Her first destination was a Citibank branch in Midtown, where she emptied the contents of her safety deposit box. This included a copy of her birth certificate, her passport, a Smith & Wesson .22 10-shot pistol fully loaded, six volumes of diaries, and three thousand dollars in emergency cash. She originally intended the cash and the weapon to be for Markie should he lose all standing in the family and have to leave town in a hurry.
Next, she drove several blocks to a location of Chase Bank where she closed out the checking account Markie had set up for her. She put all of the money in a large Gucci tote, went to a 7-Eleven and bought a burner phone, then drove across the George Washington Bridge into Clifton, New Jersey, where she got a room at a high-rise Doubletree Hotel.
For the remainder of the day, Goldie considered her options. Although she never consciously considered using what was in her diaries against Markie, she acknowledged there was both a safeguard and a danger to keeping them. She kept track of important happenings in case Markie needed an alibi for one thing or another. She’d written down information he had casually shared so that facts wouldn’t get distorted or forgotten. The diaries had proved to be of benefit on more than one occasion when she had reminded Markie about certain dates and places. But Markie never realized she was directly referencing from her diaries. If she surrendered them, she suspected he’d be angry about their detail and accuracy.
The longer she considered her options, the fewer options she seemed to have. There were nothing but problems with Markie. She’d lost her status and trust as a live-in partner, but she now also realized he intended to stay in her life. He’d already suggested that she be his mistress. She knew her mother and sister loved her, but she also knew they considered her a problem child, and neither one particularly wanted to be around her right now. Her father loved her too, but he had a different life and wife in Pennsylvania. Then there were her friends, the people she hung out with; they were all tied to the Lombardo family. Since Markie was going to marry Kristen, she knew exactly where their loyalties would fall. She had told Stu Frey that besides her family, she wanted to return to her own time because she was so dependent upon modern conveniences. But now, those didn’t seem very important anymore.
About 5:30 p.m., as the sky was growing dark and Christmas lights began to dot the view from her sixth-story hotel window, a realization struck her.
“Oh, Jesus,” she sighed to herself. “I shoulda stayed in Sparkledove! I was safe. I was wanted… Eli was a good man, and there were sparks. Oh, God, what’ve I done?”
She remembered a line from the old Christmas song, “Toyland,” that brought tears to her eyes:
“Once you pass its borders, you can never return again.”
Thirty-Four
INSIDE INFORMATION
Goldie decided to lie low at the Doubletree Hotel for the next three days. She only left her room to go to the exercise center twice a day, and she also went to an office supply store where she purchased some stationery and two small mailing boxes. She wrote a long letter to her mother, thinking it more personal than an email. She explained that she intended to make amends for her involvement with Markie and that, as a result, she would most likely be out of touch for a while. She apologized for any disappointment or hurt she may have caused her mom and thanked Carla for all of her hard work in trying to raise her properly. Then she used a mailing box, put the letter and the cash she’d gotten from her safety deposit box in it, and mailed it. She also wrote and mailed letters to her father and sister. She hoped these correspondences wouldn’t be final farewells but knew it was possible.
On Thursday, December 19th, at 10:20 a.m., there was a knock on Goldie’s hotel room door. Opening it, she saw New York Police Captain Shawn Corning standing in the hallway. He was forty-seven years old, in good physical shape, and had dark hair with thick eyebrows. He wore a suit and an overcoat with a tan scarf. He was in charge of the Organized Crime Unit, or OCU, for Greater Manhattan. The two knew each other and had met on more than one occasion, but not as friends.
“Ay, Captain,” she greeted. “Thanks for comin’. C’mon in.”
“Goldie,” he nodded, walking into her room.
The cop looked around, then shrugged. “So, what’s up? On the phone, you said the trip would be worth my while.”
“Yeah… you want somethin’? I got a can of soda or can order some coffee.”
“I’m good,” Corning said. He went over to a chair at the wall desk and sat down. Goldie continued to stand.
“Th-this is a weird conversation to begin,” she opened.
“Take your time,” the officer said. “I’m in no hurry.”
“Markie and me ain’t together no more.”
“I heard something about that on the street,” he confirmed. “Is that why you’re here? Are you hiding from him?”
“I’ve decided to make a clean break. Set some things right.”
“I heard about him and Kristen DiVarno. I also heard you were struck by a car.” He eyed the cast on her arm and the scabs on her face. “You okay?”
“I’ll survive.”
“Glad to hear it… so, what can I do for you?”
“You’ve taken Markie in for questioning too many times to count. Even charged him a few times, but you’ve never been able to make anything stick. What if I told ya I’ve kept diaries? Years of ‘em filled with names, dates, and places. Evidence that would incriminate him and a lot of people in the Lombardo family.”
A smile slowly crept across the captain’s face.
“I’d say you were Santa Claus, and I must have been averygood boy this year. Frankly, when you called, I was hoping your reason for wanting to talk might be something like this.”
Goldie hesitated, a little unsure, then sat down on the corner of her king-size bed.
“So—if I wanted to turn these diaries over to you? How does it work? What would happen?”
