“That girl is—”

  She broke off as she looked up, saw Eve and Roarke.

  Her eyes went blank, and her face took on a shade of gray.

  “I know who you are. What happened to Jenna? Where’s Jenna?”

  “Dr. Harbough—”

  “Say it.” Julia reached out to grip her husband’s arm.

  “I regret to inform you your daughter is dead.”

  “What?” Shane’s voice punched out, breathless and angry. “That’s ridiculous. You need to leave, right now.”

  “Shane.” Julia turned, wrapped around him. “Our baby. Our baby.”

  “It’s not true. Stop this. Jenna’s fine. She’ll be home any minute. I’m going to go get her. I’m going to go get her right now.”

  “Shane.” With tears streaming down her cheeks, Julia pulled back enough to look at his face.

  And what he saw in hers had the anger in his draining into shock, denial, and terrible grief.

  “No,” he said. “No, no, no.”

  As he slid to the floor, Julia went with him, stayed wrapped around him.

  “It’s a mistake.” Shaking, he sobbed it out. “It’s a horrible mistake. She’ll be home any minute.”

  “Shane. Shane, you have to help me. You have to hang on and help me. We have to know what happened.”

  “I don’t believe it. I won’t believe it. Julia, it’s Jenna.”

  “I know. I know.” Framing his face now, she kissed his cheeks. “Come on now. Stand up. We have to know. It’s Jenna. We have to know.”

  She helped her husband to his feet, then faced Eve. “We have to know what happened.”

  “If we could sit down, I’ll tell you everything I can.”

  Chapter Two

  The living area held style with a few antiques, moody paintings, a fireplace framed in blue-veined white marble.

  The Harboughs sat together on a couch that picked up that blue veining. Eve took the wingback white chair that faced them.

  “Are you sure it’s her? I know the answer,” Julia said, “but I—”

  “Yes. I’m very sorry for your loss.”

  Eve often wondered if those words sounded as empty to loved ones as they did to her.

  “At approximately eleven this evening, Jenna walked out the alley door of Club Rock It. According to the witness, she was in severe physical distress and collapsed. The witness contacted nine-one-one for medicals and attempted CPR.”

  “But—but— She’s healthy. She’s only sixteen,” Shane objected. “Julia, you just gave her a full physical a couple weeks ago.”

  “The medicals responded within five minutes, but Jenna was already deceased. She had a fresh needle mark in her left arm.”

  “What!” Shane lunged to his feet. “You’re going to sit there and try to claim our little girl used illegals? That she’s a junkie?”

  “Shane, stop. Stop now.”

  “This is bullshit, Julia. It’s cruel.”

  “Mr. Harbough, from my on-scene exam, I saw no signs to indicate your daughter was a habitual user of illegals. I believe the medical examiner will confirm that, but I have to ask if you know or suspect she experimented.”

  “I know without question she didn’t. I’m a doctor, and I gave both our children a complete physical less than three weeks ago. As a doctor, I’d know. As her mother, I’d know. And you said needle. She’s phobic about needles. She even has issues with a pressure syringe, but she’d never willingly use a needle syringe. She’d never inject herself.

  “Sit down, Shane. This is Lieutenant Dallas. She’s a friend of Charles and Louise. And she’s with Homicide.”

  “Homicide.” He sat slowly as his face lost all color. “Somebody killed our baby? How the hell could that happen? It’s a decent club. Julia and I have been there, and we made sure to go there only last week, to be sure because we were letting Jenna go.”

  “I haven’t determined homicide. We are investigating. I have detectives interviewing everyone who was in the club. I interviewed the witnesses. I can’t give you solid information as yet. I felt it was important to notify you as quickly as possible.”

  “Is she still there?” Julia linked hands with Shane, gripped tight. “We need to see her.”

  “No. I’ve asked the chief medical examiner to take care of her, and I can assure you, no one will look after her with more compassion. I know it’s difficult, but it would be best if you wait until tomorrow, until he contacts you.”

  “You know it’s difficult? Have you ever had some stranger come to your door and tell you your daughter’s dead in an alley?”

