KEITH CAME HOME LATE AS SKYLER SUSPECTED HE would, and he didn’t seem tired in the least. He was still pumped from their win, elated about the Josh situation…and horny. Skyler, needing to let off his own steam, relieved Keith of his condition in a rather energetic session that left Skyler feeling it the next morning with aches and pains. He remembered a day when he could stretch and flex in all kinds of positions, but he supposed his muscles weren’t as pliable as they used to be.
Even Keith was feeling it. “Are you as achy as I am?”
“I’m probably sore in a few more places than you are.”
He rolled over and grabbed Skyler into a hug and nuzzle. “Sorry, babe. I might have gotten a little carried away. I hope I didn’t hurt you.”
“You didn’t. Just…a little sore is all.”
“I was just so proud of that team of mine. And Alex and Elei.”
“I hope you didn’t celebrate with them the way you did with me.”
He gave Skyler a withering look and slowly rose from the bed, massaging his lower back. “Could I be getting this creaky at thirty-six?”
“What can I say? I’m your best work-out.”
He eyed Skyler from head to naked foot. “You sure are. I never had this much fun in a gym.”
“Honey, you aren’t going to the right gyms.”
He gave Skyler the eye until Skyler held up his hands in surrender. “And I’m not either…anymore.”
Keith rolled his eyes and walked unsteadily toward the bathroom.
Skyler lay back. “I’m so glad you relented and put Alex and Elei into the game.”
“I wasn’t going to,” he said around his toothbrush. “But I guess I'm just a softie.”
“That’s not how it felt to me last night,” murmured Skyler, rubbing his ass. Now that the drama of the game was over it was time to think of Sidney and Mike’s party tonight, but even though he would ordinarily be stressing about that, his mind shot straight to the problem of the museum. And he wondered a little bit about his most recent encounters with the museum stalker. And those keys. Police station, Alex had said. What about the police station might be connected?
He was still lying in bed thinking when Keith emerged from the bathroom in a cloud of steam. Hair wet and tousled into shape, Keith stood in front of the bed in all his naked glory. Skyler’s brain just about shut down to all but that.
“Hey, mister, eyes up here,” said Keith, snapping his fingers in Skyler’s face.
“I’m paying attention,” he muttered half-heartedly.
“Sure you are. It just occurred to me. The video off the cameras in the museum. What did you find when you looked at them? And what did Sidney say about it?”
It took a second for Keith’s words to penetrate the clutter of Keith/naked/chest hair/cock in Skyler’s brain. Skyler sat up. “Hey. I forgot all about that!”
He fumbled for his phone on the side table while Keith retreated to the closet to cover all that naked loveliness. Skyler sighed and sat back against the pillows, calling up the app. “Now let’s see,” he murmured. “That first attack was last Friday.” He ran the video in fast forward. He saw the place to enter a time stamp and set it for before he entered the museum. And there it was, the stalker in the hoodie. “Hey Keith! I got it.”
Pulling on his t-shirt, a shorts-clad Keith hurried from the closet and sat beside him on the bed, watching Skyler’s phone with him.
The hooded figure moved through the darkened museum, from camera to camera. Then Skyler entered.
“I look terrible,” he sighed.
“Shush.”
“There’s no sound.”
“I can’t think when you’re talking.”
They both watched as the figure froze once Skyler’s presence was detected. He seemed to move slowly and carefully along the edges until Skyler got closer, then wham! Trash bag over the head. He dashed into the office, hid behind the desk as the cops ran through, and then he was out of there.
Skyler crossed his ankles. “Not one of my prouder moments.”
“Let’s see the latest one. When was that? Wednesday?”
“Yeah. Just a sec. There.” The app played the newest video. Skyler was at the computer when he looked up at the door. He slapped the light off, switched off the computer, and looked like a cartoon character, snapping his head back and forth before he dove for the bookcase.
The door opened seconds after that and the hooded figure entered. The door shut and they went directly for the computer, tapping their fingers impatiently as it took a while to boot up.
Skyler’s foot silently hit the trash can, the figure jumped up from their seat, and scrambled to leave, but Skyler foolishly tried to cut off his exit.
“Little idiot,” said Keith shaking his head. “What if they were armed? Never try to stop a felon, Skyler.”
“My blood was up.”
The figure grabbed Skyler and almost faster than Skyler could see, he handily threw the thief over his shoulder to the ground.
