“If I don’t have to pay this psycho all of my winnings to get my cat back, maybe I can buy a new one.”
“You should buy a new one regardless. This one can’t be safe.”
She smiled playfully. “I’m sorry, but are we or are we not here in one piece?”
“I think the bumper might have fallen off at the last light.”
She rolled her eyes before unbuckling her seat belt and popping open the center console. I averted my gaze, figuring it best for my mental health to avoid seeing the unkempt state of that compartment.
I surveyed our surroundings. We had driven about fifteen minutes to get here. It was arguably a better part of town than the salon where Hazel and Ruby currently worked. Not that their salon was in a bad area, but this place was ritzy as hell. No potholes in the parking lot, fresh paint on every building, manicured planters, and not a flickering neon sign in sight. Rent here must cost a fortune. While her old boss sounded grimy for sure, my gut was telling me the person who was extorting Hazel would have a lot less to lose.
When I turned back to Hazel to relay this thought, I found her with binoculars pressed against her eyes as she leaned forward, looking through the windshield.
“What are you doing?” I asked, unable to keep the exasperation out of my voice.
She pulled the binoculars away and offered them to me. “Oh, sorry. You’re right. You’re the mystery solver. You should probably have these.”
She said it earnestly, something I might’ve found endearingly ridiculous under different circumstances. But right now, I was on edge. There was pretty much a zero-percent chance we’d get out of this unnoticed. Not in Hazel’s clunker of a car, and definitely not with her making it so painfully obvious we were snooping.
I placed a hand on the binoculars and lowered them. “No, I mean why did you bring them? Anyone walking by would probably call the police and say there are some stalking creeps in the parking lot.”
“There’s no one here.”
“Yet,” I pointed out.
“Fine.” She folded her arms across her chest and leaned back into the seat. “We probably have at least ten or twenty minutes before he shows up.”
“And when he does, we will stay very far away, observe from a distance, and then get the hell out of here,” I said, still in disbelief she had convinced me to join this wild goose chase. In all of my time internet sleuthing, we rarely did anything that couldn’t be done from behind a screen. While this was kind of exhilarating, it mostly made me feel nauseous.
“Right, of course.” Hazel reached for the binoculars that were now on the console between us, but I swatted her hand away.
“Andnobinoculars.”
“How am I supposed to discern a guilty expression or a stray piece of cat hair from this distance?” she huffed.
“You’ll have to judge it by the rhythm of his walk.”
“Why did we even come here if we’re not going to properly investigate?”
I threw my arms up. “I didn’t want to come here in the first place. In fact, I believe I insisted we didn’t. I told you we should be building a case—writing down facts and seeing what we can figure out from the original message.”
“Well, you’re here now, aren’t you?”
“Because—” My voice fell away.
Because you were insistent.
Because I couldn’t say no.
Because, maybe, a small part of me is having more fun with you this morning than I’ve had in recent memory.
“Let’s just get this over with so we can move on,” I said instead. Her large amber eyes settled on me. Even when Ilooked away to examine the parking lot, I could still feel them on me.
“What got you into investigations in the first place?” she asked.
That all-too-familiar wave of self-consciousness washed over me. “I’m not sure. I guess I’ve always been a little bit addicted to true crime. Especially cold cases. I found them infuriating. How justice could go unserved like that.”
My ex, Meghan, used to hate when I talked about this stuff. I believe her exact descriptors were “cringey and embarrassing.” Didn’t exactly do a whole lot for the old ego.
