Read Played to Death for Free Online

the extent that I wondered why Wiley had included her in the quartet.”
    Eckhoff was interested in that. “Why would he?”
    Scott shrugged. “The only reason I can think of is that it’s a bad year for violinists at PCC.”
    Eckhoff mused on that for a second then moved on. “What else did you notice about her?”
    “She was late.” Scott began beating his egg whites. “To both the rehearsal and the wedding.”
    Kevin said, “You mentioned that yesterday. How late?”
    “Ten minutes to the rehearsal. A couple of minutes yesterday.”
    Eckhoff said, “That’s not very late.”
    Scott frowned at him. “Call time is sacrosanct for musicians. If one person is late, it delays the entire ensemble. It’s bad behavior. It’s rude .”
    “Ah.” Eckhoff seemed to get it. “A serious breach of professional etiquette.”
    “Exactly.”
    “You’d think that kind of behavior was more likely in prima donnas, not second-rate community college violinists.”
    Scott snorted a laugh. He was starting to like this Eckhoff guy, in spite of himself. “Usually that’s the way it works. Not in this girl’s case.”
    “Okay. Other than rushed, how did she seem when she got to the wedding yesterday?”
    Scott paused momentarily while folding the beaten egg whites into the batter and tried to remember. “She was - pissy. I told her to get ready to play and she gave me attitude.”
    “Did she say anything?”
    “No, just the dramatic teenage eye roll.”
    Kevin said, “She didn’t respect you.”
    Scott spooned batter onto the hot waffle iron, and it sizzled satisfyingly. He closed the lid. “I’m not sure she knew who I was. Although it may not have made a difference.” He put away his ingredients and got out a plate. “Would you like a waffle?”
    Eckhoff looked tempted. Kevin said, “Thanks, we ate already. Did she say anything to either of the other kids at all?”
    “Not that I heard. We tuned, she got her music ready and we began to play.”
    “No talk while the wedding was going on?”
    “No. You learn that in middle school orchestra. When someone else has the solo, you sit still and keep quiet.”
    “What happened at the break?”
    “Like I told you yesterday. We played the recessional, then we had a ten minute break. I made the kids check their watches. Stacy left for just a minute then came back. Brian came back right at ten minutes.” The waffle iron light went out, and he turned to it. “Elena didn’t come back.”
    Eckhoff said, “Stacy told us that Elena had a big bag with her. Do you remember that?”
    “Yeah.” It had caught Scott’s attention. “It was one of those oversized, soft-sided things like you’d take to the beach. Big enough to hold a day’s worth of crap. She’d carried her music in it.”
    “What color?”
    Scott produced his own teenage-style eye roll. “It was Hello Kitty.”
    Eckhoff and Kevin both laughed. Eckhoff said, “That’s a serious breach of etiquette right there.”
    Scott grinned, in spite of himself. “No kidding.” He spooned raspberry preserves onto his waffle and took a bite. “Mm. Sure I can’t interest you in one of these?”
    “No thanks.” But Eckhoff was nearly drooling.
    Kevin said, “Did she take the bag with her on break?”
    “Yeah.” Scott didn’t think Kevin would answer any questions, but he was curious. “What’s up with the bag?”
    Kevin folded his arms. “It’s missing.”
    “ Oh .” Scott tried to think of what that might mean, and couldn’t.
    Kevin said, “Did you take a break?”
    “Hell, no. I wasn’t going to leave my cello unattended.”
    “The kids left their instruments, though?”
    “Stacy asked me to watch hers. Brian put his in its case. Elena left hers out on her seat.” He shrugged. “They knew I was staying.”
    Eckhoff and Kevin exchanged a look of some sort, then Eckhoff reached into his inner jacket pocket. When he did Scott got a flash of his shoulder holster, and he swallowed hard on his last