Blood Score Part 14

Angel had chosen Ethan over him, and he couldn't blame her.

Standing in the wings backstage, Cronan kept an eye out for any suspicious behavior and people who looked like they didn't belong-people like him. He hadn't missed the irony. Coming early had given him a chance to scope out the place before the crowd hit, and he'd stopped by to see Ethan in his dressing room. As expected, Rachel was with her client and looked beautiful as ever. She thanked him for coming, but Cronan marveled at how calm Ethan was.

For a kid his age, he was one cool customer, especially since his performance had been sold out. From what Cronan knew of the young musician, he'd been performing since he was a child, and he was no doubt accustomed to the hype and fanfare of a packed house. Still, he had to admit that he admired the kid for his nerves of steel. Soon he'd know what all the fuss was about, when he would hear Ethan Chandler play for the first time.

Cronan only wished that Angel had been with him for his first symphony.

Angel had searched the many faces in the crowd, letting her cop brain work as she walked through the symphony goers. She struggled with being on duty and wanting to be merely a woman who came to see Ethan play. She'd come because he personally asked her to. Rachel had been the one who expected her and Gabe to make an official appearance. But her cop instincts wouldn't let her relax. Buying a gla.s.s of white wine from the cash bar would have taken the edge off, but she had not only driven solo, she carried a concealed weapon. All rules of her day job applied.

She headed for her reserved seat and stuck her nose in her program, indulging in a long look at Ethan's photo. His smile reminded her that his life had been happier only a few short days ago, but she knew how fast a happy life could turn into a living nightmare.

Now Ethan did too.

Closing her eyes for a moment, Angel listened to the symphony tuning their instruments and listened to every note, every sound. When she opened them again, she felt the steady beat of her heart until the lights flashed, and everyone took their seats. She had to remember to breathe as the lights dimmed. Soon Ethan would be introduced.

She had a feeling he would change her notion of what music was all about.

Hours later Could a woman fall in love with a man, simply because he played a violin like an angel? Angel had never thought of herself as a hopeless romantic, especially after Manny had died, but she was a believer now. She hadn't felt this way since her first childhood crush, when a young girl's fantasy burned hottest.

Her thoughts of Gabe and Ethan got jumbled into a yearning for love in her life. She missed that feeling, the personal connection to a man she loved with all her heart. Gabe would be a dangerous line to cross, one she could never recover from, but Ethan felt like a once in a lifetime adventure, a trip that would never feel real.

Manny had been different. He'd won her heart with the simple grace of his loving nature. Falling in love with Manny had come naturally, like taking a breath or opening her eyes to a new morning.

But seeing Ethan play had stirred fire under her skin and touched her heart in an intense way that made her yearn for something more in her life. He played with pa.s.sion that she felt to her toes. He made his violin cry with such haunting emotion that she'd wondered if his feelings for Olivia had inspired his moving performance. He channeled the beauty of his music through the profound sadness deep in her soul. She'd shed a tear in the dark, sitting alongside countless others who were drawn to him like she was. The shared experience with the audience had blown her mind. Ethan had touched her on a level no one had before, through music.

She saw how any woman could fall in love with him.

When his performance was over, she couldn't wait to see him, but the scene backstage was pure chaos. Orchestra members were packing up their instruments while stagehands took care of their duties. The concert hall still buzzed with the crowd milling in the aisles, unhurried to leave.

Creating a bottleneck, two men dressed in tuxedos stood backstage to compare pa.s.ses to a master list of names and control the crowd. No one would get by them without showing ID. There was a line of eager people waiting to see Ethan after his brilliant performance. Local celebrities, politicians, and other high society types stood in line like everyone else.

Angel craned her neck and looked for Gabe, but didn't see him anywhere.

She'd never seen so much cleavage, and her head spun with the heady mix of perfume in the air. The media was out en ma.s.se too, but they'd been told Ethan wasn't speaking to reporters-not tonight. Wisely, he'd declined the coverage, knowing they would only want to talk about his murdered lover. Tragedy always made for good ratings.

Ethan couldn't handle the unsympathetic onslaught of the media, and Angel didn't have a hard time imagining that. Thinking of the talented musician made her remember the darker side to her own life. He'd brought back painful memories of losing her husband, and she felt like Ethan's kindred spirit in grief, but he'd also reminded her that there had been redemption in loving someone. He made her realize the hole in her life where Manny had been.

As she came through the line, Angel heard raised voices ahead. Bryce Peterson's angry face snared her attention. With Rachel Blevins looking on with an amused smile on her face, Bryce had been yelling at a guy who stood near the men in tuxedos.

