The Wages of Cin (Cin Fin-Lathen Mysteries Book 4) by Alexie Aaron Page B

appreciate you guys wrapping this up as soon as possible.  The band was made aware of the light tower incident, and unfortunately, so was the insurance company.  The summer tour may get canceled if the saboteur isn’t caught soon.”
    “We’ll do our best.  Thank you for doing this.  It makes things so much easier.  Instead of hunting down the suspects, we have them all here,” I said.
    He nodded and finished his champagne.  He looked at my almost full glass.  “You’re not drinking?”
    “I want to keep my head.”
    “How do you feel now?”
    “Fine, why?”
    “The glass you were served has a very low alcohol content.  Susan bought a case of the stuff.  She usually starts serving it halfway through a party.  Toby will only serve you the lite stuff, so you won’t look out of place.”
    “I appreciate it.”
    “Harry, do you mind if I have a few words with Cin alone?”
    “No, not at all.  I’m going to go and mingle,” he got up and left the room, closing the door behind him.
    “I’m not going to draw this out.  In order to satisfy the insurance, all members of the tour are subject to a thorough physical examination.  Since I paid for them, I got an advanced report on each of the band members and,” he sat up and fidgeted for a moment before speaking, “I got Sidney’s blood test results, and, Cin, its back.”
    I felt like I was hit with a two by four.
    “He’s not going to make the tour, and I don’t know if he’s got much of a chance surviving this again.”
    Tears flooded my eyes, and I only managed to hold off crying.  “Does he know?”
    “He’ll know tomorrow.  As I said, I got an advanced copy.  Forgive me for interfering, but you see, I care for Sidney. I don’t want you to be with him unless you’re going to be there for the long haul.  Think carefully, it’s not going to be pretty.  I don’t know how close you guys are after a couple of days, but I sense you’re interested.”
    “Oh, I am.  Don’t worry about me; I never get into anything casually.  But I think he’s not as committed.  I could be wrong.  Oh, this is so sad.”
    I got up and squared my shoulders.  I needed to put this in a box in my mind and shelve it.  I didn’t want to worry Sidney with my change in behavior, and I needed to be sharp tonight.
    He escorted me back to Sidney who was deep in conversation with an older woman.
    “That’s my wife you’re flirting with,” Tom said.
    The beautiful woman looked up and shook her head at her husband.
    “Cin, may I introduce Susan, my wife and partner.”
    I reached out a hand and said, “So good to meet you.”
    Susan’s eyes flitted from her husband and back to me.  She knew he told me about Sidney.  “Sidney tells me you’re an instrumentalist.”
    “I play.  Nothing professional in a long while though.  I’m happy in the symphonic bands that will have me,” I told her.
    “We have a lot of good symphonic bands and orchestras in the area.  I’m spoiled for choice during the season,” Susan said.  She got up and took a moment to smooth her skirt. “Well, I better go and see if Chef has burned the artichokes.”
    “Where were we?” I asked Sidney when Tom left.
    “Gazing at the ocean.”
    “Yes, is it still there?”
    “We better go and see, one can never be too sure of anything.”  He jumped up and took my hand.  I set my glass down and hugged Sidney.
    “What’s that for?”
    “I needed courage.”
    He smiled.
    “Hey, get a room, Stoneridge,” Manuel said, walking up.  “First, you snatch Elijah’s girl, and then you proceed to make love to her in front of all his friends. That’s cold, man.”
    Sidney looked down at me a moment and then laughed.
    Since I didn’t know what to say, I kept quiet and let Sidney fight his own battles.
    “Manny, you’ve got me all wrong.”
    “I think I have your number alright.”  They started talking shop, and I excused myself.  I looked around and saw the coke-girls