Read Online The Dead Play On by Heather Graham - Free Book Online Page A

said.
    “Come in, come in,” their host encouraged. He looked at Tyler. “Thank you for bringing us all together.”
    “Yes, sir,” Tyler said.
    They entered directly into a parlor with a comfortable sofa covered in a beautiful knitted throw and a number of armchairs set with covers to match the throw. As they came in, a woman, wiping her hands on a dish towel, came out to greet them, as well.
    “I’m Amy Watson, and thank you all for what you’re doing. Tyler says we’re going to have some help with things at last.”
    “We’re going to do our best, Mrs. Watson,” Danni promised her.
    “Please. I’m just Amy, and my husband is Woodrow. Sit, sit,” Amy said. “It’s a little small and tight in here, but please, make yourselves comfortable. Can I get you anything? We don’t keep any spirits in the house here—figure you can find enough just about anywhere else in the Big Easy. But I have coffee, tea, juice...”
    “We’re just fine, Mrs. Watson, thank you,” Danni assured her.
    “We just finished dinner and already had some coffee,” Quinn added. “Too much, you know, and we’ll never sleep.”
    “Well, then, if you decide you’d like something, you just holler,” Amy said.
    “I promise, we will,” Danni said.
    “Let’s sit, shall we?” Woodrow asked.
    Danni, Quinn and Tyler took the sofa; the Watsons chose the chairs facing them over the carved wooden coffee table.
    “I know this is a difficult time for the two of you,” Quinn told the Watsons, “so I apologize in advance for any pain my questions may cause, but the more information I have, the better I can do my job. So...where was Arnie’s special sax—the one you gave Tyler—on the night he was killed?”
    The Watsons looked at one another without speaking. Amy had a look of gratitude in her eyes, and it mirrored her husband’s. Woodrow was the one to speak. He looked at Quinn and Danni and said incredulously, “You said
killed
.
You used that word.
Killed.
So that means you believe us—you believe our son didn’t just suddenly stick a needle in his arm. Right?”
    “We
do
believe you, Mr. and—I’m sorry, Woodrow and Amy,” Danni said. “We
do
believe you. Some musicians were held up at gunpoint leaving work not long ago. And more recently two musicians have been killed in their homes. We believe that someone is out there looking for something, and it might be Arnie’s sax.”
    Woodrow stood up and walked to the fireplace. He leaned an arm on the mantel and looked at his wife then back at Danni. “You think someone is looking for Arnie’s
sax
? And that they’re killing over it?”
    “The sax you gave me,” Tyler said. “And don’t worry—it’s safe. Danni has it at her shop, over on Royal Street.”
    Amy and Woodrow looked at each other again.
    Finally Amy sighed. “We don’t have his special sax—the one my mother gave him. We assumed he had it with him the night he was killed. We figured it was stolen.”
    “Then what did you give me?” Tyler asked her. “You made me feel...”
    “That sax is just a replica. We wanted you to feel you had something special of Arnie’s,” Woodrow said. “And you always said he was so good and you were second-rate. We figured if you thought that was Arnie’s ‘special’ sax, you’d feel like you could play just as well as he did. And I’ll bet you have. Playing is believing. Living the music, son, you know that. So we gave you one of his other saxes, the one that looked like the special one his grandmother gave him.”
    Tyler looked as if he’d been hit in the head with a two-by-four. “But you don’t understand. It has to be that sax. I could see what Arnie saw. I could feel him when I played it.”
    “Magic in the mind, son, magic in the mind,” Amy said. “And it was the best gift we figured we could give you, though there’s no gift out there that says a big enough thank-you to a real friend. And, Tyler, you were his friend. I think you believed in him so