I grabbed my camping lantern from my Metro, and scanned the street. There was no sign of a squad car on Main. I figured Suki was either cruising around the block or on duty in the alley behind the theater. I switched on the lantern and hurried to the walkway that ran alongside the theater building. I hunkered down into my coat; the last time I’d trod this footpath, I’d gotten knocked out.
Ahead in the alley I saw the police vehicle, lights off. The entire area was pitch-black, with no electricity and a heavy blanket of clouds. My cell binged. I had a text message from Pauli: MISSING DRUGS. So Regan Digenza née Rottinger was a nurse who had an illegal history with medicine. Suki needed to get this information to Bill ASAP.
I pulled the hood of my rain slicker over my head and approached the squad car, ready to rap on the window. I lifted my lantern and peered inside. The police scanner was lit up and there was a sheaf of papers on the front seat. But other than that, nothing. Maybe Suki had had to use the ladies’ room. I retraced my steps to the front of the theater, used Lola’s master key to unlock the door. I paused, dripping on the lobby carpet. “Officer Shung? Suki?” The silence was deafening.
Next, I poked my head in the bathroom, but it was empty. Puzzled, I felt my neck hairs stand at attention. Something was wrong. I swept my lantern over the lobby again. The door to the theater was slightly ajar. She must have gone into the house to check on things. But the house was just as dark as the lobby, except for the red EXIT lights that had battery backups.
“Suki?” I yelled, my voice bouncing off the walls and scenery. I started to sweat inside my rubber slicker. I moved my light from left to right, taking in the whole house and stage areas. Out of the silence, I heard a soft, low whine like a puppy. Of course, there was no puppy in the Etonville Little Theatre, right? I followed the sound as it pulled me down the aisle to the front of the stage. I leaned down to check the floor, and gasped.
“Mmmm!” Suki, stuck between the first two rows and securely bound and gagged, was struggling against the heavy-duty rope.
“Suki!” I dropped the lantern and the thermos and reached for her gag. “Who did—?” Her eyes grew as large as saucers at something behind me. I turned to see a body dressed in black move toward me threateningly, a gun in its hand. I ducked and turned away as its arm curled above my head. I stuffed myself under a theater seat, one leg stuck out to defend myself, the other twisted under my rear.
“Let her go,” a smooth, resonant voice commanded. Then to me. “You can come out now.”
My heart pounded out of my chest. I glanced at Suki, whose black eyes were usually so serene. Now they had narrowed, furious. It was going to take a lot of meditation for her to forgive and forget this night. I eased out from under the seat and got to my feet, picking up my lantern on the way. I directed it to the voice facing me. Even in the dim light I recognized her. Regan Digenza. Her deep brown hair with streaked highlights hung damply to her shoulders.
I tried bravado. “What are you doing in here? Untie Officer Shung immediately.”
A dark-clothed man stepped forward, grunted, and pushed me into a seat. I recognized him from his picture in the Creston Enquirer: Johnny Bilboe. Out on bail! He appeared every bit as threatening as his mug shot in the newspaper. “Reg, let me take care of her.”
“No.” Regan sneered. “We might need leverage later tonight.”
“At least untie Suki’s feet,” I said. “Let her sit on the floor.”
Regan laughed, her expression contorted. “Helpful, aren’t you?”
Surely someone would notice how long I’d been gone and come to investigate. Then I thought: distraction. “I can’t imagine what Antonio saw in you. Why he married you,” I scoffed. “Especially after Brianna. But I can understand his leaving you for Tiffany.”
Her eyes glinted for an instant, then went dull again.
Regan opened a bag and withdrew a long, narrow object. “Smart and helpful.” She snatched the flashlight from Johnny Bilboe’s grasp and trained it on her hand. “So smart you probably know what this is.”
I gulped. It was a syringe.
Her laugh was brittle. “And you know what it can do. So behave yourself.”
“But why kill off your partner? I know for a fact that Antonio was good at what he did. Trapping older victims into believing he was selling them security systems. You needed him.”
