"If someone is threatening—"
"They're not," I said, my hands reaching for the detective's before thinking better of it and crossing my arms in front of my chest. "Enough. Enough, I'm not saying any more."
Would Mr. Reddy try to find me if I didn't come in for rehearsals? Would he force Constantine on one of the other girls? Ronan would worry. And Hunter… Hunter wouldn't be back for days.
DS Piper stared at me, eyes scanning back and forth over my face. I forced myself to keep looking back, pretending it might persuade him to listen.
"We would've had her time of death wrong if you hadn't told us she hadn't come to work," he said. Unsure how to answer, I remained silent, and he remained watching me. "In a theater that doesn't exist," he added in a mutter.
I pressed my lips flat, and his frown carved attractive lines over his forehead. He was older, although there was no silver in his hair to match his eyes.
Quit mooning over him!
"Do you promise to find me if you learn anything relevant?" he asked suddenly.
I blinked, and my mouth opened to answer yes immediately, knowing it was the key to being allowed to leave now. I stopped myself to think. Lying would be easy. Mr. Reddy and Hunter were trying to discover what had happened to Beth, and maybe they would do so before the police. But would they care if Beth had been killed by a human lover, or would Mr. Reddy only want to ensure his investment in the rest of us girls was secure? I didn't like to think so, but I wasn't sure.
"I will," I said finally. "I swear."
For some reason, that only made DS Piper frown even harder. "I usually know when someone lies to me," he said. "With you…I can't tell."
I wasn't sure if I should be relieved or not, so I said nothing.
"I'm not arresting you," he said on a sigh, turning to the side. He lifted his hat from his head, and I found my eyes catching on his ear as his hand reached up to drive long fingers through thick dark hair. Rounded, with a little wrinkle at the top from an old scar. I blinked at the spot, and then his hat was back on.
Humans had them too sometimes. The doctor had thought the pointed tips of my ears were just a familiar deformity, one that small farm communities might become suspicious of if it weren't corrected.
A coincidence, I told myself, although my heartbeat was racing through my veins.
He turned back to me, and my stare whipped to the ground, the edge of the park in sight.
DS Piper stepped closer, and his voice dropped low and so quiet I almost had to lean in. "You're one of the only leads we have," he said. "As far as anyone in the neighborhood knows, you and Miss O'Mahony's roommates were the only people who knew her. You're not going to be let off the case records until we have something better to follow."
His voice was gentler, but it didn't make the words any less of a threat. I was their only suspect, or their only lead. Unless Beth's roommates turned up or I gave them something useful to follow, I would remain the focus.
I couldn't provide myself an alibi without bringing Hunter into the mix, and Mr. Reddy and Myra would both have my head if I put one of their patrons in the line of police scrutiny.
"I don't know what to do," I whispered.
"Think," DS Piper answered, equally quiet. "And hope we find those women."
* * *
Rehearsal for Beth'sscene was quiet, clumsy, and full of the sound of gentle sniffles. Alexa only made it through half of "In the Sweet By and By" before her voice strangled. Nireas played somberly on till the last note.
"I think that's enough for today," Myra said softly from the foot of the stage.
And still we stood, wooden and quiet on our marks.
Mr. Reddy leaned forward in the front row, eyeing the lot of us with that critical squint of his, but his lips only pressed flat. Whatever notes he had for the scene, he would save for another day.
"No one is going to want to watch this," a dull voice called from the other side of the stage.
I blinked and searched the shocked expressions. Ronan landed from the rafters with a thump, and his glare shot in one clear direction. Ah, Eston.
"What?" Myra gasped, hands clasped over her chest.
There was a moment of silence as Mr. Reddy stood slowly from his seat, gazing up at our demon cast member. "I said no one is going to want to watch this," Eston said more firmly, raising his horned chin and catching the dimmed half-lights pointed toward the stage. "There's no sex."
"That's not what this is about!" Alexa cried out, her hands fisting at her sides.
"Go to her," I whispered to Samson, the beautiful, onyx enchanted statue in our company.
I'd caught Alexa, Samson, and our vampire Leon together in Leon's dressing room on more than one occasion, but Samson often watched Alexa from the wings with a stoic kind of longing. I wasn't sure he'd realized yet how happy the girl and the vampire were to include him. He stomped steadily to her side, that massive muscled arm wrapping around her shoulders. She leaned in gratefully, and I found myself smiling.
"Sex is what this theater is about," Eston answered, crossing his arms over his chest, and not even glancing once at the rest of us. "We ought to make a scene out of her death—"
"Eston!" Ronan barked.
"—make it somber if you like, but this is boring. The audience will walk out," Eston continued with a shrug.
"He hasn't had a decent idea since the dark ages," one of the were-bears behind me muttered, and I heard Margaret's high giggle.
Based on Eston's flashing glare in our direction, so did he.
"Eston, do I pay you to think?" Mr. Reddy asked suddenly from the floor.
"You pay me to fuck," Eston said, stepping forward.