“That is a bald-faced lie!” he reminded her. “You hated me.”
“Hate is a very strong word. I merely thought you were...different.”
“And now?”
She grinned. “Now I know you’re different. But so am I,” she added softly. Then she said in a very businesslike tone, “What else didn’t we learn?”
“Actually, now we’re on to what we did learn,” he said.
“That Arnie was in love?”
“Exactly. No matter what Kevin said, we have to consider the possibility that she’s guilty. We need to find out who Arnie was in love with.”
“Right. In a city filled with women.”
“I’m assuming we’re looking for someone in her midtwenties to early thirties. And since he spent most of his time playing music when he was home, I’m also going to assume that he met her while he was working.”
“He played several places.”
“But mostly La Porte Rouge.”
“You’re thinking Jessica?”
“Yes.”
“You think Jessica killed all those people? She couldn’t have. Everyone said it was a man.”
“How could they tell? The killer was in a trench coat and mask. They couldn’t be certain.”
“She has a toddler.”
“So having a child means you can’t be a killer?”
“I just can’t believe it.”
“I don’t really believe it, either. But we have to take everything into consideration. Anyway, somehow I have to get out of babysitting Jenny at night. I need to be back at La Porte Rouge,” he said determinedly.
“Babysitting?” Danni protested.
“I’m sorry. I know she’s your friend, it’s just that she’s so...needy. Anyway, I’ll go with them tonight. I know you’ll be all right, with Billie, Tyler and Father Ryan, but I’m becoming more and more convinced—call it a gut instinct—this all goes back to La Porte Rouge.”
“What about the woman who was attacked with her bandmates?” Danni asked. “The timetable has Arnie dying first, and then the attack on the musicians leaving Frenchman Street. Maybe the killer knows something we don’t. Maybe she’s the one Arnie was in love with, and that’s why the killer was convinced that she had the sax.”
“Lily Parker,” Quinn said, remembering his interview with her, Jeff Braman and Rowdy Tambor.
In his mind’s eye he could see the day at the police station when he had questioned them. Lily was pretty. Arnie might have been drawn to her.
“Lily Parker, right,” Danni said.
“Maybe, but I’m still betting we’re looking closer to home.”
“Home being La Porte Rouge?”
“Yes.”
“There’s the other woman,” Danni pointed out. “Eric Lyons’s part-time bartender.”
“Good point,” Quinn said. “Try talking casually to her tonight or whenever she’s in next. Talk to Jessica, too, and find out how they felt about Arnie. And talk to the band and to Eric and anyone else you can. Eventually, if I’m right, and the killer is someone associated with La Porte Rouge, someone will say something—even if inadvertently—that will give us what we need. I’ll make sure I’m back at La Porte Rouge by tomorrow night.”
Chapter 12
HOME WAS EVEN more of a “full house” than it had been when Danni had left that morning.
The Watsons, Tyler, Bo Ray, Brad, Jenny and Billie were all there, as she had expected. But Natasha was there, as well as Father Ryan—and a man Danni didn’t know.
Father Ryan was quick to introduce him as Pastor Ben Cooke of the Baptist church the Watsons attended. Father Ryan had called on him to come over because the Watsons were in need of a little spiritual support.
Danni was embarrassed to realize that when she had been at Walter Reed, she had entirely forgotten the turmoil that was going to be part of the Watsons’ next months—even years—as they tried to put their home and their lives back together.
To her surprise, though, they were in better shape than she had expected.
While doling out paper plates for the pizza they’d decided on so that everyone had something to eat before heading out for the night, Danni assured Amy Watson that everyone she knew would help once the crime scene tape came down and it was possible to start fixing the house.
“Oh, honey, I know we’ll get the house taken care of, don’t you fear none. A house don’t mean nothing. Losing my boy, now, that will take some learning to live with. I don’t say ‘getting over,’ because you never get over it. You just learn to live with it because you’re still on the journey with other people you love and who love you. And we’re lucky. We have our other children, and we’re blessed with a bounty of friends.”
“Amy, we will find the man who did this,” Danni swore then wondered if it really could have been a woman. But witnesses had said it was a man. People could pull off all kinds of disguises, she knew. And the stereotypes of the past were going away. But biology remained the same, and some of the things the killer had done had taken a great deal of strength.