“Have you two eaten?”
“Oh, God. Don’t talk about food. Miss Viv stuffed us to the gills.”
“Yeah, that’s Aunt Viv. Hayden and I will take over here. The two of you go check in with Foster and see where he wants you.”
They moved off, disappearing from sight just as Katie and Hayden came out of Jackson’s room. After checking if I’d eaten, Katie and Hayden left me sitting outside Jackson’s room. I contemplated going in to check on him, but decided the man probably needed some space to process without an audience.
I checked the time and called Marcie, forgoing the video call we usually used. I needed to focus on what she said, and I always got distracted by how gorgeous she looked and the little quirks she had when she talked. Like the way her head cocked like a puppy when she was curious, or the way that Audrey Hepburn like mouth of hers deepened at the corners right before she laughed.
“Hey!”
“Hey, sweet girl. How are you?”
“I’m good. Looks like you guys made it back to the hospital.”
I nodded, then dove into the questions.
“Tell me about Michelle.”
“What do you wanna know about Michelle?”
“Anything you can tell me.”
“Well, she’s… not very nice.”
“Sweetness, don’t beat around the bush. I need to know. It’s important.”
“She thinks she’s better than everyone around her. She looks down her nose at me and Glenn when she thinks no one is paying attention, but she sucks up to your face. What’s worse is that she does the same to Katie. I overheard her badmouthing Katie to Danny once.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. She and Danny were buddy-buddy. That night I rounded a corner and found them huddled together talking crap about Katie being a diva and a baby who didn’t deserve to be where she was.”
“Were they friendly from the beginning, or did it develop over time?”
“To me, it looked like he was friendly toward her from the beginning. She seemed more standoffish, though, but warmed up quickly. But I dunno know if they knew each other from before.”
“Anything else?”
“Well, I always thought Danny felt Katie was being stupid for being afraid of the stalker. And I didn’t think she took it seriously enough. At least not until he got into her dressing room, that scared her.”
“Who all was there?”
“What do you mean?”
“Were Michelle and Danny there?”
“Oh! Danny would’ve been. He’d been with us for about a month at that point.”
“What about Michelle?”
“Declan, what’s going on?”
“I’ll tell you in a bit. Just answer the questions, sweetness.”
“Umm, lemme think. That night was about… uhh.. a month, I think, before the Seattle concert. Glenn wasnotthere, but… yeah, I think Michellewasthere. It was after the stalker got into the dressing room that Danny talked the label into adding on two more guys. That’s when Nick and Matt joined the tour. And… the more I think about it, I think… I think that was the same night I caught Michelle and Danny talking badly about Katie.”
“Are you sure?”
