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The Athena Academy for the Advancement of Women had been born to create opportunities, and contribute something positive to society, and yet there were those who couldn’t help but try to destroy what others helped build.
It saddened Chesca. How a handful of unscrupulous individuals had worked to tarnish the very place she called home, the respectable names she considered family.
Thinking of that home, the place where she’d felt most at ease in her childhood, and in becoming the woman she was today, Francesca had the urge to touch base with the one Athena sister for whom this assignment held the most urgency.
“Allison. It’s been a long time,” she said, grateful to hear the familiar voice over the phone.
Though she wouldn’t confess to the Oracle assignment, and knew very little of what it entailed as of yet, Francesca wanted to speak to the daughter of Marion Gracelyn, founder of Athena Academy.
More than a decade had passed since Marion’s death, but it was only last year that her daughter Allison, along with forensic scientist Alex Forsythe, had discovered Marion was being blackmailed at the time of her murder. Allison had already been through so much with the murder of her best friend Rainy, that Francesca felt the need to reach out to her fellow Athenian.
“Chesca? Don’t tell me you’re actually at home for once.”
She smiled at Allison’s friendly tone and good spirits. With what she’d gone through, well…some wouldn’t be able to handle such tragedies with Allison’s grace and courage. She was truly someone to admire.
“Not home for long, I’m afraid. But I had to hear your voice. See how you are.”
“I know with you it won’t be what I say, but how I say it, so let me make sure I get my intonation correct when I tell you it’s nice to hear your voice, too,” Allison said. “Do I pass?”
“Flying colors,” she said, though already fast-forwarding her thoughts to less amusing concerns.
Not knowing completely what Allison knew about the full assignment given to Chesca, she had to tread lightly on the subject. Thus, she approached her question at an angle. “I understand you’ve been in contact with Beth. Any chance you reclaimed my books for me?”
Allison laughed. The more recent reputation of Bethany James might have been one of professional gambler, but even back in the days at Athena Academy, young Beth knew how to run a poker table. A natural loner, likely due to her upbringing on the streets by a hustling—but loving—father whose lifespan was cut short by an enraged murderer, poker was one of the few social activities Beth would participate in at the Academy.
While Francesca, too, was one who preferred to keep to herself most of the time, the opportunity to play alongside Beth offered up a glimpse into her character, where her true personality was most revealed, and for this Francesca took every chance to get to know her elusive classmate. Even if it meant losing several coveted books to the power player, such as one of Chesca’s favorites on quantum physics.
They were the same age, challenged by the same rigorous program at Athena, but Francesca Thorne and Bethany James were very different, at least to outside eyes.
Beth came from the high-risk life of street gambling, and Francesca emerged from a blue-blood battlefield where money was the root of anything worth caring about. Well, at least in the eyes of her parents. Francesca never fit the mold when it came to that, and she still felt the ramifications to this day from her disappointed mother and father.
Yet on some level, there was a common denominator between those two teenage girls. Both highly intelligent, both focused on striving for their personal best, there was something more that bonded the two of them. They had lost someone dear to them at an early age. And now, they had experienced the same feeling of loss again with the continued revelations surrounding the murder of Senator Marion Gracelyn, a mentor with a passion for the empowerment of women who was sadly removed from this earth, all too soon. And for all the wrong reasons.
“That Beth. She nailed you a few times, didn’t she? Good thing we put an end to that,” Allison said, reminding Chesca of the many times Beth had been busted for her poker nights.
“You think you put an end to it,” Chesca clarified, “but you know she’s an unstoppable force.”
“Aren’t we all?” Allison asked, her tone letting Chesca know she spoke through a smile.
It was true. A force to be reckoned with. That was how graduates were now proudly referring to themselves amongst one another, pleased with the many varied accomplishments each individual class had to offer the world.
Of course, not all Athena grads turned to a profession of law enforcement or politics, as evident with the gambler Bethany James and reporter Tory Patton, to name a few.
One thing all graduates had in common, though, was their intent to fight for justice in one way or another, and when it came to vindicating one of their own, there was no force like that of the Athena Force.
“Then let me ask you,” Francesca said, refocused on the original intent of the phone call. “Do you think the person blackmailing Giambi is the same person who was blackmailing your mother?”
Through her quick glance at the files Delphi had sent over for Francesca’s return to Richmond, she’d already pinpointed a few flags to follow up on.
Salvatore Giambi, owner of the Sapphire Star Casino in Monaco, had recently come forward to the FBI citing his involvement with the Queen of Hearts. While she had plenty of information from Delphi, and could obviously follow up on this incident through files at the Richmond office, she needed to hear the opinion of Marion’s daughter.
