Book excerpt: A sexy songbird flies the coop. With her heavenly voice, chanteuse Miss Claire has just about every man in Denver wrapped around her little finger, but she needs a man like U.S. Marshal Custis Long to keep her alive. Notes of the not-so-musical kind have been sent to her from someone who wants to shut her up—for good… Besides the thousand dollars if he catches the rascal, Longarm is promised some fringe benefits from Miss Claire herself. But Longarm is left singing the blues when the star stages her own murder—and disappears…