"Another day of moping in bed?" Broadrick asked when he found me covered up to my eyeballs in comforter.

I grunted at him. He had a reason to get up and take a shower. Broadrick had a job and people depending on him to bring home the bacon. Me and NB. We both loved bacon. I still hadn't decided what I wanted to do in life, and until I figure it out, I planned to spend a large portion of every day in bed. Why did everyone else seem to have a problem with that?

"Vonnie?" he asked as I pushed the blankets higher, covering my entire head.

"Yes, I'm going to stay here and rot." I pulled the blankets low to uncover my mouth. "It's a new thing now. The internet told me to do it."

I got all my therapy advice from the internet, and I didn't plan to stop now. Not when it just gave me permission to spend all day in bed.

Broadrick sat on the end of the bed to tie his boots. "This isn't like you."

"It's not my fault that you and Dalton took away all the fun stuff I enjoy doing with your five rules thing last night."

He chuckled. "What happened to that scarf you started knitting? You can work on that today."

I grimaced quickly and hoped I had my face schooled back to normal before he noticed. That scarf was not going well. It didn't help that no one in the shop actually knitted or now that every time I saw a needle, I remembered the one poking out of Melissa's head.

From Broadrick's furrowed brow expression, he seemed to realize what he said a few seconds later. "There are still so many ways for you to get in trouble. You just have to be creative."

I stared at him. He stared at me. A light flickered on above his head. "Wait. Am I talking you into trouble?"

He grinned as my eyebrow rose. "It sounds a lot like it. What would your boyfriend Dalton think?"

"Seriously, Von." Broadrick laid his hand beside my knee. "I'm worried about you."

I rolled my eyes and gave NB a scratch on the back. "Don't be. I'm fine, Broadrick. There's nothing wrong with just chilling for a few days."

Now I had to pray he didn't ask me for my definition of a few days.

"You're right."

I froze and flipped my head from side to side staring at him. Did someone just abduct my boyfriend and I didn't notice? "I am?"

"Yeah." He gave the spot by my knee two pats. "If you're serious about not doing the PI thing, take this time to decide what you want to do. Don't rush your decision."

Easier said than done. "Definitely, no rushing happening over here."

Broadrick gave me a quick kiss on the forehead and made his way into work. I spent thirty minutes on my phone and then did a quick teeth brush before getting back into bed.

"Good thinking," I said to NB when he stared at the box of cookies on the other side of the room. "We need breakfast."

I grabbed the bright pink box from Anessa and repositioned myself on the bed. Broadrick did not have to worry about me getting into any kind of trouble today. Not unless they'd made a sixth rule, outlawing the ID Channel.

NB snuggled up on top of my ankles as I flipped on the television to watch the next episode of Forensic Files. The PI life might not be for me any longer, but it was always important to keep learning.

"It's definitely the long-term boyfriend. This was not a random act of violence," I said to NB with half a cookie hanging from my mouth. The show tried to give us different options for who might be the actual killer, but this one was too easy to figure out. Clearly, it was the boyfriend.

NB lifted his head from my leg just enough to snuff at me.

I grabbed the cookie and waved it at the television. "Who else had access to her apartment? Who had a motive to kill her? It's the boyfriend."

It was always the boyfriend. Well, ninety-nine percent of the time. The commercial break ended, the narrator's voice bringing us back to the show and... my phone rang.

"Really? Now?"

I checked the screen, my lips tipping up into a smile at the name "Tony" flashing across it, and paused the show. It wasn't just a call but a video chat.

Two seconds after I hit accept, Antonio (Tony) Franco's deep brown eyes filled my screen. Only his shoulders and above were visible, but the background appeared to be his apartment in Pelican Bay. Thus, I assumed he was lounging on the couch.

"Hey, princess. How is life with the rich and famous?" Tony never told me how he forgave me for getting him shot by my crazy aunt, and I decided not to question it. I considered it a gift.

I searched the parts of him I could see for any sign of injury. Tony took a bullet to the chest just a few weeks ago, but he looked right as rain now. He wasn't moving around a lot although that could have been because he was holding up the phone.

"Hey, Tony Baloney." He loved it when I used that name. "Did you get my flowers?"

His smiling lips fell as he narrowed his eyes into his phone camera. "Yes."

The view swung out as Tony turned his phone to the other side of his living room. In the corner by the front apartment window, he had placed the flowers we'd picked out for him-a variety of funeral flowers with lavender pieces shooting out the sides creating a frame effect. The big spray was propped up on a stand with two pots of matching flowers beneath it. Lily must have given us a free upgrade. I'd have to send her a text to say thanks. As soon as I found a piece of paper and added it to my to-do list.

"They turned out great," I said with a full smile.

He snorted. "These came with a condolences card for the funeral home to set up. I'm not dead, princess."

It seemed like he wasn't loving them as much as I did. Perfect.

"Should we have added the balloons? I told Broadrick you probably wanted balloons."

"It's not my birthday either."

He was a real stick in the mud. I grabbed another chocolate chip cookie from the box and broke it in two. "You have to learn to enjoy the little things in life, Tony."

In his case, being alive to receive those wonderful flowers. We both knew what I meant, but neither of us filled in the gaps.

Tony swung the camera back toward him. "I heard you have hot babes in bikinis there. Why aren't you sending me pictures?"

Eww. I pointed two fingers at him. "That is a huge violation of privacy and gross." He laughed, but I narrowed my eyes. "Also, who told you that?"