“It seems worth pursuing. Beth did some snooping while at one of Giambi’s gambling parties. You may want to check in with her for more details. Anyway, he had been making regular payments into a Puerto Isla bank account, but no one has made a withdrawal in three years.” As Allison paused, Chesca listened to the quiet air over the telephone wires.
“Allison? How are you holding up?” While the assignment would become the number one priority for Francesca, she didn’t want to overlook the sensitivity required when discussing Marion’s death with Allison.
Though rarely emotional, and definitely hard to peg most times, Allison had to be facing unimaginable demons. A person cannot rise above such trauma without feeling conflicted along the way.
“You know me,” Allison said, and though Chesca wanted to laugh, feeling like she didn’t know Allison half as well as some of her other Athenian sisters, she knew this was not the time to be argumentative. This was Allison’s way of letting her know she’d rather not get into a deep discussion about it. “You know where to find me, if you need help in an official capacity—or otherwise for that matter.”
A skilled NSA programmer and mathematician, Allison Gracelyn would no doubt come in handy at some point down the road, and despite her mysterious personality she was always upfront about her support for her fellow Athenians.
“I do, and I’m sure I will,” Chesca said, accepting the conversation as over.
After their pleasant, but brief, goodbyes Chesca continued to study the files revealing Salvatore Giambi’s activities and began to prepare her mind for taking on the assignment. The request from Delphi was to assemble a profile on the blackmailer Arachne, and to determine whether she was one and the same as the Queen of Hearts assassin.
Having kept up with the inside investigation of Marion’s death through the Athena Academy Web site, as well as through occasional conversations with former classmates, Chesca had already heard a bit about each of these personas.
Though she hadn’t personally dived into the investigation until now, she had given a good deal of thought as to why anyone would want to put a stop to the existence of the Athena Academy for the Advancement of Women, and ultimately Marion Gracelyn.
At the time of the academy’s creation, there was a tremendous outcry from politicians, government forces and pretty much any outlet for power, as there was concern such an institution would cause havoc to so-called traditions and standards of training. Though anyone who knew Marion would have known her intentions were simply to offer keen young women the same advantages, and the same opportunities, as men in what was at the time a male-dominated world.
Even now, despite every “equal opportunity employer” claiming to level the playing field, Chesca knew all too well the reality that women had to work that much harder to gain the same respect, the same foot in the door, when it came to so-called equality.
That’s why she’d focused so hard on her academics, fought off youthful urges to socialize when every one of her college classmates were headed out for a night of fun. To get anywhere in this world, Francesca Thorne knew she had to channel her drive, passion and motivation into one focused fusion of settling for nothing less than excellence.
It was that internal focus which elicited her recruitment by Oracle. It was that passion which would propel her to uncover the truth about Arachne and compile a profile that would lead to solving this bit of tragic Athenian history.
There was nothing about this profiling assignment that caused worry or concern for Francesca. She knew her skills, recognized her strengths and knew when to let others assist her, and with the personal nature of this case, she knew she’d do whatever it took to get the information Delphi requested of her.
That included doing something she did not particularly look forward to. Making a trip to Boston.
Though a beautiful and historic city, and no doubt the best place to start off her investigation, seeing that both Giambi and this Queen of Hearts character hailed from there, the city was also home to a few other unscrupulous individuals.
The Thorne family.
Though it made her stomach cry out in knots when thinking of going back to her own hometown—something she hadn’t done in some time, thankfully—Chesca knew she had to do whatever she was called to do. That included accepting that uncomfortable feeling of treading on home turf.
With her simple style and no-nonsense knack for packing, Chesca did a once-over to make sure she had everything she would need for the next few days. A basic wardrobe, the Oracle case files, and the reservation number for the car rental she had arranged just hours ago.
Looking at the concise travel ensemble, it all seemed straightforward enough. But Chesca knew there was nothing simple about returning to the blueblood neighborhoods in which she’d been raised prior to Athena Academy. Not when it was that very hometown she was so pleased to outrun in her youth. Thankfully, since this was an investigation into the criminal underbelly, Chesca would likely be trekking around a few locales less than familiar to her family’s grassy estate.
Not that the Thorne family was innocent when it came to committing social crimes of their own. Infidelities, stock-trading tricks and business activities that sometimes seemed less than level in the eyes of their daughter, Chesca knew her father Dorian and mother Abigail were less than perfect.
Yet despite their various affairs, sexual and otherwise, the Thorne family had a stellar reputation amongst the silver-platter crowd, one that irked the very soul of Francesca. How is it, she often wondered, that people with such power choose to abuse it and use it for their own personal gain?
