Final Call

by Rachel Ann Nunes

  “Who called you?” I asked Shannon. My eyes met Tracy Reed’s behind him, and she shook her head, her shoulder length, ironed blonde hair barely moving at the motion. Today, she wore navy suit pants and a white blouse under her police jacket, almost a matching copy of Shannon, who was in black. I’d have to remember to give him back his other coat.

  “We’re actually off duty,” she said, “but I wanted a first look at the murder scene myself.”

  I nodded, knowing Shannon’s partner hated being kept out of anything.

  “Looks like someone should have called.” Shannon’s eyes went past me to Erica, who still sat on the floor rubbing her arm. With her ultrashort haircut and perfectly shaped skull, she looked young, innocent, and helpless. Beautiful, even. “Are you okay?” Shannon asked, his voice gentle.

  She nodded. “It was just kind of frightening, being surprised like that.”

  “Tell me what happened.” Shannon moved past the actors into the kitchen. He offered Erica a hand up, which she accepted, looking at him demurely from half-closed eyes.

  In Tawnia’s arms Destiny let out a sound. “Sorry, sweetie. I didn’t mean to hold you so tight.” Tawnia rocked her gently, and despite the tension in the room, Destiny’s eyes drooped.

  Tracy had followed Shannon into the kitchen, her attention on the window. “This glass has been cut. Must be the entry point.”

  Grady Mullins had carried a glass cutter when he’d tried to break into Rosemary’s room. If the police had let him go already, he might be our prime suspect.

  “It broke when he was climbing out,” Erica said. “When I came in, he was standing at the counter. He hit me with his bag and ran over to the window.” She smiled at Shannon. “I hope you’ll find him. I don’t know what he took, but we have some very valuable costumes here.”

  I looked at the open cupboards and back to Shannon, who was now staring at me. “Okay, everyone, unless you have something to add, you need to leave,” he said. “This is a crime scene now.”

  “Come on, everyone.” Seaver beckoned to his actors. “Leave them to their work. Let’s run through that last scene again.”

  “I’ll call it in,” Tracy said, heading to the door. “Get the guys out here for fingerprinting. I’m also going to take a peek outside to see if he left anything behind.”

  Tawnia touched my arm. “Maybe I should take Emma home.”

  “If there was a danger, it’s over now,” Shannon pointed out. “That guy isn’t coming back with the police here. Besides, it looks like he got what he came for.”

  Tawnia looked torn. “It’s okay,” I said. “I won’t let her out of my arms. Shannon and I will both keep an eye on her until you finish.”

  “Okay,” Tawnia said. “But you know where to find me if you need me.” She kissed Destiny before placing her sleeping form in my arms and leaving with the others. Only Erica remained.

  “Besides the mask, he was wearing gloves,” Erica told Shannon. “The thin sock kind.”

  Sock gloves like the person who’d attacked me in the prop room. Had he come back for what he hadn’t been able to get the other day? But why not come in the middle of the night when no one was here?

  “Do you remember anything else about the bag he carried?” Shannon asked Erica.

  She started to shake her head. “Wait. It might have clanked.” She blinked. “You know, now that I think about it, when he hit me, it sounded like dishes banging together.”

  “That would explain the open cupboards.”

  Her forehead gathered. “But these are regular dishes. They often double as props, but there’s no real value to them. Let’s see, the plates are here, the bowls—” She broke off in confusion.

  “There are no glasses.” I stated the obvious for her.

  Again Shannon’s eyes fell on me, but when he spoke, it was to Erica. “That will be enough questions for now. We’ll want a full inventory of what was here, if you could take care of that.”

  “Millie will know. She keeps track of stuff like that.” Erica bent to retrieve the costumes that had been in her basket, but Shannon stopped her.

  “Leave that for now. Until after we finish with the room.”

  She smiled at him, all soft and willing. “Okay. Thank you so much.” She shuddered delicately, which I was sure was an act because it belied the tough, no-nonsense actress I’d seen on Saturday night. Or maybe her brush with the intruder had brought out the real woman.

  “You okay?” Shannon asked.

  Erica took a deep breath. “I am now.”

  I almost couldn’t stop from rolling my eyes as she left the room.

  “So,” Shannon said to me, snapping back to business. “Sounds like your guy from the prop room.”

  “Is Grady still in custody?” He hadn’t been wearing gloves at Rosemary’s place, but that didn’t mean anything.

  “Should be. He hadn’t made bail when I left. Apparently his actor friends don’t have the funds to get him out.”

  “This guy used a glass cutter.”

  “I know.”

  “Two separate guys use glass cutters?”

  “Or Grady Mullins made bail.”

  I sighed. “He must have.”

  “And now the second glass is gone.”

  I arched a brow. “So you didn’t just come here to satisfy Tracy’s craving to go over the crime scene herself.”

  “No. I realized there had to be another glass. In fact, I remembered seeing at least one matching glass when they were testing. No poison, but I was hoping it contained an imprint.”

