Christy Barritt - Squeaky Clean 08 - Foul Play

by Christy Barritt

  I remembered seeing her go backstage. Could she be responsible for this? I wasn’t ready to express my theory to anyone yet, especially not Charlie. There was too much at stake.

  Charlie shook her head. “I don’t know what to say except act at your own risk. If I were in this play, I’d be running away screaming right now.”

  I glanced around, standing on the periphery of the crowd so I could see people better.

  Most people looked paler, frightened at her announcement. But Jerome and Arie exchanged a glance. What was that about? Was there more to their story than they were letting on? I was starting to believe that was true.

  Meanwhile, there was Paulette. She looked genuinely distressed. Could she be guilty and truly frightened? Or was she a better actress than anyone had guessed?

  The Shining Twins stared.

  Bennie looked confused and determined.

  Could the guilty party be right here?

  It made the most sense that someone on the inside was behind these acts. Had Scarlet discovered them and been killed because of it?

  That was exactly what I needed to figure out.

  ***

  When play practice was over, I checked my phone. I had three missed calls from Chad, which seemed unusual. I wandered to the back of the auditorium for privacy and called him back.

  “We’ve got problems,” Chad started.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Clarice just quit and so did Braxton.”

  “What?” My voice came out louder than intended.

  “Yeah, Clarice said you’d had creative differences.” His voice sounded hard.

  “Creative differences?” I repeated.

  “She said that was putting it nicely.”

  “She’s dating Parker and I warned her against it. She got offended. I tried to be gentle and compassionate. I promise that I did.” I sighed, wishing sometimes that I could rewind my life. “What about Braxton?”

  “He said he can’t work for a woman.”

  “What? He actually said that?” My voice level climbed again.

  “Yeah, he actually said that. So that leaves you and me, Gabby. We’ve got a full workload this week. I wouldn’t have committed to so much if I’d known we’d be short staffed.”

  “What are we going to do? Should we call our clients and ask for extensions?”

  “You know how that goes. Then we’ll suddenly start getting all these bad online reviews and that drives business away.”

  “This is the week before opening night. I’m going to have trouble putting in overtime hours.”

  “Yeah, I know.” He sighed, long and hard. “We’re essentially re-launching our business. I don’t want it to fail now.”

  “I don’t either, Chad.”

  “So you’re committed to what we’re doing?”

  “Of course I am.” Even as the words left my mouth, I wondered if they were really true. In my mind, I was fully committed. But in my heart I knew I was thinking about the future—and about change—even more than usual lately.

  He remained silent for a moment and, with each second that passed, the tension between us grew. “I feel like you’re looking for any opportunity possible to ditch work for other prospects.”

  As I felt my defenses rising, I decided to take a mental step back. “Look Chad, maybe we shouldn’t be talking about this now. It’s obvious you’ve had a bad day, and I don’t think you’re thinking clearly.”

  “I don’t know, Gabby. Things have just felt so complicated lately.”

  Maybe Chad had been feeling resentful about my absences from work. In truth, I couldn’t blame him. Despite that, part of me still felt wary.

  “We’ll just talk later, Gabby. You’re right. I’ve had a bad day. The way it is now, I’m going to be working eighteen hour days.”

  “Look, I’ll recruit my brother and my dad to help if I have to. We’ll get it all done.” Certainly he realized I was concerned and serious if I’d go so far as to suggest that.

  “I hear you. Later, Gabby.”

  I hung up. I hadn’t thought it was possible to feel any worse. But I sure did.

  CHAPTER 26

  “I’m going to do a stake out here tonight,” I told Paulette. “You okay with that?”

  “What will that prove?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. I don’t really know. If something is happening here after hours, I want to know what.”

  Paulette nodded. “If that’s what you need to do.”

  Now more than I ever, I had to solve this case so I could begin to mend fences with Chad. Maybe I could only handle one job at a time and this whole being a private eye on the side wouldn’t work. This play had been more work than I anticipated and it had eaten into my time. Chad had worked several night jobs because I had play practice. Normally, we would have split the time between us.

  Maybe I’d been egocentric and self-absorbed this whole time. It wasn’t beyond me to act that way, although I’d thought I’d conquered those weaknesses.

  “You going with us to the Slug House?” Jerome asked.

  I shook my head. “Not tonight. I have some other things I need to do.”

  “Have it your way.”

  I lingered, pretending to study my script. When the last cast member was out the door, I gave up on the façade and stretched.

  “You sure you’re going to be okay?” Paulette asked.

  I nodded. “I should be fine. Maybe I’ll finally get some answers.”

  “Just be careful.”

  When she left and I was truly alone, a sense of foreboding gripped me. I might as well have been left alone in a creepy old haunted house. That’s what the school felt like at the moment.

  “Rose, I don’t believe in ghosts. I don’t believe you’re haunting this place. But something’s going on,” I whispered, staring at the stage.

  I walked over to the orchestra pit. I pictured the man lying there dead.

  Then I pictured Rose.

  Three people had died here. Three people.