“Holy shit,” said Keith.
“See that? Let’s watch it again.” Skyler rewound and re-watched his triumph of self-defense skills.
“Good job, Skyler.” Keith held up his hand and Skyler smacked it with his own.
When they both tore out of the office, Skyler stopped the video. He frowned. “I couldn’t see anyone’s face.”
“There are other clues, you know. Let’s see that first one again.”
Skyler queued it up and hit play. They watched it for a bit until Keith pointed to the screen. “Pause it.”
Skyler hit the button.
“See that?” Keith’s finger pointed to the hooded head.
“See what?”
“In the office shot, the hooded man comes to this height on the bookshelf. Now run the other one.”
Skyler did.
“Okay,” said Keith. “Now this person only comes to here on the bookshelf.”
Skyler squinted at the screen. “Oh yeah.” He looked at Keith. “They aren’t the same person.”
“Nope.”
“Well shit. Now what?”
“Let’s see that first one again.”
Skyler played it. He watched the taller hooded man struggle with Skyler and then high-tail it out of there. A flash of white. Skyler paused it and rewound. He played it, slower. Sure enough, as the assailant turned to flee, his foot came into view of the camera. A white running shoe. Just like the ones…
“I know who this is,” said Skyler.
* * *
He and Keith got out of the car in front of the building. Skyler led the way through the tangle of green landscaping, up some stairs, up to the townhouse apartment. It read number thirty-four on large brass numbers on the jamb. He knocked. They waited. Skyler was trying to breathe evenly but it was tough what with his adrenalin pumping and his heart beating a tom-tom in his chest. Finally the door opened.
Ron smiled, holding the door, and looked from Skyler to Keith. “Hey, Skyler. Keith. What’s up?”
Skyler looked to Keith for confirmation and the man nodded. “Ron, you know why we’re here.”
Ron shook his head, his smile frozen on his face. “No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do. Will you let us in or shall we do it out here?”
The smile on Ron’s face faded. Horror replaced the cheer in his eyes. He turned away from the doorway, leaving the door open. Skyler stepped in first.
Ron sank to his sofa and dropped his head in his hands. Suddenly he heaved a great sob. “I wouldn’t have done it. I would never have done it if I had known I’d be the director.” He wiped sloppily at his face. His speech was broken by more crying and more tears that he continued to wipe at. “I was at the end of my rope. I was never going to get a decent museum job. It’s so hard to find them, you know, Skyler? And I needed money. This stupid apartment costs so much and the cheaper ones are in dangerous neighborhoods. I have six years of school, Skyler. Six years I’m still paying for. My degree is worthless!”
He fell to sobbing again.
Skyler crossed his arms over his chest and shuffled his feet. “You tried to deflect me toward Randi and Seth. That was very uncool, Ron.”
“I know. I’m sorry. You obviously never fell for it.”
“Where’s the stuff? Is it all gone?”
“I tried to sell it on eBay…but I couldn’t. I couldn’t sell any of it. It doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to the public. Oh God! What have I done?”
“Well…that’s something.” He looked to Keith, but Keith subtly shook his head.
Ron raised his ruined face again. “I thought you were on to me. I saw that message on eBay and I panicked. I took my page down.”
“So…where are they?”
“Spare bedroom. Second door on the right down the hall.”
Keith left them to investigate. Skyler watched him stalk over the carpeted floor, enter the dark hallway, and open the door. He just stuck his head inside and looked around. When he closed the door he nodded toward Skyler. “You’ll have to take a full inventory but it looks like it’s all there.”
“Oh, it is,” said Ron. He sniffed. “Do you have to call the police?”
Before Skyler could answer, Keith cut in with, “Yes. And you attacked Skyler.”
“I didn’t. I mean I didn’t hurt you, did I? I tried not to hurt you.”
“He tried not to hurt me.”
“What he did was a felony. It’s not up to you to decide, Skyler. You don’t own these things.”
“But…but if he just returned them and quit his job…”
“No, Keith is right,” said Ron in a deadened and defeated tone. “I have to make this right, Skyler. I did this and I have to let justice take its course.”
Biting his lip, Skyler pleaded with his eyes again but Keith was adamant. He was already getting out his phone. And Skyler could no longer ignore the other possibility.
Quietly, he asked, “What about Lester, Ron? Did you kill him?”
“Lester? Oh God no! I’d never hurt Lester. Why would I?”
