"Park over here," I whispered to Broadrick away from my phone, so Janet didn't hear. He pointed out a far space on the other side of the parking lot and I nodded. We didn't want to draw too much attention to us. "I'll send you the photos and video once I'm back to a location with Wi-Fi."

Janet chatted on as he parked the car, and I gave a few uh-huhs and other quick agreements.

"Yeah, I'm telling you, those dogs walked right into the doggie door like trained horses."

Broadrick raised his eyebrows at me, and I shrugged. Didn't he understand what that meant? Wasn't it something everyone said?

Every year at camp, we got to ride the horses. I'd been so excited the first year, but the horses knew the trail so well they didn't take any direction at all. It was basically just an hour of bad suspension. No matter how hard I jerked the reins, the horse just plopped along the two-track. Don't get me started on the flies and mosquitos. I skipped horse day every year after that.

"You did good work, Vonnie," Janet said, and I smiled. Someone appreciated my work ethic. "Get me those videos and I'll send you a check."

The checks were nice too.

We hung up after a quick goodbye, and I floated out of the car. Apparently, getting a little appreciation did that to me.

"Why are we at the park, exactly?" Broadrick asked as he closed his door and met me on the thin sidewalk by the entrance to the park playground.

I surveyed the space in front of us as NB ran circles around my legs. That mile walk with the big dogs hadn't been enough to exhaust him. "I had a thought while we were walking the monster dogs."

"What's that?" he asked, taking NB's leash from me and walking us a little to the left.

A mosquito flew in front of my face, and I batted it away. How come they always came to me but left Broadrick alone? "Anderson said they suspected the black backpack belonged to Emma, and they killed her for the drugs. At first, I thought the biggest problem with that was that none of the drugs were stollen."

"That makes it hard to claim it's a robbery." NB tugged on the leash, wanting us to walk faster, but Broadrick kept pace with me.

I picked up my steps a little to keep the puppers happy. "Yes, but also, Emma didn't keep her drugs in a black backpack. She used a diaper bag when she had sales."

Broadrick twisted his head to face me. "She didn't have a baby."

"That's her shtick. Well, was." I moved us closer to the park so to anyone watching, we looked like a couple and their dog out for a leisurely walk. "Sometimes she'd borrow a baby. Don't question it."

"You're right. I never learn my lesson," he said, doing that finger to head rubbing thing. It never worked.

I slapped him on his arm. "The point is-"

"Oh, you have a point? I wasn't sure," he said, cutting me off.

"Funny." My expression said it was very much not funny. "The point is, they didn't find her diaper bag."

NB stopped us to pee on the big leafy maple tree on the park's edge, and Broadrick used it as a maneuver to get us closer to the park's middle. I'd scanned all the benches where Emma had me meet her before, but I didn't see an obvious diaper bag sitting by any of them.

"So, you thought to bring us here to find it? That's quite a long shot, Von."

NB took off toward another tree on the opposite side of the park, and we walked that way, giving us more chances to visually search the area. "Eh. I'm not sure. Emma snitched because I gave her name to Anderson."

And I hadn't stopped feeling horrible about that. Anderson said she'd taken a deal and would only serve minimal time, but she'd still become a snitch. In the criminal world, that was the worst thing you could be. After I cleared up this mess with my uncle, I'd figure out a way to do the same for Emma.

"Okay, but that doesn't give her a reason to be wandering her favorite park with a diaper bag," Broadrick said.

I touched his elbow, giving him directions for us to turn left toward the outcropping of trees that separated the park from the apartments behind them. "Emma knew once people found out she'd talked, they'd be looking for her. In a situation like that, you're not leaving your house for anything."

If it were me, I'd be bolted up tightly behind double-locked doors. That stupid freaking mosquito landed on my leg, and I swatted it away but missed killing it.

"Exactly what I was thinking and my point," Broadrick said.

He hadn't thought about it as long as I had.

"But that's not a long-term plan. You can't hide forever. Eventually, she's going to need money. What's Emma going to do when she needs cash and quick?" I swung an open palm across the park. "She's going to make the money the best and fastest way she knows how."

"You think they lured her out?"

Now he was picking up what I'd already put together.

"This park was her go-to spot. It wouldn't take much to get her here for a quick sale. And I'd bet money her bosses knew that, too. They only had to wait for her to get desperate. Or they set it up themselves and had one of her old clients schedule a meeting. Either way works."

Broadrick spun in a quick circle, keeping NB from tangling up in his legs. "Why not scream?"

I threw my hands up. "Who would hear her? The apartments aren't that close, and even if she did scream, who would help her?"

No one wanted to get caught helping a rat.

"It's not a bad theory," Broadrick said, "but nothing's here. Not even footprints or signs of a struggle."

Ohhh. He'd been looking for footprints and struggle signs. Smart. I'd have to pretend I'd been searching for those, too.

"We can't stop now. Let's split up. You search to the right and I'll go left. I really want to see if they've thrown it into the trees, hoping it went unnoticed." The bunch of trees on the edge of the park were the closest and easiest place for a murderer to dump something quickly.

Criminals weren't normally that detailed in their long-term plans. They focused on committing the crime but not covering it up once they finished. They'd probably steal the drugs and toss the diaper bag on their way out.

Broadrick agreed, and we split up, each going our separate ways. I stuck close to the tree line, stopping occasionally to snap a photo of a pretty wildflower growing up in the park the city mowers couldn't hit. That way, if someone was watching us, they'd think I'd been on a stroll for photography and nothing else.

"Vonnie!" Broadrick yelled about ten minutes later.

I turned and did a slow jog toward him and NB. They were both standing next to a tall pine tree that looked soft to touch but whose needles would poke you just as hard as any other pine tree. "Don't let NB get too close. He likes to pee on evidence."

Broadrick met my warning with a frown. He pulled back on NB's leash but kept his gaze on me. "That's concerning on so many levels."

"You're telling me," I said once I made it to him. Some carpet in Clearwater agreed. "Don't worry. They don't have a national register of dog pee."

"How do you know that?" Broadrick narrowed his gaze at me-and not the dog where it belonged.

"I checked." Like any good PI.

Broadrick bobbed his head up and down with puckered lips. "Oh well, that makes it better."

"I know." I pushed back a limb of the tree closest to him to see what he'd found.

Broadrick stepped in my way, trying to catch my gaze again. "That was sarcasm, Vonnie."

I moved around him. "This isn't a joking matter, B."

We had a murderer to catch.