David lifted both hands, palms out, to stop her as he laughed. “I think I can do it a great deal smoother than that, but yeah, that’s probably the best way to play it. We approach it low-key and then take the conversation in the direction we want. If I can get a look at her scrapbook, her Maggie wall—she’ll have one or both—I’ll do so and see if I can spot anything far enough back to be useful around these five concert dates. If she attended one of those other concerts, there’s going to be a ticket stub, a photo at the concert, something. I’ve been to enough Maggie concerts that I can recognize stages, outfits, band members, and pretty much date a photo to a specific show.”
“Great. It’s good, the fact you think like a cop.”
“I am one.”
Evie blinked, realized what she’d said, and laughed. “Sorry. I occasionally get you stuck with your ‘Maggie’s boyfriend’ hat on, and it covers up the one that says ‘super cop.’”
“Nice save.”
She grinned. “Yeah. It does mess me up at times, realizing who you are. By the way, what do Maggie’s friends think about her being engaged to someone who’s a long ways away from the music business?”
“They’re puzzled—probably much the same as yours are since you’re considering life with a finance guy of some acclaim.”
“True enough.” Evie forced herself back on topic. “Okay. You’ll get Lynne going on her life story, showing you ticket stubs and photos of Maggie, I’ll take copious notes to back up the recording on my phone. We don’t walk out until we’re convinced Lynne is either our person of interest for at least Jenna or she’s ruled out.”
David grinned at the way she said it. “Okay.” He considered her. “You wearing down from your own adrenaline yet?”
“Sort of. At the margins. Sitting on my hands until noon tomorrow is going to have me climbing the walls.”
“You need to crash the rest of the night. We both sleep in, then we go back to a few of Jenna’s friends, ask a bunch of questions we don’t care about, then casually bring up Lynne and see what they say. We’ll pursue what her credit-card number tells us, look at Jenna’s albums to see if there are any other girls like Lynne who might have been overlooked. Or else you can just hit the gym for a couple-hour workout before lunch.”
“What I really want is to have the case solved before the charity event tomorrow night.”
David visibly jolted. “A fact that just turned on a lightbulb. Lynne’s not going to be at the theater tomorrow night, Evie. Maggie’s in Chicago, Lynne’s going to be there. She’s probably already arranged time off so she can get a good position on the rope line. Or get inside.” He slid around the desk, spun in his chair, shifted the keyboard over. “Okay, the guest list tomorrow night . . .”
Evie watched over his shoulder as he accessed the security list.
“Good,” he said as he scrolled down. “Lynne doesn’t have a ticket to the event—not a surprise given the steep price. Let me confirm she’s not registered at the hotel, hoping to get a closer vantage point from inside the building.” He picked up the phone, made a call, got hotel security on the line. He asked a series of questions and waited. He shook his head.
“So not a hotel guest either,” Evie said.
David hung up. “No. Not under her name, or booked with any credit card that has her mailing address. So, a reasonably confident no. I’ll make sure hotel security and Maggie’s security have current photos of her, know she’s likely to be present.
“I’ll adjust Friday night based on whether Lynne is where I expect her to be. Visible at the rope line and screaming her excitement, waving like mad, that’s fine, expected and good news. Lynne not being there to see Maggie—it’s not that she decided not to come; it’s that she’s found a way to get in even closer. Lynne’s been in dressing rooms for music groups for eleven years, would have collected names of hair and makeup people, publicity types, managers, not to mention musicians and singers. At least a few names in her world have gotten to where they could attend an event like this or open that possibility for Lynne.”
“And now your tension level is up,” Evie said, having seen the shift in David from casual planning to stopping potential trouble for Maggie.
He shook his head. “There are several hundred names on Maggie’s security list that raise my tension level just like Lynne, some of whom I know are trying to figure out how to get as close as possible to Maggie tomorrow night. It’s why we screen her limo’s chauffeur, why we have photo ID badges for those backstage. I do feel it deeply when I’m working security for Maggie, which is one of the reasons I’ve chosen to remain in law enforcement, not do this full time for her. Other people I trust are feeling a similar tension and covering the bases for her. Not just the event tomorrow night, but security for her home, keeping watch on her parents.”