Carol Clark - Fleeced

“Cousin Thorn is upstairs.”

“I’m here to place him under arrest for conspiring to commit arson.”

Archibald whirled around. Thorn was standing at the top of the stairs. “You’ve ruined our family’s good name!” he cried. “Ruined it!”

“And our chance to be the King and Queen of Gramercy Park,” Vernella snarled as she rushed to grab the champagne flute from Thorn’s hand.

An hour later, the party was back on inside the club. It was safe to say that the smoke had cleared. Edward Gold arrived with his wife, carrying a huge certified check for four million dollars made out to the Settlers’ Club. “We would have gotten here sooner, but there was a lot of traffic.”

“Sooner!” his wife exclaimed. “He drove like a madman!”

As the crowd gathered around, Thomas climbed the ladder in front of the sheep to make the toast.

Everyone raised their glass. Regan and Jack stood arm in arm by the fireplace with Clara next to them. Nora and Luke were there with the crime-convention people. Lydia was with her singles, her arms draped around two of them like a mother bear with her cubs. Burkhard had been banished from the premises, cake crumbs and icing stuck to his one good suit. Maldwin stood between his loyal butlers, Vinnie and Albert, who suddenly looked more butlerish. Janey stood adoringly at Thomas’s feet, and the club members filled out the crowd, suddenly prouder than ever to be part of such an establishment.

Stanley was ecstatic as his camera rolled. My special’s going to be unbelievable, he thought.

“I’d like to toast the memory of Nat and Ben. Thanks to them the Settlers’ Club will live on. We will all continue to be together for many years to come as we live, work, and thrive inside these smoky walls.”

Everyone laughed and took a sip of their vintage champagne as Dolly and Bah-Bah stood guard over the club.

Nora and Luke and Kyle were standing together.

“We’re going to have a lot to talk about at the brunch tomorrow,” Nora said.

“Too bad we can’t have our friend Georgette appear in person.” Kyle laughed.

“In one of her disguises,” Luke added.

Jack turned to Regan and smiled. “Now, where were we?”

Regan smiled back. “I think we were planning a trip to California.”

“I can’t wait,” he said.

“Me neither.” Their hands became entwined.

“Ya know,” Clara announced as she practically planted herself between them, “my sister and I went out to California just last year. Oh, it was lovely…”

Jack squeezed Regan’s hand.

I really can’t wait, Regan thought, as she smiled and squeezed his hand back.

“Now have you ever driven down the Coast?” Clara continued. “Gorgeous. Just gorgeous. You two should try it…”

Carol Higgins Clark is the author of four other bestselling Regan Reilly mysteries as well as the recent national bestseller Deck the Halls, coauthored with her mother, Mary Higgins Clark. Also an actress, she has appeared in films, theater, and television series. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Carol lives in New York City.