Today Edmonton is the capital of Alberta province. She has an impressive legislature building, a university, a conservatory, a living-history museum, and a gazillion parks. These attractions draw thousands of tourists. But nothing can compete with the mall.

Encompassing over six million square feet and containing more than eight hundred stores, West Edmonton Mall is North America’s largest and the fifth largest in the world. And the big gorilla isn’t all about shopping. The complex also has a giant water park, a man-made lake, a skating rink, two mini-golf courses, twenty-one movie theaters, a casino, an amusement park, and countless other delights.

Susan Forex lived a stone’s throw away. A very short throw.

Ollie, Ryan, and I pulled into the neighborhood at seven-forty-five. Ollie had purchased coffee and donuts, and we’d breakfasted in the car. I dislike jelly-filled, which most of them were, so I shamelessly grabbed all three chocolate-glazed.

High on sugar and caffeine, I checked out the ’hood. The houses were closely packed and all of a type, some fronted by large porches, others having little more than a stoop. Each had a flower bed or shrubbery hiding the foundation and a small patch of lawn running to the sidewalk. Here and there a bicycle or pull toy lay abandoned in the grass.

Ollie slid to the curb in front of a two-story number with gray siding and black shutters. The front steps were on the left. A covered porch ran sideways, across the front.

“Very Brady Bunch.”

I couldn’t disagree with Ollie’s take. The setting wasn’t what I’d expected.

“Pretty lady likes to get away from the job,” Ollie added.

“Most of us do,” Ryan said.

“Bet the neighbors are clueless about her line of work.”

“You talk cop shop over the backyard fence?” Ryan’s tone was totally flat.

“I live in a condo.”

“You get my meaning.”

“My job isn’t sucking off johns in an alley.”

“Mon Dieu, we’re judgmental.”

“My bad. Forex probably organizes the annual homeowners’ picnic.”

“She might.”

“Only if it’s held during daylight.”

“The beauty of self-employment. You control your own hours.”

“Nice image. Forex and the prossie posse serving up coleslaw.”

I’d had my fill of the hostile repartee. “What do you know about this boarder?”

“Her name’s Aurora Devereaux. She’s new in town and so far has managed to stay under the radar.”

“Did you run the name?” Ryan asked.

Ollie palm-smacked his forehead. “Wish I’d thought of that.”

“You’re a real asshat.” Ryan’s words were ice.

That did it.

“We’re treading on the edge of my patience here.” I glared from Ollie to Ryan in the backseat. “I don’t know what the problem is, but you both need to dial down the attitude.”

Ollie mouthed the word “hormones.”

“Devereaux?” Resisting the urge to smack him.

“It’s a shiny new alias, one of several. The lady’s real name is Norma Devlin. She’s twenty-two, from Calgary, landed in Edmonton four months back. Calgary PD says her jacket’s pretty crowded, most of it juvie, so it’s unavailable without a warrant. Mostly petty shit, shoplifting, soliciting, disorderly. Lot of probation, no jail time.”