Cait ran toward the house, her gun at her side. When she heard someone calling her name, she glanced over her shoulder and saw Sergeant McCloud.
“Wait!” When he caught up with her, he said, “You can’t go there until Detective Rook gives the okay.”
“Like hell I can’t,” she said. “It’s my house.”
“Let us do our job. Please.”
Cait let her gun hang at her side as she stared at him. The illumination in the courtyard revealed the concern in his eyes and the weariness in the slump of his shoulders. She knew he was right. She took a deep breath, slowly exhaled, and forced her anger to subside. “If the alarm was a trick to get me alone in the open, away from the crowd, it worked.”
McCloud smiled. “Our thoughts exactly. Let’s wait inside one of the theaters until we hear from Rook.” Just then a voice came over McCloud’s radio.
“McCloud,” he answered. After a moment, he said, “Okay.” He rang off and nodded. “You got your wish. Let’s go.”
“False alarm?” she asked hopefully.
“Don’t know. Keep watch as we make our way to the house.”
She checked her cell for the time. “Not long before intermission. People will stream through the doors and into the courtyard. June’s in the Blackfriars theater. I should let her know what’s happened.”
“I’ll call the officer and have him keep everyone inside,” McCloud said.
June answered in a whisper. Cait explained about the alarm and relayed McCloud’s warning.
“There’s no intermission so no reason for anyone to leave, but I’ll find Fumié and Ilia and tell them what’s going on,” June said.
“Thanks.” Cait tucked her phone away and crossed the courtyard with McCloud, their guns drawn and tracking every shadow. The sergeant opened the squeaky gate, sending chills through Cait’s body as usual. As they approached the house, she had a new worry. Niki. She’d left him alone in the house. Was he frightened? She visualized the dog shivering and hovering under the piano, the only solid piece of furniture. When they walked in, Niki jumped up on Cait like they were old buddies. She set her gun on the counter and wrapped her arms around the dog’s neck, relieved he was okay.
“Can you believe the jerk smashed a window?” Marcus said, eyes wide open. “I was here and shut the alarm off right away.”
Rook ran his hand over his thinning hair. “This guy is like a damn snake, slithering into a hidey-hole.”
Cait had never seen Rook angry enough that his face turned red. When I was a cop, I promised to protect and serve. That oath never leaves you, even if you depart the force, but sometimes, like now, it’s a hard pledge to keep. I could kill Wally Dillon.
Just as he informed Cait that RT and the officers were searching the grounds, he was interrupted by a voice from his radio. “Anything?” he responded. He paused, frowned. “Yeah.” Rook glanced at Cait. “Do you want to go back and see the rest of the play?”
She hesitated. “Yes.”
“You’ll need an escort.” He cocked his eyebrow at McCloud.
“I’ll take her,” McCloud said.
“Show me the broken window first,” she said.
“Don’t worry about it, we’ll board it up,” Rook said. “Nothing in the gift shop was damaged.”
“I could get my horse and scout out the property,” Marcus said.
Cait sympathized with Marcus’s eagerness to help, but it was almost dark, and he wasn’t armed.
Rook shook his head. “I don’t want you or your horse stumbling about in the dark or frightening the guests.”
“Tomorrow, then, when it’s light,” Marcus said. “I’d like to find evidence to nail the bastard to the wall.”
A smile crossed Rook’s face. “That would be helpful.”
Cait stroked Niki’s head and then followed McCloud and Rook out the door.
“Found blood on shards of glass. He must have used his fist to break the window,” Rook said.
“That idiot has got to be Wally Dillon,” Cait said. “Maybe DNA will prove it.”
Sergeant McCloud and Cait stood at the rear of the Elizabethan theater in time to watch act 3, scene 4. Polonius, the king of Denmark’s chief counselor, was instructing the queen to be firm with her son, but when Hamlet, aka Chip Fallon, entered the queen’s chamber, Polonius hid.
Cait sneaked glances at McCloud to see how he was reacting to the play. It wasn’t until Hamlet drew his rapier and killed Polonius that she got her answer. The sergeant jerked upright, his attention riveted on the stage. Then when the ghost appeared and expressed concern for Gertrude, the sergeant’s attention waned.
McCloud whispered at Cait’s ear. “You get this stuff?”
She smiled. “Hamlet is the ultimate ghost story. You gotta love it. Want to go backstage to meet Hamlet?”
He nodded. “Better than standing here like statues.”
They slipped down the aisle and out the exit. Cait laughed at the relief on McCloud’s face when they were outside. “You didn’t like it, did you?”
“I saw the play with my wife. I didn’t understand it then and I don’t now, but she loves Shakespeare. So for the sake of our marriage, I take her to Ashland whenever she wants to go.”
The motion sensors lit as they circled to the rear of the theater. “I inherited this place from Tasha Bening, my aunt, who was a Shakespearean actor at the OSF. She modeled this festival after the one in Ashland, but on a much smaller scale.”
McCloud held the door for her. “Rook told me about your aunt. He also said you’d been a cop and that it was difficult for you to take orders from us.” He glanced at her with a smile, then turned to search the yard around them with his hand rested on his gun. “Should we go in?”
She nodded. The atmosphere in the green room was quiet except for voices on the mounted screen keyed to the action on stage. A few actors stood and watched while others waited in the wings for their cue. A rush of staccato words, like bullets, interrupted the room. McCloud’s head shot around as he looked for the cause of the disturbance.
Then Cait saw Chip Fallon and Kenneth Alt in each other’s faces off to the side of the room.
“McCloud, over there,” Cait said.
Hands clenched at his sides, Alt said, “You botched it!”
Chip backed away from Alt. “Get out of my face, Alt. Go sit in a corner. I’m due on stage.”
“We’re not finished,” Alt said.
“Oh, yes you are, Alt!” Cait said. “You have a choice. Leave now, or this officer will escort you out.” She pointed to the door.
Chip and Alt turned to stare at her. Relief spread over Chip’s face. Alt’s face turned red. “Cait—”
“Now!”
“Told you he was dangerous,” Chip said.
“What’s his problem?”
“It’s obvious. He wants me to mess up so he can take over.” He smirked at Alt’s receding back. “That’s not going to happen.”
“I don’t believe this,” she said. “It’s quite a coup to direct Hamlet at the OSF. Why would he come here?”