"I've told you. We're neighbors. Ask Ethan about me. My name's Tim McFarland. He'll tell you. He gave me this pa.s.s. It's legitimate, I can a.s.sure you."

A short man with dark hair in a navy suit stood his ground and waved his arms. No one could get by the guy. Frustration showed on the faces of the people standing behind him, but it wasn't until he shoved by the suits that things got rowdy.

"Bryce, please. You're making a scene." Rachel stepped in, only making a half-hearted effort to curb Bryce's watch dog behavior.

"No one gets backstage without being on the list. Not tonight. That's what you said." Ignoring Rachel, Bryce braced the man's shoulders to stop him and lowered his voice. "Ethan told me all about your good neighbor policy. I don't care if you do have a pa.s.s. I'm not letting you in. Now beat it."

Without taking his eyes off the man, Bryce tore up his backstage pa.s.s and tossed it in the air.

"Bryce, come on. Surely this can be handled another way." Rachel grabbed his arm, more for show than making any real effort. Her attempt to intervene looked uninspired.

After a swarthy man dressed in a tux took interest in the disturbance and stood behind Rachel to watch the altercation, Angel had heard enough.

It didn't matter if the man's pa.s.s was legitimate or not. Tighter security meant the confirmed list of names would be final. These men were causing a disturbance that could turn uglier. Bryce looked as if he had another agenda, and his wild eyes made his aggression appear more threatening. She stepped forward and interrupted before Bryce took his act to the next level.

"What's the trouble, Mr. McFarland?" Angel asked.

When the gate crasher turned to face her, the look of surprise on his face caught her off guard.

"You're that cop," he said. "What are you doing here?"

Angel did a double take. She'd never met the man in her life, yet he acted as if he had seen her before. When she smelled liquor on the man's breath, she narrowed her eyes and took in the details of his face.

"Don't worry about what I'm doing here." She glared at McFarland. "Considering that we've never met, how is it that you know I'm a cop?"

Chapter 11.

Chicago's Symphony Center a Backstage The minute Angel intervened, Tim McFarland dropped the att.i.tude and looked as if he'd turn tail and run. His change in outlook triggered her cop's curiosity even more.

"Call it a lucky guess. So what if I know you're a cop. Big deal. I didn't mean anything by it. I must have seen you on TV. You've got a face a man would remember."

McFarland turned to leave, but Angel reached for his arm.

"No, you said I was *that cop' like you knew me," she argued.

The guy rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Look, why are you making a federal case out of this? I'm not breaking any laws. I had a pa.s.s, and that belligerent jerk didn't honor it. Someone could check with Ethan. He'd clear things up, but no one will bother. The pa.s.s was slipped under my door. It had to come from Ethan himself. Apparently that means nothing to these people." McFarland wiped his forehead with a handkerchief.

"Did I hear you right, that you're a neighbor to Ethan Chandler?" she asked.

"Yes. He lives next door. We pa.s.s each other in the hallway sometimes."

"And you didn't know the man who stopped you back there?"

"No and I wouldn't care to. He's rude and pushy." McFarland dabbed under his chin with his hankie. "Can I go now?"

Angel had no reason to detain McFarland. She'd run his name by Gabe and would do a background check.

"Yes. Have a good evening, sir."

Tim McFarland pushed his way through the crowd, and Angel lost sight of him as she heard her name called.

"Angel. I've cleared you. Show your pa.s.s and come through." Gabe waved to her from the front of the line, but after she got past the gatekeepers and a smug Rachel Blevins, she stopped in front of Bryce Peterson.

"That testosterone flare-up looked like you two had history. What's the story?" she asked.

"Nothing. I hate people who say they know Ethan and expect special treatment. That's all."

Angel didn't bother to point out the irony of Bryce's own words.

"The guy's his neighbor," she said. "Maybe he does know him."

"He's not on the list," he argued with a dose of surly. "Rachel said no one gets past these guys if they aren't on the list."

Angel turned her attention on the publicist. "You looked as if you enjoyed your front row seat."

"Leave her out of this." Bryce came to Rachel's rescue without hesitating. "She's only looking out for Ethan."

Rachel didn't bother coming to her own defense. She didn't have to. She only shrugged and smiled, but Angel wasn't buying any of it. Bryce had downplayed his beef with McFarland. It looked personal, and the fact that the man lived next door to Ethan had put the neighbor on her list of suspects-a list with Bryce and Rachel's names on it. They hadn't been ruled out, in her mind.

"I lost my temper," he added. "That's all."