That was often the case, though, she knew. For blueblood parents or high-stakes criminals, the game was always the same. Those who sought out personal power and couldn’t care less about who got in their way. This was the world she was going back to, the one she’d so gratefully left years ago.
The only thing that triumphed over the sick feeling in her gut was knowing that when it came to solving cases, sometimes the best place to start was the beginning. And, as far as she could tell, for Giambi and the Queen of Hearts, their history began in Boston.
As she locked her apartment door behind her, Chesca breathed a sigh of anxiety and trepidation. “Then Boston, here I come. Oh, there’s no place like home.”
Chapter 3
Despite the ease of travel an air ticket would afford her, Francesca had elected to rent a car for the nine-or ten-hour drive to Boston from Richmond.
She wanted the maximum freedom and convenience of swift maneuverability, knowing wherever the case led her, she would be able to get moving from one destination to the next in no time, without the hassle created by waiting to board planes.
She loved driving. The open road, complemented by the ability to process thoughts along the way, offered an opportunity to digest some of the case file information Delphi had sent over, and provided Chesca the chance to think through some of the history of this situation.
Sitting between strangers on an overly crowded popular flight was no place for her to analyze sensitive information. But the opportunity to travel through a few landmark destinations like Washington, Jersey, and Connecticut in the sporty, bright-red Ford Edge she’d rented, was perfect for letting her mind wrap around the beginnings of this puzzle.
Or at least of this particular piece of the puzzle.
Sadly, the Athena Academy and those who supported its existence and purpose were the target of many unfortunate events. For decades, attempts had been made to bring down the Academy, and some of those activities had left bitter results, such as the murder of founder Marion Gracelyn, and that of Rainy Miller Carrington.
But little could be done to dent the conviction of the Athena Force. Nearly two years ago, three graduates had successfully foiled a plot to assassinate Gabriel Monihan, the current president and also, Chesca mused, the significant other of Athenian Diana Lockworth. Though they kept their relationship out of the limelight, they were an incredible match for one another. Chesca and her fellow Athena sisters were truly pleased for Diana and Gabe.
Love like that was hard to find, Chesca knew, never having quite found that perfect someone for herself, but still believing it was possible. Against her parents’ wishes, though, she knew whoever sparked her inner romantic would definitely not be someone whose sole purpose was carrying on socialite affairs and uniting for the basic premise of carrying forward historic family names.
Chesca wanted a relationship like Gabe and Diana’s. She was envious of what they had, but that didn’t equate with jealousy. She was happy for them, and the genuine item they had become. Their relationship was real, something they could count on.
Thankfully the assassination plot on Gabe was shut down so his political career was secured, and his romantic affair with Diana was able to blossom.
It was those moments of happiness for her fellow graduates that Chesca loved to hear about. Between cherished memories of her youthful days at the Academy, and the inspiring careers and personal successes of her friends, there were some truly great moments to celebrate.
The darker moments, like this ongoing struggle with Arachne, were the moments that fueled the drive and passion of Athena’s graduates, the moments where their skills and expertise were best put to use.
As was the case last year, with Alex and Allison solving Marion Gracelyn’s murder and discovering that she had been blackmailed. The truth about Arachne would be found out, with both the Oracle network and Athena women not willing to let anything further happen to bring down what they all held so dear to their hearts.
Throughout the drive, Francesca was able to piece together some of the basic background information on the affairs conducted between Arachne and Giambi.
Between the case file she received from Oracle and the conversation she’d had with Allison, Chesca knew they were each much bigger players in this game than any of them would have originally anticipated.
The ongoing hunt for justice regarding this matter was fortunately being handled by those Chesca could trust. Beth James, gambler extraordinaire, had recently uncovered the connection between Arachne and Giambi, and as Chesca reached her halfway point, she decided to take Allison’s suggestion and dialed a distant friend to exchange information.
“Going back to your roots, are you?” Beth joked after the initial pleasantries of connecting with her former classmate.
“I wouldn’t exactly say that. But, Boston seems to be where the action is, and thus that’s where I’m headed.”
Beth laughed with a familiar chuckle. “So no family dinners, I take it?”
“You know who I consider my real family,” Chesca said.
“Hear, hear. So, what do you want to run by me?”
Chesca was pleased to be able to connect with Bethany. Though she was a skilled blackjack player and a high-stakes poker natural, she donned a disguise each time she played, and kept her identity safe from casino bigwigs. Those who were aware of how well she made her living, however, kept a keen eye out and rooted for whatever persona Beth presented in any televised games.