It better not have come from Broadrick. If I found out he was enjoying the bikini women, we were going to have problems. The Forensic Files kind of problems.

"Dalton."

"Oh. Well then... don't listen to him." I snapped off a piece of cookie and brushed off the crumbs. "He doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Ridge is using it as a recruiting tool to get more men to take positions on the island."

I choked on my cookie, a chocolate chip getting stuck in my throat. "Seriously?"

Tony shrugged. "I don't make the rules. I just listen to the sales spiels."

"That is such bullshit. I'm calling Tabitha and telling her." As Ridge's wife, Tabitha would not put up with that crap. We didn't objectify women that way.

He laughed. "Stow the claws, princess. I'm kidding. They are working to get more guys on the island, so Dalton and Broadrick have backup. Why are you so pissy?"

I dropped the left-over chocolate chip cookie in the box and grabbed a purse shaped sugar cookie. "What are you talking about? I'm not pissy."

Only Tony could call me pissy and survive. That's how he knew I considered him a top tier friend. We wouldn't be working cases together anymore, but I still considered him a great guy to have on my side of the ring.

"I hate to say it, but you seem... pissy," he continued because the man did not know when to stop.

I chewed on the cookie purse straps and dropped the rest back in the box. It didn't taste as good as the other shapes. I'd started a small pile of half-eaten cookies in one corner, and it balanced on top of the heap perfectly. "I'm just bored. There's only so much Forensic Files to be watched in a day. You know?"

He shook his head. "Have to say I've not had that problem until now, but I watched enough Survivor Man to last me a lifetime while in the hospital."

I grinned. "I need something to do now that I'm not going to be a PI, but Dalton won't let me be the new secretary. He's really opinionated about it. In a rude way." I threw in the last part for clarification. Tony needed to know what I was dealing with on the island.

"So, screw him. Why do you want to be a secretary, anyway? You're a PI."

A strawberry shaped sugar cookie with bright red frosting called to me and I snapped it in half. "I'm not a PI here."

In Killdear I was just a girlfriend to a security guy.

"What about that dead body Ridge said you and Broadrick found? The boys told me he almost lost his top when Ridge read the report."

He did? I chuckled. Anything that almost gave Ridge an aneurysm made me happy. Then I remembered the dead body and my excitement dwindled.

"The police here are calling it an accident." I chewed on the last of the strawberry cookie and dug around for another.

Tony sputtered. "Now you're kidding me. There's no way."

"They're morons here." And to think I used to believe the cops in Pelican Bay were bad.

Detective... er, chief... Anderson would never consider a knitting needle to the ear an accident.

Tony waited as I picked a chocolate chip off the half cookie I'd tossed in the box earlier. "And you're just going to let them go around being dumbasses and allowing a murderer to get away?"

What did he want me to do?

"I have no connections or history here. I don't even know who would want the realtor dead." Well, besides my realtor. Larken had a pretty big motive to kill Melissa, but I didn't want to think that way.

Tony threw his head back for a second in dismay. "That's why you have to ask questions and follow the leads. That's what a PI does."

"But I'm not a PI. I've given that life up. It caused enough trouble." Being a PI got my best friend shot in the chest and put my aunt and uncle in jail. I didn't have an outstanding track record.

"Princess, look at me," Tony said and waited until I raised my gaze to meet his on the phone. "I'm not dead."

My heart clenched, and my breath stalled. Something hard lodged in the middle of my throat. "I know."

"Do you?"

I shrugged. "Would I be talking to you right now if you were dead?"

"Just take your time, princess. You're in a funk, but it won't last forever."

That sounded a lot like what Broadrick said to me before he left this morning. Were the men conspiring against me?

My eyebrows furrowed. "Did Broadrick put you up to this call?"

"No, but get your shit together or else I'll come down there to fix you myself. And take in the local bikini sights."

Tony was definitely not coming to Florida. Not even for bikinis.

"Whatever." A text message notification flashed against the top of my screen, and I struggled to read the preview before it disappeared. "Hey, I need to let you go, but call me again tomorrow when you get bored."

"I'm getting back to the job this week."

"What!" I sat up in the bed and dropped my cookie back in the box. "Who is letting you do that?"

Tony laughed. "I can't sit around on the couch any longer, and my doctor wrote me a note."

What was up with these macho men trying to walk around being all macho?

"I've got to go, but we're not done with this discussion." He'd definitely be hearing from me again because this wasn't safe behavior. I didn't approve of this. No way was he healthy enough to come back to work.

He laughed again, and I was at least glad I'd made him smile a lot while we talked. "Oh, I'm sure you'll be seeing my shining face again soon."

My phone buzzed, reminding me of the unread text message. I'd been waiting twelve hours for this message and couldn't handle another second of suspense waiting. Kelvin, my contact at the morgue in Pelican Bay, moved at his own pace and wasn't one to be rushed, even if I threatened him.

I swiped over to read the text before hanging up with Tony. My foot jerked, and NB gave me a short bark of displeasure.

KELVIN: I've never heard of a needle to the ear being an accident. I'm not sure I've ever heard of it as murder, either.

"Hmmm, maybe you're right," I said to Tony as I hurried back to his call before he noticed something was off.

He tipped the phone closer to his face. "Of course I am, but about what this time?"

"Tony, I've got to go," I said to hurry and get off the phone with him. It's not that I didn't want to talk, but our convo and the message from Kelvin set me on a new path, at least for the afternoon. "I need to see a man-or woman-about a dead body."

"There's my girl."