“Because he caught you stealing maybe? Threatened to go to the police?”
“No! No way. And poison? I don’t even know how to find poison. I couldn’t hurt anyone.”
Skyler remembered the keys in his pocket and took them out. “Ron, are these your keys?”
Ron wiped at his eyes again and looked. “No. Never saw those before.”
“Are you sure? They don’t belong to some secret lock-up, do they?”
“For what? I kept all the stuff here.”
“Poison, maybe?”
“I told you. I couldn’t hurt Lester. And why would I keep poison to incriminate me?”
“You kept the museum stuff.”
“That’s different. Those are exhibits. Artifacts. You can’t just…toss those away behind a vault where no one can see them and appreciate them. They have to be available for seeing, for research. That’s why I…I couldn’t sell them. Some rich guy putting Lincoln’s hat on display in his private atrium. It sickened me. I couldn’t do it. And then I didn’t know how to return it all.”
Skyler could relate. He knew, even if he was on his last dime, he couldn’t sell some of his more prized books. They’d have to go into poverty with him. Some things just couldn’t be sacrificed.
“What about the museum bank account? Were you stealing from that?”
“How? Believe me if I could have done that, I wouldn’t have stolen the exhibits. And my paycheck bounced. If I wasn’t in the shitter before I sure am now. So…what? Was someone embezzling money, too? I suppose everyone will blame me for that as well. But I didn’t do it. I don’t have access. No one gave me the power to even write checks on the account yet let alone steal from it.”
Something Sidney could check out. Skyler watched him sob some more and wondered if he believed him.
* * *
After talking to the police for a few hours, Skyler was ready to go home. Keith took him home.
“He didn’t kill Lester,” said Skyler. “He didn’t.” He moved toward the living room and plopped down on the sofa.
Keith stood above him. “That’s for the police to decide.”
“He couldn’t even sell them. All those things he took and he couldn’t even sell them.”
“He would have made a good curator. If it wasn’t for all the larceny.”
“And now he’ll never be a curator. He’s blown it. He’ll go to jail and when he comes out with a tattoo on his face, he’ll be in a gang or something. He’ll have to become a rent boy.”
“Skyler, aren’t you getting a little carried away?”
“I’ve known him for years. What’s he gonna do?”
“Maybe he’ll get time served.”
“It’s all so horrible.”
“I know. Breaking the law is always pretty horrible. There are always victims. Sometimes the victim is the criminal themselves.”
“That was so After School Special, what you just said.”
“All right, you’re feeling better. I have to go.”
“Go? Where are you going?”
Keith headed for the door. “I told you, I have a meeting with Elei’s parents.”
“Jesus. Can’t they do that on a weekday?”
“I know. But they want to talk about her detention and the reasons for it. I thought I already talked to them but obviously they have more to say.”
Skyler gave him a weak smile. “Aren’t you glad you gave her a chance on the team?”
“Yeah, I’m ecstatic. I’ll see you later.”
“What about the party tonight? You aren’t going to be late, are you?”
“Absolutely not. I will be there, Skyler.”
“On time!”
“On time.” He returned to Skyler, bent over, and kissed him. “I’ll be back to change. Love you. And don’t obsess over this. There was nothing you could have done.”
“But he could have reached out…”
“Skyler…do not obsess. Instead, obsess over this party. Surely you need to check the arrangements a few hundred more times.”
“Ha, ha! Have a good meeting with angry parents!”
Keith scowled and shuffled out the door.
Skyler could obsess over the party…but he’d rather obsess over Ron. The man was right. If Ron could have drained the bank account as clearly someone had, he wouldn’t have had to steal the museum stuff, and that had continued even after the money was gone from the bank. So it likely wasn’t him.
“Wait! The other video.” He got out his phone and called up the app. He passed over the video with Ron and clicked on the other one. Okay, so this person was a lot shorter. Shorter than Skyler? No, almost the same height, but that didn’t mean anything since he was pretty short. What had he felt when he threw the thief? Heavy, light? Girl, boy? He closed his eyes and tried to remember. It had all happened so fast, almost on instinct, so he couldn’t really recall of any details. All he could think at the time was his surprise that it had worked so well.
He opened his eyes again and watched the video. He let it run over and over. There must be something distinguishing, something different.
He got out the keys again and looked at them.
And just as he turned away, something flashed in the video out of the corner of his eye. He rewound and watched it again. Maybe it was the keys falling. That would make sense. But even as he made the video go slowly, something snapped into place in his head.