  “Shane.” Julia looked over as she heard feet on the stairs. “It’s Reed. Stop him, Shane. Take him back up. Don’t tell him. Please, we’ll tell him in the morning. Together.”

  After he hurried out, Julia turned back to Eve.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. Dr. Harbough, it would be helpful for me to see Jenna’s room, to have your permission to look through it.”

  More distress showed as Julia gripped her hands together. “Her room’s just across from Reed’s.”

  “Tomorrow’s fine.”

  “They fought, as siblings do, but he looked up to Jenna. They fought and squabbled, but they had such a bond. I don’t know how we’ll tell him. Or her grandparents, or … God, she went with Chelsea and Leelee. Her friends. Are they all right?”

  “As far as I know, and there was police response quickly. I’ll check on them when I get back.”

  “You said there was a witness.” Julia used both hands to swipe away tears. “Could they have done this?”

  “I don’t believe so. The timing doesn’t point to that, and his statement, and that of a second witness, check out. Dr. Harbough, we’re in the very earliest stages of our investigation, so I have more questions than answers. You said Jenna went to the club with friends.”

  “Yes, and I can vouch for them. I know them, I know their families.”

  “Was she dating anyone?”

  “Not really. She’s gone out now and then, to the vids, that sort of thing. For the most part in groups. She’s interested in boys. She’s sixteen. But Jenna’s all about music. She wants to be a songwriter, a performer. It’s one of the reasons we let her go tonight. She worships Avenue A. They’re doing what she dreams of, and they started when they were her age. They’re role models. Especially Jake Kincade.”

  She smiled a little. “What teenage boy can compete with a rock star?”

  “Has she ever met him?”

  “Another dream, though I think she might pass out cold if she ever did. She actually made a demo—and it’s good. I say that as her mom, but she’s got talent. She imagined herself finding a way to give it to him tonight. Then, of course, he’d listen to it, and help make her a star. I couldn’t discourage her. Dreams matter.”

  She pressed her hand to her lips, rocked herself.

  “Dr. Harbough.” Roarke spoke gently. “Can I get you something? Some water? Is there anyone I can contact for you?”

  “No, no, thank you.” She took a breath. “Thank you. I know how strange this sounds, but I almost feel I know you. Charles and Louise—you must know they live next door—they speak so highly of both of you. And then the vid—the Icove vid. We watched it, the whole family. Will you really work that diligently to find out what happened to my little girl?”

  “I’ll answer that.” Roarke laid a hand over Eve’s. “She will. She won’t stop until she finds the answer.”

  “We need to know,” Julia said again. “But even when you give us those answers, you can’t bring Jenna back.”

  “No, I can’t bring her back. But I can bring her justice.”

  * * *

  When they left, Roarke waited until they’d reached the car. Then he turned, wrapped his arms around Eve.

  “Give me a minute.” He lowered his forehead to hers. “I need it. Of all you do, of all I’ve seen or been part of, this duty, this horrendous weight, is the one I don’t know how you carry.”

  “You just have to keep lifting it up. But I swear to Christ, Roarke, every time you do, it’s just a little heavier.

  “The lights are still on next door. I’d like to do a quick run-by with Charles and Louise on Jenna Harbough, get their take on her.”

  “All right. I’d have to say the parents’ rang true. To my ear as an expert consultant, civilian.”

  “Yeah, but they’re still her parents. I’d like to see if Charles and Louise agree. Then I can more or less shut off the self-inflicted angle.”

  He took her hand, started to walk with her down the sidewalk. “Which you don’t believe.”

  “Belief isn’t fact. This won’t be, either, but it’ll add to it. And give me an impression of the Harboughs from opinions I respect.”

  They went through the gate, down the walkway in the tiny courtyard where she’d once seen Dr. Louise Dimatto planting flowers in the spring.

  They sure as hell bloomed now.

  When they rang the bell, Charles, former licensed companion, now sex therapist, answered.

  “Well, look at this. Good to see you, Roarke. Lieutenant Sugar. Come on in. Louise just went to open another bottle of wine.”

