Wiping her wet eyes, she turns to her piano player. “Can you call Cal’s brother? Let him know?”
Nodding, the band member finds a quiet corner, reaches into his back pocket, and talks quietly.
After watching for a moment, Sienna presses her palms into her eyes and sighs. “Can I borrow your phone? Mine is in my dressing room. I need to call my husband.”
She’s still speaking with Andy as Suds enters the green room and kisses my ear. “They don’t think he’s going to make it.”
“Oh no.” I wrap my arms around him, his scent calming me, my own personal Xanax.
This was supposed to be our date night, the first one we’ve had in months. Guess I’ll reschedule for some time next year.
“The police confiscated Calvin’s gear. They’re also searching under the stage. I think they suspect foul play.”
“Good luck with that. I checked. It’s pretty friggin’ hard to be electrocuted by your guitar. The low current and low voltage make it nigh onto impossible.”
“Unless someone rigged it.” Suds glances over at Sienna. “Is she talking to Andy?”
“Yeah. I gave her my phone.”
He walks us over, catches the country singer’s eye, and holds open his palm. “Let me talk to him.”
Chapter Two
Sebastian Sutcliff
Wishing I had better news, I put Sam’s cell to my ear. “Quinn? You there?”
“Uh-huh. How bad is it?” Andy’s normally calm voice is surprisingly even more so.
Clearing my throat, I cough and turn my head so I can politely back away from the girls. “It’s not good.”
“He dead?” Unlike me, my lawyer never wastes time getting to the point and in the past, I’ve respected that. Mostly, because his hourly rate could impoverish a small country.
“Probably.” Tamping down my tendency to ramble, I download. “I gave him CPR but he never came to. The paramedics used paddles and nothing. What a hell of a-”
“Are the police with you, now?”
“Everythin’ here is jes’ hunky-dory but I understand you wantin’ to get here as soon as humanly possible.”
Andy catches onto my change of pace. “Don’t tell me, my wife is closing in on you and you don’t want to upset her.”
“That’s absolutely correct.” I give Sam a peck on the cheek and point to Sienna. “Can you girls give me a moment?”
My partner mumbles something to the annoyed country singer, grabs her upper arm, and leads her to the piano player.
Out of earshot, I put the phone to my mouth and whisper. “You should get here as fast as you can. I’m damn sure the police think she’s a suspect.”
“Shit, have they questioned her? Just a sec…” Traffic sounds in the background, a car door slams, and in a muffled tone, he says, “Airport.”
Then, his voice returns clearly. “Sorry, I’m back. Where are you all now?”
“In the green room.”
“Tell me exactly what happened. And for God’s sake, be brief.”
I do, and when I get to the part how I jumped onto the stage, he barges in. “How the hell did you know?”
“I seen it before, on a submarine. I was helpin’ out a guy in the engine room. He brushed his watch across two-twenty and holy Christ. It’s not something I’d likely forget. The bassist had the exact same look on his face. Pure terror.”
