Page 13 of Saving Bonnie

I set the laptop on her dresser to watch her in the kitchen. Bunny’s working on the flour mix. Even through the camera, I can see the muscles on her arms flex with each move.

She brings over one pot of water and starts pouring. At this point she’s committed, so she won’t be coming upstairs anytime soon.

I hit the bathroom first. Toiletries, towels, cleaning supplies, everything you’d expect to find. Heading into the bedroom, I open the closet door. The boxes at the top hold typical mementos. A flower-print box sitting at the end is full of pictures. A find like this, in an age where people keep pictures on their phones or tablets, is gold. Curious, I dig through the stacks. Most are black and whites, a number of Polaroids, and some standard four by six. Bunny with a woman, presumably her mother, and another who must be the grandmother she mentioned. Her grandfather is in some of those, but mostly in the black and whites. She must have lost him when she was a kid. Iris is in a few with Bonnie and the family.

One of the boxes on the floor is overflowing with books, most with naked dudes on the cover, ready to kiss the woman in their arms. She owns a fair amount of clothes but not like her closet is packed from end to end. Nothing in the pockets or hidden on the hangers.

It isn’t until I go through the dresser drawers and get past the T-shirts and jeans that things get interesting. Lacy bras are stacked across the front of the wide drawer. Along the back are dozens of pairs of neatly folded underwear. I pull one out, but instead of finding those pretty little numbers that would cup her beautiful ass, she uses the style that look like shorts. How disappointing.

The television hides nothing at the base and sides. The prints on the wall are exactly that, prints. They’re different kinds of flowers in shades of purple, pink, and white, all showing the green stems. The mattress, pillows, and box spring are clean. Normally I’d want to cut into the box spring, the easiest place to hide anything, but considering everything else in the apartment, I know there’ll be nothing to find.

Then I get to the nightstand. The top drawer has a thin purple-flower thing that dances around once you turn the knob at the bottom. I can’t help but grin. Even her vibrator is girly.

I half expected to find something like this after I went through her phone last night. The reading app is full of those romance books. Several are stopped in places she may have read before pulling this out to play. Hell, the stuff some of those writers put into the books made me wonder about Miss Bunny’s fantasies.

It was actually the reason I didn’t wake her. When I came in earlier, I was able to go into her bedroom and put a cover on her without a problem. Later, when I went to the kitchen, I went through her phone. Thinking about what she might be doing while she was reading got my imagination going. I knew damn well if I went to her bedroom, I’d end up inside her again. I’m an inconsiderate bastard that way. And with all the searching I did, the one thing I didn’t find was a single condom.

I glance over at the laptop. How a woman who looks like her doesn’t have a line of men hanging around her is beyond me.

My phone rings, and I drag my attention away from the screen. It’s Kassy, so it must be six o’clock.

“Morning,” she chirps with too much energy. Her coffee maker beeps in the background. “Read your email. You got a video feed? How? I didn’t find anything to do with security at that place.”

“I had it installed. We’ll add cameras outside once the weather clears.”

“Wow.” The note of disbelief annoys me. “How did you manage that?” I miss the days she was too polite to ask.

“I didn’t ask for permission.” Not that I normally do because I don’t have time or patience to deal with anyone’s shit. “I’ll get Frank logged on once he gets here.”

“Frank’s not there?”

Yeah, things were different after working a deal with Bunny. “I sent him home and told him to take over in the morning.”

“You still think something might be going on at the firehouse?”

“Didn’t find anything, so far.” At least nothing I could readily identify. “Check the employees and see what you find.”

“Gotcha. Just let me feed Princess and I’ll start digging in.”

The phone vibrates, announcing an incoming text. “Hang on.” I pull the phone away.I’m parked.No laptop. “Fantastic.”

“What’s wrong?” Kassy asks with concern.

“I’ll have to give Frank this laptop and a converter for his car.”

“I suppose he’ll need wireless on his phone.”

I exhale in a rush. “I’m sure.” Some backup. “Can’t believe he’s unprepared,” I mutter into the phone.

“Well, he’s probably low on cash. Paying child support for three kids can’t be cheap.”

“Yeah, I get it, but I need to cover all bases.”

“You really think we missed something on this woman?”

I’m not sure if Bonnie’s got secrets, but if she does, I need to know what they are. “Only one way to find out.”

CHAPTER FIVE

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