  He stepped back, tall, slickly handsome in silky black lounge pants and a loose shirt the color of blueberries.

  “Have to rain check the wine,” Eve told him. “On duty.”

  “Oh. This isn’t an impulsive drop-by.”

  “No, sorry.”

  “I went for the sauvignon blanc, and if we take this upstairs, I’ll…”

  Louise, elegantly sexy in white silk pants and skinny-strapped white top, stopped, a bottle in one hand.

  “Oh. Oh,” she repeated, and sighed. “Who’s dead?”

  “Jenna Harbough.”

  “Jesus, no.” Charles dragged a hand through his hair. “Goddamn it, she’s just a kid. And it can’t be an accident if you’re here.”

  “Should I go over to Julia?” Louise set the wine down before she walked forward.

  “Maybe check tomorrow. Can we sit a minute?”

  “Of course. Did something happen at the club?” Louise asked as they went into the living area. “I know Jenna was going to Club Rock It with a couple of her friends tonight. Avenue A does an under-twenty-one night there in the summer.”

  Wineglasses stood on the coffee table, along with the remains of a cheese board. The pillows on the sofa showed signs of weight.

  An experienced investigator, Eve deduced there’d been recent sexual activity.

  Louise fluffed at the pillows before they sat.

  “God, this is horrible. Jenna was all in on tonight. She ran over to have me approve her outfit.” Squeezing her eyes shut, Louise reached for Charles’s hand. “Apparently, she considered me a better fashion consultant than her mother.”

  “You’re friendly with the family?”

  “Almost from the minute Charles bought the house.”

  “And Louise talked Julia into volunteering at the clinic twice a month,” Charles added. “What happened to Jenna?”

  “OD.”

  “That can’t be.” Gray eyes clear and direct, Louise shook her head. “She didn’t use.”

  “You’re sure of that?”

  “Absolutely.” Louise looked at Charles, who nodded. “There’s no way that girl used illegals. First, Julia’s a damn good doctor and would’ve seen the signs. She’s also a good, involved mother. They’re a tight family. Very solid. And I’d have seen the signs, Charles would have.”

  “It only takes once,” Eve pointed out.

  “Not Jenna,” Charles insisted. “Especially tonight, when she’s been angling to go to this thing for months. And she’s basically a rule follower. The last thing she’d do is try illegals on a night she’s been looking forward to the way she was tonight.”

  “I take it Morris hasn’t done the autopsy yet. It won’t be an OD.”

  “It will,” Eve corrected. “But it’s looking as though it wasn’t self-induced.”

  “Someone drugged her?”

  “Injection, needle syringe.”

  “She’d never have used a needle. And yes, I’m sure about that, too,” Louise said. “Jenna was scared of needles. Someone did this to her, Dallas. Someone did this to that sweet, young girl.”

  “Do you know if she had any trouble with anyone?”

  “No, I don’t.” As she thought it through, Louise pressed her fingers to her temple. “She dated some, but casually. Her big love? Music. When I told her we’d actually met Avenue A, and that Jake was involved with a friend of ours, she practically fell at my feet. Then there’s the Mavis connection. She literally lost the power of speech.”

  “I know she made a demo and hoped to get it to Jake tonight,” Charles put in. “Just like I know if she didn’t manage it, she planned to talk us into giving it to him.”

  “Yeah,” Louise agreed. “I knew that was coming. Dallas, she was a really sweet, interesting kid. She had a truly lovely voice, and though I’m no expert, a talent for songwriting. She had a good, stable home life, good friends, did well in school. I don’t know why anyone would hurt her.”

  “Okay, that helps. I have to get back to it.”

  “Can you keep us informed?” Louise asked as they rose. “I know there are limits, but whatever you can share? And if there’s anything we can do.”

  “They’re going to need someone to lean on,” Roarke said.

  “We’ll be there for them,” Charles assured him.

  “That’s enough for me,” Eve said as they walked back to the car. “It’s not fact, but it solidifies everything else.”

