“I know you’re right. But this is frustrating and I’m so tired of finding bread crumbs that lead nowhere.”
“I know, Fidget. I know.” Mal totally understood his frustration. “All we can do is keep moving forward.”
Nico was silent for a minute, then sat up with a sharp breath. “Unless we don’t.”
“Don’t move forward?” Mal asked.
“Yeah. Fuck moving forward. Let’s go back.”
Mal stared into Nico’s expectant face, hoping he’d elaborate. When he didn’t, Mal asked, “Back where?”
“Let’s go back to Amy’s apartment.”
“The crime scene?” Mal asked.
“Thomas’s men cleaned up the mess, but they didn’t take anything but the body, right? Let’s go snoop through Amy’s things.”
“It’s a good idea, Fidget,” Mal agreed. “We should have done it sooner.”
“Nah,” Nico said. “If we had looked through her apartment in the beginning, even if we found something, we probably wouldn’t have known it was important. I doubt there’s a note that just says, ‘In the event of my disappearance, X did it.’”
“That would have made this a lot easier,” Mal said begrudgingly. “Alright, let’s go to Casey’s.”
Nico kissed Mal’s cheek, then his eyelid. “Okay, let’s.”
Mal bit back a smile. Nico was always clingy after Mal fed him. He wondered if he even noticed.
They were back on the street under the awning when Mal asked, “How are we going to get in? I’m sure they repaired the door.”
Nico scoffed, finger hovering over the button to order their Uber. “We’ll break in, duh.”
Mal gave a breathy laugh. “Oh? Do you have some super secret lockpicking skills I don’t know about?”
Nico’s grin was like fireworks. “Actually, yeah. We just have to swing back by the apartment first.”
Mal loved him so much.
“Okay, Fidget. I’m following you.”
They were in the back of an Uber, on their way to Amy’s apartment, when it happened. One minute, Nico was tucked under Mal’s arm, head resting on his chest, playing Candy Crush; the next, he was staring at his mother’s smiling face as the FaceTime ring chirped throughout the enclosed space.
His breath caught, drawing Mal’s attention away from the view outside.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, glancing down at Nico’s phone screen.
Nico’s heart was in his stomach, but he couldn’t pinpoint why. He’d been trying to call her for days, and she’d ignored him. Yet now, there she was, calling him back at the most inconvenient possible time.
“It’s my mom,” he whispered. “She’s trying to video call me.”
Mal frowned at him, tapping his shoulder softly. “So, why aren’t you answering?”
Nico shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“She’s gonna hang up soon,” Mal cautioned.
“Ugh, fine,” Nico muttered.
He accepted the call, then held his phone away from him. His mom sat on the edge of a bed that looked straight out of a Tommy Bahama catalog. She wore a white tank top that matched the linens and the gauzy curtains surrounding her. Her blonde hair was piled on her head, and she looked radiant, even sweaty and without a stitch of makeup.
