“Blowjob or handjob?”
“Blow—what?” I looked up from my phone.
Calvin smiled. “Just making sure you were in the same solar system as me.” He set a take-out container and a cup on the register counter where I was sitting. “Scrambled eggs with a side of bacon. Large coffee with cream.”
“What about the third one?”
“What about it?” Calvin stood on the opposite side, popped open the second container, and poked at his breakfast with a plastic fork.
“I think I deserve it. It’s been a long night.”
“Morning,” he corrected.
I set my phone aside. “Whatever. It’s been a day.”
Calvin took a few bites. “Everything go okay with the police?”
“Yeah. Not that they’ll ever catch who broke in.”
After carefully packing up the remaining footage in its original tin and storing it inside my office for safekeeping, Calvin and I had combed through the shop’s security footage, to no avail. The Kinetoscope was just a foot too far in the back to be seen by the register camera, and I had nothing angled at the back door. So with no footage of the break-in, no evidence to collect, and just a torn piece of celluloid that the cops cared very little about and I cared a whole fucking lot about—honestly, what could be done?
“Dillon okay?” I asked.
Calvin nodded. “Fed him and went for a walk. I stopped at the hardware store too.” He pointed to my left.
I leaned over and saw he’d come back with not only breakfast and a plastic bag with a new door lock, but also my shoulder bag.
“I brought your contacts. They’re in the front pocket of your bag.”
“You’re the sweetest man in this whole city,” I stated.
Calvin smiled. “So what part of the film got torn off? The actual image, I mean.”
“Most of the fight,” I said. “From what I saw by examining the still images.”
“Did that outdoor scene survive?”
“The murder? Yeah, it’s still attached.” I took a halfhearted bite of bacon.
“Who knew about the movie?”
“Me. But I have a freckled alibi.”
Calvin sipped his coffee. “Who else?”
“Max, of course. Beth was here when we watched it. You, and that’s—oh, Pete knows about the film reel.”
Calvin nodded and took another bite of the eggs.
“What?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“I know. But you’ve got tells.”
He let out a breath and wiped his mouth on a napkin. “How well do you know this Pete White guy?”
I shrugged. “I’m not inviting him over for eggnog come the holidays, if that’s what you’re asking.” I finished the bacon and said, “Pete’s new to the organization that runs the fair. Admittedly, when I’vemanagedto speak with him, he’s well versed in a number of subjects. He recognized the Kinetoscope and was familiar with the title of the movie when I mentioned it. But he’s such a lazy, disorganized, lying shit that I’d have never supported the event if I knew about him in advance.”