The keys. He turned them over his palms, his fingers.
“It’s not the police station. It’s the city hall.” And as the video slowly rolled along, he saw it. He sat back with a moan. Shit. He didn’t want it to be true. But there it was.
* * *
Skyler still had plenty of time before the party. He wrestled with himself, thinking that it could wait one more day. Have the party, do it tomorrow. But then he thought about Lester taken out before his time, and none of it mattered anymore.
He pulled up in front of the modest 1960’s home. A low manicured pine tree sat on the perfect lawn, like an oversized banzai. The ranch style house stretched out before him, and when he got out, he walked along a stone path to the front door, hidden behind a living bamboo screen.
He knocked on the door and waited. Don’t answer, he told himself. Then he could put it off. But he heard footsteps and then the door opened.
“Skyler? What are you doing here? Dear me, where are my manners? Come in.”
He walked over the threshold and followed his host into the living room of tasteful mid-century furnishings.
He was offered a seat and he took it, folding his hands together.
“I was just about to pour myself some tea. Let me get another cup.”
“That isn’t necessary.”
“It’s no trouble.”
Skyler waited until they returned, set the cup and saucer before the pot on the glass coffee table, and poured. “Sugar? Cream?”
“Just a little sugar.”
He took the offered cup. The aroma of strong, fragrant tea filled his nose and he lifted the cup to his lips.
“What can I do for you, Skyler?”
Skyler sighed. “Well…I know about the embezzled funds. And I’m just speculating here, but I think Lester Huxley knew about them and knew who did it and was about to turn them in.”
Silence.
“So…” He set his tea cup down. “That’s why I’m guessing he was killed. That…you…killed him.”
She raised her hand to scrape the hair from her face. Her bracelet lightly tinkled, catching the light, as it had caught the light in the video.
“That’s a lot of speculating.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said sadly. “But since you’re the only one of the board members to say that Lester told you not to promote Jerome…I figured that you thought Jerome would have spotted something wrong with the books right away. The other board members didn’t understand why Jerome wasn’t promoted, never heard of any controversy. Never heard from Lester. Because Lester never said any such thing. It all came from you and you alone. I guess you didn’t know that I had access to the bank account and the checkbook already, have had for years.”
She sat back and crossed her legs. She was wearing a tasteful pair of dark capri leggings and flats. “No, I didn’t know that. Well, what a shame.”
“Yeah.” His anger was mounting. “A shame you had to kill such a nice guy for something as stupid as stealing money. What’s wrong, Denise? Isn’t your salary enough? Here’s your keys, by the way.” He tossed them to the glass table. They clanged inharmoniously, skidding the teacup and saucer a few inches away from him.
“No, the salary is barely enough for all the work I do. For all the work I’ve done for this city all these years. Do you think this lovely house is paid for? Taxes keep rising, expenses keep rising, but the salary doesn’t. I’m one paycheck away from disaster, like most middle class people I know.”
“You killed him, Denise, and tried to ruin another man’s career.”
“Two men. Killed two men.”
“Two?”
“You. Do you think that was only tea I put in your cup?”
Skyler shot to his feet. “You bitch!”
She rose, too. “Let’s just let this take effect and it will soon be over.”
Skyler kicked the teacup from the table to the floor. The shards flew everywhere.
“That was my favorite set,” she said without emotion.
“Good. And the joke’s on you. I didn’t drink it.”
Emotion on her face at last!
“Do you really think I’d walk into your house—a known poisoner—and eat or drink anything you had to offer?”
“I know you’re here alone.”
She moved quicker than he realized she could. But of course, he had chased after her and she had gotten away from him.
A heavy-looking art piece was in her hand and she lunged for him. He grabbed the wrist holding it even as she tried to bash him in the head with it. She was stronger than she looked and Skyler was struggling.
He yanked it out of her hand and tossed it as far away as he could. She went for his face with her nails. Grasping her wrists, he twisted them away, but now she was after his neck.
With a force Skyler didn’t know he was capable of, he crossed his arms over, pivoted, and threw her over his shoulder. She landed hard on the glass coffee table, shattering it and upending the hot teapot. She screamed as the liquid hit her and the shards of crockery and the glass table cut her.
The door burst open.
“Hold it right there!”
Skyler sighed in relief. “Officer Carey. What took you so long?”