Bad Girls Don't (26 page)

He gently tugged her arms down. “I think Milton is the most likely culprit. And I plan on having a little talk with him shortly. Meanwhile, I’m not real happy with you living right above the theater.”

“Why not?”

“Because these incidents seem to be escalating, and by practically living on-site, you leave yourself and your daughter vulnerable. What if the guy who broke in here last night had decided to break into your apartment instead?”

“Are you deliberately trying to scare me?”

“I’m trying to make you face reality. And the reality is that you and Toni would be safer staying with your mom at your sister’s house over in Serenity Falls.”

“I’m not letting some idiot scare me out of my own home. Or my theater.”

“It’s the wise thing to do.”

“It’s the cowardly thing to do.”

Nathan sighed. “I had a feeling you’d say that. Let me go talk to Milton and see what he has to say.” He turned his attention to Tyler, who’d just joined them. “Can you keep an eye on things here?”

“Angel already told him not to leave me alone,” Skye said.

“Good. I won’t be long.”

“If you think everyone is a suspect, then why aren’t you suspicious of Tyler?”

“Because I know his background.” Nathan walked out without saying anything more.

Which meant Skye had to get the information out of Tyler. “What was he talking about?”

“I suspect Nathan had me checked out.”

“And?” she prompted.

“And he probably found out that I was once a prosecutor in Chicago.”

Skye stared at him in astonishment. With his long gray hair gathered in a braid, no one looked more antiestablishment than Tyler. “You were a suit? A lawyer?”

“Yeah.”

“So what happened? Does Angel know any of this?”

“She knows.”

“Why keep it a big secret? Not that being a lawyer is something you’d want to brag about. I can understand that. Were you a Republican, too?”

“I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I may incriminate myself,” Tyler said wryly.

“A Republican lawyer. And look at you now. Long hair, ragged flannel shirts, and jeans. A rebel.” Skye shook her head before giving him a fierce hug. “Good for you! I’m so proud of you!”

Tyler blinked. “Huh?”

“You knew you were on the wrong path, so you jumped off. That life path is what brought you here, though, so you really should honor it and not be ashamed of it.”

“Yeah, so Angel has told me.”

“People don’t appreciate how smart she is.”

“I do.”

“I sure hope so.” She also hoped that Tyler would understand when Angel finally confessed about her secret meetings with Adam. But for now, Skye had bigger problems to deal with.

“Yo, Milton, how’s it going?” Nathan said as he walked into Milton’s tidy accounting office without bothering to knock.

Milton, wearing a bow tie and suit as uptight as he was, did not look happy to see him. “What are you doing here?” His tone was belligerent.

“Your secretary wasn’t at her desk, so I came on in.”

“What do you want?”

Nathan took a seat across the desk from Milton. “Just thought I’d check in with you and see how you’re doing.”

“I find that highly unlikely given the fact that you were very uncooperative when I asked for your help with that situation with my uncle.”

“In what way was I uncooperative?”

“I asked you to arrest that sleezy Skye woman.”

“Yes, you did.” Only years of training and self-discipline prevented Nathan from wrapping his fingers around Milton’s scrawny little neck. Every honorable instinct he had urged him to defend Skye, even though he knew damn well that she wouldn’t appreciate his sticking up for her. But beating up Milton wouldn’t garner usable information, which was Nathan’s primary reason for being here. “The thing is, I’m not allowed to do that without something known as due cause.”

“Did my uncle send you here?”

“I haven’t spoken to Owen recently. Have you?”

“No,” Milton said curtly. “He wasn’t exactly cordial to me the last time we spoke in your office.”

“And that bothered you?”

“Of course it bothered me. He was treating me as if I were some kind of idiot, when I’m a highly respected professional.” Milton pointed to the framed degrees on his wall. “I expect to be treated as such.”

“As what?”

“As a highly respected professional.”

“Me, too. I expect to be treated as a highly professional law enforcement officer.”

