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Andy gave a start. “You think Nadia did it?”
“That’s not what I said,” he replied carefully. “I asked if she has an alibi.”
I nodded at the ceiling. “I didn’t see the sandbags yesterday, which meant they were installed since then. Nadia has been with us the entire time after rehearsal last night.”
Atkins raised an eyebrow. “Has she, now?”
“She’s our roommate,” Andy quickly said. “She came straight home after rehearsal last night, then did temp work with Dorian this morning. Then she and I went on a picnic in Central Park, and came straight here once Ryan told us what he’d found.”
Atkins listened quietly. I steeled myself to defend our arrangement if he said anything about it, but he pulled out his phone to call the police.
The detective who arrived was the same one who had investigated the spotlight last time. He looked even more bored today. “What is it this time? Another actor spat?”
We gave him the run-down on what had happened.
“So you were here alone?” the detective asked me. “Nobody was with you when you discovered this so-called trap?”
“That’s right.”
“So there’s no one who can verify your claim.”
I felt my pulse quicken. “Excuse me?”
“Why would Ryan set it up just to tell everyone about it?” Andy asked.
The detective shrugged casually. “To clear his own name. Make us sniff around someone else.”
“I don’t like your insinuations,” Atkins spat, rounding on the detective. He pointed behind him at me. “Ryan’s been working around the goddamn clock to make sure this theater is safe, and what’s his reward for being vigilant? Getting the third degree from a detective who couldn’t give a fuck about any of this. How about you take all of this more seriously before someone gets killed?”
The detective stared back placidly. When Atkins stopped his rant, the detective gestured around us. “This is a cheap theater. It’s got cheap equipment, cheap locks on the doors, cheap overall security. What improvements have you made since the first string of incidents?” He twisted in a circle, looking around. “Did you install those security cameras I recommended? What about the lock changes and redundant deadbolts on all the entries? No? That’s what I thought. I’ll take this more seriously when you do. Until then…”
Atkins’ face turned red like he was about to explode. He fumed as the detective took some cursory evidence, wrote down half a page of notes about the sandbag trap, and then left.
“He is not wrong,” Andy said quietly when it was just the three of us. “Security cameras would go a long way toward making this place safer.”
Atkins let out a long sigh. He sounded defeated. “I don’t even have the money to put together a proper show, let alone something that would be nice to have like a brand new security camera system. And detective chucklefuck sure as hell isn’t going to do any real police work.”
“Then why call him at all?” Andy asked.
“Because when someone does get injured, I want a papertrail showing that we tried.” He fixed me with a mournful gaze. “I’m sorry I ever blamed you for this. You’ve done the best you can with what you have. Rehearsal is canceled tonight. Clean those sandbags up and take the night off.”
He slumped his shoulders as he left the theater.
I stared at the sandbags on the floor. They were heavy enough to snap someone’s neck if they hit on the head just right. Might even break a shoulder or foot. I had a sinking feeling that it was going to eventually happen, no matter what we did to try and stop it.
But Andy strode toward me with purpose. “We’re going to catch this guy.”
“How do you think we’ll do that?”
His eyes sparkled behind his glasses. “I have a plan.”
37
Nadia
I hurried home like I was fleeing the scene of a crime. Which, essentially, I was.
Hopefully my absence didn’t arouse any suspicions with the detective. All it would take was Andy slipping and mentioning that I came with him and then left before the detective arrived to suddenly make me the number one suspect. If I wasn’t already.