I had no idea whether the ring of thieves needed him, but the atmosphere altered. Suki had stopped wriggling in her bindings and Regan nodded her head in acknowledgment.
“Yeah. We needed him. Until he lied and tried to double-cross us.”
“Took the jewelry, right?” I said.
Suki slid her eyes in my direction.
“So why not just finish him off with the arsenic? Why use the succa . . . succin . . . succyl . . .”
“Succinylcholine.” She took a beat. “Arsenic? What are you talking about?”
Johnny Bilboe was impatient. “We gotta get to work.” He picked up a sledgehammer.
“Wh-what are you going to do with that?” I stuttered.
Did he intend to bash our heads? My life was about to pass in front of my eyes. Johnny heaved the hammer at me and I flinched. He smirked.
Regan climbed the steps to the stage. “Tie her up, too. And stick a gag in her mouth. Then get up here.”
He had no intention of attacking us. Johnny’s objective had to be the set. Regan threw a few pieces of furniture around, looking underneath the sofa and ottoman and the cushions. They had come to the same conclusion as I had. The jewelry was hidden onstage. I panicked. Never mind that my life—and Suki’s—were in danger; I couldn’t imagine the pandemonium that would ensue if the Arsenic and Old Lace set were destroyed. No opening, no box office, maybe no ELT, no theme food—my mind whirled. “You don’t need to tear up the set,” I said as Johnny moved from tying my hands to tying my feet. “I can show you where the jewelry is hidden.” He stopped and Regan rotated on one heel and squinted.
Suki’s eyes were trying to speak to me; probably saying Are you out of your mind? You have no idea where the jewelry is or you would have turned it over to Bill... you would, right?
“I was searching in here this morning,” I said.
“So where is it?” Regan demanded.
“Untie me and I’ll show you.”
“Yeah, like that’s going to happen.”
I slouched down in my seat and tried for tough. “Never mind. Find it yourself. But time’s running out. You may think the Etonville Police Department is just a small-town operation . . .”
Suki closed her eyes.
“. . . but they were responsible for breaking the case in Creston.”
Regan hesitated, then she gestured. “But leave her hands tied.”
I prayed as fervently as I ever had that someone next door would miss me. Even Honey. I stood up, wobbled a little, and found my balance. As I turned to exit the row of seats, I peeked at Suki. She’d relaxed a bit, her brow smooth, her eyes encouraging. Neither Regan nor Johnny could see what I saw. Suki had loosened the rope around her legs; she had an inch of wiggle room.
Johnny took my arm and pushed me onto the stage. “Well?” He flung the sledgehammer over his shoulder. “Where is it?”
I needed an advantage. Walking up the staircase to the second level of the set would allow me to stall. “Up the stairs.” They exchanged looks and Johnny shrugged.
I stepped around the bucket onstage that held rainwater from the leaking roof, half-empty since Abby had spilled the contents earlier and left the Oriental rug sopping wet. I felt as if we were marching to the guillotine, me slow and careful, Johnny tramping in work boots, the hammer knocking against his leg. I knew the escape stairs led off the hallway. I’d stuffed my cell phone in my pants pocket. If I could disrupt Johnny’s timing and catch him off guard, maybe I could fly down the stairs, run through the green room, and call 911. Even a butt call would help. I paused in the middle of the hallway.
Johnny poked me. �
��Keep going.”
“I need my hands to reach for it,” I said, raising my tied wrists.
“I’ll reach it.”
“Hurry up,” Regan yelled, now out of view.
I stood in the corner where the upstairs hall met the escape stairs.
Johnny shined his flashlight ahead of me and flipped it over the unfinished walls. “So?”
I looked up at the unpainted lumber where JC had marked the sheets of plywood to indicate which piece went where. There were arrows pointing to hinges and a scribbled “Slow Down” to remind actors that the route offstage could be dangerous in the dark.
