Alice looked at Tina.  “He was kind of cute, huh?  In a stoner kind of way.”

* * * * *

Shane walked through her kitchen, glanced out of the side window and saw her Jeep parked in the driveway.  She was looking for Carmen and thought she had gone to the store or MacDonalds.  The car was there.  She opened the back door and stepped onto the deck. 

“Carmen?  Carmen?”  Shane shouted.  She noticed the converted shed door was open and saw Carmen standing inside. 

At the door to Mark’s studio, Shane looked at Carmen in disbelief.  Her lover was holding a stack of papers in her hand, reading intently, flipping from one page to the next.  Shane looked at her, concern already etched on her face that Carmen had invaded Mark’s space.

“What are you doing?  Carmen, this is as bad as him having cameras.  You shouldn’t be in here going through his stuff.”

Carmen looked up at her and an equal amount of concern showed on her face.  Quietly, she slid some of the papers on the table across the surface of it. 

“Take a look.  There’s plenty more.  It’s unbelievable, Shane.”

Shane looked down at the paper.  Her eyes widened.  “What the fuck?”

Those had been Carmen’s words ten minutes earlier.  She knew she had no business snooping, but those brown envelopes had her intuition on high alert.  Something was going on and she was determined to get to the bottom of it. 

Carmen turned to her and shook her head.  “He’s crazy.  I want him out of here.  This shit scares me.”

Shane nodded, not really listening to Carmen.  She moved the top sheet away and glanced at the next piece of paper.  She was unnerved by what she saw.  “This doesn’t make sense.  Why would he do this?”

“Cause he’s a fucking fucked-up mother fucker.  That’s why.”

Carmen dropped the pages she held onto Mark’s desk next to the computer and walked over to Shane.  She caressed her arm and could feel shame and Shane’s sense of betrayal pouring from her.

“I-I don’t understand.”

Carmen continued to rub her arm.  “None of this matters to me, unless it matters to you.”  Shane seemed distant and was unresponsive.  Carmen watched her intently, wondering what was going on in her lover’s head.  Finally, Carmen added, “You need to put him out today, though.  You can’t let this slide.”