“What? No money? No credit cards?”

She shrugged, then realized how dumb that was. “It’s like I said—he’s mysterious.”

“Rosie, everyone carries something around with them. Where’s he staying?”

“Good question.” Why hadn’t she asked Bellamy that? It’s like her stellar PI skills became frazzled around him. “I’ll find out.”

“Follow him if you have to. Be discreet. Remember what Eddie and I showed you about getting someone away from a place you want to search?”

“Uh-huh. I should report you to the cops, you pair of derelicts.”

He laughed. “Be careful, though. No need to…okay, she’s here. Gotta go.”

“Oh, okay. Unless you want me to explain that complimentary blow-job—”

He hung up before she could finish. Rose smirked to herself, slid her Smartphone back into her jeans pocket and considered her next move, one she’d decided upon as soon as Marty had mentioned breaking and entering. Hers would be an even scummier trick, so scummy, in fact, that she was surprised Marty himself hadn’t suggested it. The very thought of bugging her mom’s room to listen in on private conversations set her stomach on fire. Curiosity, though, was to ethics what a hard-on was to a jock-strap: the bigger one grew, the more the other had to stretch. And right now, where Bellamy was concerned, she had a serious boner for the truth.

Not just for the truth.

The idea amused her as she made her way back to the front entrance of her mother’s house. Bright, orange pre-twilight sun bathed her as she crossed in front of the square lawn between apartment buildings. Rose stopped, raised her face to soak in maybe the last of the day’s generous, rejuvenating rays. It was late in the day. Soon they would order supper, hopefully, a Pizza and potato skins, probably not the best thing for her mom’s heart condition but it had been a family tradition for years, whenever Rose and/or Andy came to stay the night.

She noticed a thin shadow roll across the sidewalk up ahead. Its source was probably on the grass in the gap, the next gap, between buildings. At any other time, she wouldn’t have given it another thought, but someone had been tailing them through the park and likely here as well. No way was she going to pass up this chance.