Page 69 of Nobody's Fool

I smile and sing. “‘Come on up for Verizon’?”

“Exactly.”

We both sing it together for the rest of the ride: “‘Come on up for Verizon, come on up, lay your hands in mine…’”

“Catchy, right?”

“Brilliant,” I agree.

Molly opens the door before I knock. She is wearing the bright red nightgown that has always been my favorite. I wonder whether that’s the reason she wore it, if she changed into it, or if it was just the red nightgown’s turn in her rotation. Then I wonder why I’m asking myself such inane questions. She throws her arms around me. I hug her back with everything I’ve got. “I’m sorry,” I say again. She shuts me up with a kiss. I kiss her back. She smells of honeysuckle and Neutrogena face soap, and no man can resist that combination.

In the morning, I reach for my phone and check my texts. The first is from a number I don’t recognize.

Molly looks good in red.

I jolt up. Molly sleeps next to me. I take a screenshot and send it to Marty.

Find out whose number this is.

But I know the trace will go nowhere. It’s so easy to send anonymous texts with any one of those readily available burner apps. Still, maybe Marty can get something from the number.

I also have a pretty good idea who sent it.

Tad Grayson.

At least that is what I think until I tiptoe out of bed and look at thestreet outside my bedroom window. As though I don’t have enough going on in my brain, there, parked on the corner, is a dark blue Cadillac Escalade with a Connecticut license plate.

The Belmonds’ car.

As I throw my clothes on, Molly starts to stir. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s okay, my love. Go back to sleep.”

“You’re going to lead with the patronizing again?”

She has a point. I say, “Victoria Belmond’s car is parked outside.”

“You think she’s here?”

“She hasn’t rung the bell, so no.”

“Last time she came in an Uber without telling anyone.”

“Right.”

“So why is her car here?”

“That’s what I’m going to ask.”

“Should you call the cops?” Molly asks.

“And say what? An expensive car is parked on our street?”

“It is suspicious,” Molly says with a smirk.

“I got this.”

We agree that Molly will watch from the window, phone in hand, in case something goes wrong. I have a gun. I keep it locked and hidden and up high, and I know the stats on keeping a gun in your home so I will probably get rid of it as soon as Henry is old enough to move around. But I’m also a cop and have been heavily trained in how to use one. I get the pros and cons. I know what I’m doing.

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