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intermission. I’ll look into adding another warm-up act. And maybe Johnny could end with a solo, while security is getting you out of there.”
                “I’ll talk to Skip Canfield about it and get back to you. But I’m not promising I’ll do it,” Cherise said. “Only if he’s sure he can keep me safe.”
                “Who’s this Skip dude?” Jannie asked, fearing Cherise had hooked up with yet another loser.
                “He’s my personal security chief,” Cherise answered. “I hired him and his firm a few weeks ago.”
                “His firm?”
                “He and his partner run a private investigation agency, and they also provide bodyguard services.”
                “Ooohh. But the question is, my dear, is he a hunk?”
                Cherise giggled. “The hunkiest,” she said, then disconnected.
    * * *
                This was a first for Canfield and Hernandez. Skip had called a staff meeting. Rose, Mac, and ‘Dolph’ Randolph, a retired police detective, were gathered in the agency’s conference room. Three of the newly hired guards were at Cherise’s farm, so that Ben could be at the meeting.
                “Cherise Martin wants assurances from us we can keep her safe before she’ll agree to go ahead with the charity concert at Merriweather,” Skip began.
                “When is the concert?” Dolph asked, chewing on the end of his bushy ginger mustache. It and his full head of rust-colored hair were both heavily salted with gray. At eleven in the morning, the dress shirt and slacks he wore were already rumpled, the shirt gaping a bit around the buttons where it fit too snugly over a slight paunch.
                “A week from Friday. Memorial Day weekend,” Rose answered.
                “Ugh,” Ben and Dolph said in unison.
                “Probably a capacity crowd,” Ben finished the thought for both of them.
                “Probably,” Skip concurred. “Cherise has given us an unlimited budget, so here’s what I have in mind. We hire as many big bodies as we can find. Cherise is going to be the President of the United States. Nobody gets within twenty feet of her. Rose, I’d like you and Mac to be in the crowd, near the front, screaming and acting like just another couple of fans, but you’re watching and listening for anything out of whack.”
                Rose made a face. Acting like a screaming fan wasn’t her cup of tea, but it was the best allocation of their resources. Neither she nor Mac had been seen in public with Cherise so they were the logical ones to be undercover. She nodded.
                “Two, three rows back. One of us on each side. ’Bout fifty feet apart,” Mac said, in his usual clipped sentences.
                Skip eyed the short, wiry man, who looked scruffy on his best day. Working hard to keep the chuckle out of his voice, he said, “Better make sure we introduce you to all the hired muscle, Mac, so they don’t think you’re the stalker.”
                “We going armed?” Rose said.
                “Oh, yeah, but nobody draws unless the guy shows a weapon,” Skip said. “Don’t want anybody getting arrested for assault with a deadly. I’ll take care of contacting the Howard County police and Merriweather’s private security people to coordinate.”
                “Hopefully this won’t turn into a train wreck,” Dolph said, shaking his head at the thought of three different groups of men, with testosterone and adrenaline surging through their systems, trying to coordinate security in a crowd of crazed fans.
                “Hopefully not,” Skip fervently agreed.
                After the meeting, Skip and Rose conferred. “Sarah sent me those lists,” Rose told her partner. “I’ve put them