighting the same emotions as I had, loving someone without saying it and pushing it away to try and ignore it. What a pair we were.

I felt as Ranger's hand toyed with one of my curls but what he said next both surprised me and delighted me.

"How about we take a week away by ourselves and elope?"

Was that what I wanted? I considered what was important to me. I'd had the big fussy church wedding and hated every minute of it. What was important to me was just being with my man. I didn't want anything demonstrative just an opportunity to for us to exchange vows that were meaningful and expressed our love.

"I think that's a good idea"

"I'll arrange everything"

I wasn't too sure what he meant by everything so knew that as I turned up my face from his chest to look at him that I was frowning.

"What about a dress?"

"Do you trust me?"

To be honest I didn't care about the dress because it was going to be the ceremony that was important to me.

"Yes"

I replied but knew that any dress that he chose would be exquisite.

"We have a meeting this morning so you hopefully all of your questions will be answered"

In some ways I think that I already knew the answers now, though there were some individuals that were still at the forefront of my mind and what would happen with them. I dressed in smart trousers and a thin sweater not knowing how formal this meeting would be or even who would be there and was pleased when my hair seemed to fall into natural waves around my face. The mad frizzing seemed to have lost some of its strength as my hair had grown.

Ranger was waiting for me dressed in a suit which had my eyes scanning him from head to toe. That didn't go unnoticed and even as he muttered "later" he was pulling me through the door and across to the elevator. The meeting was downstairs in the conference room behind reception and as I entered, I was surprised at just how many people were seated around the table. The biggest surprise was seeing Lawrence Peralta sat looking relaxed in a suit between two other suited men. Why the hell was he here? Ranger led me around the table to sit between him and Les and then we waited.

It was one of the men who was sat next to Lawrence who took control of the meeting and introduced himself.

"Good morning. I'm Agent Hanson, FBI, and I am in charge of any cases that have never been resolved. Lawrence"

That this agent was referring to Lawrence surprised me, so I was keen to know what the hell was going on.

"Miss Plum. You stole my thunder. In a few weeks you managed to solve a puzzle that no one else could. Maybe if I give a brief synopsis then that will give you some clarity as to why I am sat here. I was brought up by a father who was, let's say, unethical"

I was close to rolling my eyes when I heard Lawrence say that, hell he had no room to talk. I didn't want to cause a scene so I kept my face as emotionless as I could so that I could hear the rest of his story.

"He was a cold calculating man that I grew to dislike. When he died, I was relieved thinking that I would be free of a man trying to dominate and control me but Trevor, my older brother stepped into his shoes. I resisted the only way that I knew how and became the opposite of him. I admit that I delved into the grey areas of legality but managed to survive. The only person who really had any sway on me at the time was Samuel Chiconi. I suppose I amused him. When Samuel died Trevor changed, something that had me curious, so I wanted to know why. I made out that our past was just that in the hope of discovering why he had changed. I came across a document that Trevor had designed that included Samuel and three of his friends and from that I started to dig"

Wow, so he knew everything about the history of Chiconi and his three friends, so come on Lawrence what did they steal. Lawrence paused and looked at the man sat next to him so I assumed that we were going to get some idea of exactly what had been stolen, because I was damned sure that Chiconi and his friends had stolen something that was worth a fortune.

"During the 80s there was an ingenious heist from Malton Airport where a large number of gold bars were stolen. The crime remained unsolved with no gold from the stolen boxes ever recovered. Witnesses and guards saw no robbers. Authorities named no suspects, offered multiple theories, and prosecuted no one"

I was looking at Agent Hanson as he gave that little bit of information and had to school my facial expression knowing that I would never have got to what it was that was stolen. I was back to looking at Lawrence now as he continued the story.

"Samuel became a very bitter man as he aged and by getting closer to my brother, I knew that Samuel must have pulled off a very big job. He became secretive and it was only when I started to look at the time when the contract was written that I could see that was when he had changed. The three men, Kenny Laborni, Matthew Burns and Jimmy Salowski, well they all died at a similar time and Trevor became subdued, even changing his business priorities. Before Trevor died, he told me everything, except for what was stolen or where it was. He was carrying a lot of guilt at the end. Apparently, he was the lawyer who was working with Salowski and passed on his possible betrayal to Samuel, which resulted in his murder. Salowski had no idea who Trevor was because the name on that contract was of someone else. I decided that I was of an age that maybe a bit of redemption was needed, maybe it was Trevor, I don't know. I contacted Agent Hanson and told him everything that I knew. The problem was that we had no idea what had been stolen or where it was and then Trevor died"

Was Lawrence saying that he was working with the FBI all this time? Why not just say that instead of kidnapping me?