  All, by initial impressions at least, had seemed accidental. But they weren’t.

  I wasn’t sure what being here tonight would prove. But at least I could check things out without fear of being caught.

  I decided to start in the dressing rooms. I hit Jerome’s first.

  The police had taken the tools I’d found on his floor and were checking them to see if they were matches. I had no doubt they were. Really, anyone could have left them in his dressing room, though. The rooms weren’t locked, so it would be easy for someone to frame him.

  I wandered around but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

  Out of curiosity, I went down into the orchestra pit next. I moved aside some of the chairs and music stands there. I stood in the spot where I’d found the man and looked up at the stage.

  Why had his body been left here? What were his connections with the crimes?

  I had more questions than answers.

  I had more suspicions than I had confirmations.

  For every theory, I had a doubt as to its accuracy.

  That left me feeling like I was going around in circles.

  I climbed out of the pit.

  That’s when I heard a door close in the distance.

  Someone else was here, I realized.

  The questions were who and why.

  ***

  I realized I was standing out in the open where anyone could spot me. I ducked low and hurried toward the wall. I hit the light switch and the auditorium went dark.

  The dark both concealed me and terrified me.

  I lingered by the wall, waiting for another telltale sign.

  My heartbeat was the only thing I could hear. It drummed at a hard steady rhythm.

  Who else was here? Just what were their reasons? To wreak more havoc? Or were they plotting something more deadly like another murder?

  I heard another door squeal open. I glanced at the entrance at the back of the auditorium
and saw one of the doors there was cracked open. The hallway outside had a purple emergency light that illuminated a dark figure as it slipped inside.

  My senses tingled as the shadow lingered by the door.

  If the intruder turned on the lights, I’d be spotted. I couldn’t let that happen.

  As if on cue, the lights above me flickered. Quickly, I hit the switch above me and flipped them off.

  The process repeated itself several times until finally the intruder gave up. Did he or she think it was an electrical short? Maybe they didn’t know I was here.

  Someone came down the aisle. The person didn’t sound especially heavy, but I supposed they could just be walking softly. What were they up to?

  I was about to find out.

  I couldn’t exactly be unarmed, though. I felt beside me and grabbed an old microphone stand. The base was heavy and weighted. Maybe that would work in my favor.

  I gripped it, just in case I needed a weapon.

  The figure, best I could tell, started toward the stage but paused. Did this person suspect I was here? That I was watching?

  I pressed myself harder into the wall. I would have ducked, but I feared the motion would only confirm my presence. Instead, I froze. I still gripped the microphone stand, just in case.

  I sensed the footsteps starting again, coming closer.

  Alarm raced through me.

  Was I about to come face to face with a killer?

  My pulse quickened.

  I had to take a risk and see who this person was.

  Before I could second guess myself, I flipped the light switch. As the overheads flooded on, I gripped my microphone stand, ready for a fight.

  “Wait!” someone screeched.

  I blinked at the figure standing there. “Bennie?”

  “Gabby?”

  We stared each other down.

  “What are you doing here?” I started, lowering my makeshift weapon.

  “I forgot my wallet. I didn’t think I would get in, but the outside door was unlocked.”

  Again? Why was that door continually unlocked? There was something wrong about that. Majorly wrong.

  “Don’t you have a key?” I asked.

  “No, Paulette didn’t give me one. With everything that’s been happening around here lately, I wasn’t sure I wanted the responsibility, to be honest.” She eyed me. “Your turn. Why are you here?”

  I swallowed hard, wanting to pour out the truth—that I was investigating. But Paulette really wanted me to keep this quiet. “Paulette gave me permission to stay after hours. She’s worried about the play and thought it would be a good idea for someone to be around. She hasn’t found a suitable security guard yet.”

  It was the truth … only not completely.

  Bennie’s eyes narrowed before widening. “So, you’re, like, on a stake out?”

  I shrugged, trying to appear like I had no idea what I was doing. “I guess.”

  “Can I help?” She said it like a little kid asking if they could go to Disney World.

  I searched my brain for an excuse as to why she couldn’t possibly help me. I came up with nothing. “Sure. The more the merrier.”

  My words lacked conviction but she didn’t seem to notice.

  “This is going to be so fun. A stakeout. I feel so … detective-y.” She giggled. “But before I forget, let me grab my wallet. You’ll leave the lights on this time, right?”

  I nodded. “Now that I know it’s you.”

  Her eyes widened again. “That’s right. I could have totally been a bad guy. What happens if the bad guy does come tonight, Gabby?”

  “We call the police. That’s it. We don’t rush in and try to be heroes. We don’t try to tackle him or her ourselves. We’re merely observers.”

  She nodded crisply. “Observers. Got it. I’m going to get my wallet.”

  I watched her disappear. Great. This wasn’t what I had planned. I liked the girl well enough, but I wasn’t sure if she’d be in the way or not. The last thing I wanted was to stay awake into the wee hours of the morning, all for nothing. Or, even worse, to have Bennie ruin it.

  It didn’t matter anymore. I’d told her she could stay, so now I was stuck with her.

