The Tapestry in the Attic (18 page)

He didn’t apologize, but just said brusquely, “Had to get this box.” Then he stomped across to the stairs that led up to the backstage area, leaving Annie staring after him. When her heart stopped racing, she crossed the space to the stairway herself and climbed them to the backstage area, which was a hive of activity. While the actors were taking a break, the stagehands were busy setting up for the opening scene of the second act. Annie could hear the intermission music rising from the orchestra pit out front.

Annie looked around and just saw Trent as he turned and moved out of her field of vision at the opposite side of the stage. She saw Felix was busy directing traffic behind the scenes. He looked up and saw Annie. “I’m sorry, Mrs. … Annie,” he said. “I was coming to help you, but I got distracted.”

“That’s all right,” said Annie. “I managed.”

Felix smiled at her. “I see that.” Just then, one of the stagehands approached him and asked him a question; his attention was directed elsewhere again.

Annie looked at her watch. The intermission was twenty minutes long, and she had fifteen minutes left to go. Her first stop was the backstage ladies restroom. Afterward, she glanced inside the ladies dressing room. It was a bit of a madhouse, so she determined to stay out of their way. She took a slight detour to try to steer clear of some of the activity backstage, and her route took her by the freight elevator. That was the same elevator that she and Wally had used weeks before to take the tapestry from the workshop up to the fourth floor. Now she saw the box that Trent had carried from under the stage propped against the wall between the elevator door and the swinging door that led to the set of service stairs that also ended in the workshop area. Trent was nowhere in sight.

Annie didn’t pause, but continued to head back toward the stairs to make her way below the stage. She felt a rising nervousness about going down the steps again. She was about five feet from the top of the steps when she just stopped. She felt a sense of panic rising within her.
This is ridiculous
, she thought. She tried to take a step, but it was as if someone or something were standing directly in front of her, its hand at her neck, stopping her from moving forward. She knew what it was. It was fear.

“Annie! Let me help you down the stairs!”

It was Wally Carson. Annie felt like she must have jumped ten feet in the air and left her heart on the floor.

Wally saw the look on her face. “Did I startle you, Annie? I’m really sorry. I guess you did all right before the play began. I tried to get back here, but Bill Witherell buttonholed me out in the lobby, and by the time I could get away, the professor was already giving his speech. I guess you were OK?”

Annie took a deep breath, and the fear that had gripped her seemed to fly away. “Yes, Wally, I was all right. But I have to admit, I’m really glad you’re here now.”

Wally offered Annie his arm, and she took it gladly. When she was safely seated in her little box again, Wally promised he would be back as soon as the last scene ended so that she could join the company for the curtain calls.

The house lights must have already begun to flicker to signal the end of the intermission, because soon Annie heard the medieval melody that had been floating from the orchestra pit come to an end. The curtain opened and the first scene of the second act commenced. All other thoughts not connected with the play stopped for Annie, and once again she was swept up in the drama of
King Lemuel’s Treasure
.

18

The last word of the final scene had just been spoken, and the stage lights had gone dim when Wally showed up to escort Annie back up to the level of the stage. As they went down the steps from the prompter’s box, across the under-stage area, and up the stairs to the backstage, Annie heard the audience applauding. It wasn’t as thunderous as it had been the night before, but it was strong and lasting, and she thought she heard a couple of “bravos” and “bravas” shouted out too. She and Wally watched from one of the wings at the side of the stage, and Annie was glad to see that the audience was on its feet.

When the curtains closed for the final time that evening, Annie went to collect her jacket from the ladies dressing room. Peggy was sitting in front of one of several lighted mirrors removing her stage makeup, and Kate and Vanessa were making sure the costumes and any accessories were back in their proper places, putting aside the pieces that would need to be cleaned before opening night the following Friday. An after-show party had been arranged by Gwen and John Palmer at Maplehurst Inn, and Annie told Peggy and Kate she would see them there.

The backstage area was starting to clear out as Annie made her way down the side passage that ran from the stage area back to the lobby. Her mind returned to her encounter with Trent at the start of intermission. It just seemed odd. She knew there were at least a couple of students from the college that were working with him on the light and sound, but shouldn’t he have been in the control booth during the performance instead of getting a box of fluorescent lights from under the stage? Something wasn’t right.

Annie was still deep in thought when she met Alice in the lobby. “Annie! Wasn’t that just the best? The cast really outdid themselves tonight. Stella and Gwen said they’d see us over at Maplehurst Inn.”

Annie agreed about the performance that evening and then said, “I’m just going to make an appearance there, but I don’t think I’ll be staying very long. I’m exhausted. Besides, it’s not like I’m the star of the show or anything.”

Catching a look in her friend’s eyes, Alice asked, “What is it Annie? Is something wrong?”

“It’s just that I had the strangest experience earlier,” said Annie. She told Alice about seeing Trent under the stage at intermission.

“That makes no sense,” said Alice.

“That’s what I was thinking,” said Annie. “I don’t like to say this, but it occurs to me that there might have been something in that box besides florescent lights.”

“Like what?” asked Alice.

