Baby Daddy (22 page)

“
Yeah…at Friends’ Bar just down the street.  She usually does two shows, one at 7 and another at 10, so you can probably catch her there now.”

“Thanks
,” I said.  “It was nice meeting you.”

“Same here,” he said with a smile.

Reno left two twenties on the bar.  Trey shook his head.

“No charge.  I’d do anything for Roger.”

“Textbooks are expensive,” I said as we left the money behind and walked away.

Reluctantly, Trey picked it up and stuffed it into his pocket.

We entered Friends’ Bar a little before 9 p.m., hoping to catch Sunny between sets.   We found a table near the stage, hoping to get a chance to catch her attention so we could talk to her.  After we placed our orders, the server brought Liberty and me our Diet Cokes and Dallas and Reno their third Coors Lights of the day.  We had left word with the bartender and our server we wanted to speak with Sunny before she started her last show, so all we could do was wait.

“
Do you know what’s bothering me?” Dallas asked.

“No, what?” I answered.

“Suppose Terry stole Roger’s songs…why would he want to blow up the building?”

“Maybe he just had it out for Roger and wanted to hurt his business,” Reno speculated.

“Or maybe he was trying to destroy Roger’s things.  There must have been something there he didn’t want anyone else to find…,” I suggested.

“The handwritten songs,” Liberty cried
out.

“Of course, he didn’t want anyone to find…,” Dallas began to say.

“Were you looking for me?”

We looked around and saw a gorgeous young blond
e with big Texas hair and red cowboy boots with 5” stiletto heels.   Amazingly, she had walked over unnoticed by us.

Dallas and Reno started to get up to offer her their chairs, practically tripping over each other in the process
.

“Please don’t get up.”  She laughed and brought an empty chair over from the table next to us.  “I’m Sunny.”

I scooted my chair closer to Liberty to give Sunny space.  “Trey told us we could probably find you here.  We were hoping you would have a few minutes to speak with us before you go on.”

“What can I do you for?
” she said and sat next to me.

“Christopher Tate sent us to
see if you could help us.  I’m Killeen, this is Liberty, Dallas and Reno.  We’re Roger’s kids.”

“Oh my God!  Roger had kids?”
Sunny exclaimed.

“Still does actually…” I smiled.

“And you’re named after cities…don’t tell me, tour route, right?” she guessed.

“That’s our assumption,” Reno confirmed.

“That sounds like Roger.  He loved to keep souvenirs.”  She laughed.

None of us thought it was very funny, but we knew we had to be polite if we wanted her assistance.

“Sounds like you knew Roger pretty well,” Dallas commented wryly.

“Not like that,” she hurried to assure him.  “He was my mentor.  I would never have gotten a break in this business without him.”

“Don’t tell me…he was like a father to you,” Reno stated.

“Yes, he was,” Sunny answered incredulously.  “How did you know?”

We all looked at each other and rolled our eyes.

“Just a hunch,” Reno said.

“Well, nice to meet y’all.  Why did you want to see me?”

“We’re looking for Terry Roth,” I told her.

She frowned and almost physically drew back.

I noticed and called her on it.  “You don’t like him
, do you?”

“He’s a jerk,” Sunny stated flatly.  “I helped him record
a demo of his big song…you know,
I’ll Take Mine To Go
…and then when he sold it to Luke McCauley who won the Grammy with it…well, he didn’t even suggest me as a back-up singer or anything.  He promised to pay me a percentage if it sold, and I’ve never seen a dime of that either.”  She looked around at us.  “What did he screw you out of?”

“We found some things in Roger’s souvenir boxes that we think Terry might want to see,” Dallas answered, keeping it vague.

“Well, he’s too big for us around here,” she continued.  “Once he hit the charts, he couldn’t get away from Austin fast enough.”

“So, he hasn’t been around here for a while?” Reno asked.

“Haven’t seen or heard from him in over a year,” she told us. “Except on TV, the son-of-a-bitch.”

