Page 27 (1/2)

Ryan was exiting his car as I pulled in I checked ed to kill an hour exactly

"Perfect ti," he said as I walked up

"You had doubts?"

"Never" He grinned He walked to the door and held it for me, then followed me into a cramped foyer that barely had room for a desk, a chair, and an artificial ficus tree in the corner

There was no one in the foyer, but we could hearfrom beyond a door on the far wall It was unlocked, and so we entered to find ourselves near the back of a rooh at least half of it was taken up with various ht and left--I assu by the orientation of the rooainst the wall nearest us was a table with a variety of wrapped snacks scattered upon it Beside the table was a battered white refrigerator, though it was barely recognizable as white since danets froroups

Lida, Michael, and Trey were at the other end of the roo that I suspected was one of their new songs since I didn’t recognize it from the concert

Lida lookedlow-cut jeans and a white tank-top, with only a few piercings and very little ave us a s It didn’t surprise er wasn’t there I could hardly blah couple of days he’d had I was surprised to hear Michaelnotes After the third time he fumbled, Lida called a halt

"I’m sorry, Lida," Michael said, clearly distressed

"It’s cool," she replied gently "It’s a new song, and we’re all trying to figure out how to , okay? Why don’t you go get a Diet Coke or so" He stared morosely at his keyboard, then nodded and stood

Trey set his instruo talk to the cops"

It was apparently the wrong thing to say Michael jerked his head up, seeing us for the first ti!" he announced loudly, features twisted in distress

"Michael, they know that," Lida said with a tired patience "Roger isn’t in trouble, okay?" She gave us an apologetic look "Give o take a ith hiet him settled down"

"Take all the ti man’s shoulder’s slumped and he allowed hi us another wary look

Trey blew out his breath as they left "Wow, the tension around here sucks ass"

"How long has it been like this?" I asked, walking up to hihter "Since we signed with the label?" Then he winced and shook his head "That’s not really fair though I was talking ht"

"Can you tell ain what you saw?" I asked I’d taken his statement after the incident, but I kne useful it was to do follow-up interviews to see as reed at the collar of his shirt before dropping down to sit cross-legged on the floor Of all the band ular" clothes He’d been fairly gothed out at the concert, in a getup si I was a khaki pants and an oxford-style shirt--again, si," Trey said "The lights went out and so and yelling" He toyed with the end of his shoelace "I stood still since it was so dark, and I didn’t want to trip over anything and risk hts ca about so Lida Michael took off, so I ran after hiured the best way I could help would be to rimaced "I love Michael, but I wanted to throttle hi" Then he sighed "But I can understand why he did I’ve never seen anyone closer than those two"

"You’re wearing running shoes," Ryan pointed out

"Yeah, that’s because I gotta wear them all the time," Trey replied "I have plantar fasciitis The doc told h that at first , then I realized he was truly upset about not being able to run Then again, he had that lean lanky build of so a sweat And enjoyed it

Sick

"And I don’t wanna end up like Roger," Trey added, shaking his head