Ellie snorted. That earned her an evil bitchy look from Caroline.
“Don’t you start,” Caroline warned Ellie. “I will screw up your payroll situation so badly that you won’t get paid for months.”
“And I could go that long without being paid too because I know how to manage my money and I don’t waste it all on cosmetics and slutty clothing,” Ellie said with a falsely sweet voice. “So, don’t bullshit me with those threats. I’m not some school girl you’re warning off your territory.”
“Ellie,” Titus growled. “That’s enough.”
“Well, Younger doesn’t like you anyway,” Caroline blurted. She actually looked surprised that she’d said that out loud. Then she gave a little shudder as though she just couldn’t hold back any longer. “And honestly, the rest of you are just lazy asses compared to Younger. I don’t even know why you’re here. You’re all useless.”
Titus narrowed his gaze at Caroline. “I own the company, remember, Caroline?”
“You should just stay home and run it from there,” Caroline grouched as she picked up the phone and presumably called dispatch. “Then you could make sure that no little dogs pee on your newspaper. You could run a freaking sting operation instead of bothering me here at the office.”
Duke wished he was the one running things in the office. He would have had Caroline out on her ear. As it was, Duke never understood why Titus didn’t get after Caroline and force her to get an attitude adjustment. Perhaps there was more going on than Duke realized. He was starting to feel that way about everything related to Titus lately.
Chapter Twenty-Five
There was more than one moment when Olivia was pretty sure the noon show was going to be a last minute cancellation disaster. She had already prepared herself for the inevitable angry crowd of people who had purchased tickets online or at a local discount ticket outlet and had to be refunded the cost of their ticket and then sent away with a free T-shirt. Of course, there was a small part of Olivia that viciously wanted to tell the truth to these people that Riley Saunders was nothing but a thief and a fraud. The general public should have been thanking Olivia for making sure they weren’t exposed to Riley’s sticky fingers and the threat they posed to nearly everyone’s personal belongings.
But as the clock crept toward eleven thirty, the show seemed to be going ahead per the normal series of events. Olivia stood in the foyer and made sure Riley knew she was keeping an eye on things. Not that he would have noticed since he was too busy trying to catch the Siamese cat still at large in the theater.
“I don’t get it,” Clara whispered to Olivia. “The animals used to love Riley. Now it’s like they all want to run the other way. Even Chili Pepper! What’s going on?”
Olivia bit her lip. She wasn’t sure how to respond to Clara’s comment and yet there were certain things the staff needed to be made aware of. Clara was such a good kid; she worked hard and she’d been the one to tell that poor woman about the private investigators. It wasn’t necessarily loyal, but in actuality, Clara had been trying to make sure the woman knew the management was doing all they possibly could. Clara was a good person. Not just a good employee.
“Clara,” Olivia said suddenly. She turned to look down at the clerk. “I need you to stay here. Make sure if Riley comes out, you stick right by him. I mean do not let him out of your sight. He’s been stealing from our customers.”
“I’m sorry, what did you say?” Clara frowned. She looked confused. “You can’t be saying what I think you’re saying.”
“I am. Riley is the pickpocket. I have proof. Not just from the private investigators. But with my own eyes. That thing he does?” Olivia was hurrying to speak. She had to do one more thing before people really started to arrive for the show. “Where he pretends to bump into people and photobomb them and stuff? That’s when he does it. All right? He steals from them.”
Clara put her hands over her mouth. “Oh my God.”
“Yeah. So keep an eye on him. All right?”
“Yes. Yes, of course!” Clara nodded her head and looked sick. “This is going to ruin the show, Olivia.”
There was no point in pretending otherwise. “Yes, it is.”
Olivia left Clara and ran to her office. She carefully lettered a plain and pointed sign and then copied fifty of them as quickly as her machine would go. She tapped her foot and watched the clock with a sick feeling in her stomach. But it had to be done. Even the police had suggested it. Perhaps it was the only way to make Riley think about what he was doing for even a second or two.
Dashing back out of her office, Olivia let the door slam closed behind her and ran to the front doors of the theater. She began taping those signs to the glass doors as though she were warning the public of a killer at large. But what was worse? A killer or a thief who stole pieces of people’s souls along with their cash and valuables? Olivia wasn’t entirely sure she could decide.
“What does it say?” Clara whispered when Olivia returned to her side.
The theater was filling up in spite of the signs that Olivia had hung. She was watching though and people were reading the signs. They were reading the signs and they were looking both confused and more than a little worried. That was good. They were going to be more vigilant and that was what had to happen.
Olivia handed the remainder of the signs to Clara so she could read them. The girl’s eyes widened to the size of hubcaps. “Oh my God, Olivia, he’s going to be pissed!”
“I don’t care,” Olivia said firmly. That didn’t mean she wasn’t a bit afraid, but she was more than ready to face whatever came. “They deserve to know. And it’s the best way to make sure he can’t do it again.”
Clara was still staring down at the simply lettered sign in her hands when Riley came through the double doors leading from the backstage area to the back entrance of the gift shop. He seemed to look around for someone in particular. Olivia felt her stomach drop into her shoes when he spotted her and came storming in her direction.