“If you do hear anything about him being in the area, would you let us know?” I asked.

“Sure thing.”

“You can reach us at Scandals,” Reno told her. 

“You’re going to stay for my set, right?”

“Absolutely,” Dallas said.

She flashed us a mega-bright smile and I actually expected her teeth to sparkle like on a toothpaste commercial.  “I hope we can get together again soon.  I have so many stories about your dad…he was an amazing man.”

The stage lights flashed.

“Gotta go,” Sunny said as she stood, smoothed out the wrinkles of her rhinestone-encrusted mini-skirt and fluffed up her hair.

She
stepped up on the stage, looped her guitar strap over her head and with minimal tuning spoke into the microphone.  “Hello Austin…I’m Sunny.  Sit back and relax.  You’re among friends here at Friends tonight.”  She picked out a few chords on her guitar and swung into her first song.

Dallas
couldn’t stop staring at her.  “She’s hot!”

“But we know that Terry is in Austin…or at least he was last night.  That could mean she’s lying to us,” I suggested.

“Or maybe he’s avoiding her because he feels guilty he didn’t keep his promise,” Liberty spoke up.

“It does seem odd that she wouldn’t know he’d played a set with…
what was his name?” Dallas asked.

“Jimmy Patterson...,” Liberty told him.

“Right, Jimmy Patterson,” Dallas continued.  “Especially since she’s so involved in the local music scene.”

“He could be keeping a low profile,” Reno suggested.  “It wasn’t like his set with Jimmy was p
ublicized.  It seemed sort of spontaneous.”

“
Well, she’s still hot,” Dallas said, giving her the benefit of the doubt, at least while she was on stage, showing off all that bare flesh and white teeth.

S
he actually was a very talented singer, and we settled back with another round of drinks.  People continued to shuffle in for the next half hour and all the seats around us filled.  I was looking around at the crowd when I noticed a guy, maybe mid-thirties with stringy long black hair take a seat at a booth facing us and not the stage even though other seats were available.  Every few minutes he’d look over at us and at one point must have asked the server about us because she glanced over as if to verify we were the target of his questions.

“Don’t look
now, but the guy in the booth on the other side of the room has been watching us,” I whispered to Reno.

“So?
  He’s probably wondering if you’re available.”

I gave him an exasperated look. 
“Ick.  He’s totally not my type.”

“What is your type?  Tall, brown hair, sort of clean cut with the initials C.T.?” he teased.

My eyes widened, and I forced myself to stay calm and not let on that he’d just hit the bulls eye.  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Right...” Reno nodded and winked at me.

Oh God, how could he know?  No way.  He might be guessing, but he couldn’t possibly have seen us.  Could he?  I was distracted about this new wrinkle and kind of forgot about the creepy guy until Dallas leaned over.

“It might be too many beers, but I think that dude over there is the one who tried to run me over,” Dallas whispered.

“What should we do?” Liberty asked.

“Maybe there’s a back door?” I suggested.

“Shit.  No way.  Maybe it’s time we confronted this dude and asked him what’s going on,” Reno said, scooting back his chair and standing.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea…”  I tried to grab his arm, but he shrugged me off.

“Come on.”  Reno glared at Dallas, daring him to decline.  Dallas struggled to his feet, swaying a little and followed Reno across the room.  As they got closer the guy saw them coming and stood, facing them boldly.

“Liberty, we’ve got to do something,” I said and pulled her to her feet and helped her get her crutches.  “You head outside, and I’ll go get the boys.”

I threaded my way around the other tables, keeping an eye on Dallas and Reno.  But just before they reached the stranger, a big, black guy stepped in front of them, completely blocking their path.

“Hi, I’m Seal.  I heard you’ve been looking for me.”

“We…uh…yes, we were,” Dallas said.  He and Reno were both over six feet tall, but they had to look up to talk to Seal.  The guy was a beast.