“In that case, you’d be wise to act with more decorum.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, people are talking about you and that woman.”

“You mean Skye Wright? She’s a highly professional businesswoman now that she owns the Tivoli Theater.”

“The only profession she knows is the world’s oldest profession,” Milton sneered.

“You want to be careful making statements like that.” Nathan’s voice was taut. “She could sue you.”

“Sue me for what?’

“For slander and defamation of character. And for being an asshole, if that were illegal . . . but unfortunately, it’s not.”

“Hey!” Milton’s face turned red. “You’ve got no right coming in here and calling me names.”

“You’re correct. However, I do have a right to come in here and interrogate you. Unless you’d rather I took you down to the station to do that?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about you, and your whereabouts last night.”

“I was working late last night.”

“Can anyone confirm that?”

“My wife. I told her I was here working late.”

“Anyone see you here? Your secretary?”

“She went home at five.”

“So, how late were you here?”

“I don’t know. Until midnight, maybe.”

“Really? That late? And it’s not even tax time right now.”

“I have a lot of work all year round to keep me busy.”

“Yeah, it looks like it.” Nathan noted Milton’s clear desktop.

“I like order and tidiness,” Milton said.

“Me, too. I’ll tell you what I don’t like. I don’t like the idea that someone is deliberately trying to sabotage Skye’s efforts to rehab the Tivoli. That really pisses me off.”

“I don’t appreciate your choice of language,” Milton primly informed him.

“Too bad. I don’t appreciate vandalism and breaking and entering.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Someone broke into the theater last night and defaced the lobby with paint.”

“It wasn’t me,” Milton replied immediately, beads of sweat forming along his upper lip. “I was here last night. Working.”

“Without any witnesses.”

“I got home before one a.m. My wife can vouch for that.”

“Still doesn’t cover the hours before that.”

“What time was the theater broken into?” Milton asked.

“We don’t know.”

Milton’s earlier bravado returned. “Then it could have happened
after
one a.m., when I was home.”

“It could. We’re dusting for fingerprints now and following a few leads.”

“You won’t find my fingerprints there,” Milton stated confidently.

“Maybe not. But we might find that whoever did break in was actually doing the dirty work for someone else. Someone who was working late or home in bed.”

“Are you accusing me?”

“No. I was just stating a few possibilities.”

“If you’re exploring possibilities, you should look into Wally Purdy’s past. You know, over at the thrift shop. He was a drunk, you know. Maybe he fell off the wagon and went a little crazy last night.”

“Why should Wally want to vandalize the theater?”

“How should I know? Finding that out is your job, not mine.”

“Yes, it is. And I
will
find out, Milton.” Nathan gave him the steely glare honed and perfected during his years in the Marine Corps. “That’s as certain as death and taxes.”

 

 

Skye faced the football team the next day with eyes dry and scratchy from lack of sleep. She hadn’t been able to rest much last night, fearing a repeat incident of vandalism and determined to stop it before it happened.

Tyler had called in a security company, which had installed a new system, along with motion-sensor lights near the rear exits. The lights had gone on twice—a prowling alley cat was the cause the first time, a garbage-looting raccoon the second.

Skye had spent the night sitting in a chair in her bedroom facing the window above the alley, ready to protect what was hers. Not the most restful of occupations.

She was
so
not ready for a hoard of sports-mad teenagers this morning.

“Are you coming to the game tomorrow night?” Brock the quarterback asked Skye. “You are, right? You’re like our good-luck mascot.”

Skye didn’t really appreciate the comparison. She’d seen the team mascot, and the foam Trojan was not a pretty picture.

“We’ve been winning,” Brock reminded her. “Coach says there’s nothing like winning, and he’s right. Coach is always right.”

“Have you all been continuing with your yoga every day?” Skye asked.

“Yes!” they shouted in unison.

Skye winced. She was getting a serious headache. She turned on the Dave Matthews band and got started.