Riley wagged his finger in her face. “What did you do with my cat?”
“I didn’t do anything with it,” Olivia snapped right back. Always before, she would draw Riley out of the public eye so they didn’t see him behaving like this. She was done worrying about his image. If he wasn’t’ worried, why should she care? “I opened the door and the poor thing bolted. She’s likely hiding somewhere in the theater trying to stay away from you and every other person in here. If you got her from the same kind of place you got the donkey, I’m surprised she’s not eating whatever she can get her mouth around just to take the edge off the hunger pains.”
“Are you saying I starve my animals?”
“No!” Olivia retorted. “I’m saying you try to rescue them but kind of suck on the follow through.”
Beside Olivia, Clara sniggered and had to hide behind her hand. Riley glared at Clara, but it was Olivia he was angry at. Hauling back, he slapped her so hard across the face that she felt her head rock back on her spinal column. There was a moment of total stunned silence in the entire foyer. They’d seen it. Everyone had seen it.
“Don’t you dare!” Riley snarled at her.
“Mr. Riley!” Clara whispered. “Don’t hurt Olivia! What are you doing?”
“You shut up, you little traitor,” Riley hissed. “You aren’t good for anything. That’s what I say. You’re just a useless piece of fluff like Olivia.”
Clara’s mouth popped open. But it was the expressions of the people out in the foyer that gave Olivia pause. There was no small amount of collective horror going on out there. Several large redneck-looking men in boots and jeans with their sleeveless shirts and ballcaps were looking at each other even as their wives or girlfriends were pushing them toward Olivia and Clara as though they were being asked to intervene.
But Riley had not seen any of this. It was going on behind him. Besides, he was too busy looking down at the signs in Clara’s hands. “Where did you get these?”
Clara stam
mered something, but the words wouldn’t come out. Olivia put her arm around the girl. The poor kid hadn’t done anything to deserve this. Riley was losing his mind!
Riley’s gaze swung to Olivia. “You! You did this! You bitch! After all I did for you. You would throw me under the bus and believe some trashy private investigator over your very own uncle!”
As if he could no longer control himself, Riley’s arm cocked back to deliver another blow. But he never got the chance. A large hand reached out and grabbed hold of Riley’s arm. It was almost like he’d gotten stuck in a trap. Olivia looked to see which of the bystanders had decided to intervene, but it was none of them.
“Duke!” Olivia gasped.
“Riley,” Duke said in a calm and chiding tone. “You can’t be hitting women. Not even your own niece. That’s just wrong.”
“Don’t give me that crap, Duke Dunbar.” Riley wrenched his hand out of Duke’s grasp.
Duke let go, but he placed himself between Riley and the women. “Riley, you really don’t want to tangle with me. Just turn around and go back to your office. All of these customers are watching. Is this really what you want them to take away from your show?”
“His show?” someone shouted. “I want my money back! I didn’t bring my kids to Branson to see some woman abuser get up on stage and pretend to be funny!”
Riley craned his neck around behind him to see who had spoken, but he needn’t have bothered. There was a low murmur of agreement from the people gathered in the lobby. Before long, they were storming the Will Call desk to get their refunds.
Clara tugged at Olivia’s arm and cut her gaze over to the desk. Olivia nodded and gave the girl a gentle shove in that direction. If nothing else, it got Clara out of Riley’s reach and gave her something to think about. Once Clara was out of the way, Olivia could turn her attention back to Riley.
“Uncle Riley, I’ve told myself for years that you were just trying to be good to me in the only way that you knew how. I told myself you were supportive of my dancing when I was younger and that meant you thought I was a worthwhile person as a grown up.” Olivia took a deep breath. It felt good to have Duke there by her side. It was almost as though he was lending her his strength. She reached down and found his hand with her own. Threading her fingers through his, she felt another burst of confidence when he gave her hand a little squeeze. Olivia took a deep breath and went on. “I don’t think that’s true anymore, Uncle Riley. None of it.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?” Riley’s face was so contorted that Olivia could barely see the good-natured man she’d thought she knew all of those years when her parents were still alive. “I’m the same as I’ve always been. I pay your salary, don’t I? I give you a job and a life and a place to work. You’d have been on the street if it wasn’t for me!”
“No. That’s not true,” Olivia said quietly. “You would have been on the street if it wasn’t for me. You lived in my parents’ house. You were living there when they died. You were living there after they died telling everyone that you were just taking care of me as their will specified that you should. But now? You still live there and I had to move out and get my own apartment.”
“You needed to move on,” Riley blustered. “That’s what people do when they grow up. They move out of their parents’ home and into their own place!”
Duke’s rumbling growl stopped Riley short. “Are you kidding me right now? What about you? Did you just move into your brother’s place and start sponging? It must have been really convenient when Olivia’s parents passed away,” Duke went on. “One might even think you helped in that one.”
“Duke, no!” Olivia could not take this. She could not go down that road no matter what lay at the end. She could not handle that much truth right now.
