Page 52 of Caper Crush
“I thought I’d better secure our Uber to hasten our departure.”
I can feel him leaning closer, trying to see my face.
I keep my face glued to the view of the streets passing by.Don’t let Edmund see. Pull yourself together.Who planned this? Did Edmund plan this? He looked surprised.
I’m afraid my voice will be shaky if I speak.
His hand touches my shoulder as if to pat it. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
This is even worse.Edmund seeing me scared.I straighten my shoulders and take a deep breath. Think of a calming, blue painting. Matisse’sLeaf Cutouts. The ultramarine-blue apples. The pink, green, and orange leaves. The serenity ofWildlife. The pressure in my chest subsides. I relax my face muscles.Smile.
I face Edmund. “It was good to get the Uber. I can’t afford to lose that kind of money.”
“I wouldn’t have made you pay that back. That was my fault,” Edmund says. “But I still think we got something useful from him. A Staten Island art ring. I will look into that. We should work together to crack this case.” His shoulders curve, his palm is up, but the way that guy looked at me … as if he was deciding whether or not to hit me …
“I appreciate that you set this up, but I don’t know what it was,” I say. “It feels like a scam where I nearly lost one thousand dollars.”
Edmund’s face turns red.
I need to calm down. I don’t want to piss off Edmund; he has to think that I trust him. “I’m happy to work together. Just not now. I want to go home.”
“Are you giving up on finding the perpetrator?” He leans forward, his gaze intent on my face.
I don’t trust Edmund. I never have. But I feel bad not trusting him because we have grown up together and I don’t have any basis for not trusting him—except for some teenage pranks. Mostly, it’s just a sixth sense. And my family always makes fun of my sixth sense.
I have no definitive proof that Edmund was responsible for those teenage pranks. In one case, I was responsible for watering my mother’s prized rosebush. She gave me some supplements to feed it, and it died shortly thereafter. I caught Edmund with the supplements once—before I’d fed the plants the supplement. When I’d turned around, he had been smiling slyly until his glance met mine and his face went blank. But why? Except that my mom said I had to buy a new plant—she was convinced I had not watered them properly—and he’d had time alone with Annabelle while I had to take on more babysitting jobs.
And then he’d given me rose soap for my birthday. Because he wanted me to know he got away with it. My mother thought rose soap was romantic. As if.
“I probably should let the police do their job,” I say.
We drive under a subway track overpass, negotiating with other cars as we head for the Williamsburg Bridge.
“Do they have any leads?” Edmund’s tone is searching.
“I’m not exactly the first person they’re going to call to tell.” Let Edmund think that the detective doesn’t trust me. “As far as I know, I’m still a suspect.”
“Remember, I’m here for you. Let’s discuss later this week if you still want to do any investigating.” He shifts in his seat. “Where do you want to be dropped off? I’m meeting someone for dinner in Little Italy.”
“I’ll get off with you. There’s a good art store in that neighborhood.” Plus, I can walk across town to William’s apartment.
“You should not waste your money buying more art supplies. It’s not like you’re rolling in dough.”
“Now you sound like family,” I say.
“I consider you to be my family. My found family,” Edmund says. “Especially given how remote my father was.”
“Aw,” I say, even though I hate it when Edmund says this. And he knows it. He knows that I don’t consider him to be part of my family. He shouldn’t want to join my messed-up family. It just shows what a disaster his family was. “Thanks for trying to find the paintings.”
“Do you have any hypotheses as to who might have stolen them?” he asks.
“No.” We’re stuck behind a white truck labeledSal’s Deliveries.
“What about Tony’s theater colleagues? Isn’t there a lot of infighting there?” he asks.
“No. They get along pretty well.” I pay him the hundred dollars I have.
“I want to help you find them,” he says.
