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They watched as Vince Monroe moved easily among the tables, laughing and chatting with guests. Mark thought he’d follow the layout of the tables.
He didn’t, but rather after greeting the first row, he came to the top, allowing him to wind his way back down.
“Hey, folks! Anything for me?” he asked.
“Well, hard for a solo artist, I imagine, but Queen?” Mark suggested.
“Elton John, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie,” Colleen suggested.
“All right! My kind of music. Love it!”
“Maybe Tom Petty, Roy Orbison,” Colleen said. “Ah! Bruno Mars.”
Vince Monroe smiled, looking at her with appreciation.
“Nice to see you two here. First time?”
Mark quickly made a decision and said, “We came here specifically to see you.”
“Oh? Well, great. I didn’t know I had any kind of a following!”
“We’re FBI agents,” Mark said.
Monroe started to laugh. Then he sobered, frowning. “You’re kidding, right? You really make a handsome and natural couple. Wait, I can tell. You’re not kidding.”
“We just need your help,” Colleen said.
There was a flash of real pain on his face.
“Because of what happened to Dierdre?” he asked. “I heard about it, of course. It was all over the news. She was in a pine box? In the nick of time. Oh, wow—did you guys find her?”
“It seems you still care about her,” Mark said.
“Of course. From a distance. But yes, I loved her.” He angled his head ruefully to the side. “Still love her. It just wasn’t to be.”
“Why?” Colleen asked.
“Oh, my God! Why, yeah, well, her folks think a piano player might as well be a bum. If you don’t know how to play the stock market, you’re not a serious contender for their princess.”
“Kind of what we thought might have been the problem,” Colleen said, empathy rich in her voice. “They’re not bad people, they just have... I guess, different priorities? They didn’t want their daughter struggling. But Dierdre isn’t like that, is she?”
He shook his head. “No, I just don’t think she could handle them pressuring her all the time. Anyway, she’s happy. She has a man they see as perfect now. And it seems she loves him.” He shrugged. “If she’s happy... She is okay, right? She’s going to be okay?”
“Yes, she’s going to be okay,” Mark said. He didn’t tell the man Dierdre would be leaving the hospital the next day.
He seemed like the laid-back easy musician they had seen onstage.
But maybe he could take stage presence with him wherever he chose.
“Ah, man,” he said. “I’ve got to get around to the tables. It was nice seeing you—FBI agents or not!” he added.
“Would you be willing to come into the office and talk to us? Tell us anything else you can think of?” Mark asked him.
He looked surprised.
“I’m not sure how I could help, but if you think I can, sure, I’ll come in. I’d hate to think about that happening to another young woman. But—I thought the news also said you caught the man who did it?”
“Yes and no. We need to be sure,” Colleen said.
“Yes, of course then.” He winced and made a face. “Just don’t call me in when Dierdre’s parents are going to be there, okay?”
“We will make sure,” Mark promised. He passed him one of his cards and looked at Colleen. She did the same. “Just in case one of us doesn’t answer right away, the other will. Our unit’s headquarters info is also on the cards. We’re all briefed on whatever everyone else is working on.”
Vince Monroe nodded. “Pleasure,” he said, and pocketed the cards and moved on.
They watched as he greeted the next table down the line effusively, commenting on a young woman’s lovely dress, and moving on to music.
“Well?” Colleen said. “He’s willing to help.”
“Yeah, and killers sometimes want to insert themselves into an investigation.”
“True. So, are we going with the upright citizen type who are secretly organized killers, or those who appear to be a bit of the norm?”
“Too soon to tell,” he said. “Dessert?”
“I couldn’t eat a full dessert.”
“We could share.”
She smiled. “Yeah. We could share.”
