Sharp Evidence by Miller Julie

Author:Miller, Julie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2023-12-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

The good feelings of Jackson being silly and sweet and sexy with her didn’t last past the second act of the play. Working with the actual set walls and platforms threw off some of the actors. The young man playing the judge had a meltdown because he was struggling to come up with lines he had recited perfectly the previous night.

Which set off Maisey into a whiny tirade about the unprofessionalism of actors making her look bad. Then Dixon Lowry had come to the front of the stage to comfort his niece, despite Reese’s suspicion that the young woman was playing up the drama she wasn’t really feeling in order to impress her uncle. And the moment she had started to question Maisey’s sincerity, Dean had come down to defend Maisey and warn Reese that she needed to regain control of the rehearsal.

Reese had ordered everyone to take a ten-minute break before her redheaded temper spewed out of her mouth. After a private conversation to calm the young actor’s nerves, and a reminder to Maisey that putting on a play was a team effort, and they should be supporting each other instead of tearing each other down, they made their way through the third act with the drama limited to the show onstage. The tension during the show’s gripping ending was actually pretty darned believable, and she told the cast and crew that they were absolutely going to be ready for an audience the following week. She ignored Dean and Dix altogether, until she took her focus off the stage long enough to realize that both men had left the auditorium.

Reese checked her watch several times once rehearsal had ended, eager to see Jackson again. All things considered, she’d handled her stressors well tonight. But there was something inherently spooky about a cavernous auditorium that reflected every little noise, and a backstage area filled with props and set pieces that created creepy shadows. The actors quickly left. Patrick helped the backstage crew reset the stage for the beginning of the show before they all went home. Somewhere in between all that, the light booth and stage had gone dark, and the only illumination in the building were the security lights in the lobby and by the back door exit, along with the glow through the window of her office.

As theater manager, she made her usual rounds. She checked the timed locks on every external door to make sure they were secure, and then she focused on her own office door. She locked and shut it three separate times, convincing herself that the only way anyone could have gotten in was if they had a master key or they had sabotaged the lock. She’d make a point to ask Jackson about the sticky residue she’d felt on the lock. Then she closed the door and sat at her desk to grade Maisey’s paper while she waited for Jackson to knock at the back door.

She finished the paper, quite certain that

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.