I Will Run To You

I Will Follow You Down

Las Vegas, Nevada
Saturday, May 27, 1983
(11:30 pm)
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"Let the debauchery begin!"

Those were the exact words Stevie heard out of Benmont Tench's mouth as he walked through the open doors of her hotel suite with a bottle of Jack Daniels under each arm.

The party was in full swing. Stevie looked up from the coffee table where a mountain of cocaine had been dumped onto a large square mirror and she immediately dropped the American Express card she'd been using to cut lines and leapt to her feet to give him a hug, which made him awkwardly balance the bottles of Jack Daniels to return her embrace.

"You made it! You're here!" Stevie shouted over the sound of "Rock Lobster" by the B-52s emanating from the stereo. She smelled like gardenia and cigarette smoke. "Come sit with me," she said when she let him go, motioning towards the coffee table. "I want to talk to you about something important."

Benmont knew Stevie was going to ask him to join her on the tour. She was not happy with the person who'd been hired to play keyboards, and he knew she was starting to regret not having been as active as she'd wanted in setting up the tour while she'd been dealing with her grief and her marriage, which had come as a shock to everyone around her, including himself. He followed her to the coffee table through the crowd, where she plopped herself down beside Lori and Sharon and picked up right where she left off.

"He's already tightened up security as much as he can," she heard Lori say to Christopher, who was sitting back on the sofa nearby and looking down at her. Stevie was busy snorting a rather large line of cocaine, but when she raised her head, holding one nostril closed with one hand, she looked angry. Releasing her nose from her grip, she rolled her eyes.

"Oh my God, not this again!" she said. "All I've been listening to all day is this bullshit about the letters! So I have a fan that's a little haywire...so what?"

"Stevie, you can't just ignore this!" Christopher shouted over "Rock Lobster" and the fifty or sixty voices in the room. "Some lunatic is writing letters and claiming all kinds of crazy shit and who knows what they're capable of!"

"He's right, Stevie," Lori said, the credit card from Stevie's hand to cut herself a generous line to snort. Stevie watched her brother's eyes light up at Lori's words of affirmation, and she smiled. Oh, how right I was! she thought, remembering the conversation she'd had with Lori before they'd left California for the tour, in which she'd teased her about her feelings for Christopher. He totally loves her and she totally loves him back!

Benmont, who was cracking open one of his bottles of Jack Daniels, chimed in. "Stevie! Maybe this whole stalker thing is worth looking into! People are crazy out there, you know. Tom gets weird mail all the time and Jane makes him tell management right away so they could beef up security!"

Stevie flung her gold metal straw onto the coffee table in frustration. "Jesus Christ! We already have beefed up security! What more do you want from me?"

"Let's change the subject, kids." That came from Sharon, who sat on the floor at the end of the table, holding a rolled-up dollar bill. "Enough. Stevie, this is your party." She smiled at Stevie, then at Lori, and the three women exchanged a knowing look and began to sing in their flawless three-part harmony.

"It's my party and I'll cry if I want to," they sang, and Benmont and Christopher laughed. "Cry if I want to, cry if I want to...You would cry too if it happened to youuuuuuuuuuu..."

"Thank you, Sharon!" Stevie exclaimed. She bent down and another white line went up her nose. "Change the subject! Please!"

Sharon had a wicked grin on the face as she turned to Stevie and said, "Have you heard from Lindsey lately?"