“Hey man, what a surprise. You’ve never called me first. I guess I'm finally growing on you, huh? Told you this was going to happen. It was just a matter of--”

“Shut up, Matt. I'm not in the mood today.” I give the webcam an annoyed look.

I dig deep into my supply of patience. I’m running low after the night I spent tossing and turning on Jessica’s hard bench. And to think she didn’t even bother to say hello this morning.

I don’t know what I expected from her; she behaved exactly like she had three years ago. She gave me one small, intoxicating taste of her, and then she took it all away.

I need to keep Matt happy if I want him to do this for me, so I try to go easy on the grump factor.

“You're never in the mood,” Matt says before he pauses. “There's a joke in there… Something something married guy walking into a bar.”

“Ha-ha. Yeah, that's funny,” I say without much mirth. “Can we move on?”

“Jesus. You want something from me, you need to sweeten me up first, man.”

“Look into a woman called Jessica Lake, will you? She's a high school teacher here in Ashbourne. She won't be hard to find. There's only one high school in town.” I ignore Matt’s bad jokes.

This is urgent and I need this done now. It's a matter of life and death. Well, potentially, at least. I know Jessica's being hunted by some people and she's scared. It's not a big stretch to assume that she's in mortal danger.

“Whoa, hold your horses,” Matt says. “Who is this woman? Is something weird going on in that town?”

“I don't have time to explain. Just do as I say. Please, Matt. You know I wouldn't have asked you if it wasn't important.”

Matt looks in the distance, beyond his webcam. Just when I think the video on the screen has frozen again, he says, “Jessica Lake, huh? When do you need her info?”

“Today. Right now. As soon as humanly possible.” I know he has to break a few rules to accomplish what I’m asking of him and it's not an easy decision. He could be putting himself at risk. I say, “Thanks, Matt. I really appreciate it.”

“Fuck. You're not getting mixed up in anything dangerous, are you?” Matt’s face is filled with concern and chagrin. “I’ve been telling you, man, this lifestyle of yours, with the traveling all the time and the fucking different women all the time, it's not sustainable. You can't keep doing it without running into problems eventually. What happened? You slept with the wife of some asshole? The girlfriend of some gang leader? The daughter of a corrupt town mayor?”

“Dude. I told you I don't have time to explain. Can we please just skip to the part where you're finding things out for me?” I stop myself from making a comment about how my life isn't a soap opera. It dawns on me that the position I’m actually in is just as ridiculous, so I shut my mouth.

“Okay. What do you want? Her criminal records, bank statements, tax filings, last Google searches?”

“Anything you can find. But most importantly I want to see what's on her phone.”

“Got it,” Matt says. “I’ll stop everything and work on this. I’ll call you when I have something.”

“Thanks, Matt. I hope your work won't suffer too much.”

“Eh, most of what I do isn't that important. Mr. Tanner has seen his mistress twice this week alone, so I already have a bunch of incriminating pictures for his wife. And don't tell Mrs. Potts, but I don't think we’ll find her poodle.”

I can't help but smile with amusement as the call ends and Matt’s face disappears from my computer screen.

Sounds like he takes on ridiculous, time-wasting cases. Apparently, the life of a private investigator is not as exciting as TV makes it seem. But I’d trade my one case with his many troublesome ones if I could.

It's killing me that Jessica is in danger and she’s doing her best to keep me from helping her. Well, too bad for her, I’m a stubborn motherfucker and I’m going to do this, with or without her permission.

* * *

“Matt?” I click the Accept Call button as fast as lightning. I’ve been trying to work all night, but I can’t concentrate because I keep thinking about what kind of trouble Jessica’s involved in, and the kiss we shared yesterday. That fucking kiss.

“Fuck you. You never picked up on the first ring before,” he says as soon as the video chat window flashes on the screen. He looks pissed off.

“Well, maybe I’m starting a new habit now.” I shrug and try to at least appear calm.

“I looked into your girl. She looks normal on the surface, but I get the feeling there’s some shady shit going on underneath.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t have anything concrete. It’s just little clues here and there, but enough to make me feel uneasy.” Matt takes his eyes off his paper printouts and stare right into his webcam. “Who is she?”

“Just some girl.”

“Bullshit,” he says. “I’m going to tell you what I’ve found, but you’re going to have to be straight with me.”

“Fine.” I don’t have any choice. I do want whatever information Matt has and if I have to trade intel with him to get it, then so be it.

“Okay, let’s start from the lighter stuff.” Matt grins into the camera, knowing how impatient I am. “She’s been teaching at the high school for almost one year now. It’s her first teaching job. I can’t find any information on her previous employment, which is weird. Or anything before her move to Ashbourne, for that matter.”

