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Theo recounted what had happened. “I didn’t really notice the protestors arriving. They were suddenly just there. I walked away from the window, and then it seemed to explode.”
“That would have been the brick,” Gus said.
“I heard a pop and the crowd started screaming.”
“A pop?”
“Yes… It wasn’t what I expected a gunshot to sound like.”
Mac looked at Gus. “A silencer perhaps,” he said.
“Was there just one shot?”
“There might have been more, but by then everybody was screaming, and Horse was barking.” She shrugged. “I might have been screaming a bit too.”
“Naturally,” Mac said distractedly. “I know people get caught up in their favorite books, but this protest, if that’s what it was, seems a bit extreme. Readers are not generally violent…sports fans, yes, but readers?”
Theo told them about what Veronica Cole had said: why Dan Murdoch had moved to Lawrence, why he stayed off social media, and why there were no publicity photos of him.
Mac Etheridge listened carefully. “I might have to read a couple of his books.” He loosened his tie. “It could explain why his publishers could give me so little on him.”
“Did they tell you anything useful at all?”
“That his latest manuscript was submitted to his agents the day he died. That they hadn’t seen it yet, but rumor was that it was a work of genius, and they would be happy to put me on the list of producers who’d asked to read an advance copy.”
“Dan had finished?” Theo asked surprised and a little hurt. “He didn’t say a word.”
“Is that odd?” Mac asked.
“I don’t know. Dan was reading my manuscript. I just thought he might have mentioned…”
Gus’s eyes darkened. He started to say something but held back.
Theo watched her brother’s face. She was not entirely oblivious to her brother’s reserve on the subject of Dan Murdoch. There were times she doubted Dan too, and perhaps when she was trying to convince Gus of his bona fides, it was because she was trying to convince herself.
“Go home, both of you,” she said.
“I’m not leaving you here alone with someone trying to kill you, Theo.”
“Don’t be melodramatic, Gus. I’m perfectly safe here.”
“Probably—but I think I’ll stay anyway.”
She smiled. “You’re being absurd. You have to work tomorrow, and Horse will think we’ve abandoned him.”
Mac tossed him a set of keys. “You go. I’ll stay.”
“For God’s sake!” Theo groaned. “You’re both being idiotic.”
Mac pulled Gus aside. They argued in whispers. And when they turned around again, Gus had agreed to go. He kissed Theo’s forehead. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Not willing to risk him changing his mind and remaining stubbornly by her bedside, Theo did not ask him what had changed his mind. But she asked Mac as soon Gus had left.
He shrugged. “I just assured him I’d make sure nothing happened to you.”
“How did you assure him?”
“I’ve been trained to protect people.”
