“Stop here,” she tells me in front of a monumental house
“I can’t park here,” I say, “It’s a bus stop.”
“You’re FBI, you can park on the fucking moon if you want,” she says, leans over, and turns on the switch for the grille lights.
This woman!
I park the car half on the road, half on the sidewalk.
“What are we doing here?”
“Just get out,” she says.
We both get out of the car, and when I walk around, she stands in front of the massive four-story house with its black fence. She sighs heavily.
And then she opens the gate.
She walks inside, opens the door, and I can’t believe what I am walking into.
This house must cost a fortune.
An entrance worthy of royalty opens up with massive stairs leading upstairs. But she doesn’t lead me upstairs. She opens a wooden door that leads to a salon with a massive chimney, several couches, and built-in bookshelves.
A massive rug decorates it. A rug that has blood stains on it.
“What happened here?” I ask in a whisper.
She squats down and brushes her hand over the largest bloodstain.
“She died here,” Avery says. “Emily. She was my first love. The person I trusted. She died here in my arms. They almost killed me, too. We were after the crown, Napoleon’s crown.”
Goosebumps spread over my arm.
Suddenly, it all makes sense.
The reason why she went to the lengths of working with Hedda to get to the crown.
She did it for love.
Out of grief.
“I’m so sorry,” I say.
“I buried her. Cried at her casket. Bought this house. Worked with the woman I was trying to get away from to get the two things we promised each other to stop after. The crown and the hat,” she says and gets up. “And then we were supposed to live our lives in peace, in freedom. Two last jobs, and a life in freedom.”
A tear fights its way down her cheek.
She feels.
I smile weakly at her, but she wipes it away angrily.
“Turns out, Emily didn’t die after all,” she says, her face hardened. “Her grave is empty. The hat is gone. And I have been lied to the entire time.”
I have a million questions, and yet, I ask none. Avery is trying to tell me something, and it's my time to listen.
She walks up to me.
Holds out her hand with a golden bracelet in it for me to take.