The front doors of the theater swung open and Detective Sellers and Sergeant Caprico walked in. Olivia cowered behind Duke then. She didn’t want to see Mathias. Not now. Not ever. But especially not when she was already feeling so raw.
“It’s okay, angel,” Duke whispered. “They’re here for him and not you this time.”
“For me?” Riley was outraged. “You must be out of your mind!”
But Detective Sellers already had his cuffs out. “Riley Saunders, I am arresting you on charges of theft of personal property and fraud.”
“You will never get away with this!” Riley was practically frothing at the mouth with the intensity of his anger. Then all at once he tried to sprint away from the police officers.
Caprico seemed totally taken off guard. He stood there dumbly with Sellers while two of the tourists pounced on Riley as though they had been waiting for the opportunity. They were huge guys, the size of Duke. As the three of them went down to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs and curses, Duke grabbed hold of Olivia and pulled her clear of the mess while the two police officers tried to separate the Good Samaritans from their suspect.
“Don’t add resisting arrest to the list, Saunders!” Detective Sellers shouted. “Caprico, get him on the floor.”
Still struggling and trying to kick at the men who had cut off his escape, Riley was nothing but a squirming mass on the floor as Mathias Caprico twisted Riley’s hands behind his back in order to cuff him. It was an ugly scene. Parents were exiting the theater with their children. No doubt Olivia was going to spend the rest of the day trying to make sure they had refunded every penny of the ticket money from today’s noon show and tonight. And tomorrow. And next week too. It was going to be a nightmare of epic proportions unless they could somehow get another act. They were going to be booted out of this theater anyway. Harvey Lightman would see to that.
Olivia began to tremble. She buried her face against Duke’s chest and inhaled his warm, masculine scent as she tried to calm down. She was safe. Duke was safe. The animals were safe. There was nothing to be done for Uncle Riley. Even as the police were hauling him to his feet with his hands cuffed around his back, Uncle Riley still managed to hop and jump and try to bolt from police custody.
“We’ll be calling your office for a statement,” Detective Sellers shouted at Duke. “You’d better have your evidence all in a row.”
“I do,” Duke assured Sellers. “You better not let that prisoner bail out. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll lock him up and throw away the key. If he gets loose there will be no finding him again.”
Caprico rolled his eyes and looked annoyed. “We can do our job, Dunbar. You do yours.”
Olivia watched the police escort her uncle out of the building and felt nothing but relief. There was no remorse and no pity. He had brought this on himself. It wasn’t like he hadn’t had ample time and opportunity to make things right. Not just by stopping his thievery, but because he could have done his best to make amends with Olivia herself. But it was obvious now more than ever that Riley didn’t care about Olivia, and never had.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Duke was pretty sure if he had been the one behind the counter issuing refunds, he would have lost his temper hours ago and started going off on the customers. It seemed as though everyone had some kind of idiotic comment to make. They were dismayed. They wanted to know if there was a substitute show they could see instead. They would rather just use their ticket tomorrow. Could someone exchange this ticket for one to another totally unrelated show managed by another company and having absolutely no connection with the Riley Saunders Show? What did the staff mean by “cancelled until further notice”? Was that really permanent or could they just get their ticket bumped to another week entirely?
The part that blew Duke’s mind was they were being offered full refunds and it wasn’t enough! By the time the staff closed and locked the front doors at ten o’clock, Duke felt as though he was about to come unglued.
“Come on,” he told Olivia. Taking her hand, he began tugging her toward the staff exit near the Will Call desk that led to the back parking lot. “We’re getting out of here.”
She acted as t
hough she might actually try to pull her hand out of his. “I still have paperwork to do! Besides, I have to make sure the donkey is taken care of.”
Duke felt a glare coming on. “I thought Clara and the others made a schedule of who has donkey duty for the next few nights.”
“Well, yes, but I feel bad. And the cat is still at large,” she reminded him.
Duke grabbed her hand and waved to Clara. “Clara told me the crew in charge of donkey duty was going to look for the cat and try to lure it out when the theater was quiet. You know they’ll have better luck if there’s only two or three of them.”
“Ugh. Fine!” She threw up her hands. “I guess I can’t argue with you anymore. Can I?”
“Nope.” He didn’t even bother trying to sound sorry about that. The woman needed a break and Duke had just the right idea to help her relax. “You’re coming with me.”
“I feel like I’ve been railroaded,” she told him suspiciously. “Did you plan this with my staff?”
“For the most part. They like you.” Duke realized he could not make her understand just how much he admired that about her. “They’re very loyal to you, not Riley.”
“He was hard to be loyal to,” Olivia admitted quietly as they walked through the hot night to where Duke had left Henry earlier.
Duke unlocked his truck and helped Olivia up into the passenger seat. “Yes, but it’s very hard to gain anyone’s loyalty at all when you’re basically being pulled between two different camps like that. You had Riley and his ever increasing ridiculous demands and attitude. And then you had the rest of the employees. Trying to find a way to balance yourself between the two and managing for so long to keep everyone happy is impressive.”
“I’m flattered,” she told him. “Really. But keeping my uncle happy is—was—a full-time occupation and something that I’m rather good at.”
Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset Page 19