“I saw it here last week.” Convinced she could lay her hands on the garment in question, Jenna walked behind the stage to the area that had once housed the church’s office and minister’s quarters. Over the years it had been changed and remodeled to the point that it was a veritable rabbit warren cut into dressing rooms and closets. There were three makeup vanities with mirrors and a larger storage area for scenery and props. Old stairs led upward to a glassed-in office of sorts where the lighting and audio were controlled. The steep steps continued upward still and eventually opened onto the belltower which Rinda, who had bought the church, had never had the heart to tear down.
Jenna quickly flipped through the clothes on hangers in the main stage closet. Twice. The dress was definitely missing. “It’s got to have been misplaced,” she said, as much to convince herself as Rinda. She searched through a few smaller closets, hooks on the backs of doors, and large wicker hampers, but the sheath was nowhere to be found.
“How’s that for a mystery?” Rinda grumbled.
“What about under the stage?”
“That dust hasn’t been disturbed in years.”
“Someone must have ‘borrowed’ it.”
“Or stolen it.”
“The dress? Why?” she asked, but knew the answer.
“Because it was yours. In a movie. You still have fans, you know. Just because you quit making films doesn’t mean they all dried up and went away. I’m going to look on e-Bay. If someone isn’t keeping it for their private collection, then they’ll probably be trying to make some quick money off it.”
“On e-Bay?”
Rinda nodded. “You wouldn’t believe what people sell on there. I’ve heard of organ donations and one guy even tried to sell his soul, I think.”
Jenna laughed. “Someone paid for it?”
“Mmm. A guy named Lucifer, I think.”
“Give me a break!” She laughed, but felt a chill on the back of her arms, the premonition of something much worse than a missing costume.
Rinda must have had similar thoughts because her smile faded as they walked back to the office. “Some other things are missing, too. Things you donated. Remember I asked you about a bracelet and a pair of earrings a couple of weeks ago…”
“Yeah, but I figured they were just misplaced.”
Rinda’s scowl deepened.
Jenna cajoled, “Come on, you don’t really think they were stolen, that we’ve got a thief running around here?”
“I hope not. God, I hope not. The worst thing is, if someone did take the dress and the bracelets and other stuff, it’s someone we work with, someone who has a key to the theater.”
“Now you’re jumping off the deep end. It’s just temporarily lost,” Jenna insisted, trying not to let Rinda’s concerns infect her. She had enough problems to solve without worrying about a dress and a couple of pieces of jewelry that were missing. They’d turn up.
But all the stuff is yours. Whoever is doing this is taking things because they belonged to you.
“Don’t go there,” she muttered to herself.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just talking to myself.”
“Not a good sign. Anyway, I’m keeping a list of everything that’s ‘misplaced.’ I think I’ll talk to Shane about it.”
“Shane? As in the sheriff?” Jenna flashed back to her confrontation with the man less than an hour earlier. She felt her cheeks burn. “I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
She thought about fessing up, but said instead, “Get real. He has much bigger problems to solve, starting with the dead woman they found in the woods. Don’t bother him with this.”
“He’ll want to know.”
“Carter?” Was Rinda out of her mind? The sheriff was taciturn and gruff and no-nonsense. He wouldn’t want to be bothered with anything so petty as the missing items at the theater. She could imagine the mockery in his dark eyes if she approached him with the thefts. It would seem frivolous to him, she was certain.