A glance at the map of the Madera-Fresno area revealed what had to be a thousand miles of roads.

Another thought occurred to her: the assault on Bobby Prescott and on the file sharer followed closely on the calls to Kayleigh; they had perhaps an hour or so to identify and save the next victim.

Chapter 33

MADIGAN SAID, “REMEMBER, ‘road’ could mean more than just a highway.”

Dance nodded. “Road crew. Like Bobby. Let’s call them. I told them to be careful but we ought to let them know he’s played another song. And Alicia Sessions. At the Cowboy Saloon I could see Edwin didn’t like her any more than he did Bobby.”

She opened her notebook and displayed the numbers she had for everyone in the crew. Dance, Harutyun and Stanning notified them all. Half of the crew were at the convention center; the other half at the luncheon venue, being held at a nice country club in the northern part of town. Kayleigh would be singing a few songs so they’d set up a small performing space. Tye Slocum was en route to the venue, but Dance alerted him about the danger. Alicia, it seemed, had run out of gas on the way to Kayleigh’s luncheon but was safe. She was waiting in a coffee shop for a service truck.

Dance bent toward the screen and was reading through one of Kayleigh’s unofficial sites, which gave details of the luncheon. A lot of posters wished they could have gotten tickets but they’d sold out quickly.

Madigan was speaking into his phone, “Come on, how hard is it? The fucking car is a mile long! And goddamn bright red.” He glanced at the others with a shrug, meaning the snake remained invisible.

Dance called Kayleigh, who’d just arrived at the luncheon, on the singer’s new mobile number and told her of the possible threat.

“No! Not again. Are you sure?”

“Afraid we are. We haven’t said anything to the press about using the song verses as announcements so we have to assume it’s really a threat. Where are your sister and niece?”

“They’re at home with Daddy and Sheri.”

“Darthur’s with you?”

“Yes. And there’re about a dozen people here now. We’re expecting a hundred or so. There’s lots of security. You need a ticket to get in.”

Dance continued to read the screen; an idea occurred to her. “Kayleigh, this fan of the month. Who is it?”

“I think his name’s … hold on. Sam Gerber. Do you think he’s in danger? Oh, Kathryn, what are we going to do?”

“So he’s not there?”

“No, we don’t get started for another forty-five minutes or so. I came early for a sound check. Should we call him?”

“Do you have his number?”

“I’ll find it.”

As she waited, Dance looked down and her eyes caught a series of posts on the fan site. They’d been made just that morning.

Who is this Gerber? Is he worthy of our wonderful Kayleigh? He hasn’t posted much about her, hardly anything. Doesn’t seem fair to some of us that he’s going.