  She appeared a moment later, waving a bright blue wallet in the air. A huge grin stretched across her face. “Found it. Now, how do we start?”

  “I’m no expert on this, but we mostly just chill. We stay quiet and low key and listen for anything suspicious.”

  “You think we’ll find something?”

  I shrugged. “Who knows? It appears that whatever is happening is in some way connected with this school or this play. I’d like to walk the halls, see if we hear anything.”

  “You really think we will?”

  I shrugged again. “I have no idea. I understand if you don’t want to stick around. This could be boring.”

  “Not at all. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

  I offered a smile, though it took everything in me to muster it. “Let’s go then.”

  We walked down the eerily silent hallways. It just wasn’t the same here without the students darting to and from class. Without teachers fussing. Without custodians cleaning up barf and trying to trip students with their “Wet Floor” signs—which I’d always thought were more dangerous than the wet floors themselves.

  We wandered down the main hallway, past the offices, past the various corridors. Except for the buzz of the lights, the school was eerily quiet, reminding me somewhat of a graveyard at midnight. Mentally, I pictured an impending storm in the distance, as well. What was a creepy graveyard without lightning and thunder?

  Something fluttered behind me before swooping by my ear. Bennie and I both screamed and ducked.

  As we rose, we saw a … bird. The little guy flew away, toward a window where he landed on the sill and stared at us.

  I let out a weak laugh. “Just a feathered friend. Wonder how he got in here.”

  “He’s probably more scared than we are.”

  Just then, something groaned in the distance.

  “What was that?” Bennie asked.

  “I have no idea. Let’s check it out.”

  We walked toward the opposite end of the building, and I paused by the gym. “That’s strange.”

  “What?” Bennie asked.

  I walked toward the outside door. Using only one finger, I pushed on it. A gust of wind pulled it the rest of the way open. “This door isn’t latched.”

  “That’s not reassuring.”

  “I’ll tell Paulette to look into it. Maybe the latch is broken.” Even as I said the words, I wondered if there was more to it.

  “Since that mystery is solved, I’m going to run to the bathroom, Gabby. I’ll be right back.”

  I watched as she disappeared through the doorway, and I wondered if this whole evening would be a bust.

  As soon as the thought entered my mind, movement at the end of the hallway caught my eye.

  Someone was in here!

  “Stop where you are!” I shouted.

  The intruder—who wore all black—froze. Then, in an instant, he darted into the gym.

  I took off after him.

  CHAPTER 27

  I shoved through the double doors leading into the room that gave nightmares to unathletic students everywhere and paused.

  Where had he gone?

  I saw no movement. But I couldn’t stand here all night and let the man get away. I inched along the wall, past the pull up bars and the banners proclaiming state championship titles. Bleachers lined the opposite wall and on either side of me were basketball hoops.

  My eyes were wide, watching for anything suspicious. At the center of the wall, I paused again. There were only so many places someone could hide in here. There was an office that the coaches used, a weight room, a small room where the wrestlers practiced, and … the locker rooms.

  A shadow moved in that direction.

  I sprinted toward it.

 
As soon as I burst through the doorway, I froze. I sucked in a quick breath as the darkness surrounded me.

  There were too many nooks and hideouts here. Rows of ugly blue lockers. Splintered wooden benches. A bathroom. Shower stalls. Any one of those places could be a trap. Someone could be waiting for me and I’d be walking right into his or her lair.

  I’d always hated this place. Hated changing in front of other girls who’d turned their noses up at me. Hated wasting my time playing dodge ball and tinikling, a Filipino dance using bamboo sticks.

  I hated being in here now just as much.

  I inched forward, remaining on guard, anticipating the heart-pounding fear of someone jumping out in front of me.

  What are you going to do when you catch him, Gabby? Tackle him?

  I silenced my inner voice. But the truth was that I had no idea. At least maybe I’d catch a glimpse of him. That would be something.

  I reached the end of the first row and peered around the bank of lockers.

  Darkness stared back. I had no idea what I was plunging myself into. No idea what kind of danger awaited around the corner.

  Was catching the person behind this really worth it? This could be the only way I found any answers. Maybe I was being foolhardy. But I didn’t want to turn back now.

  I edged toward the end of the row, reaching the second aisle where students used to change clothes. I was going to have to cross the great divide, losing the security of having something at my back.

  I held my breath, counted to three, and then rushed into the abyss.

  Just as I did, I saw the man. He darted from around the corner directly in front of me. I reached for him, my fingers connecting with his hat. I jerked it off and spotted a bald head. But not before he rammed himself into the lockers. The entire row crashed toward me.

  I threw myself out of the way. As I did, the man darted into the darkness.

  The lockers bounced off my head and shoulders and pinned my leg. My face knotted with discomfort, then pain. I was going to have a few bruises, but I’d take bruises over broken bones

  My heart raced. The man was gone. There was no way to catch him now.

  At least I’d caught a glimpse of him. I now knew there was a bald man involved in this somehow. That man was probably the same one I’d chased through the parking lot.