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“That’s not going to happen,” Jocasta interrupted.

“But—”

“I know that’s what we said, but Lara was never onboard with that. There’s no way.”

“That doesn’t make sense. I understand Lara has some hard feelings—”

“No. You don’t. I’m not saying it’s logical. Larahatesthe police. She hates them and she’s afraid of them. If you’d known her before… But everything changed after Dawn Shumway.”

“Dawn Shumway is the woman who died in the bar fight?”

The lines of Jocasta’s face tightened. “See, that’s the first misconception right there. That it was a bar fight. It wasn’t. It happened in a hotel dining room. Lara just happened to be having a drink before dinner. She was sitting at a table with one of her backup singers and Gig, the drummer. Dawn Shumway came up to them and started harassing Lara. It wasn’t the first time. She’d been accusing Lara of stealing her songs for years. She was always threatening to sue, and Lara was like,Let her. Lara wasn’t stealing Dawn’s music. She’d never heard of Dawn until Dawn started writing all those crazy letters. Nobody took it seriously. Which was a mistake.”

“Yes.” Probably. But Ellery had done the same thing with the letters he received from crackpots. It wasn’t until the threats were hand delivered, he’d started to take them seriously, and largely that was because Jack took them seriously.

“That evening was different. Dawn pulled out a knife. Dawnbrought a knifeto confront Lara. I don’t know why that didn’t mean anything at the trial. Dawn attacked Lara. Right there in the dining room. Lara grabbed for the knife, they struggled, and Lara ended up stabbing Dawn. That’s how fast it happened. Lara didn’t plan on it. She didn’t want to do that. She was defending herself. It wasn’t a knife fight or a bar fight. Not the way they made it sound. Lara was accosted by a stalker whom she killed while defending herself.”

“Then why—”

Jocasta burst out, “Because of ‘Blue Street Blues.’”

Clearly that was supposed to mean something to Ellery. “The TV show?”

“That’sHill Street Blues. ‘Blue Street Blues’ is one of Laura’s best-known songs.”

“I’m not really familiar with a lot of Lara’s work,” he said apologetically.

Jocasta gave him a look of disbelief. “You never heard ‘Blue Street Blues?’”

“I’ve probably heard it. I just don’t remember it.”

Jocasta rolled her eyes. “It’s a song about the police murdering a young black musician.”

“Ah. I see.” Not a number likely to pop up on Jack’s Greatest Songs Ever playlist, that was for sure.

“It’s a political protest song. It’s ananthem.”

“Right. Got it.”

“And it’s a true story. Lara knew the kid.”

“So you think the police had it in for Lara because she wrote a song that was critical to law enforcement?”

“It wasn’t just the one song. She wrote ‘Friday Night in Fresno,’ ‘The Boy from Chino Hills,’ ‘Bobby Mack Does Smack’… The cops investigating Dawn Shumway’s death were biased.Larawas the victim, but from the very start they treatedherlike the aggressor. That attitude was reflected in the report they wrote and the way they presented the case to the DA.”

“Okay, I guess I understand why Lara doesn’t want to go to the police. Couldn’t she hire an actual bodyguard? Because, no disrespect to your road crew, they’re not really trained to provide security. They’re more like bouncers, right?”

Jocasta nodded. “It’s just…money’s tight. Arealbodyguard, like acelebritybodyguard? That can cost more than a hundred dollars an hour. We’re hoping we don’t really need that level of skill and training.”

It seemed to Ellery that after the incident with Dawn Shumway, cutting corners would be a non-starter for Lara and her family. But he also knew what it was like to have to pinch your pennies even when it came down to the essentials.

As if Jocasta read his mind, she added, “We’re hoping that if the threat is real, it’s specific to Lara coming back to Pirate’s Cove. That we won’t have to worry about it after we leave the island on Sunday night.”

That sounded more like they were resigned to spending the weekend dodging bullets rather than counting on him to solve the mystery of who was sending Lara death threats. Which was frankly a relief. At the same time…

“Two near-fatal accidents in the space of twenty-four hours worries me.”

“I know, but really, how would a bodyguard have helped in either of those of cases? It’s an old theater. You said so yourself. The light falling and the trap door opening could really be accidents.”