"I apologize Miss Plum, but it really was annoying when your grandmother somehow managed to get hold of that pin. I only discovered its relevance when Trevor's will was read and felt that it was slipping from my hands. I didn't know if I could trust you so okay, I was a bit overzealous in asking you to help find the pin"

I'm sure my eyebrows shot up when he said that. He'd stunned me, kidnapped me, and threatened me before drugging me and then dumping me back in the cemetery.

"Where was the pin anyway, because I'm sure that you found it?"

I didn't answer but instead held out the pin in my hand. I didn't want or need it now and maybe Lawrence would. Les was the one who stood up and took it round to Lawrence and then I think everyone was busy watching for what his reaction would be. He inspected the pin and then looked up and over to me and smiled.

"How did you know what the numbers represented?"

I wasn't sure what to say because it hadn't really been me who had solved that puzzle, grandma had, and it was because of her being where she was that it became obvious to me. I didn't want to cast my grandma in a bad light for trying to solve the mystery of the numbers, bit neither did I want to take credit for it either.

"That was where grandma had died"

Was all that I was prepared to say.

"Regardless of how it happened, with the numbers that Ranger provided us with we were able to identify where Chiconi had hidden the gold bars. The numbers referred to those on certain train engines. We located the those engines to discover compartments behind plaques where we think Chiconi hid the gold. There was only one hiding place that revealed any bars, but we were able to identify them to the original bars that were stolen"

So probably Chiconi removed most of them, maybe even melted them down for resale so that he was never identified as being someone who was trying to sell the bars. I sat back in my chair as the conversation continued. They were discussing the future of the building and what other crimes Chiconi could have masterminded or the possibility of finding anymore of the gold. My thoughts were moving to the other people who had been caught up in this by accident, like Jenson and Gregory, or on purpose like Hennley and Robert. I wasn't sure that I had any more questions with regards to the Peralta and Chiconi saga, but I was interested in talking some more with Lawrence. As the men in suits rose to leave, I was looking over to Lawrence as he started to walk over to me.

"Miss Plum. Please accept my apologies, I would never have hurt you or anyone on purpose"

I raised my eyebrows and watched as he smiled at me, he probably knew that there was very little that I could say. Okay, he had scared me to death at the time and had me watching my back constantly. Then again Hennley's action had been a lot more distressing for me.

"Mr Peralta would you do one thing for me?"

I sat down hoping that Lawrence would be interested enough in what I was asking, pleased when he pulled out the chair next to me and sat down himself.

"I'd like you to go public with your story"

That was definitely not what he was expecting me to ask and who could blame him?

"A man called Jackson Hennley, some big news business mogul, hired a group of mercenaries to kidnap me so he could get information about your brother and Chiconi"

"Hennley, the one who owns half the newspapers down the east coast?"

I nodded my head unsure of whether Lawrence would or could do anything to help out.

"I don't want him or one of his journalists to profit from what happened so if you could maybe go public, you know a talk show or something, that would scupper any plans that he had, well maybe then I'd be more inclined to accept your apology"

Lawrence sat back and just looked at me before he was laughing out loud which to be honest had me feeling disappointed.

"I like how you think Miss Plum. Maybe it would fun doing that and give me something to focus on, though I would need the end to your story"

I was pleased for his agreement but wasn't too sure what he meant by needing my end of the story. I had no desire for my name or my grandma's name to be included.

"Don't look so worried. I would never disclose anything about you or what happened to your Edna"

I held out my hand because I was sure that we had come to an agreement.

"I'll get an edited version to you"

I assured him. As we both stood Lawrence extended his hand to Ranger, so I watched as the two men parted ways cordially, but it was what he shouted back to Ranger that had me giving him a dirty look.

"Mr Manoso, congratulations by the way, but if she's anything like her grandmother then you've got your hands full"

Ranger's response was to pull me to him and drop a kiss on my head before we both sat down. I took in the quietness of the room after everyone had left trying to get my head around everything that we'd heard. That Lawrence was actually working with the FBI had really surprised me but then again, I could understand that his younger days hadn't been happy. An overpowering father and then a over bearing brother, no wonder he had turned to illegal things. I suppose that he was very lucky to have eventually managed to have disassociated himself from them. Then there was Chiconi who I was now seeing in a different light. He had been very manipulative and also greedy to the point of being ultimately responsible for Salowski's death.

That Lawrence decided in his older years to try and amend for his family and even Chiconi must have taken a lot of courage. I mean he could have chased the story in order to have the gold all to himself, then again maybe he knew there wasn't very much gold left.

"Deep thoughts Babe"

I turned to look at Ranger unaware that I'd been lost in thought.

"Sorry, I was thinking about Lawrence Peralta"

"He's a very clever man Babe, so I'm sure he'll have had it all worked out first and then made a decision that guaranteed some revenge without incriminating himself"

I hadn't even thought of Lawrence in that way, maybe that was the difference between Ranger and me. He tended to look at the motives of men while I tended to look at them as a person.