Copper, who trained with the athletes. Who would therefore have had plenty of access to strychnine.
And the man had been by Frannie’s side this whole time.
They must have been working together.
Grace moved toward the door.
But for what purpose? What was their motive?
There was still a piece of the puzzle she was missing.
She smiled demurely as she approached Theodore. He was talking to someone she didn’t recognize, a drink in his hand. She pulled him aside and whispered into his ear.
“I’m even more certain now that it was Frannie,” she said. “But she wasn’t working alone. Can you get her upstairs?”
She’d seen a large balcony that wrapped around the circumference of the palace, overlooking the Grand Basin and Festival Hall. It wouldbe a good place to have a private conversation—and stay hidden from the man who had tried to bribe her in the diner.
“Grace—” Theo said. “Be very—”
“I know,” she said. “I will.”
Her anger quietly simmered as she gathered her gown in her hand.
She found Lillie next. “Can you do something for me?”
Lillie smiled. “Anything for Mitzi.”
“I need you to find Copper and send him upstairs. Tell him that Frannie wants to speak to him privately,” Grace instructed. “And if we don’t come down in twenty minutes… send a policeman up.”
The smile faded on Lillie’s face. She paled. “Grace…” she said.
Grace kissed her cheek.
“For Oliver,” she whispered.
She climbed the stairs to the balcony, feeling the weighted tug of her gown trail behind her. The fair was lit up around her with the incandescent bulbs of the electric lights. They dimmed and glowed like lanterns and fireflies, glittering in the dark as night fell. The Cascades were illuminated as they rushed down their banks into the Grand Basin. It was dark and cool up there on the balcony, enclosed within a rim of carved ivory balustrades and unfurling flags. There were guards stationed below, but they looked small from this distance. No one could spot her standing in the shadows.
The president was arriving in a cavalcade, but on the other side of the palace.
All attention would be on him for at least a few moments.
When Grace turned the corner of the balcony she came upon Theodore. He was speaking quietly with Frannie, and the moment caught her breath. It was just like watching them through the hours and months that had transpired since December that fated Chicago evening. Frannie glanced up and, seeing Grace, scowled. She was wearinga teal oyster silk gown with pearls dangling in her dark red hair. She touched the place at her neck where her stolen necklace should be, as though surprised to find it still missing.
Frannie looked at Theodore.
“What’sshedoing here?” Frannie asked.
“We wanted to talk,” Grace answered coolly. She was having an almost visceral reaction to the sight of this beautiful, venomous woman. She had hurt everyone Grace loved in different ways, like the shards of an elegant vase that shattered out and cut wherever they landed.
“Well, I can hardly stay,” Frannie said, shifting. She glanced behind Grace, as though hoping someone else would come up behind to save her. “The president is almost here. We can’t miss that.”
“Actually, I think we can,” Theodore said.
Her face whipped toward his, and for the first time, she saw his cool disdain directed toward her.
“What is this about?” she asked, face flushing.
“I know you lied to Theodore about me that night at the Winter Ball in Chicago,” Grace said, taking a step toward her.