“I’ll take care of this situation.  You kids need to go home,” Seal said, his voice low and gravelly.

“Yes, sir.”  Reno nodded.

Seal turned around and took a step closer to the
strange guy, forcing him to sit back down in his booth.

Dallas, Reno and I came to a silent, but mutual decision to get the hell out of Dodge and headed for the door.  Just as we stepped outside, we heard Liberty scream.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The black Camaro was double parked in the street and two guys were trying to half carry, half drag Liberty to the car.  Her crutches fell to the sidewalk with a clatter.

“Fuck that,” Reno muttered and headed toward her with Dallas and me right on his heels.  But before any of us could reach her, Liberty whirled around.  Balanced on her one good foot, she kicked with her casted leg, landing a killer blow between one of the guy’s legs.  He screamed, grabbed his balls and went down in a heap.  The other guy caught her ponytail and yanked her head back, trying to pull her into the car.  Liberty whipped around and stiff-armed him in the throat, then jammed the heel of her hand into his nose.  Blood spurted out as he released her and covered his broken nose with both hands.  He stumbled to the Camaro while the first guy, still doubled over managed to fall into the passenger’s side.  With a squeal of the tires, the car fishtailed down the street.

Liberty
grimaced, leaned over, picked up her crutches and turned to us.

We were standing there, stunned and speechless.

“I think I’m ready to call it a night, guys,” she said and started moving down the sidewalk toward where we had parked the van.

We hurried to catch up with her.

“Where did you learn that?” Reno’s tone reflected how impressed he was.

“That was amazing!” Dallas exclaimed.

“Oh that.  One of the women at The Farm was a black belt.  She taught all us kids how to defend ourselves…only as a last resort, of course.”

“Of course,” I echoed.  “Maybe you can teach me a few moves.”

“Sure.  As soon as I get this stupid cast off,” she promised.

“Are you okay?  Did you hurt your leg when you hit that guy in the balls?” Reno asked.

“It hurts a little, but I’m okay.”

“Maybe you should go to the hospital for an x-ray,” Dallas suggested.

“I’m fine, really.  If it still hurts tomorrow, I’ll go,” Liberty agreed.

I was the only one with a DL who
was totally sober, even though the excitement of the last few minutes had taken the edge off Reno’s and Dallas’ buzzes, so I drove the van back to the mansion.  By the time we arrived, it was nearly eleven.  Christopher’s car was in the driveway and he and Tulsa were seated around the pool.

“
Well…here they come, finally,” he declared. “We thought you guys had been kidnapped!”

“Almost…,” Liberty said.

“And nearly run over,” Dallas added as he reached in the bar cooler for a beer.

“Don’t forget
stalked by a psycho in the bar.”  Reno caught the can that Dallas tossed to him.

Dallas pulled
two cold cans of Diet Coke out and handed one to me and one to Liberty.  “Thanks,” I said with a smile.  Tonight had been one of those bonding moments that, hopefully someday, we’d be able to look back on and laugh about.

“
You guys went bar crawling…fuck, how hard could that be?” Tulsa kidded.

“Did Seal take care of you guys?”  Christopher asked
.

“He showed up just in time.”  I looked at him suspiciously.  “Did you have something to do with that?”

“I might have made a call,” he admitted.

“Did we find out who the guy in the bar
was?”

Christopher shook his head.  “Seal managed to pick-pocket him but there was no ID.”

“How do you pick-pocket someone when they are aware you’re doing it?”  Reno asked.

“Knowing Seal
, he didn’t try to keep it a secret.  He can be pretty intimidating.  Not many people say
no
to him.  Fortunately, this guy was no exception.  He works for…wait for it…” Christopher paused dramatically “…Ralph Tanner.”

Our expressions must have been universally
blank.

“Who’s Ralph Tanner?” Reno asked.  “I can’t keep up with the players without a roster.”

