XO by Jeffery Deaver Page A

road crew?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Anyone else hurt?”
    Madigan wasn’t inclined to answer and used a nearby deputy as an excuse to turn away and have a very quiet conversation with him, leaving his boss to respond to the interloper as she liked.
    Sheriff Gonzalez offered, “Only Bobby.”
    “And what happened?”
    Madigan rejoined the conversation. “We’re in the preliminary stage. Not sure at this point.” He definitely didn’t want her here but since she was with a senior agency he had at least to act deferential. Dance was a large dog wandering into a picnic—unwanted but possibly too dangerous to shoo away.
    “COD?”
    A pause then Gonzalez said, “He was doing some work on the stage last night. It seems he slipped and fell, a spotlight landed on him. It was on. He caught fire. Cause was blood loss and the burns.”
    Lord, what a terrible way to die.
    “Must’ve burned for a while. The alarms didn’t go off?”
    “The smoke detectors down there, in the pit, weren’t working. We don’t know why.”
    The first thing in her mind was the image of Edwin Sharp, glancing toward Bobby Prescott, with that fake smile and with eyes that could easily reflect a desire to turn the roadie into a bag of dust.
    “You ought to be aware—”
    “’Bout Mr. Sharp, our stalker?” Madigan asked.
    “Well, yes.”
    “One of the boys with the crew, Tye Slocum, told me that there was an incident yesterday at the Cowboy Saloon.”
    Dance described what she had seen and heard. “Bobby confronted him a couple of times. And Edwin probably overheard Bobby say he was going to come back here later last night and check out some equipment malfunction. It would be late because he had to go to Bakersfield to pick something up.”
    Madigan added absently, “Edwin’s on our radar. We know he’s renting a house near Woodward Park, north part of town. For a month.”
    Dance recalled that Edwin had been quite forthcoming about his residence. She was still curious why he’d rented for that time length.
    Dance noted too that both Madigan and she herself tended to refer to the stalker by his first name; this often happened when dealing with suspects who were potentially ED, emotionally disturbed. Dance reminded herself that whatever name they used, not to sell the young man short.
    The chief detective took a phone call. Then he was back with Dance, though only for the briefest of times. And with the briefest of smiles—just as phony as Edwin’s, she reflected. “Appreciate you stopping by. We’ll give CBI a call if there’s anything we need.”
    Dance looked over the stage, the misty air above the pit.
    Gonzalez offered, “So long now.”
    Despite the double-barreled good-bye, Dance didn’t feel like leaving just yet. “How did the light fall on him?”
    The sheriff said, “Maybe tugged it after him when he fell. The cord, you know.”
    “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