She could try to sleep, since it didn’t appear as if anyone would be sitting next to her.
It was ridiculous, but she fought the sting of tears that teased her eyes.
Quinn had worked with her father for years, respected him, believed in him. Danni knew she’d come a long way from the girl who hadn’t known what her father did—hadn’t known what she’d inherited in The Cheshire Cat. And she knew Quinn loved her. So why couldn’t he trust her instincts the way he’d trusted her father’s?
A fasten-your-seat-belt reminder flashed on the screen overhead, and a flight attendant came on the loudspeaker to tell them they were about to close the doors.
Just when Danni had given up all hope, Quinn walked onto the plane and hurried to take his seat next to her.
Everything in the world seemed to change for the better.
He looked exhausted. Haggard. Five o’clock shadow darkened his chin.
He looked at her, still breathing hard. He’d run through the airport, she thought.
“Hey, made it,” he said.
She nodded. “Yes, I see that.” A moment later she added softly, “Thank you.”
“You were right,” he told her.
“About seeing Kevin Hart? We don’t know that yet.”
“No,” he said, and gripped her hand as the plane backed away from the gate. “About the Watsons. If they hadn’t been at your place...well, they would almost certainly be dead now.”
Chapter 11
THEIR TAKEOFF WAS smooth. By the time they were in the air, he’d told her about Larue’s call and going out to the Watson house, and the violence visited on the furniture and everything else there, including Arnie’s picture. She was upset for the Watsons, he knew.
As soon as they were in the air, their flight attendant came by offering drinks. They both asked for coffee.
The flight attendant asked if they wanted champagne. Quinn could barely keep himself from laughing, and he saw Danni looking at him in curiosity.
“Sorry,” he murmured, when the attendant had moved on. “I was just thinking that we’re both so overtired, one sip of anything would probably put us under our seats.”
Danni smiled. She knew he never drank more than a few sips of beer just so it looked as though he was drinking. He’d died and been resuscitated because the adulation he’d received as a star football player in school had led to overindulgence in too many ways.
He hadn’t known Danni then, and he was glad of that. He liked the man he was now, and when he looked back, he didn’t like the man he had been.
“I slept a few hours,” she said.
“I’m glad. But man, these hours are going to catch up with me soon.”
“Did you learn anything helpful at the Watson place?” Danni asked.
“Not really. Grace Leon—you know Grace. She heads Larue’s favorite crime scene unit—was there, though. If there’s something to find, she’ll find it. Thing is, once she starts dusting for prints, she’ll find lots of them. Arnie had lots of friends, musicians mostly, and then there are his parents’ friends. And of course our prints will be there. It’s a nightmare, for sure. I feel terrible for the Watsons.”
Danni leaned back, wincing as he spoke. “We’re not there,” she said. “Who’s going to tell the Watsons what happened?”
“I talked to Father Ryan on my way to the airport—Larue sent me by squad car, so it was easy to make a few calls. Larue will stop by your place with Father Ryan, and they’ll tell them what happened together. Their place is going to be even more of a mess when the crime scene unit finishes. Trying to return that house to any semblance of normal is going to take tremendous effort and expense.”
“We can all help them.”
“Of course.”
“I just...”
“What?”
She looked over at him. “Well, I’m the one who thought going to DC today was so important, but now I’m wishing we were there with them.”
“I’m sure it is important.”
“But I probably could have gone alone,” she said softly.
He sat back, remembering how aggravated he had been with Jenny for her dependence on him and the way it had upset Brad that she had so little faith in him. And he’d realized soon afterward that he owed Danni the same kind of faith. He cared about her so much that his love was keeping him from trusting her judgment. And he couldn’t be that way—not if they were going to make it.
“You probably could have gone alone,” he said, nodding. “But who knows? Maybe it will take both of us to figure out the right question to ask. And Father Ryan is the perfect person to talk to the Watsons. It’s part of his job, after all.” He turned and smiled at her. “We’re going to be all right,” he said softly.
*
“Hattie took care of everything. We’re being met and taken straight to Walter Reed and then straight back to the airport,” Danni told Quinn. “And to think you didn’t even like her when you two first met.”