CHAPTER 7
The next show went off without anything unexpected happening and no mysterious notes or flowers. Immediately after the show ended, the company loaded up the equipment and headed for Bay City where they would have three days off before the A.C.M. show.
The stressful atmosphere following them from venue to venue was taking its toll, and everyone was on edge and frustrated. Being on a major tour was an exhausting experience. It involved a series of one night stands, hours spent on the road driving from one town to another with very little rest of sleep, then sound checks and rehearsals before each show. After the show, Mandy usually spent 2-3 hours signing autographs while trucks were loaded, and then they did it all over again. Now, the band and crew took advantage of the well-deserved time off. Most of them just relaxed on their bus or in the back of one of the semis catching up on lost sleep or writing letters to their families.
Mandy's bus and the semis that carried her equipment were parked in a secured area of the parking lot behind the arena. She stayed on her bus with Randy, two back-up singers, Carol Hughes and Jessica Arnett, and her manager, who wanted to keep a close eye on her. But, as the hours passed with no unusual incidents, it appeared that the stalker was taking advantage of the down time too.
Since they were back in back in Bay City, Starsky and Hutch left the arena to meet with Captain Dobey.
Captain Dobey listened quietly as they told him of their theory about the stalker having some other motive behind his actions than simply an obsessed fan.
"So, you think someone wants to keep Mandy from appearing at the awards show Saturday night?" Dobey rephrased.
"Everything we've seen so far makes it look like someone is trying to scare her, "Hutch sighed softly. "It's the best scenario we've come up that explains everything that has happened."
"What about the incident with the light while you were on stage?" Dobey asked solemnly.
"I know it looks like someone was attacking me because they thought I was too close to Mandy, but if they really wanted me out of the way, there were other ways to do it that were a lot less pubic. Doing it in front of an audience during a show just guaranteed that it couldn't be covered up."
"Right," Starsky interjected. "It would raise a lot of questions and could bring the stalker situation into the limelight, which wouldn't be the best publicity for the show. As it is, Mandy canceled one show because of it and rebooked the one where it happened."
"So, maybe that was all this guy wanted," Dobey suggested. "And now that he has it out of his system, he'll disappear back into the woodwork."
Starsky shook his head. "No, the A.C.M. show is too big a deal, and Mandy is nominated for one the top awards."
"So who would be most likely to benefit it she misses the show?" Dobey asked. With a thoughtful expression he added, "That won't stop them from giving her the award if she wins."
"It might actually make it more likely for them to give it to her," Hutch added slowly as a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Especially if she ended up dead."
"So, there has to be a more personal motive." Starsky added glumly.
"What about the other nominees for the award?" Dobey questioned.
"Most of them are just like Mandy," Hutch offered. "New performers just getting out there trying to get their music noticed."
"Which brings us right back to square one," Starsky snorted in frustration.
"Well, the two of you have three days to solve this case and to make sure that nothing happens to Mandy Reed in the meantime," Dobey said gruffly.
The two detectives left the office to return to the arena. The session with the Captain had given them the chance to come with some new ideas about a puzzling case. Hutch's gut was telling him that there was something very personal behind what was happening with Mandy, and he had learned a long time ago not to ignore his gut when it tried to tell him something.
Back at the coliseum where the award show was being held, things were in a carefully structured disarray as preparations got underway for Saturday night. Other performers who were attending the show, some as nominees and some as presenters, began arriving throughout the day. The relative newcomers like Mandy arrived on their buses and used them as their dressing room and sleeping quarters. The country music 'royalty' would not arrive until the day of the show and would be sequestered at a four star hotel near the arena.
Since the A.C.M.'s were televised live, the network airing the special had their own crew to set up lights and other equipment beforehand. They would also block out each person's spot on the show and time it accordingly. To an outsider it may appear chaotic and disorganized, but in reality, it was a well-oiled machine that did its job efficiently with minimal distractions.
Because Hutch's newest theory suggested a very personal reason for the attacks on Mandy, the two detectives decided to focus their attention on the people closest to her: her manager, her band, various members of the crew, and her back-up singers. At the last minute, Hutch decided to add her fiancé to that list. Although he was not with her on the tour, he was the one who had suggested pretending that Hutch was her latest 'squeeze' to explain why he had suddenly been added to the show in mid-tour as her opening act.
As they sauntered around the arena pretending to be interested in the preparations for the upcoming show, they were unaware that the two co-conspirators who were behind the mysterious notes and flowers were watching them from a distance.
"We need to take care of them," the man growled at his companion. "They're getting too close and sticking their noses in where they don't belong."
"Relax…" his female partner told him patiently. "There's still plenty of time to do what we were paid to do."
"Yeah, well I still don't see why we had to put on this big act and make it look like some obsessed fan had the hots for Mandy, when all we had to do was put a bullet in her head and get it over with."
"Because it has to look like an accident to keep the cops from doing too much snooping around," his partner reminded him.
"Why? The insurance would still pay off if she was shot."
"Not if they thought it was a suicide. And that would be the only way to keep the cops from getting suspicious when she wound up dead."
"Well, what are we gonna do with those two?" The man jerked his head in Starsky and Hutch's direction. "They've been sticking to her like glue ever since I rigged that light that just missed bashing Blondie's brains in."
"They are becoming a nuisance," She agreed. "I think you're right. It's time we did something about them." She tossed her companion a thin smile. "I'll leave the details to you since you like doing that sort of thing so much."
"I'm sure I can think of something appropriate for our two friends….starting with Curly." He grinned and rubbed his hands together in gleeful anticipation as morbid thoughts of torture and pain drifted through his mind.
The woman tossed her hair and snorted as she turned to walk away. "I don't know why the boss ever picked you for this job…you enjoy hurting people much too much."
"Maybe that's why he picked me," he called after her. "Because you need someone like me to do the dirty work for you so you don't get your hands dirty."