- Roy asks for his bike back. But Beatrice isn't just going to hand it over.
- Instead, she tells him to get on the handlebars and they go for a little ride.
- They arrive at a junkyard and sneak into an old ice cream truck. In complete darkness, Beatrice asks again what's in Roy's shoebox.
- Sometimes the most obvious answer is the right answer. Because Roy says he has shoes...in the shoe box.
- Not believing him, Beatrice grabs the box from Roy and opens it up and guess what?
- She finds a pair of shoes.
- Beatrice asks the question on everyone's mind, "Why are you carryin' around an extra pair of sneakers? That's really weird, cowgirl" (7.31).
- Well, being the nice guy that he is, Roy had planned on giving the shoeless kid some shoes. The two debate in darkness about Roy minding his own business and whether the strange boy would even want the shoes.
- Then Beatrice asks Roy the second question on everyone's mind, "Why do you care about this kid?"
- Turns out, Roy doesn't have an answer for this.
- But then Beatrice offers Roy a deal. She'll give the shoes to the barefoot kid if Roy stops lurking around. This confirms Roy's suspicions that Beatrice knows the barefoot kid.
- And she knows him quite well...since he's her brother. Dum dum dummm.
- Cut to Officer Delinko, who is leaving work after another fun-filled day of paperwork. In the pouring rain, he picks up his car from the shop and does a little drive by the construction site.
- He sees nothing suspicious at the site, so all's good.
- Listening to the police radio, Delinko hears information go out on a missing local boy named Roy (yup, same Roy).
- And just moments later, Delinko sees a young boy matching the description and it turns out to be Roy.
- Finally, our two main characters meet. Delinko gives Roy a ride home and tries to make conversation. But all Roy can think about is what Beatrice just told him.
- The strange boy is actually her brother.
- Well, stepbrother. And she's the one who nicknamed him Mullet Fingers since he could catch a mullet using just his hands. (Apparently mullets are super slippery baitfish.)
- Beatrice also tells Roy why Mullet Fingers has to be kept a secret; he recently ran away from school and Beatrice is the only person who knows he's back.
- Roy's mind snaps back to Delinko when he asks if there have been any talks around school about the new Mother Paula's.
- He says he hasn't heard anything and Delinko gives Roy his card and tells him to give a call if he hears something.
- Roy's not too keen on being a snitch (even if he did have any information) but he tells the officer he'll let him know.
- Once home, Delinko chats it up with Roy's parents and before leaving asks Roy if he could get his father to write a short letter to the department that makes Delinko look good.
- When Roy's parents bring up the newspaper article on the cop that fell asleep in his car, Delinko makes a quick getaway.
- And Roy thinks he knows why.