It was a rush, imagining the sort of life Beth must lead, though Chesca knew all too well there was a good deal of personal vendetta involved. With Beth’s father dying the way he did, at the hands of someone who had been dealt a bad hand, it had become Beth’s personal crusade to bring down known cheaters, but she’d never herself succumbed to the dangerous lifestyle that no doubt tempted far too many a player in Vegas.
“Giambi and Arachne,” Chesca said, getting to the point. “Who’s blackmailing who?” It was half asked in earnest and half as a mockery of what these foolish criminals imagined they could get away with.
“You know the meat,” Beth said. “Giambi’s been making some hefty deposits to a bank account in Puerto Isla on a monthly basis for years. Quite the coincidence he’s also been spared by the IRS, don’t you think?”
Opening the driver’s side window just enough to let in some air on the damp spring afternoon, Chesca turned the volume up a notch on her earpiece. She didn’t want to miss anything Beth had to offer.
“And, I have it on good authority,” Chesca said with a smile, “Giambi came forward to the FBI to cover his assets.”
“You got it. But, Chesca, listen up.” And she did. As her friend took on a more solemn tone, she wanted to pay extra attention to any helpful bits of information. “He needed to do so for serious protection. Whoever was sent to attack him was doing a pretty good job. His car was blown up, for one thing, and that wasn’t the only attempt made on his life. So,” Beth warned, “whatever you’re up to, make sure you watch your back.”
“Will do. And Beth, am I right in this? Giambi referred to his blackmailer as the Queen of Hearts?”
“You’re right,” Beth offered, letting Chesca in on a bit more of Giambi’s background. “He was suspected of trying to firebomb an Arizona prisoner back in 1968, but walked away from the charges. It’s not impossible that prisoner was the Queen of Hearts and Arachne.”
To take down some notes and give Beth her undivided attention, Chesca took an off ramp to stop for a moment in a safe location. “But Giambi had bigger problems.”
“Right. According to him, in his confession of sorts, he admitted the prisoner was his blackmailer and he tried to kill her, but that’s not all.”
“Go on.”
Chesca’s pen was writing as fast as her friend could speak. Amongst the details Beth shared with Chesca, one thing stood out amongst the rest. “Giambi suspects his blackmailer may have been a CIA agent.”
Making a mental note to run this information by Delphi, Chesca was reeling.
If what Giambi confessed was true—though Chesca had known more than one criminal to say anything to get a safe haven—this mercenary, this Queen of Hearts, could have been intrinsic to the many attempts against Athena Academy.
Was it really possible one individual could have so much power, so many connections, as to be involved in such a conspiracy?
Chesca let the thoughts formulate in her head as steady traffic flowed by her on the expressway. She was parked securely off to the side, tucked into a carpool parking lot away from the chaos of the road, but the rumble of the cars couldn’t compete with the traffic in her mind.
What a history of corruption, Chesca thought.
For Giambi to try and kill his rival way back in 1968 meant their relationship went back even further. And he was still running from his blackmailer. Chesca had that gut feeling deep within her that whoever was capable of taunting someone for so many years would be capable of so much more.
She was beginning to get a sense of what she was up against.
But she was never one to tremble in the face of evil. Chesca had seen evil minds at work before, and this wouldn’t be the last she would encounter in her career.
“Thanks for the info, Beth. You’ve been a great help.”
As Bethany James wished her success in her investigation, Chesca returned to the road, eager to get her game on in uncovering the truth about Arachne and the Queen of Hearts. She’d put an end to the question: Are they one and the same?
It would only be a matter of hours until she arrived in Boston. There was so much to do, so many things to sort out. She took a moment to just breathe the air filtering through her window, letting the damp cool spring air refresh her senses.
It seemed any road trips Chesca embarked on were work-related, and for a moment she wondered what it would be like to just take off from work, abandon all sense of responsibility, and travel the countryside with her hair in the wind, music blaring, and nowhere in particular to go.
She laughed, thinking it was impossible for her hair to blow in the wind, with the very short, and very—thankfully—low-muss, no-fuss closely cropped style she preferred. Not one to primp and spend hours of time in front of the mirror in the morning, she had long ago let go of the notion that there was a style to her dark brown hair. The look had grown on her to the point that she became annoyed when even an inch grew in before she had time to make a stop at the barber down the street from her apartment. A barber, for sure, when she discovered she could get the same cut there for a third of the price at one of the fancier salons in the downtown core.
And that whole notion of shooing off responsibility? A road trip might be something she would enjoy, but Chesca was never one to leave work that far behind her.