“Like a tapestry, perhaps?” said Annie. “I’m just remembering the way that Trent was handling that box, and then the way it was propped up against the wall by the elevator—it wasn’t like it contained anything breakable. And it was the right size to hold the rolled-up tapestry.”

“Why don’t we just go check out the box?” asked Alice. “If it’s still sitting by the elevator, that is. It should be easy enough to tell if it contains lights or not.”

Annie agreed, and the two of them went back down the passage to the backstage area and then to the freight elevator. The box was gone, but they could both hear the sound of the freight elevator as it moved.

Annie looked at Alice. “Do you think it’s going up or down?” she asked, referring to the elevator.

Alice listened. “Down I think.”

They both looked at the swinging door to the service stairs and then at each other. Without having to say a word they moved in unison toward the door to the stairs. Annie had almost forgotten her leg was in a cast. “Drat!” she said, “I can’t move fast enough down these stairs in this cast.”

“Here,” said Alice moving close to Annie’s side, “put your arm around my shoulders and hang on to the rail. I’ll act as a crutch, and you won’t need to put your full weight on your broken leg. We should be able to go faster that way.”

Alice was right, and the two women worked their way down the steps fairly rapidly. They listened for the elevator at each level, and quickly moved on down the steps as the slow-moving elevator continued. When they reached the door to the workshop on main floor level, they were both out of breath.

The elevator had already stopped, and they could hear the scrape of metal as someone opened the elevator door. The swinging door from the stairwell contained a small window. The stairwell was lighted, but the workshop was dark, and both Annie and Alice knew that they wouldn’t be able to see anything inside the workshop, but the person from the elevator might be able to see them if they looked through the window. Annie saw a light switch by the door and quickly flicked it to the off position before the elevator door completely opened. Now the stairwell was pitch black except for the faint light that shone into the workshop from the elevator and in turn came in through the small window of the stairwell door.

“Now we just have to hope he didn’t see that,” Annie whispered to Alice. The two of them pressed their backs up against the wall behind the door, holding their breath, waiting to see if the door moved.

Apparently the person in the elevator didn’t notice that the light had gone out in the stairwell, because after a few seconds, nothing happened. Annie relaxed a little and moved to carefully peek over the edge of the small window just in time to see the very back of a person exit through the outer door. He had laid the long cardboard box on a large worktable.

“Quick!” said Annie. “He’s gone out the back door. Let’s open the box and see what’s inside.”

Annie and Alice carefully pushed the swinging door and entered the workshop. The only light inside came from the still opened elevator. Even so, Alice was able to find a box cutter on a workbench and cut three sides of one narrow end of the box that was pointed toward the elevator so they could see inside.

Annie pulled back the cardboard square and looked inside. She gasped and whispered loudly, “Oh my gosh! It’s the tapestry!”

Just then, Annie and Alice heard voices outside the back door. They looked at each other’s panic-stricken expression in the dim light.

“Hurry! Go back up the stairs and get help,” whispered Annie as she pushed the end of the box back in place well enough to disguise that it had been opened. They both knew that going back up the stairs was the only way out. The workshop door into the museum was kept locked outside of work hours.

“I can’t leave you here!” whispered Alice.

“You have to,” whispered Annie emphatically. “I’ll hide—I’ll be fine. Now hurry!”

Alice moved just in time. When the back door opened, and the voices became clearer, the door to the stairs was still swinging slightly. Annie had moved behind the table-saw table, clutching the box cutter in one hand, and sitting on the floor out of sight. Her heart was pounding. She hoped Alice would be all right climbing back up the steps to the next level; she certainly wouldn’t be able see well or to move very quickly in the darkness of the stairwell.

Annie tried to listen to the voices. She didn’t recognize the one that was speaking. “… and after my client has authenticated the tapestry, he’ll transfer the funds to your account in the Caymans.”

“I can assure you it is the real thing,” the other man replied. “I want my money as soon as possible.”

Annie nearly gasped out loud when she heard the other man’s voice and put one hand up to cover her mouth. She knew that voice—it was Professor Howell.

“Patience, Rudy,” said the stranger. “You’ll get your money. I only deal with people I can trust.”

Annie couldn’t see the man’s face, but the irony of his words didn’t escape her. What was that saying she’d heard—honor among thieves?
As if
, she thought.

“I have to get to the party across the street,” said the professor. “I’ll lock the back door after you and take the elevator back up to the theater and leave from there.”

“Nice doing business with you, professor,” said the stranger. “If you come across anything else you want to dispose of, give me a call. You know how to reach me.”

Annie heard the professor sniff with disdain. “I doubt very much I will be requiring your services again. This transaction should set me up nicely for my retirement, I think.”

“Money doesn’t go as far as it used to, Rudy,” said the man with a laugh. “Especially for someone with expensive tastes like yours.”

Annie heard the scraping sound of cardboard being moved across the table. She assumed the man was starting to pick up the box. She hoped she had replaced the cut end of the box well enough so that he wouldn’t notice that the box had been opened. What could she do? She couldn’t just let him take it. If he got it out that door, she knew she’d never set eyes on the tapestry again. She knew what she had to do. She stood up.

