all in the question, but it was Cara who spoke first.
“Nothing happened. That’s what’s so strange. I came in from LA around six o’clock. We had some wine. Allegra cooked dinner.” She rested a hand on the girl’s arm—an almost maternal gesture. “Xavier was fine. Tired, maybe. But in a good mood.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Harper saw Hunter turn from the window to watch as she continued. “Zay and Hunter played the new music they’ve been working on. We talked for hours, the way we always do when we’re all together. I was tired after traveling so I went to bed around one. Hunter and Legs both stayed up.”
“After Cara went to bed, we talked some more,” Hunter said, picking up the story. “Drank some more. At about two in the morning, we were all going to bed, but Xavier said he was too wired to sleep and he wanted to go down to the beach. That’s the last time I saw him.”
“Was this unusual?” Harper glanced at the three of them. “Going to the beach in the middle of the night? Even in February?”
“He loves it there,” Allegra explained. “He says he takes strength from the ocean. It inspires him.”
As if this irritated her, Cara set her coffee mug down a little hard. “Zay has insomnia,” she said, simply. “He says watching the sea helps him relax.”
“So none of you thought anything about it until…?” Harper glanced back and forth between them.
“Until this morning.” Hunter walked back to sit down, picking up his cigarettes again, but not lighting one. “He wasn’t in his room. It didn’t look like he’d slept in his bed. There’d been a storm overnight. We went looking for him outside, on the beach—he wasn’t there.”
“I hate to ask this but, have there been any signs of trouble?” Miles asked, delicately. “Any sign that he’s depressed? Has he been using drugs at all?”
Cara dropped her eyes, the resigned set to her shoulders said she’d expected this question. Allegra looked outraged. “He doesn’t touch drugs,” she insisted. “He wouldn’t.”
“And he isn’t depressed.” Hunter’s voice was firm. “Our album just came out. Things are looking good.”
Miles considered this. “I just keep thinking about how he left that guitar behind,” he said. “I’ve never met a musician who wasn’t protective of his instrument. Was it like Xavier to leave his guitar out there all night, exposed to the sand and salt water?”
Hunter and Cara exchanged a long look.
“He just forgot,” Allegra insisted.
But Cara shook her head.
“Xavier would cut off his right arm before he’d leave that guitar behind.” She looked from Harper to Miles, her eyes filling with anguished tears. “Please help us. I think something terrible might have happened to him.”
5
Miles and Harper caught rush-hour traffic on the way back, and it was after six o’clock when they walked into the newsroom. By then, most of the day-shift reporters had gone home. Only DJ was still at his desk, headphones on.
The second she sat down, he ripped them off and spun around to face her. “Tell me Xavier Rayne isn’t dead,” he demanded. “I’ve got tickets for his show next month and I don’t think I can get a refund.”
“Maybe he’s lost.” She plugged her scanner in to charge. “People get lost.”
“Seriously, though. What do you think happened?” He rolled closer. “Has he gone on a bender or something? Is he a junkie?”
“I’m not sure yet,” she admitted. She thought about that guitar. “But I’m not getting a good feeling.”
“Ah, dammit. It’s always the talented ones.” DJ sighed. “His new album was going to put Savannah on the map.”
“Savannah’s already on maps,” she said.
“Yeah, but he was going to make us look cool.” His tone was doleful.
Across the room, Baxter appeared in the doorway of the glass office. Spotting Harper, she hurried across, her navy blazer fluttering behind her. “What’ve you got?”
“All anyone knows is he got drunk, walked down to the beach, and disappeared,” Harper said. “There are a few possibilities but drowning is the obvious one.”
Miles, who was uploading his pictures at a desk nearby, walked over to join them. “He could have had a breakdown—the housemates implied he was emotionally fragile.” He glanced at Harper. “Also, I don’t know about you but I wasn’t buying their ‘everything was fine until he disappeared’ act.”
“They definitely weren’t telling us everything,” Harper said. “I got the feeling they were protecting him somehow.”
“Whatever happened to him, if he doesn’t show up by morning we’ll have the