“He’s the union leader who got caught taking bribes for workman’s comp claims,” Christopher explained.  “He had access to all sorts of men who had lost their jobs or got prosecuted for insurance fraud.”

“Fuck
me.  We didn’t even check him out,” Dallas exclaimed.

“Neither did we,” I admitted.  He had been on our short list, but he hadn’t been our first priority.  “So the guys in the Camaro…?”

“Not absolutely sure, but probably,” Christopher answered.

“And the guys in the white pickup?”

“Probably on his payroll…or at least they were.”

“So, how does that play into them being suspects to Roger’s death?” Liberty asked.

Christopher shook his head.  “I don’t know.  It could just be a coincidence…you know, a perfect storm of unhappy losers trying to get their revenge all at the same time.  But my gut tells me Ralph doesn’t operate with the finesse it took to set up Roger’s death to look like an overdose.  He would just throw him off a cliff or bury him alive.”

“But why go after us?” I asked.

“Because you’re as close as he can get to Roger,” Christopher explained.

“
If Dallas’ reflexes weren’t so good, we’d be at the hospital tonight,” Reno noted.

“Or worse,
the funeral home.” Dallas chugged the rest of his beer.

“And if Liberty wasn’t a Karate expert, she’d be stuffed into the trunk of a Camaro.”

“Liberty?  Karate?” Tulsa repeated incredulously.

“Yeah…who knew?” Reno crumpled his empty can and tossed it into the garbage can.

“I’m sure the guy whose car you jumped on is wondering why his mirror is hanging by its wires,” I commented.

“You
guys had all the fun!” Tulsa exclaimed.  “We didn’t even get to meet with Harlan because he was out tonight.”

“
Oh, then you weren’t able to find out anything?” I asked.

“
We came back here and did some research on-line.  First of all, Tulsa found a couple of music sites that listed who had the rights to certain songs,” Christopher told them.

“Well
, that song
I’ll Take Mine to Go
that Terry Roth was singing at Earl’s the other night…it says Terry is the sole author and owns all the rights,” Tulsa explained.

“
I thought Roger might have shared it with him, Christopher said.  “Roger was always pretty generous, but I can’t believe he would give him full credit.”

“
Buying someone a car is generous.  Giving someone the rights to your intellectual property in perpetuity is preposterous,” Dallas stated, his law studies coming back in full force.

“What’s your take on intellectual property, in this case, song rights?” Christopher asked.

Dallas walked over, picked up another beer from the bar cooler and settled on a chaise lounge.  “As I understand it, if you wrote a song, but didn’t register it or do anything with it, then someone else actually takes the paper and registers the song under his name, the second person may have a legitimate claim for the rights.  But if the original songwriter performed the song either alone or with his band, or better yet, videos himself while singing it, he would be able to keep his rights, even if they hadn’t been officially registered.”

“
Are you serious?  You mean the original songwriter could lose the rights to his songs if he didn’t register them?  That doesn’t seem fair,” I commented.

“No, it doesn’t,” Christopher agreed.  “Unfortunately, that’s the law.  Unless it can be proven that the song was written by the original artist.”

“So this song that did nothing for years could be worth millions now?” Reno asked.

“
It’s even bigger than that,” Tulsa said.  “Terry Roth turned in twenty-seven songs as his alone…not co-written by Roger.  I printed out a list so we can cross-reference them with what we found in Roger’s memory boxes.”

“
When did all this take place?” Dallas asked.

“They were registered in
a three-month period two years ago,” Tulsa explained.  “Terry filed the written song scores and an audio tape of him singing the song.  It looked like a pretty tidy package.”

“Then he must have started to shop the songs around,”
Reno mused out loud.  “How many have been recorded?  Do we know?”

“I’m working on that,”
Tulsa said.

“Were there any CDs, cassettes or VCR tapes in the boxes?” I asked Liberty.  “Maybe Roger recorded himself singing the songs long before Terry.”

Liberty shook her head.  “I didn’t notice any, but I haven’t gone through all the boxes yet.”