  “You didn’t tell them about Jake.”

  “I didn’t need to, not to get what they gave me. They’ll find out soon enough. You should go home. I’m going to be at this for a while.”

  “I saw her, too. A young girl dead in an alley.” He got in the car. “I’ll stick.”

  Accepting that, accepting him, she leaned her head back, closed her eyes.

  “They’d had sex on the couch.”

  “Well now, we were about to do the same.”

  It made her smile. “Good thing we got an earlier start in the game room when I let you beat me at pinball.”

  “You’d like to believe that. I tanked the first game to give you a chance.”

  “I call bollocks to that, and demand a rematch.”

  “You’ll have it.”

  When they pulled up to the club, she saw Peabody had ordered up barricades and more uniforms. A number of people stood behind those barricades.

  “Kids texted their parents,” Roarke surmised. “Now parents are flooding down to get their kids.”

  “I should’ve thought of that.”

  “You were thinking of one kid.”

  “They’ll have interviewed and released some of them by now. Let’s see what we’ve got.”

  Eve approached the door just as two teens—one of each variety—burst out.

  From behind the barricades came the shouts.

  “Darlie! Tanner!”

  The kids rolled their eyes at each other, but sprinted toward the shouts.

  And those kids, she thought, unlike the one, would sleep in their own beds tonight.

  She went inside.

  The lights, turned up full, showed some dinge. Worn tables, a scarred dance floor, a bar with empty back shelves where the alcohol normally stood.

  The place smelled like candy and sweat.

  No surprise on the sweat, she supposed, as the temp control must’ve read close to eighty.

  She found some relief seeing she didn’t have to deal with a couple hundred. Easily down to about fifty, she estimated. At least in the main club.

  She saw McNab talking to a couple of kids at a table while others sat in chairs. They buzzed with conversation and nerves. Some tried to look bored or rebellious, but didn’t quite make it.

  A man who looked like an accounting nerd with his baggy jeans, floppy sand-colored hair, and belly paunch, hurried to them.

  “You’re Lieutenant Dallas. And Roarke.” He took Roarke’s hand, pumped it, then did the same to Eve’s. “I’m Harve Greenbaum. This is my place. I’m sick, just sick about what happened here. We never had anything like this happen, all these years. We’ve had to bounce out a few, sure, but nothing like this. And on the kid night, too. That poor kid.”

  “Mr. Greenbaum.”

  “Harve, just Harve. Mr. Greenbaum’s my old man.”

  “Harve. Has anyone taken your statement?”

  “Yeah, yeah. Blondie over there.” He pointed at McNab. “Sure don’t look like a cop, but he’s got that going when he gets going. He talked to me and Glo. My partner, in life and business.”

  “Did he tell you you’re free to go?”

  “We’re not leaving until the last kid gets out, and please God, gets home safe. It’s our place where this happened. Glo says I should shut up about that, and we’re going to get our asses sued. But Jesus on an airboard Christ, it’s our place.”

  “Understood. Can you tell me where to find Detective Peabody?”

  “Yeah, Pretty in Pink. She’s back of the house talking to more kids. Staff’s done, and the band. Holy God, poor Jake. Jake and the boys, they don’t forget their roots.”

  “Can you take me back to Detective Peabody?”

  “You bet. Oh, hey, you own the building, right?”

  “That’s right,” Roarke confirmed.

  “Well, I hate to mention it at such a time, but just today something went wonky with the temperature control. We didn’t have a chance to report it, but—”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  “I appreciate that. Anytime something goes wonky, your people are right on it.”

  “Maybe you can see if McNab’s had a chance to check the security cam on the doors,” Eve said to Roarke.

  “Gave him a copy of the feed,” Harve said.

  “Take a look at it, will you?” And leaving him to it, Eve went with Harve.

  “It ain’t much back here. It’s not like we run to dressing rooms and all that.”

  “This is fine.”

  They walked past the restrooms, down a short corridor, past the alley door, where she caught a whiff of vomit under fresh cleaning fluid. And to what he called the back of the house.