“Forget it. It’s a murder. I should never have posted bail, but he was from the burg, and I felt sorry for his mother. Trust me, you don’t need this kind of trouble.”
“I need the money, Vinnie. Give me a chance at bringing him in.”
“When hell freezes over,” Vinnie said. “I don’t get this guy back, I’m in the hole for a hundred grand. I’m not sending an amateur after him.”
Connie rolled her eyes at me. “You’d think it was out of his pocket. He’s owned by an insurance company. It’s no big deal.”
“So give me a week, Vinnie,” I said. “If I don’t get him in a week, you can turn it over to someone else.”
“I wouldn’t give you a half hour.”
I took a deep breath and leaned close to Vinnie, whispering in his ear. “I know about Madam Zaretski and her whips and chains. I know about the boys. And I know about the duck.”
He didn’t say anything. He just pressed his lips together until they turned white, and I knew I had him. Lucille would throw up if she knew what he did to the duck. Then she’d tell her father, Harry the Hammer, and Harry would cut off Vinnie’s dick.
“Who am I looking for?” I asked Vinnie.
Vinnie handed me the file. “Joseph Morelli.”
My heart flipped in my chest. I knew Morelli had been involved in a homicide. It had been big news in the burg, and details of the shooting had been splashed across the front page of the Trenton
The reaction wasn’t lost to Vinnie. “From the look on your face, I’d say you know him.”
I nodded. “Sold him a cannoli when I was in high school.”
Connie grunted. “Honey, half of all the women in New Jersey have sold him their cannoli.”
I BOUGHT A CAN OF SODA at Fiorello’s and drank while I walked to my car. I slid behind the wheel, popped the top two buttons on my red silk shirt, and stripped off my pantyhose as a concession to the heat. Then I flipped open Morelli’s file and studied the photos first—mug shots from Morelli’s booking, a candid picture of him in a brown leather bomber jacket and jeans, and a formal pose in a shirt and tie, obviously clipped from a police publication. He hadn’t changed much. A little leaner, perhaps. More bone definition in the face. A few lines at the eyes. A new scar, paper thin, sliced through his right eyebrow, causing his right eyelid to droop ever so slightly. The effect was unsettling. Menacing.
Morelli had taken advantage of my naivete not once, but twice. After the scene on the bakery floor, he’d never called, never sent me a postcard, never even said good-by. And the worst part of it all was that I’d
History, I told myself. I hadn’t seen the man more than three or four times in the past eleven years, and each time had been at a distance. Morelli was a part of my childhood, and my childish feelings for him had no place in the present. I had a job to do. Plain and simple. I wasn’t out to avenge old injuries. Finding Morelli had nothing to do with revenge. Finding Morelli had to do with the rent money. Yeah, right. That’s why I suddenly had this knot in my stomach.
According to the information on the bond contract, Morelli lived in an apartment complex just off Route 1. This seemed like a good place to start looking. I doubted Morelli would be in his apartment, but I could question his neighbors and see if he was picking up his mail.
I set the file aside and reluctantly squeezed my feet back into my black heels. I turned the key in the ignition. No response. I gave the dash a hard shot with my fist and let out a grunt of relief when the engine cranked over.
Ten minutes later, I pulled into Morelli’s parking lot. The buildings were brick, two-story, utilitarian. Each building had two breezeways. Eight apartments opened off each breezeway, four up and four down. I cut the engine and scanned for apartment numbers. Morelli had a ground-level rear apartment.
I sat there for a while feeling stupid and inept. Suppose Morelli was home. What would I do, threaten to tell his mother if he didn’t come peaceably? The man was up for murder. He had a lot at stake. I couldn’t imagine him hurting me, but the possibility of being mortally embarrassed was extremely high. Not that I’ve ever let a little embarrassment stop me from forging blindly ahead on any number of dumb projects… like my ill-fated marriage to Dickie Orr, the horse’s behind. The memory cued an involuntary grimace. Hard to believe I’d actually married a man named Dickie.
Okay, I thought, forget about Dickie. This is the Morelli plan. Check out his mailbox and then his apartment. If I got lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you looked at it), and he answered his door, I’d lie through my teeth and leave. Then I’d call the police and let them do the physical stuff.
I marched across the blacktop and diligently stared into the bank of mailboxes set into the brick wall. All were stuffed with envelopes. Morelli’s was more stuffed than most. I crossed the breezeway and knocked on his door. No answer. Big surprise. I knocked again and waited. Nothing. I walked around to the back of the building and counted off windows. Four to Morelli and four to the apartment behind his. Morelli had his shades down, but I crept close and peeked in anyway, trying to see between the edge of the shade and the interior wall. If the shades suddenly rolled up and a face peered out, I’d wet my pants on the spot. Fortunately, the shades didn’t roll up, and unfortunately I couldn’t see anything beyond them. I went back to the breezeway and tried the three remaining apartments. Two were no answers. The third was occupied by an elderly woman who had lived there for six years and had never seen Morelli. Dead end.
I went back to my car and sat there trying to think what to do next. There was no activity on the grounds—no televisions blaring from open windows, no children riding bikes, no dogs being rude on the lawn. Not the sort of place that drew families, I thought. Not the sort of place neighbors would know neighbors.
A sporty car pulled into the lot and swung wide of me, parking in one of the front spaces. The driver sat at the wheel for a while, and I wondered if this was an assignation. Since I had nothing better to do, I waited to see what
