25“Not women. One woman. Google Alert pings me whenever the name Bella Hinton appears in the media.”
Leaning toward me, he pretended to twirl a mustache end, like a cartoon villain. “I track you twenty-four hours a day, little lady.”
The absurdity made me laugh.
“You’re a bigger liar than your little brother.”
“Okay, I don’t follow you that closely.”
His sneer turned into a smile.
“But I’m always interested in what former acquaintances are up to. Never know when I’ll need their kind of help.”
I doubted I had anything to offer a claims investigator in New Hampshire.
But he could help me. And his phony excuse gave me a way to frame my pitch.
“In the past,” I said, “I got investigative assistance in-house. Not an option for this case. So here I am. Asking a former acquaintance for he
