The White Gold Score (A Daniel Faust Novella) by Craig Schaefer

“Why?”
    Tanesha met her gaze.
    “Because I’m pretty sure I know who killed Monty,” she replied in a soft voice. “I did.”
    I blinked. “Murder isn’t a subjective kinda thing. Either you did or you didn’t.”
    “I don’t mean I did it with my own hands. But I made it happen. Look, you have to understand, Monty…he wasn’t too bright, but he had a big, big heart. And he carried a mile-high torch for me.”
    “You were in a relationship?”
    She shook her head. “Business. Friends. Nothing more than that. Didn’t stop him from following me around like a puppy dog, hoping for something he was never gonna get, but every time I said ‘no’ he heard ‘maybe someday.’ When we parted ways, he was determined to win me back. Thinking maybe if we worked together again, he’d have another shot with me. Blue Rhapsody? All those artists he poached, all those bridges he burned to make a name for himself in the industry? He did that for me.”
    “Nothing drives ambition like desire,” Caitlin mused. “And the more foolish the desire, the more fervent the drive.”
    “Got that right,” Tanesha said. “So my contract with EMI is up and I’m a free agent. Not one day goes by before he’s burning up my phone, trying to get me to sign with Blue Rhapsody.”
    “Curtis said he sounded worried to you,” I said.
    “Dino’s going all in with this streaming-music scheme of his. Sinking all the label’s cash into it. If it flops, Blue Rhapsody is finished. They
need
big names to give people a reason to subscribe.”
    “Names like yours,” Caitlin said.
    Tanesha turned. She took the studio photograph down from the mantel, running manicured fingernails along Monty’s smiling face.
    “I told him I knew about Dino, about the smuggling and the blow. I wanted nothing to do with it. I told him, grow a backbone, and force that viper
out
. He could have done it. Monty had controlling interest in Blue Rhapsody. He could have bought Dino out and kicked him to the curb, if he’d just stand up for himself for once in his life.”
    She looked up at us, silent for a moment.
    “I finally told him I was done. Done with watching him let Dino drag him down. I told him, either be a man and fight back, or never call me again. Not long after that, Monty left a voicemail for me. He said he was going to do it. He was going to put Dino in his place and take his label back.”
    She bit her bottom lip. A tear pooled in one amber eye.
    “Two days later,” she said, “Monty was dead.”

8.
    “Dino Costa murdered Monty,” Tanesha said, her voice quavering, “but I’m the one who made it happen. I’m the one who walked him to the firing line.”
    Caitlin put a gentle hand on Tanesha’s arm. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Everyone makes their own choices. Monty made his.”
    “You’re sure it was Dino?” I asked.
    She nodded, taking a deep breath to steel herself. “Him or one of his thugs. You just met a few of them, out on my porch.”
    “They seemed eager to have a word with you.”
    “Dino’s not giving up on signing me to Blue Rhapsody. Except now, with Monty gone, he’s not asking nice anymore.” She sighed. “I should have brought my security team out here. I just wanted to be alone for a couple of days. Away from all the crazy. Been listening to the studio masters for my next album—best stuff I’ve ever done, no lie. When it was done, if he hadn’t ended up dead, Monty was going to be the first person to hear it.”
    “
Promise me you won’t hurt her
” were the last words Monty Spears ever spoke. I remembered feeling the desperation as they spilled from his—my—lips, hallucinating his dying moments. The fear. Not for himself, but for someone else. Someone whose life he held more precious than his own.
    For Tanesha. If I needed confirmation that Dino Costa was behind Monty’s murder, I’d just been handed it in spades.
    She set the photo back on the mantel. A splash of light caught my eye. The