  I sat down at the small table, gently laying my sleeping niece on top, making sure she was tucked snugly in her blanket and keeping hold of her just in case. “I’ve been thinking. Some years after those two actors went missing, an actress died in a car accident and another of cancer—all after being cast by this company in the same play. Is it possible that poison was involved in those cases but was somehow overlooked?”

  “If so, we have a serial killer on our hands.”

  “Or someone who has a definite agenda.”

  Shannon sat down in the chair next to me. “Still a serial killer, whatever the reason. When he’s set off, he’ll do it again.”

  Even if my conjecture had any merit, we had no proof there had been two more killings, much less four.

  “Could be that actress Vera,” I said. “She was really upset today about not being cast in the role of Juliet.”

  “The superstitious one?”

  “An act,” I said. “At least that’s what I think. She has a boyfriend. He could have been the one to break in today, but he couldn’t have attacked me in the prop room on Saturday. He was too busy making out with Vera in the hall.”

  “It wouldn’t make sense anyway. Why break in if you’re already here?”

  “And why break in during the day when people are here? Do they have an alarm?”

  Shannon nodded. “One of the few extra expenses Walsh splurges on.”

  “Well, at least that explains one thing.” I sighed. “So what about the Taylors’ cabin?” The police should have had time to arrive there by now and do at least a cursory search. That is, if Tracy had acted immediately on my information.

  “No recent trace of Rosemary in the cabin or in the woods immediately surrounding the area, and they brought a dog. Basically, nothing amiss that they could see. You might have better luck.”

  “This from the man who really, really hates what I do?” I couldn’t resist the jab.

  “I don’t hate what you do.” He leaned forward. Closer. Too close. “Okay, I used to, but that was before I knew you.” His warm breath had the faintest hint of mint.

  “You think you know me?” My voice sounded a bit rough, even to my own ears. I knew he’d been fighting his feeling
s for me for a long time, but what I hadn’t expected was the way something in me would respond to his emotion once he allowed it to show.

  “Yes.”

  “And what is it you know?” On the table Destiny opened her eyes lazily. Her tiny hand closed around one of my fingers.

  His eyes held mine. “The most important thing is that I’m not willing to share you like Jake seems able to do.”

  “You’re not sharing me.”

  “That’s exactly what I just said.” He was close enough that I could see the five o’clock shadow on his face. For a blonde man, he could grow a nice crop of stubble.

  “I mean,” I said, accentuating each word, “I’m not his, and I’m not yours. No one is sharing me. I make my own decisions.”

  “Which is?”

  Our lips were inches apart now, and I wanted to close the distance more than just about anything. “Depends. I’m not sure what all my options are yet. Some are clearer than others.”

  “I see.” His hand covered the one of mine not holding Destiny, sending shivers up my arm. I was really, really glad I couldn’t read people like I could objects, because the fire in his eyes was intense.

  “I’d have to experience the options,” I added.

  “I can arrange that.” He moved forward until his lips lightly touched mine, though he didn’t actually kiss me.

  “Aren’t you on duty?” I whispered.

  “No. That’s why Tracy’s calling someone else to come in.”

  That’s right. I remembered her saying something to that effect. I both wanted and didn’t want this moment. I wasn’t betraying Jake. I’d been honest with him about my feelings for Shannon, but this could change things permanently, one way or the other.

  Shannon’s hand left mine and slipped around to the back of my neck, pulling me closer. My mind was screaming something, but I couldn’t hear what.

  Destiny began to cry.

  We drew away at the same time. On the table between us, Destiny was desperately trying to take my finger to her mouth. For the first time in my aunthood, I felt frustrated with her.

  Shannon sat casually back in his chair. “I think someone’s hungry.”

  I knew how to wipe that knowing smirk from his face. Scooping up the baby, I dropped her into his arms. “I’ll get her bottle. It’s in the car.”

  I fanned my face as I hurried down the hall, through the prop room, and out to the car. The temperature had dropped at least ten degrees since we’d arrived, and my feet should have been cold without my boots, but I was still feeling flushed from my encounter with Shannon. That man could heat my blood without even touching me. Had there been a time when Jake could do that? I couldn’t remember.

  I returned in time to free Shannon from the baby so he could talk to Tracy and the two officers called to process the scene. His eyes rested on my face, the smirk gone. This time there was only his attraction to me and his acceptance of it. That scared me far more than when he’d been hoping to prove me a charlatan.

  We moved into the area outside Walsh’s office so the officers could finish in the kitchen. Along with the diaper bag, I’d brought in the car seat, and after Destiny finished her bottle, I settled her in the seat and arranged a few hanging toys on the handle above her head. She couldn’t exactly reach out and play with them yet, but they fascinated her.

  “I’m going out to the Taylor cabin,” Shannon told me.

  “You and Tracy?”

  “No, she has plans tonight. I think she’s seeing someone, though she keeps denying it.”

  My turn to smirk. “Maybe that’s so you won’t do a background check on him and four generations of his relatives.”

  He didn’t take the bait. “I was hoping you’d come along.”

  Oh, yeah. I wanted to. But only because I still thought Mr. Taylor had something to do with his daughter’s disappearance. My desire had nothing to do with wanting to be alone with Shannon.

