Just after he hit the clicker to open the gate to the courtyard at Danni’s house, he saw her bursting out of the house with Wolf on her heels.
He frowned as she veered in his direction, racing toward the car. She opened the door and jumped in, telling him, “Drive to Jenny and Brad’s place—and hurry. You know where it is, right? We have to get there now!”
He did as he was told, but as he drove he glanced at her, concern ripping through him. “What happened?”
“He was there—the killer. He showed up at her door with the mask on!”
“She didn’t answer, right? Did she call the police?”
“No, she didn’t answer the door.”
“Where was Brad?”
“Doing what everyone is doing, taking their friends home.”
“So did she call the police?”
“I don’t think so. She called me because she was scared, but she thought he’d gone away. I kept telling her to hang up and call the police. But she kept talking, and then she said he was back and trying to break in, and then I heard a bang. And then her phone went dead.”
“Tell me you dialed 911?” he said.
“Yes, immediately.”
“But you were going over there, weren’t you? Are you crazy?”
“I was with Wolf, and the police were on the way.”
“But you knew I was coming right back!”
“Quinn, he was there. In Jenny’s house.”
“He has a gun!”
“And I had Wolf!”
“Damn it, you know better than to—”
“Just drive!”
He wasn’t going to win an argument at that moment, Quinn knew, but he was still angry—and scared. The danger was really hitting home.
Jenny and Brad lived on Conti, on the other side of Bourbon. It took him next to no time to get there, and he thanked God that there were no street closings or parades to block the way. He drove up to the old Spanish residence where Brad and Jenny lived. It was wedged between two businesses. If she’d screamed, there wasn’t a huge likelihood that she would have been heard.
He was glad to see police cars were pulling up in front just as he and Danni arrived. He hadn’t even gotten the car into Park before Danni tore out of it.
“Jenny!” he heard her cry.
“Damn it,” he swore, leaping out himself.
He saw that the door to the house was swinging open. And as he rushed to the door behind Danni, officers in uniform were already heading up the walk. An officer moved to stop them, but another one said, “It’s Quinn. Let them be.”
Quinn kept going. He wanted to catch Danni before she found her friend.
Before she found her friend dead, as he had found Lawrence Barrett. As Larue had found Holton Morelli.
But Danni shoved past everyone and was the first one inside. He came through the doorway behind her and nearly crashed into her back.
“Jenny!” she cried.
Chapter 7
“JENNY, WHERE ARE you?” Danni called out frantically.
Quinn looked around the parlor of the modest home. Music stands were everywhere, and there was an upright piano with sheet music piled high on top. There were even more sheets of music mixed in with the magazines on the coffee table. A cup still half-filled with tea was there, as well, as if Jenny had been sitting there waiting for Brad when the knock had come at the door.
He caught Danni by the shoulders and spun her around. “Wait here,” he said firmly.
Just as he spoke, Brad Henderson came tearing through his front door. He screamed Jenny’s name, too, then saw Danni and Quinn, and strode toward them, hysteria rising in his voice. “Jenny, where’s Jenny? What happened? What’s going on?”
Quinn could see that he was shaking so badly his knees were going to give out. He caught Brad when he started to fall and pushed him toward the comfortable old sofa, where he collapsed. The officers were already moving through the house.
While he was helping Brad, Quinn realized he’d lost Danni. She was heading deeper into the house on the heels of the two patrolmen who had arrived first.
“Brad, just breathe,” he ordered.
One of the officers who had been heading down the hall returned to the parlor.
“Who is this?” he demanded.
“Brad Henderson,” Quinn said. “It’s his house.”
He heard Danni call out again. “Jenny! Where are you?”
And then he heard Danni choke out a sound like nothing he’d ever heard before. “Sit,” he told Brad.
The officer who had come out nodded, obviously as afraid as Quinn was of what Danni and the other cop might have found and equally unwilling to let Brad head farther into the apartment to see the potential horror for himself.
Quinn raced along the hall that led past the dining area and kitchen and to the two bedrooms in back. His heart seemed to climb into his throat as he ran, and when he reached the door to Jenny and Brad’s room, he realized he hadn’t even been breathing.
He let out a breath. Everything was all right.