I crammed my tied hands into a narrow gap on the back of a canvas wall where the triangular corner block was attached to the bottom rail. I pretended to stiffen. “It was in here this morning. Someone must have—”
Johnny pushed me aside and stuck his own eager fingers into the empty space. Then he grabbed me by the collar of my coat and forced me to move back down the upper-level hallway. “Either she’s lying or somebody else is a double-crosser.”
“Of course she’s lying,” a female voice said in the dark.
Regan waved her flashlight and snarled. “Where’ve you been?”
Brianna stepped into the circle of light. My mind reeled, lurching from my visit to her floral shop to our meeting at the Windjammer. I tried to put the pieces together. How did she fit into all of this?
Johnny stuck the sledgehammer into my lower back. “Let’s go.” He shoved me down the staircase.
I shuffled forward until I was in Regan’s light and could see Brianna’s face, cool and collected. My mouth dropped open. Even her jeans were creased and she had her fists in what looked to be a Gucci gabardine raincoat. What the well-dressed thief was wearing this season.
“Hello, Dodie,” she said softly. “Sorry we have to meet like this. But you are too curious for your own good.”
I struggled to find my voice. “I can’t believe . . . you seemed so broken up over Antonio’s death . . . how could you stand by and watch Regan kill him?”
Brianna laughed. “Stand by? I don’t think so.”
The truth hit me square between the eyes. Two poisons in his blood. “You gave Antonio the arsenic and Regan gave him the succa . . . succyl . . .”
“Succinylcholine,” Regan shouted, aggravated. “What arsenic?”
“That’s why he had to see the Chinese doctor,” I hollered.
Both Brianna and Regan stared at me.
“Knock it off,” Johnny yelled. “We gotta find the jewels now. And get outta here. Tie her up with the cop and I’ll take care of these walls.” He lifted the sledgehammer and pointed at the hallway.
“Wait!” I shrieked.
“No more stalling.” Johnny swung the sledgehammer in an arc and crashed it into JC’s delicately sculpted spindles that propped up the railing that led to the second floor.
I ducked as half a dozen of the vertical shafts shattered and the splinters of wood sailed everywhere.
“Stop!” I cried. “You can’t destroy the set. The show opens tomorrow night!”
“Tear it all down,” Brianna ordered, taking Regan’s flashlight and sweeping it across the walls on the second story.
Regan grabbed Brianna’s arm. “What’s she talking about?”
Brianna was unruffled. “Let go of me.”
I saw my chance. “Brianna tried to poison Antonio with arsenic. The medical examiner found traces in his system. That’s why he had stomach issues and had to see the doctor in Bernridge.”
Johnny’s hammer was suspended in mid-swing. “What the—?” He stopped and glowered at the two women.
Regan’s face was distorted. “We had a plan. What were you trying to do?”
Brianna growled. “We had a plan. Antonio only brought you in because he felt sorry for you.”
“He loved me.”
“He put up with you.” She shrugged. “The arsenic was backup.”
Uh-oh. There was nothing more infuriating than unrequited love. Might as well stir the pot. I cleared my throat. “Antonio had no feelings for either of you. He loved Tiffany.” I had no idea who Antonio really loved, but claiming this bought me time.
“He was going to divorce her and remarry me!” Regan screamed. “Until he changed his mind about that little loser.”
Brianna yelled back, “You’re a pathetic fool! The only thing Antonio loved was his wallet.”
I was caught off guard by the bitterness in Brianna’s voice.
“He wasn’t going to get off so easily this time,” she said.
“Enough!” Johnny screamed. The ex-wives’ heads swiveled in unison as he targeted the upstage wall. His first swing ripped into JC’s beautiful wallpaper. The second blow exploded the glass globes on wall sconces on either side of an imitation period portrait. Shards of glass rained down, along with a shower of bracelets, rings, necklaces, and earrings.
The three of them gawked, frozen. I decided to take advantage of their shock and ran for the stairs, but Johnny had other plans. He seized my legs and dragged me back to the stage, my head banging on the floor before he deposited me in a seat next to Suki.
“Reg, get rid of these two. Brianna, the jewelry!” Johnny ordered. He attacked the rest of the sconces on the upstage wall and two on either side of the front door, sending torrents of jewelry cascading to the ground.
