Page 73 of The Best Trick

“No idea,” she said. “We didn't really talk much aside from when we had a problem neighbor a year back.”

We went across the hall and knocked. A guy in a track suit opened up. “We’re looking for Ferdinand across the hall,” Thor said. “You know where he is?”

“Nope,” the guy said. “I didn’t see much of him. Got a new dog, I can tell you that. Thing was barking its head off.”

We asked at one more door and got exactly the same story.

Zeus was standing outside of Ferdinand’s door when we finished with the last neighbor on our side. “Anything?” I asked Zeus.

Zeus shook his head. “I spoke to five people. They all heard a dog barking, but nothing about where he went. The timeline lines up.”

“Chatty group,” I said. “I was shocked that they all opened their doors. I guess they all really wanted to talk about the barking dog.”

“Thatwasweird,” Thor said. “Who answers a random knock on the door these days?”

“Right?” I said.

Back at Ferdinand’s, Odin hadn’t turned up anything. We filled him in on what the neighbors said.

Odin seemed to ponder it for a long time. “He had a dog here for over a week, so where is the dog hair? I suppose it's possible he kept her in a kennel in the bedroom, and she was quiet when we were here. Or is he working with someone?”

There was a kid on the stoop when we got out. He was on his phone, tapping away. “You the ones asking about the music guy and his dog?” he asked, not looking up.

“Yeah, you know him? You see them leave?”

The kid put his phone in his lap and gave us a long look. “I might have something interesting to say. For two hundred bucks.”

“You got something interesting to say for two hundred bucks?” Thor asked. “How do we know it's interesting?” He was talking tough, but I could tell he liked the kid.

“I just know. And I know that's the going price.”

“What do you mean, the going price?” Thor asked.

The kid smiled and put out his hand.

Odin snorted and slapped four fifties into the kid’s hand. “Give us something good and we’ll give you more.”

“There was no dog,” the boy said. “There never was a dog in there.”

“You didn’t hear a dog?” Thor asked.

“No, I’m saying there was never a dog in there. My dad and I live across the hall from the guy. We never heard a peep.”

“Your dad wear a red track suit?” I asked.

“Yup,” the kid said.

“So why did you dad hear the dog? All of your neighbors said they heard a dog barking,” I said.

“That’s because some guy gave us all a hundred bucks to say we heard a dog, and he said he'd come back later and give us another hundred if we convinced you. We're supposed to say it was barking its head off for over a week, and that’s all we know.”

Wow, I thought.

Odin peeled off what looked like a few hundreds and set them in the boy’s hand. “Can you tell me what the guy looked like?”

“Kinda like a short version of The Rock, but with dark and gray hair. An old gym-rat type. Brown coat.”

We all exchanged glances. Alfred.

---