For a few minutes, we enjoyed the beautiful night
and just relaxed while we considered what we had learned.  It had been a busy nine days.  Finally, Christopher spoke, echoing what we all were probably thinking.

“Tomorrow is Sunday. 
I don’t know about y’all, but I need a day off.  Why don’t we spend some time on the lake and get back on the case Monday?”

There was an immediate infusion of energy.

“Sounds cool.  I’m for it,” Reno stated. 

“I’m in,” I said.

Tulsa, Dallas and Liberty all voiced their approval, and we mutually agreed to sleep in and not hit the water until around noon.

Dallas
pitched his beer bottles in the recycle bin and headed toward the house.  “Good night all…time to thank God for letting me live today.”

Everyone
said goodnight as Dallas disappeared into the house.

“
I can’t believe my eyes are still open.” Liberty yawned as she stood and steadied herself on her crutches.

“Look at you go
on those sticks, girl,” Reno said.  “I’ll walk you in.”

Christopher
stretched with exaggerated arm gestures.  “I guess I’m going to head in, too.”

He didn’t look at me, but I had a feeling he was trying to send me a message.

“I’m exhausted,” I said.  “It was a rough day.”

“I’m going to sit out here for a while longer,” Tulsa said as she relaxed back on one of the chairs
.  “It’s just too pretty to be indoors.”

Damn…that meant we couldn’t go in together or it would look suspicious.

“Well, goodnight, ladies.” Christopher smiled and walked in the back door.

I hesitated.  I wasn’t as comfortable around Tulsa as I was around the others.  She was quiet and remote, and I had a feeling her rough childhood had caused her to build a very solid wall around her emotions to keep from getting hurt.  She was clearly having the most difficulty in accepting Roger as her birth father, probably because it hurt too much to know that all the time she had had a dad out there who had made no effort to rescue her from the horrors of her foster homes.  It wasn’t like
I was sensing any encouragement, but I thought I’d try to reach out to her.  “Liberty seems to really be catching on, given she missed the entire IT and internet revolution.”

“
She’s doing great,” Tulsa confirmed.  “She’s a lot smarter than I originally thought.”

“Her life has been very sheltered
.  I can’t even imagine how strange all this must seem to her.  Do you think she’ll stay?”

Tulsa was quiet for so long I thought she wasn’t going to answer.  Then she said, “I think she might.  Now that she’s tasted the forbidden fruit, so to speak, I can’t believe she’ll go back.”

“But she’s close to her mom.  That must be hard for them both.”

Tulsa shrugged.  “Waco’s only a few miles up the road.  At least she knows where her mother is if she needs her.”  Tulsa laid back on the recliner and shut he
r eyes.

I took that as my sign to leave. 
Miss Warmth could stay out here and enjoy the night alone…as she probably preferred.  “Well…see you tomorrow.”

Tulsa didn’t bother to answer me as I tossed my soft drink can in the recycle container and went inside.

I had taken a shower earlier, but I felt dirty from our adventure downtown and took another quick shower before dressing in a pale blue lacy teddy.  It was one of my few pieces of sexy lingerie, and in fact, I had never had a chance to show it off to Brandon.  I was hoping tonight it would celebrate its debut with Christopher.  I wasn’t sure how that was going to happen, but I kind of wanted to let him take the lead.  If he wanted to be with me, he would find a way.  If he didn’t show up…well, that would be a sign that he wasn’t all that interested in me.

That would save us both a very awkward conversation…but oh God, I
prayed he was sitting in his room across the hall right now, waiting for the right moment to come to me.  I hoped he was having these same feelings of lust and love that I was.

I paced around my room, pausing at the window long enough to look down and see that Tulsa was still
out there, probably trying to make up her own mind about whether or not to stay or go.  She seemed to be digging in to the security aspect of Scandals with more enthusiasm than I saw from her about anything else.   Maybe someday she’d be able to forgive Roger.