“Of course not.”
“Winter?”
“No, Neil.”
“I’m just—goddamn it, man, pick a fucking lane—trying to cover all the bases before we get there.”
I took a deep breath. “Someone broke in this morning.”
“What?”
“At like 4:00 a.m. Calvin installed a dead bolt on the back door today.”
“Great,” Neil muttered.
He was easily as good a driver as Calvin. Neil wove through New York City rush hour with practiced ease. He might have lacked the patience Calvin had behind the wheel, but he more than made up for it by looking like a hard-boiled detective fresh off the pages of some ’40s pulp fiction novel. It was the suit, I think. Neil always had immaculate, if expensive, taste.
He reached the Emporium’s block and swerved into a free spot on the side of the road. “Alley door is open.”
“Is it?” I looked out the passenger window as I unbuckled my seat belt. “Idefinitelylocked it tonight.”
“What kind of lock do you have on it?”
“You’d need bolt cutters.”
Neil opened the driver’s door and got out of the car. I quickly followed.
“Oh no, park your ass in the car,” he said as he came around to my side.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“Do I look like I’m joking?”
“You rarely are.”
“If you get hurt, that’s on me,” Neil said.
“I think it’d be my own fault,” I countered.
“You can say that because you wouldn’t be the one getting stared down by a combat-trained vet.”
Neil walked across the sidewalk, reached into his coat, and pulled his service weapon from the shoulder holster as he reached the alley. He fingered the padlock Beth and I kept on the alley door, then poked his head around the corner. Once Neil disappeared inside, I started across the sidewalk.
I could have listened. But why start now?
I briefly considered that Max might have been right yesterday when he said the Emporium was cursed. Ever since December, it had become a magnet for all things mysterious and murderous. And while that might have been fine and dandy to keep my boredom at bay, Iwastrying to run a business.
I leaned around the corner and peered down the alley. Save for the dumpster pushed up against the left wall, it was empty. The back door of the Emporium was open and seemed to be swinging in the mild, early summer breeze. Neil was inside the store, and I could hear the alarm chirping away.
I stepped in and cautiously moved along the right wall, reached the door, and spared a glance inside. Thank God for my contacts, sunglasses, and a dim shop. I could make out the shapes of furniture, display cases, and the figure, who was most definitely Neil, inspecting corners, under tables, and behind the register counter—gun at the ready.
But that was it.
I didn’t see anyone else.
It’d taken us a few minutes to reach the Emporium…. I supposed it was safe to assume the thief wouldn’t need more time than that. Because ithadto be the same person returning for the remaining length of footage they’d failed to obtain earlier. I’d have much preferred a random burglary and be out a mahogany apothecary cabinet, complete with twenty-five glass bottles all with original labels. Or my sword cane. Hell, I’d even be willing to give up the silver pepper shaker in the shape of a pigeon I recently won at an estate sale.
But they’d come looking for the murder portion of the movie, and I justknewthis wouldn’t end well….
