When Alex hung up the phone and grabbed for his jacket, Bess was right behind him. “What is it?”

“I’ve got someplace to go. Judd, let’s hit it.”

“I’m going with you.”

Alex didn’t even glance back as he started out. He was already working on tucking her in some far corner of his mind. “Forget it.”

“I’m going with you,” she repeated, and snagged his arm. “That’s the deal.”

It surprised him when he tried to shake her off and she wouldn’t shake. The lady had a good grip, he noted. “I didn’t make any deal.”

She could be just as tough and cold-blooded as he, she thought. She planted her feet, angled her chin. “Your captain did. I ride with you, Detective, wherever you may be going. A day in the life, remember?”

“Fine.” Frustration vibrated through him as he stared her down. “You ride—and you stay in the car. No way you’re scaring off my snitch.”

“Want me to drive?” Judd offered as they headed down the steps to the garage.

“No.” Alex’s answer was flat and left no room for argument. Judd sent Bess a good-natured shrug. Then, because Alex made no move to do so, he opened the back door of their nondescript unmarked car for her.

“Where are we going?” Bess asked, determined to be pleasant.

“To talk to the scum of the earth,” Alex shot back as he pulled out of the garage.

“Sounds fascinating,” Bess said, and meant it.

She didn’t think she’d ever been in this part of town before. Many of the shop windows were boarded up. Those still in business were grubbier than usual. People still walked as though they were in a hurry, but it didn’t look as if they had anyplace to go.

Funny, she thought, how Alex seemed to blend with the surroundings. It wasn’t simply the jeans and battered jacket he wore, or the hair he’d deliberately mussed. It was a look in the eyes, a set of the body, a twist of the mouth. No one would look twice at him, she thought. Or if they bothered, they wouldn’t see a cop, they’d see another street tough obviously on the edge of his luck.

Taking her cue from him, she pulled out her bag of cosmetics, darkening her mouth, adding just a little too much eyeliner and shadow. She tried a couple of bored looks in the mirror of her compact and decided to tease up her hair.

Alex glanced back at her and scowled. “What the hell are you doing to your face?”

“Getting into character,” she said blithely. “Just like you. Are we going to bust somebody?”

He only turned away and muttered.

Just his luck, he thought. He wanted to slip into Boomer’s joint unobtrusively, and he was stuck with a redhead who thought they were playing cops and robbers.

Unoffended, Bess put away her mirror and scanned the area. Parking wasn’t a problem here. Bess decided that if anyone left his car unattended in this neighborhood for above ten minutes, he’d come back and be lucky to find a hubcap.