Page 31 of A First Sight

Drake shook his head. “He did not. He tried again to hit me. Said a few derogatory remarks about Miss McCrae. And I…I hit him again. He fell to the ground. Security came and made sure Mr. Leighton stayed where he was while I attended to Miss McCrae.”

He hit Dale twice.

“Here are the paramedics,” Drake said, motioning toward a man and woman coming up the sidewalk.

“Wait.” I took a step back. “I need to talk to my boss, explain what’s going on.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Drake offered. “You need to have a doctor look at you.”

“Really?” Relief accompanied surprise.

“Aye,” he breathed. Our eyes met for a moment. “I’ll take care of it.”

Silently, I nodded and let the paramedics take over. As they started poking and prodding, I watched Drake say something to Officer Chiles, and then he crossed the street, walking toward David Geffen Hall.

“Miss? Miss? Are you experiencing any dizziness? Loss of vision?”

I turned to the paramedics and answered their questions. The quicker they were through with me, the sooner I could figure out what in the world to do next.

TWENTY-SEVEN

DRAKE

It was a bad idea.The little voice in the back of my head chirped at me. It was areallybad idea to get involved. But I couldn’t help it. I had acted on instinct when Dale was hurting Maggie. I would help any woman I witnessed being abused. But this wasn’t any woman. It was Maggie McCrae. The woman I’d been stalking for weeks because she looked like my deceased wife. Yes, it was a bad idea to get involved.

But after what Dale had done to her and the violin, I wanted nothing more than to go back to him and pound his face in. Make sure that fucker stayed in the hospital for a long time.

As I walked through the doors to David Geffen Hall, I found Maggie’s boss in the lobby with a woman I recognized as Irene Sheppard, the first chair violinist, and concertmaster. They were speaking to a security guard. I had a feeling I knew what that was about.

“Excuse me,” I said as I approached the trio. “I need to speak with you about two of your musicians.”

“How can I help you?” the conductor said.

“Maggie McCrae wants to let you know she won’t be at rehearsal this morning because of an issue with her boyfriend, Dale Leighton. Miss McCrae was being taken to the hospital for some injuries. She wanted to speak with you, but I offered to do that instead so that she could go with the paramedics.”

Irene looked alarmed. “Is she seriously hurt?”

“I couldn’t say.”

“Let her know we hope she’s well, and she can reach out whenever she’s able.” He glanced at Irene and then added, “And Mr. Leighton’s role in all of this…?”

“The last I saw of him, the police were speaking with him as the paramedics checked him over.”

Irene pursed her lips, but I didn’t see any surprise on her face.

“We need to go,” Irene said, dabbing the conductor’s arm. “The others need to know we’ll be two members short in violins today, maybe longer.”

He nodded. “You’re right.” He held out a hand to me. “Thank you for letting us know.”

I shook hands with them before walking to the doors, the security guard half a step behind me.

“You didn’t bruise your knuckles, did you?” the guard said as he reached past me to open the door.

“I didn’t.” I met his eye.

“Hope you made it a good one,” he said. “I never liked that prick. Whatever happened, I’m sure he deserved it.”

“Aye,” I said. “He did.”

---