buy it.” Cara gave a sad smile. “It’s the main thing we disagree on. I want him to move to LA, where I live. He wants to stay here.”
“Why doesn’t he want to move?” Harper asked.
Cara straightened her skirt with a nervous swish of her fingers. “He says LA is filled with cheats and fakers.”
Her lips were tight—this was clearly a sensitive subject.
“Didn’t he grow up in Savannah?” Miles asked.
Cara nodded. “His dad was from here. He died when Zay was ten. After that, he and his mom moved to Atlanta. Zay moved back after he left Juilliard.”
Harper scribbled quick notes in a pad resting on her knee. Cara’s gaze glanced off it like rain bouncing off a stone.
“Who else lives in the house?” Harper asked.
“Hunter.” Cara gestured vaguely at the kitchen. “He plays keyboards in Zay’s band. They’re very close.”
That was where Harper had seen him. He was in some of the photos she’d come across earlier that day, standing onstage harshly lit by the spotlight.
“Don’t forget Allegra.” Hunter stood in the doorway, holding four mugs by the handles, some leaning perilously.
“Yes,” Cara glanced at him before turning back to Harper and Miles. “You haven’t met her yet. She sings backup on his new album.”
While she talked, Hunter set the coffee down on the low table, moving candle holders and ashtrays to make space.
When he finished, he dropped down onto an overstuffed chair and lit a cigarette.
Reaching out gracefully for a cup, Cara gestured for Harper and Miles to do the same. “I can’t be the only one who needs caffeine.”
Hunter blew out a stream of smoke and made a dismissive sound. “Nobody sleeps when Xavier’s pulling one of his acts.”
Holding her coffee with both hands, Cara pretended not to hear him. But this was what Harper had been waiting for. She turned to Hunter. “What do you mean by ‘one of his acts’? Has Xavier disappeared before?”
“He’s always taking off without telling us.” His voice was clipped. “He’s a drama queen, like all the best artists.”
“Hunter, that’s not fair.” Cara fired a look at him, but he didn’t back down.
“Come on. New York six months ago. He walked out of a recording session and checked out of his hotel and disappeared. Stu was furious.”
“That was different,” Cara insisted, but he waved his cigarette at her, smoke trailing.
“It’s exactly the same.” His voice rose. “Xavier does this shit, Cara. He does. New Mexico, last year. Walked off the stage because he didn’t like the sound he was getting. Got on a plane and left. Stu spent two days trying to get him to come back.”
“I’m sorry, who’s Stu?” Harper interrupted.
There was a pause as the two of them exchanged a simmering look. It was Cara who replied. “Stuart Dillon. The band’s manager.”
“He’s getting a flight back from Paris tonight,” Hunter cut in. “I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to abandon his vacation to look for Xavier.”
“You have to stop comparing this with other times.” Cara looked increasingly tense. “Every other time he was working, and he got upset about something in the music. This time he’s not working. This is downtime. He doesn’t feel ignored. Everything was fine.”
Hunter gave her a weighted look Harper couldn’t read. Her face reddened, but she said nothing, turning instead to Harper and Miles and insisting, “I know Xavier. I love him. He wouldn’t run away like this.”
“He’ll come back.” A pixieish young woman stood in the doorway from the hall. She was tiny—under five feet tall—with short, glossy dark hair and huge eyes. Like Cara, she wore no shoes. “Stop talking like he won’t come back.”
With a frustrated sound, Hunter leaped to his feet and stalked to the window.
Cara, though, calmed down. “Of course he will.” She patted the sofa next to her. “Come here, Legs. Do you want some coffee?”
“No caffeine,” the girl said. “I already can’t sleep.” She walked across, taking a seat next to Cara on the sofa. Her gaze was disconcertingly direct as she glanced from Miles to Harper. “I’m sorry—I don’t know who you are.”
A South Carolina accent, thick as cane syrup, lay on every word. Harper knew where she’d grown up without even asking her.
“They’re from the Savannah newspaper,” Cara explained. “They want to write about Xavier. To help us find him.”
“I think he’s just gone to be with friends,” Allegra announced. “He does this kind of thing sometimes.”
“Could you tell me in your own words what happened last night? When and why he left?” Harper included them