The familiar movements relaxed her, as they are intended to. As she went through the various poses, a degree of serenity slowly returned.

Her inner balance restored, Skye gathered her yoga mat after class and headed for the nearest exit. She was surprised to run into Algee in the locker-lined hallway. “What are you doing here?”

“Speaking to classes about a new project we’ve got going on.”

“We?”

Algee nodded. “I saw what a difference you made with your yoga lessons and thought maybe there was more I could do to get involved. I read about this project that encourages kids to create their own comic books as an after-school program. I went to their website and got more information. Learned all the academic buzzwords, like how creating comic books fosters imagination, improves language skills, and builds vocabulary. They’ve cut the funding for art classes here in the Rock Creek school district, which sucks big-time, so this is a way for kids to express themselves artistically. Mostly younger kids, like in middle school, but I thought some ninth-graders might be interested too.”

“It’s a great idea, Algee! Hey, are you blushing?”

“Are you kidding?” he scoffed. “Black dudes don’t blush.”

“Yeah, right. Especially big, burly, ultratough black guys.”

“Yeah, especially them.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Like you don’t already have your plate full? I heard about the vandalism at the theater. And that Tyler got a new security system installed for you yesterday, right after that last incident.”

“Nathan wanted me to make a list of my enemies. Can you imagine?”

“Was it a long list?” Algee asked, utterly serious.

“I didn’t make a list.”

“Why not?”

“It’s bad karma.”

“So is getting vandalized.”

“Yeah, so Nathan has told me.”

“But you aren’t listening to him.”

“He’s very bossy, have you noticed that?”

“So are you.”

“Me?” She socked Algee’s arm, wincing as she hit solid muscle. “I am not. I just have strong opinions about things, and I’m always right.”

“Oh, well, that’s different.”

“Damn right. You know, once your comic-book project gets off the ground, we could do a display of some of your students’ work in the theater lobby once we open. And maybe do a Spiderman/Batman movie marathon to highlight it or something.”

“As long as it included
Batman Begins
.”

“It would have to, or Sue Ellen and Lulu would run me over with the Batmobile.”

“That is some kind of pink vehicle that Sue Ellen drives.”

“Yes, well, Sue Ellen likes to make a splash wherever she goes.”

“So do you. Listen.” Algee’s expression turned serious. “Nathan is a good guy. He already came to me about an at-risk kid named Jay that he thought would be a good candidate for the comic-book project. The guy knows everything that goes on in this town.”

“Big Brother is watching, huh?”

“I don’t think he sees himself as your big brother.”

“No?”

“Not in this lifetime,” Algee said. “You’re not blind, girl. I’m not telling you anything new here.”

“Nathan does everything by the book. He follows the rules. I break them.”

“So?”

“So, that doesn’t make for a good combination. Besides, you’re hardly in a position to be giving me advice on my love life. You are constantly going out with someone new.”

Algee grinned. “I like to spread the joy around.”

“You’re just as leery of settling down as I am.”

“Guilty as charged.”

“I’m glad to hear you admit it.”

“I’ve been meaning to thank you for recommending Lulu as an employee at Cosmic Comics Two. She’s working out just fine.”

“Another nonconformist.”

“Who knows her graphic novels. She’s a walking encyclopedia. I thought I knew a lot, but she blows me away.”

“She has a younger brain.”

“Ain’t that the truth. Listen, I’ve got to go. But you be careful. And do what Nathan tells you.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

Algee shook his head. “This sabotage stuff is nothing to joke about. It’s some serious shit.”

It got even more serious in the middle of the night, when someone tried to set fire to the Tivoli Theater.

Chapter Fourteen

Skye
stood in front of the theater in the eerie predawn light, wearing low-cut jeans and a cropped tank top stating “When I Can’t Sleep, I Count the Buckles on My Straight-jacket.” The fire department had put out the flames, which had actually been confined to a pair of Dumpsters in the alley behind the theater.