“Stop!” she shouted.

The two men jerked in surprise.

The professor recovered rapidly. “What are you doing here, Mrs. Dawson? How long … .” His words trailed off, and his eyes narrowed. “You should be across the street at the party. Perhaps I could escort you … .”

Annie brandished the box cutter she’d held onto when Alice left. “You stay away from me! How could you do something like this? We all trusted you—you’re so talented and smart. Why?”

The professor seemed extremely calm to Annie, and she didn’t like that at all. The other man began again to shift the box toward him.

“Stop!” she shouted again. “Alice has gone to get the police, and she’ll be back any moment now.”

The stranger looked at the professor. “Who is this Alice person? Is she bluffing?” The man left the box on the table and started backing toward the door. “I’ve got to be going, Rudy. Don’t call me, I’ll call you.”

The professor didn’t try to stop the man as he quickly exited the room. Instead, he looked at Annie accusingly. “It appears you have ruined everything, with your amateurish sleuthing, Mrs. Dawson. How did you come to be here?” he demanded.

“I saw Trent under the stage with the box at intermission, and then I noticed the box leaning by the elevator afterward. It just seemed wrong, so Alice and I returned to check it out, and when we heard the elevator, we came down the stairwell.”

The professor laughed bitterly. “Your penchant for noticing details seems to have done me in. It was a gamble to tell Mr. Bodkin to retrieve the box from under the stage, but I really couldn’t be seen doing that myself. He was supposed to do it during the second act, not at intermission.”

“Did you know the first time you saw the tapestry at Grey Gables that it was so valuable?” asked Annie.

The professor laughed. “I knew it the moment Mrs. MacFarlane described the signature panel to me. I had seen the Lily Cornette tapestry that hangs in the Emerson Room of Wilson Hall dozens of times, and I knew what her tapestries had been selling for on the market. All I had to do was get Cyril to send me the photos he took with his cellphone, and relay them to Mr. … Smith, let’s call him, and let him start getting bids from his many clients.”

“Does Cyril know how valuable it is?” asked Annie.

“Cyril? Ha!” said the professor. “Cyril is like you—an amateur—he has friends in the art community, but not connections like I have, if you see what I mean. But I couldn’t have him investigating the tapestry. I simply told him I knew of a specialist in the area of fine arts tapestries and convinced him I would get the information for you and pass it along so that he could concentrate on the play.

“That’s why he never said anything about it again,” said Annie. “He probably thought that you had.”

“He thinks he’s very clever,” said the professor, “but I could always think circles around him.” The professor paused. “Except when it came to Dolores, that is. I have to admit, it was a blow when she chose him instead of me.”

Annie thought back to the interactions she had seen between the professor and the Fortescues; she had been right in thinking they had known each other a long time. Then Annie thought about her injury. Surely that couldn’t have been the professor. She didn’t want to believe he could do anything like that.

“And the counterweight—was it you that severed the cable?” asked Annie.

The professor looked a little regretful. “I really didn’t intend to injure you, Mrs. Dawson. It was meant to be a warning. I didn’t want you going to Longfellow and finding out about the other tapestry.”

“You could have killed me—or someone else,” said Annie.

“The odds favored that it would fall when no one was beneath it,” said the professor. “I was willing to take the chance.”

Annie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She was about to reply when she heard a noise at the door of the workshop that was connected to the museum. The door opened, and Chief Edwards burst through first with his pistol drawn, followed by Ian, Wally, and Alice. Ian’s glance took in the professor, the box on the table, and the box cutter that Annie still held tightly in her hand.

“Are you all right, Annie?” he asked.

Annie put the box cutter down next to the table saw. “Yes, Ian, I’m all right now.”

Chief Edwards had taken out his handcuffs and approached the professor.

“Is that really necessary?” asked the professor. “I’ll come quietly.”

“Afraid it is necessary,” said the Chief grimly. He stood behind the professor, grabbing his hands and clamping the cuffs over his wrists. “You have the right …” he began.

While Chief Edwards was reciting to Professor Howell his rights, Annie said, “Alice, did you tell them about the other man. He left just a minute ago.”

Ian answered. “Cal Peters was keeping an eye on the parking lot tonight, just for security’s sake. The Chief called him as soon as Alice told us what was going on. The other guy should already be in custody.”

****

Chief Edwards took Professor Howell out through the back door of the workshop to where Officer Peters’s patrol car was located in the back parking lot, and Wally locked the outer door behind them.

“What shall we do with the tapestry, Annie?” asked Ian.

“Oh my,” she said. “I don’t know. Should I take it back to Grey Gables?”

“I’d rather you didn’t,” said Ian. He paused and thought a moment before continuing. “Only the four of us and the police know that we’ve retrieved the tapestry. How would you feel if we keep that information just between us until tomorrow? We can lock up the tapestry on the fourth floor—just for tonight. Besides, there’s no reason to spoil this night for the cast and crew. If anyone asks, we can just say that the professor became ill, or that we don’t know where he is exactly—which will be true.”