“Was it a strip light?” Dance asked.

Madigan muttered, “Dunno what that is. Take a look.” The last sentence was delivered with a bit of challenge.

Dance did. It was indeed a hard thing to see: the scorched body. And, yes, the unit was a four-lamp strip.

“That might’ve been the one that fell yesterday.”

“Tye mentioned that,” Madigan said. “We’re looking into it.” He was clearly growing weary of her. “Well, all righty then.” He began to turn away.

“How did it come undone?”

“Wing nuts worked loose?” He nodded up to the scaffolding.

Dance said, “And I wonder why Bobby fell. Not like it isn’t marked.” Yellow warning tape clearly indicated the edge of the stage.

Over his shoulder Madigan offered a dismissive, “Lot of questions, you betcha.”

Then a woman’s loud, haunting voice from the back of the hall: “No … no, no!” The last time that word was repeated it became a scream. Despite the hot, dank atmosphere of the hall Dance felt a stinging chill slither down her back.

Kayleigh Towne sprinted down the aisle to the stage where her friend had so horribly died.

Chapter 10

DANCE HAD SEEN the young singer a half dozen times and she’d always been carefully, if not perfectly, assembled.

But today she was the most disheveled Dance had ever seen. No makeup, long hair askew, eyes puffy from crying, not lack of sleep (there’s a difference, Dance knew). Instead of her ubiquitous contact lenses, she wore thin black-framed glasses. She was breathless.

Detective P. K. Madigan instantly became a different person. His fake smile of irritation at Dance became a frown of genuine sympathy for Kayleigh. He stepped down the stairs and intercepted the young woman on the floor before she could get to the stage. “Kayleigh, dear. No, no, you shouldn’t be here. There’s no reason for you to be.”

“Bobby?”

“I’m afraid it is.”

“They told me … but I was praying it was a mistake.”

Then Sheriff Gonzalez joined them on the main floor and put her arm around the girl’s shoulders. Dance wondered if all friends and next of kin got this treatment, or only celebrities, and then decided the cynical thought was unkind. Kayleigh Towne was the city’s star, yes, but she was at the moment a woman in terrible distress.

“I’m sorry, Kayleigh,” Gonzalez said. “I’m so sorry.”

“It was him! Edwin. I know it! Go arrest him. He’s parked in front of my house. Right now!”

“He’s what?” Madigan asked.

“He’s parked in the lot of the nature preserve across the street. He’s just sitting there in that goddamn red car of his.”

Frowning, Madigan made a call and told a deputy to check it out.

“Arrest him!”

“We’ll have to see, Kayleigh. May not be as easy as that.”

Dance noticed Darthur Morgan standing, arms crossed, in the back of the theater, looking around carefully.

“The hell’s that?” Madigan grumbled, catching sight of the man.

“My bodyguard,” Kayleigh said, gasping from the crying.