Just as I take my last swallow, my luck changes.

The music stops. The man with the penny whistle quiets the applause by leaning into the microphone. “Thanks, folks. We’ll be taking a short break now. See you soon!”

I turn toward the band and join the applause. When I turn back, the bartender’s there.

“Another Hennessy?”

I shake my head. No time to waste. “Actually, I came here to talk to Amber.”

She freezes. The smile melts. Her eyes turn cold. She looks up and down the bar, then back at me, and says in a low voice, “Who are you?”

The words tumble out. “My name is Brea Cooke. I’m working on a book. It involves Suzanne Bonanno.”

She turns and grabs the Hennessy bottle. This time, her hands shake a little as she pours it into my glass.

I try to stop her. “No, I don’t need—”

“Be quiet,” she says under her breath. “Pretend you’re a normal patron and that this is a normal interaction. In two minutes, take your drink to the booth marked ‘reserved’ in the back. I’ll meet you there.”

“You promise?”

“That’s what I said.”

She turns her smile back on and draws another round of beers. I see her catch the eye of the redheaded bartender and give him a hand signal. He nods. She ducks under the bar’s service rail and disappears.

I lay some cash on the bar and pick up my glass. I walk through the crowd until I spot an empty booth with a card reading RESERVED. I slide in. And pray.

A minute later, the former cheerleader slides onto the bench across from me. “Did they find Suzanne’s body?”

That’s her first question. I definitely have the right person.

I shake my head. “No. To the rest of the world, Suzanne is nothing but a missing person in a cold case. What do you remember about her, Amber?”

“Lillian,” she mutters with a tight smile. “Call me Lillian.”

“Yes. Lillian. Sorry.”

“Sure,” she says. “Suzanne was great. A lot of fun. Suzanne dating Cole was an open secret on the cheerleading squad. But we were a sisterhood. Nobody would have said anything. Besides, it’s not like she was the only rule-breaker.”

“How do you mean?”

She folds her hands on the table. “I mean, you’re in your early twenties, young and pretty, and looking to blow off steam with a hunk pulling down a major paycheck.”

“And you just hope you don’t get caught.”

“Right. Just a little innocent fun. Plenty of us did it. Maybe to make up for the fact that we were being paid less than the team mascot. A lot of girls were waiting tables to make ends meet. Most of us were just enjoying the exposure and looking for a way out.”

“But Suzanne already had another job possibility, right?”