  I was never a good liar—except to myself.

  “Well?” he asked.

  I took a step toward him, cutting the space between us to a few inches. “I can’t leave my sister yet,” I said in a quiet voice. “Not with a murderer on the loose around here. Besides, I’m watching Destiny.”

  “We’ll wait, then.”

  So we did, watching the actors coming as they arrived for the later rehearsal. Even after Tracy joined us, the tension between Shannon and me was as alive as the electricity that flickered in the old fluorescent lights above our heads.

  “This place wouldn’t pass code these days,” Tracy commented, glancing up at the lights.

  I nodded. “Hurray for grandfather clauses.”

  “What an interesting case.” Tracy flipped a page in her small notebook. “I can’t wait until we break it.”

  I couldn’t wait until we found Rosemary.

  The police still hadn’t finished processing the kitchen when my sister showed up, arms out for the baby.

  “That was fun,” she said, smothering Destiny with kisses.

  “Look,” I told her. “I’m going with Shannon to check something out.”

  Tawnia looked at me, turning her head so Shannon couldn’t see her wink. “Sounds fun. Call me later?”

  “Sure.”

  We walked out to the cars together. The rain was coming down again steadily, but none of us commented. We knew what to expect in Portland. I held Tawnia’s umbrella over her and the baby, and since there wasn’t much of a breeze this evening, it mostly did its job.

  She glanced over to where Shannon and Tracy were climbing into his white Mustang. “Look, something strange happened a few minutes ago. I’m not sure if it’s important, but since the whole reason for my being here is to get the inside scoop, I should probably tell you.”

  “What happened?”

  “I had to use the restroom, and when I was inside, I overheard an argument between two of the actors, a man and a woman. I think it was coming through the heating vent, and it was kind of distorted. I didn’t recognize their voices.”

  I wondered if instead of a man and a woman arguing, it could have been the actor Lucas with another man. His voice was high enough to be mistaken as a woman’s voice, especially through a vent.

  “It wasn’t that an argument was strange,” Tawnia went on, “it was the subject of the argument. The woman was saying something about how she should have the main role in the play—I don’t know which play—and that the man owed her and should make it happen. He had all kinds of reasons why it wasn’t a good idea. Mostly, it sounded to me like he didn’t trust her. She was furious and said that she was the best actress in the company and that he knew it. That she would make him sorry if he didn’t do what she wanted. Then they must have moved away from the vent because the only thing I heard after that was the woman saying something about her father or his father—someone’s father. She sounded very, well, disgusted, and whatever she said shut the man up good.”

  “And you have no idea what?”

  “No. But it sounded serious, you know? The woman was furious, she could barely speak, and he was cowed but determined. Strange.”

  I frowned. “Doesn’t make sense. I mean, the only ones who seem to have input over casting are Walsh and Seaver. Actually, Seaver told me that as the director he has final say, but I don’t know how reliable that is with Walsh holding the purse strings.”

  “Maybe one of the male actors has something over Walsh or Seaver and the female actress wants him to use that to get her a better part.”

  “Could be. Let’s think on it a bit more.” I was leaning toward the idea that maybe Vera and her boyfriend had been plotting, but it could be any of the actors. “I don’t like Walsh at all,” I confessed to my sister. “In an ideal world he’d be responsible for all of it.”

  She sh
ook her head. “Too much for him to lose.”

  “Maybe we need to look at the backgrounds of all the actors and find out about their fathers. See if there’s a possible connection. The police might already have a lot of the information. Tracy said she was checking everyone.”

  “I hope they find something soon. Poor Rosemary. Well, I’d better get this baby home, and if she doesn’t eat enough, I’m going to have to use my pump. I have so much milk, I’m going to explode.”

  “Thank you for that picture,” I said dryly. “And speaking of picture, do you feel like drawing any?”

  She groaned. “What I feel like is getting home and feeding this baby and going to bed. I forgot how exhausting this stuff is. But don’t forget, you’re calling me later.”

  I didn’t know who was in denial more, me or my sister.

  “Here, take your umbrella.” Waving good-bye, I went to Shannon’s car where Tracy was seated in the back, leaving the front passenger seat for me. “Just drop me at the precinct,” she said. “It’s not too far out of the way.”

  “You sure you don’t want to come out to the cabin with us?” I asked.

  “Nope. Not my idea of a double date.”

  “Ah, so you do have a date,” Shannon said.

  Tracy shrugged. “Maybe. Besides, the local guys said there was nothing out there.”

  “She’s gotta be somewhere.” Shannon met her eyes in the mirror.

  A triumphant smile appeared on Tracy’s face. “Maybe Autumn can find something they missed.” The amusement was thick in her voice, and I didn’t have to guess to know that she was thinking of the months she’d gone behind Shannon’s back to bring me evidence to read that eventually helped solve their cases. What she didn’t know is that Shannon had been aware of her duplicity and had gone along with it because solving cases was all-important—even if he had to involve my questionable talent.

  I took advantage of the drive to the station to tell them what Tawnia had overheard. “It might be nothing,” I said.