Jared stiffened and put a hand out to stop Marvin from unlocking the bus. He indicated the flashlight in the driver's utility belt. "Can I borrow that?"
Marvin hesitated, but then handed it over. "Sure, I guess."
Jared played the light down the doors then got down on the ground and shined it up beneath the bus's carriage.
P.J.'s stomach sank. Oh God. That didn't look good.
"What the hell are you doing?" Hank demanded. "Looking for a goddamn bomb or something?"
"We had a fixture break today that shouldn't have," Jared replied calmly. "It was no doubt an accident, but-"
"You're right," Hank interrupted, glancing at Nell. "There's no such thing as overkill when it comes to safety. You need any help?"
As the driver exclaimed in alarm, obviously hearing of today's event for the first time, Jared said, "Yeah, go to about the midpoint and see if anything looks out of place when I shine the light that way."
Nell explained to Marvin about the incident with the light and her and Jared's part in it as the men went over the bus. Then it was her turn to exclaim when P.J. contributed the part where Hank had caught the light and gotten burned for his efforts.
Minutes later the men climbed to their feet. "It's fine," Jared said and handed the driver back his flashlight. "Go ahead and unlock it."
Marvin did so but paused in the midst of putting his foot on the first step after the doors opened. "What's this?"
Jared muscled him aside and reached down to pick up a crumpled manila envelope that had clearly been crammed under the door. Holding it by the corners he climbed into the bus and walked to the little galley table. "Hit the lights, will you, Marvin?"
P.J. was right beside Jared when he turned back from getting a steak knife from the drawer, but he intercepted her hand when she reached out for the envelope.
"It's addressed to me," she protested, looking down at the block printing that spelled outPRISCILLA JAYNE.
"I know. But try to touch it as little as possible in case we have to turn it over to the cops."
"Who the hell are you?" Hank demanded, and only then did P.J. realize that both he and Nell had crowded behind her. "You're awful damn cautious for a record company's stooge."
"I'm not a Wild Wind employee. I'm a partner in Semper Fi Investigations, the agency that Wild Wind hired for this job." He slid the blade tip under the sealed flap.
"Semper Fi, huh? You were a Marine?"
He nodded, clearly intent on his mission to open the envelope with as little contact as possible, and P.J. jerked her gaze away from his hands to stare at him in surprise.
"You were?"
"Yeah. Not a lifer like Rocket, but I put in my four years." He sliced the blade along the envelope's fold. Glancing over his shoulder at Hank, he said, "Semper Fi specializes in investigations and security." Then he turned his attention back to the job at hand and extracted his blade from the now-slit mailer. "Let's see what we've got."
Carefully he tipped out the contents, which turned out to be a single sheet of glossy magazine paper.
Tilting her head to one side, she realized it was a half-page photo that had been taken of her for an article inCountry Connection magazine several months ago. For a second she merely stared down at it without understanding.
"Aw, shit!" Hank growled, and it was then that horror began to seep through her incomprehension.
For where her photographed eyes had been were blank holes. And printed across her chest in more of those block letters were the wordsIF THINE EYE OFFEND THEE, PLUCK IT OUT.
CHAPTER TEN
Hyperlink, www.CelebrityCafe.com/Country
Priscilla Jayne Single "Crying Myself to Sleep" Goes Digital Gold!
LOUNGING AT THE TABLE in the galley, Jared watched P.J. exit her sleeping quarters at the back of the bus the following morning and stumble down the hallway to the coffeepot in the galley. "So," he informed the back of her head. "It turns out I'm not leaving after all." Even as he braced for an argument, he couldn't prevent the faint smile that tugged up the corners of his lips. She had one helluva case of bedhead.
They'd spent what remained of last night at a Bakersfield police station and hadn't hit the road to L.A. until well after three a.m. He'd set his alarm for four hours later in order to talk to Croffut at Wild Wind Records in Nashville. Following that conversation he'd sat in the galley drinking coffee and making notes until P.J. finally emerged from her room.
She turned to give him an owlish blink, her face still blurry with sleep. "Wha?"
A bifold rustled open down the hall and Hank rolled out of his sleeper, wearing a pair of unzipped jeans and nothing else-not even the bush hat that Jared had never seen him without. "He said he's back on the job."
"Which I'm sure thrills the hell out of you." He hung on to his cool because that's what he did. But, dammit to hell. If Peej had objections he'd counter them. It would be a lot easier, however, if he wasn't being double-teamed.
"I don't know if thrilled is the word I'd use," Hank said mildly. "But to my surprise I actually think it's a good idea."
Jared stared. "You:what?"
"I know, who'da thunk it, huh?" Zipping up his jeans, Hank, too, ambled over to the coffeepot. Giving his bare stomach an absent-minded scratch, he poured himself a cup. He swallowed a sip, finger-combed his hair, which Jared noted was receding slightly, into a rough sort of order and gave Jared a level look over the cup's rim. "You looked like you knew what you were doing last night and that's more than any of the rest of us can say. For instance, sick as that note to P.J. was, I probably would have blown off taking it to the cops since our schedule gave us no choice but to turn right around and leave town the minute they were through with us."
"But we needed to have the incident on record in case she-you-" he turned to include P.J. in the conversation since this concerned her most of all "-receive anything else like it. Not to mention that cops have the juice to check for fingerprints."
"So you said," Hank agreed. "And you were right. You were also right to make sure we handled that piece-of-shit correspondence as little as possible to give the cops a better chance of getting usable prints from it-another detail that never would've occurred to me. And you exhibited a cool head under pressure at sound check. Your actions saved Nell one helluva knock off her feet. So I think you're probably our best bet for keeping P.J. safe."
"I agree."
Jared's head whipped around at P.J.'s raspy voice. "You do?"
"Yeah. Having someone who knew what to do last night was the only thing that kept me from freaking. And like Hank, I was blown away by the way you rescued Nell."
"Me, too," Nell said, entering the galley. Unlike the other two, she was dressed and her hair was neatly braided. She seemed to falter for a second when her gaze touched on Hank, but either that was his imagination or she had an immediate recovery. Stopping in front of Jared, she looked up at him with solemn blue eyes. "Things happened so fast and furiously yesterday I didn't even thank you for getting me out of the light's way." Rising onto her toes, she kissed his cheek, then settled back on her heels. "Thank you. I shudder to think of the damage it could have done if you hadn't intervened."
It wasn't often he was caught flatfooted, but he was staggered by their responses. He'd prepared himself to fight them all if necessary and instead they made him feeclass="underline" welcome. "Yes, well." He rolled his shoulders uncomfortably, then squared them with an impatient snap. For God's sake, he was a professional. "I'm glad you're okay, but it was nothing. I was just doing my job." He turned to P.J. and said briskly, "I'll need to know your schedule from now on. What's on your agenda today?"