"You losing your cool, Bryce? Hard to imagine." Angel let it go-for now-but not before glaring at Rachel for her part in adding fuel to the fire of Bryce's temper. Her manipulative move came way too easy.

When Joaquin Salazar fixed his eyes on Rachel, she noticed. His s.e.xy good looks were amplified in a tuxedo, but his dark eyes were the best feature in his a.r.s.enal. He pulled her aside with a touch of his hand on her elbow, but the way he stared at her held her where she stood.

"That scene between Bryce and Ethan's neighbor, it looked as if you enjoyed it." He kept his voice low. "Don't try to deny it. You strike me as a woman who likes to be in control. I like that."

"Do you have a point, Joaquin?"

"Only an observation." He let his gaze trail down to her lips. "Bryce is a hot head and he's in rehab. That can't be good for Ethan's reputation, yet you know how to pull his strings when it matters. I like that, too."

"Ethan considers Bryce a friend. Nothing I can do, except look after Ethan's best interest."

Joaquin crooked his lip into a lazy smile.

"Who do you think killed Olivia?" He didn't wait for her to answer. "Someone did. And with Bryce's temper, anything could happen. If he did it, and the cops try to link the killing to Ethan, that won't be good for our boy's stellar reputation."

Rachel crossed her arms and said, "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what happened to Olivia. What are you getting at?"

"My benefactor, Evelyn, wouldn't want to see Ethan harmed in this. If there is anything I can do to help you, please...call me. I can be very discreet. No one has to know. Not even Evelyn."

Joaquin reached for her hand and kissed it, not taking his eyes off her. He didn't wait for her reply before he drifted into the crowd, and she lost him.

Rachel clenched her teeth.

After Angel joined her partner, Gabe escorted her through the backstage. Ethan's dressing room had bodies to the rafters-all of them talking and drinking champagne-with dozens of roses that filled the air with a heady floral scent. A cl.u.s.ter of people across the ample room gave Angel a clue of where Ethan could be found.

"It's that woman detective," Rachel said as she caught up to Angel and stepped around her to touch her client's arm.

"Angelica. Good of you to come." Ethan's face lit up with a strained smile. "Please...someone get her a gla.s.s of champagne."

Before she had a chance to decline the alcohol, a man shoved a crystal flute of champagne into her hand.

"Angelica?" When Gabe whispered in her ear, Angel nudged him with an elbow before she inched closer to Ethan.

"Your performance, it was...breathtaking." Standing next to the violinist, Angel struggled for words. "I've never-"

"He is truly one of a kind."

Ethan smiled and blushed as an older woman with silver hair interrupted Angel. Dazzling in shiny couture and dripping in diamonds, the woman kissed his cheek and left her mark of bright red lipstick.

"Drink, darling," she said to Angel as she raised her gla.s.s toward Ethan. "It's not every day that you're graced by such an angelic presence."

"Don't be so quick with the halo, Evelyn," Ethan said. "I'm not feeling very worthy these days."

Angel caught a glimpse of the sadness she'd seen the day she first met the violinist, after he'd found out about Olivia. He'd put on a show and for the sake of everyone in his dressing room, he still had his game face on.

"Who was that horrid man trying to barge through the backstage line?" Evelyn asked, turning to Rachel.

"Apparently he's a neighbor of Ethan's," Rachel said. "He's a bit obsessed, if you ask me. Bryce was only being a good friend to our boy here."

"You can fill me in later. I love juicy gossip." The older woman raised her gla.s.s to the publicist and winked.

The wealthy woman was accompanied by the same young Latino man dressed in a tux who had taken an interest in McFarland's attempt to get backstage. The woman didn't have the sensitivity to pick up on Ethan's dark mood. Being the center of attention, she carried on as if nothing bad had happened to him. Even if Angel could get Ethan's attention now, the dowager and her escort dominated the crowd surrounding the violinist, distracting the musician with their abrasive behavior and the familiar way they both touched him. Angel backed off.

Ethan must have known them well.

"Detectives, I'd like you to meet Ethan's agent, Harrison Reeves."

At the sound of Rachel's voice, Angel turned as the publicist made introductions and a distinguished looking man in a navy suit stepped forward, not bothering to offer his hand.

"I'm surprised to see you here, Detectives. Taking in a concert? I thought closing this case would take priority." The tall man with gray at his temples glared in judgment.

"We're here at the request of Ms. Blevins," Gabe intervened. "Otherwise I'd be bowling. League night."

"Is that intended to be funny?"

"Only if you've seen me bowl."

Angel rolled her eyes. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Reeves. Did you know Olivia?"