“Okay.” I already know all those things. Jessica is obviously running away from something and she’s done pretty well in covering her tracks. I wouldn’t be surprised if she changed her name. I’m not wrong in my impression of her; she has a good head on her shoulders.

“Oh, and she’s on Tinder. So if you’re dating her, dude, condolences. She’s seeing other people.” I can hear Matt’s fingers clicking on various tabs and windows, while his eyes dart all over his screen. “She’s been chatting with a bunch of guys, but I could only find details of her meeting up with one guy. Steven Gordon. The guy sent her a text asking to meet up again but she’s been ignoring him.”

“Good,” I say.

“Good? So you are interested in her.” Matt grins as I realize my mistake. “I don’t blame you. She’s pretty cute, judging from the pictures I’ve seen.”

“I just meant that’s good information.”

“Sure,” Matt says, the shit-eating grin still plastered on his face. “There’s one guy she contacts a lot. Tony Humphries. Works at the same high school. They seem pretty close, but nothing in their texts or chats catches my attention.”

“Okay.” I assume this is the Tony who holds a copy of Jessica’s keys. So he’s another teacher. I wonder if they’re just co-workers or if there’s anything between them. As much as I want to know more about Tony, this is not the time to focus on irrelevant shit.

“Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Do you know who Nancy Jones is?” Matt taps his fingers like he usually does when he gets excited.

“No.”

“Well, she was a stripper at a club in San Francisco. She died. Killed by her boyfriend.” Matt pauses and grimaces. “It was gruesome. Anyway, there seems to be something connecting her to your girl.”

“In what way?”

“There was a mysterious email sent to your girl from a guy called Caine Foster. He wants to meet up, but it doesn’t seem like a date. He says he needs to talk about Nancy Jones. Jessica hasn’t responded, but the message seems serious.”

“That is interesting.”

“Okay, that’s what I got so far from checking out her phone. What else do you want me to look into? She has way more money than a high school teacher should, but that’s not necessarily a bad sign. She plays Candy Crush a lot, but I don’t think you’d be interested in that.”

Matt checks his notes to see if he’s missed anything. “Oh, another thing. There’s nothing on her phone dating from before she started teaching. Like, no saved emails, no old email addresses, no transferred contact details from her old phone. Nothing. I thought that was strange. It’s like she just came into existence about the same time she moved to Ashbourne.”

I nod and commit the details Matt has just shared to my memory.

“Anything you want me to look into further?”

“Yeah. Look into all three guys. The Tinder date, the teacher, and the email guy.”

“Did I just waste my day looking into your love rivals?”

“Please never use the term ‘love rivals’ again.” I wince, which only makes Matt laugh. “No, something’s going on with this girl. Something strange and dangerous. I don’t know what exactly.”

“Yeah. If you knew you wouldn’t have asked me,” Matt says. “I just have one question, though. Isn’t Pussy Cat the strip club where you met that girl with the red hair? The one you were obsessed with for months?”

“Yeah.” I sigh. I guess there’s no hiding it from Matt. Maybe it could even help him find some more useful information.

“Is this Jessica girl that stripper?”

“Yeah.”

“Holy shit! How did you even find her?” Matt looks incredulous. “I remember trying to help you with it but you didn’t even know her real name. You were all mopey for weeks.”

“It was a coincidence, believe it or not. I think she’s in real trouble, so please let me know if you find anything else,” I say, bringing the conversation back to the present.

“Yeah. Of course. I mean, this is interesting stuff. I’ve only just scratched the surface since I’ve only looked at her phone. But couldn’t you get this information from her if you’re helping her?”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” I take a deep breath. “Call me when you find anything new.”

“Sure thing.”

I end the call and glance at the time. It’s almost ten. I should be working, but I just know I won’t be able to focus tonight, so screw it.

The break-in at Jessica’s happened at around this time of the night, so I may as well just head over there now. I grab my blanket and my gun before stepping out the door.

I walk up the steps to Jessica’s porch and wonder if it would be worth my time to knock on the door and talk to her, before I get comfortable on her bench—well, as comfortable as possible, anyway. But before I can decide, the door opens and she’s standing in the doorway, warm light pouring out from inside her home.

“I heard you sneezing from all the way inside. And the way you walk is really loud.” Jessica sighs when our eyes meet. “Are you planning to sleep on the porch again tonight?”

“Yeah.” I keep my gaze steady, showing her I’m not backing down. I’m guarding her house tonight and there’s nothing she can do to stop me.

“I don’t want people seeing you there and making assumptions about me. And I don’t want you blaming me when you get sick, so you can come in and sleep inside if you want.” Jessica pushes the door open a little wider as my mouth opens just as wide from the shock.

This is the last thing I expected. But I’d be stupid to say no.