“I’m afraid to go. Too much is happening here, most of it dangerous. I need to keep an eye on things.”
“You mean keep an eye on me. Quinn,” she said, walking to the door and shaking her head, “you have to have faith in other people sometimes. You can’t save the world on your own, you know. I have Wolf, Billie, Bo Ray and now Brad and Jenny.”
“I do have faith in you. I just don’t think either one of us should leave here. Not even for a night.”
“And I think it’s important to talk to Kevin Hart. One of us can stay, and the other one can go.”
“No.”
“Then we both need to go.”
“No.”
“You have to have some faith in me.”
“I have tremendous faith in you.”
“So you don’t think I can take care of myself, even with a houseful of people?”
“I didn’t say that. We’re a team.”
Danni sighed in aggravation. “Not much of a team if you don’t have any faith in me or my judgment.”
“Wait a minute, Danni. Just wait. Even if Arnie spilled his heart out to this guy, why think he’d have anything to say that would help? The guy isn’t from NOLA. He wouldn’t have known any place or person Arnie was talking about. Not to mention the guy is in bad shape, so we could just be adding bad news to what he’s already going through.”
“I’m sure he already knows that Arnie is dead. The military grapevine is pretty efficient. And I’m sure he’d want to help in any way he can to catch Arnie’s killer. He knew Arnie, and that’s what’s important, Quinn. He might know something about Arnie that Tyler doesn’t, that his folks don’t—maybe something Arnie was keeping from people here on purpose. The point is, we’re not getting anywhere, and people keep dying. I’m going to check on flights. You can come with me to see him or not.”
As she walked out of the room he called out after her, “Hey! That’s not teamwork. That’s being a dictator.”
Wolf looked at him and barked, obviously unhappy about a family argument.
Danni was probably right again, and he knew it. But that didn’t change anything. He didn’t like the idea of leaving town when people were still in danger and when they were just starting to associate themselves with the music scene.
He definitely didn’t like the concept of leaving Danni in those circumstances, though he wasn’t any happier about letting her leave on her own.
Irritated, he walked into the kitchen, where Danni was sitting at her computer and apparently chatting casually with Brad and Jenny, both of whom looked at him with uneasy expressions. They’d undoubtedly heard the argument.
“Coffee?” Jenny asked him, her voice pointedly cheerful.
“No, thanks,” he said.
He strode quickly up the stairs and back to the bedroom to get dressed.
Back downstairs, he went straight to the courtyard door, but Danni saw him as he passed the kitchen, because he heard her jump up and come after him, calling, “Quinn!”
“What?”
“Where are you going?”
“To see Arnie’s parents.”
He didn’t wait for her to suggest that she come with him.
Wolf had trotted along with him to the door. “Watch her, boy. Watch her and watch the shop, okay?” He scratched Wolf’s ears, his other hand on the doorknob.
“You’re being unreasonable,” she said.
“Really? When you went rushing over to Jenny and Brad’s the other night without thinking?”
“I did think. I called—”
“Whatever,” he said.
He walked out the door, pulling it closed behind him.
As soon as he was in the car, he realized she was right. He didn’t have enough faith in her to leave her on her own. That wasn’t bad—not really. It meant he cared, that she had become everything to him. He simply didn’t want her to be alone. No, not alone—without him. Maybe that meant he didn’t really have faith in anyone, anyone but himself.
Or maybe it just meant he was afraid. The killer had come to their house and would have broken in if not for Wolf.
Wolf, as incredible as he was, was still a dog. But Quinn told himself he could leave now because...
Because the murderer wasn’t killing by day. He was stalking at night or very early in the morning, when he had the least chance of being seen, or, if he was, of being noticed.
Or maybe that was when he was off work himself. Off work, and quickly wrapped in his coat, his mask hiding his identity.
That gave rise to another thought, and he called Larue. When the detective answered he said, “How do you feel about a press conference?”
Larue groaned. He hated press conferences.
“What did you have in mind? Shouldn’t we at least discuss this first? And why now? You have something? A lead? A solid clue?”
“No, sorry. I’m thinking of the city. I think we need to tell people what we know about the killer’s appearance, what they need to be on the lookout for. Can you call it for about five this afternoon? I need to make a call and then go shopping.”
“Shopping?” Larue asked.
“Show and tell. You’ll understand. I’ll meet you at the station by four thirty.”