“I’m coming, too,” Danni said.
“I’d rather you stayed and watched out for Jessica, Craig and the Watsons. You’ll have Tyler and Bo Ray, along with Brad and Jenny. I don’t like leaving the house unguarded with the dog gone. Larue is leaving an officer out in front, but I want someone I can count on inside, too,” he told her.
Danni raised her eyes, challenging, then realized from the look in his that he recognized the fact that they were in this together, and that he couldn’t make his every move with the idea of protecting her.
The truth was, what he was saying made sense. She had a houseful of people who did need protecting. And if Billie was with him...
“All right, I’ll stay here and watch the house,” she said.
She got up and walked over to him and stood on her toes to kiss his lips. “Just be careful out there, okay?” she said softly.
He put his arms around her and pulled her close for a moment. She felt the whisper of his breath over her hair, and she wanted to hold tight and refuse to let him go.
She realized after a moment that he was actually looking over her shoulder, and she turned and studied the picture she’d sketched during her last sleep-drawing session.
“What is it?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t know. The picture...everything looks so normal. Except for the kid on the bar, of course.”
Danni looked at her own art. “We’re all there, Gus playing with the band as usual.” She hesitated. “I looked at the picture up on Gus’s wall, and the first thing I thought, before I saw what he’d done to it, was why did he even have it? He wasn’t one of us, wasn’t part of the Survivor Set. Do you think he just hates everyone who was? Or was he just convinced Arnie Watson would have given someone in the picture that sax?”
“I don’t know,” Quinn said. “Maybe, when we find him, we’ll be able to find out just what was going on in his mind.”
“I wonder if we’ll ever find the sax,” she said.
“Maybe. Let’s pray we do. God knows when the idea of a magic sax could cause someone else to go mad,” he said.
He was still looking at the drawing.
“What?” she asked.
“It’s telling us something we just aren’t seeing.”
“Something we should know?”
He shrugged, shook his head as if to clear it and turned to her. “Okay, we’re off. Bo Ray and Tyler are closing up the shop, and they’ll set the alarm. Woodrow is at the kitchen table with his shotgun, a cop is outside—and you have your gun.”
“We’re good,” she said then added, “I’m good.”
He started to leave then came back suddenly, pulled her to him and kissed her hard then turned to leave again.
And that time he really did go.
*
Cops were combing the city. They were on foot and horseback in the Quarter, and driving in the surrounding districts. Larue had called in every available man for overtime, and the mayor had approved it. News alerts were out.
With so many people looking for him, Quinn would have thought there was no way for Gus Epstein to hide, except that his powers of disguise seemed to be just this side of supernatural.
Billie, Father Ryan and Wolf were tense and quiet as Quinn drove to Epstein’s house, but he knew that inside they were alert and ready for anything.
Grace Leon and her team were still going through the house when Quinn arrived with his small posse. She found a piece of clothing for Wolf to sniff; the dog caught the scent and barked enthusiastically then raced for the back door.
They already knew Gus had gone out the back. The true test of Wolf’s abilities was yet to come.
Wolf led them through Epstein’s backyard and then the neighbor’s, and finally out onto the street. He ran for several blocks, with Quinn on the other end of the leash, and Father Ryan and Billie right behind.
Wolf ran for two blocks, and then he stopped, sat on his haunches and began to howl.
“What in God’s sweet heaven does that mean?” Father Ryan demanded.
“It means the scent ends here,” Quinn said. “He got into a car or on a bus.”
The dog began to bark again then headed back toward Gus’s house.
“What does this mean?” Father Ryan asked.
“I’m not sure,” Quinn said.
“I can’t believe he’s making us run back the way we just came,” Billie said breathlessly.
“Take it more slowly, then,” Quinn shouted, carried along after the dog.
“Like hell— Sorry, Father,” Billie said. “If Wolf is on the move, it means something!”
And it did, Quinn knew.
But what the hell was it? What were they missing?
What was right there in front of their faces that they hadn’t seen?
Chapter 17
DANNI WAS STILL in her studio, studying her most recent drawing, when Jessica tapped at the door.
“Hey,” Danni said. “Come on in.”
“You sure?” Jessica asked.
“Of course.”
Jessica walked into the studio as if she were stepping on hallowed ground.