Under a Broken Sky by Kris Calvin

Author:Kris Calvin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: CROOKED LANE BOOKS

CHAPTER

39

“CAN’T THEY SEE the closed sign? Just because we’re sitting here—”

Emma interrupted her. “I know him. He’s a police officer.”

“I already gave a statement,” Lanelle said. She sounded like she didn’t want her time with Emma cut short.

“He’s a friend,” Emma said, getting up to let Alibi in.

When she opened the door, she and Alibi said the same thing at the same time. “What are you doing here?”

Alibi responded, “I’m here on a case.”

Emma said, “I’m here because of my father.”

She couldn’t remember specifically what she’d said to Alibi about Atticus. She generally let people assume he was dead, which she’d thought was true until last night.

She walked Alibi over to Lanelle and made introductions.

Lanelle’s attitude changed. It was Emma’s impression that she liked what she saw. The gallery owner’s eyes moved in a bold appraisal of Alibi’s dark eyes, his rich olive skin, his long, thick black hair, and his body, which was tall, strong, and lean.

“I understand you’re a friend of Emma’s and a police officer?” Lanelle said, exuding charm she’d not displayed for Emma despite having been helpful. “We were just discussing Emma’s father’s show. There’s nothing new from the statement I provided the officer who was here two nights ago, but—”

Emma felt time slipping away from her. Whatever Lanelle might have decided, she and Alibi were not contestants on a reboot of The Dating Game. “Alibi, sit,” Emma said. “Lanelle, please go on. You said my father had just presented to the group?”

Alibi remained standing, his gaze roaming the room.

Emma thought she saw something close to wonder in his eyes.

“These are all your father’s?” Alibi asked.

“Yes,” Emma said.

With effort, Emma looked back at Lanelle. She was afraid she might lose it in a big way if she let herself consider what it meant to her that Alibi was so affected by her dad’s drawings.

“Lanelle? What happened next?” Emma asked her.

She was grateful when at the sound of her question, Alibi’s cop side reasserted itself as he sat down and turned his attention back to Lanelle. He took out his little blue notebook and pen, which gave Emma comfort. If anyone could help her dad out of the criminal implications of this mess, it would be Alibi.

“We made some sales,” Lanelle said. “Then a young man, maybe in his thirties, a glass of wine in his hand, approached your father. His face was red, and he was scowling. I was pretty sure he was drunk. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but he started crowding Mr. Smit, your father. It is my responsibility to protect our artists from rude and angry people. I managed to make my way over to them. There were a lot of people, and—”

“Could you hear anything the young man and my father were saying to each other when you got close?” Emma asked.

Alibi frowned slightly. Maybe she shouldn’t have interrupted a witness midsentence, but Emma didn’t care.

“The man verbally accosting your father wasn’t making sense.” Lanelle hesitated. “He said something like,

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