As if awakening from a trance, the two women went into action. Brianna crawled around the set with total disregard for her chic clothing; Regan juggled a gun and pulled the syringe out of her bag.
“You d-don’t want to do this,” I stammered. “Two more murders?”
Johnny scrambled to help Brianna just as Regan aimed her syringe for my neck. Suki kicked out a freed leg, Regan fell backward, and the houselights burst on. Adjusting from the dark to the bright light took a moment and I closed my eyes for a second. When I opened them, Bill was onstage with his weapon trained on Johnny and Brianna; Ralph was standing over Regan, dangling handcuffs. Suki slipped out of her bindings. She leapt up, her hands chopping the air in a karate stance.
I breathed deeply, trying to calm my racing heart.
* * *
The red and blue blazing lights of the police cruisers—two from Etonville and two from Creston—had attracted attention. Etonville was as nosy as ever and Ralph had his hands full with crowd control, once the threesome were safely tucked away in the Creston squad cars. The rain was irregular now and the wind had died down considerably. With the lights back on, the lobby of the Etonville Little Theatre was blazing with energy. Only some of it was the electricity; the rest was generated by Lola, Walter, Penny, and Carlyle, all talking and flapping their arms.
Lola stepped outside and joined me in front of the Windjammer, where Benny, Honey, and Henry peered out the front window. “Are you okay?” she asked and put an arm around my shoulders.
“Fine. Little sore from being bounced around on the stage.” I rubbed my wrists where the rope had left red, rough marks that would be black-and-blue by tomorrow.
“Some mess in there,” Lola said.
“But at least we’re both alive.” When I hadn’t returned to the Windjammer after delivering coffee to Suki, and she hadn’t checked in with the police department dispatch, Benny and Edna got suspicious and contacted Bill. I nodded toward Suki, who talked on a cell phone. She was the consummate professional. You’d never know that she’d spent part of the evening bound, gagged, and stuffed between two rows of seats. Probably how the ELT audience felt from time to time.
“I can’t believe I didn’t know about Antonio’s criminal activity,” Lola said.
“But he was also a serial husband who kept marrying younger. Hard to tell whom he really loved, but the first two hadn’t gotten over him,” I said.
“Is that true?” Lola asked.
“Regan thought she was running the show, but Brianna was the brains between the two of them and good at manipulating Regan. And me.” I shook my head. Maybe Carlyl
e was right. Maybe I am an amateur. “I almost began to think of her as a friend. I guess she thought establishing a relationship with me would give her access to information.” I sighed. “She fooled me.”
“And both Brianna and Regan were fooled by Antonio.”
“Looks like it. Until they discovered he tried to swindle them out of the jewelry.”
“You know, Antonio was a good director,” Lola mused. “When he showed up to work.” Walter beckoned Lola into the theater. “We’ve got to get a crew together and repair the scenery. It’ll be a long night.” She glanced at her watch. “We have twenty hours till curtain!”
“Good luck.”
She hugged me. “Thanks.”
“For what?” I asked.
“You solved the murder.”
She ran off. I glimpsed a cluster of officers by the squad cars. Besides the Etonville force, there were two others—a Creston officer and the brunette I’d seen Bill with twice before, looking fresh as a daisy in Versace. Bill shook hands with the officer and smiled that crooked grin at the brunette, giving her a pleasant squeeze. The Creston officers drove off.
Bill turned, inspected the crowd, frowning. Then he found me.
“Can’t let you out of my sight,” he said, pretending nonchalance. A catch in his voice gave him away.
“Just another night in Etonville. Break-ins, robbers, murders . . .” I kidded.
One side of his mouth crept up. “I told you to be careful.”
I corrected him. “No. You said you’d be in touch later.”
“Well, the highway flooding was worse than expected.”
“And poor Suki got tied up,” I said.
He paused and grew serious. “You did a good thing here. Staying on the case until the criminals were caught. Following your instincts.”
Time Out Page 25