'You looking for someone?' Spiro said to Morelli. 'Radiewski's in the addition.' Morelli flashed his badge.
'I know who you are,' Spiro said. 'There a problem here? I leave for a half-hour, and I come back to a problem.'
'Not a problem,' Morelli told him. 'Just trying to find the owner of some caskets that burned.'
'You found him. And I didn't set the fire. The caskets were stolen from me.'
'Did you report the theft to the police?'
'I didn't want the publicity. I hired Ms. Marvel here to find the damn things.'
'The one casket that was left looked a little plain for a burg casket,' Morelli said.
'I got them on sale from the army. Surplus. I was thinking maybe I'd franchise out into other neighborhoods. Maybe take them down to Philly. Lot of poor people in Philly.'
'I'm curious about this army surplus stuff,' Morelli said. 'How does this work?'
'You submit a bid to the DRMO. If the bid gets picked up, you've got a week to haul your shit off the base.'
'Which base are we talking about?'
'Braddock.'
Morelli was a study of calm. 'Wasn't Kenny Mancuso stationed at Braddock?'
'Yeah. A lot of people are stationed at Braddock.'
'Okay,' Morelli said, 'so they accept your bid. How do you get the caskets back here?'
'Me and Moogey went down with a U-Haul.'
'One last question,' Morelli said. 'You have any idea why someone would steal your caskets and then set a match to them?'
'Yeah. They were stolen by a nut. I've got things to do,' Spiro said. 'You're done here, right?'
'For now.'
They locked eyes, a muscle worked in Spiro's jaw, and he wheeled off to his office.
'See you back at the ranch,' Morelli said to me, and he was off, too. The door to Spiro's office was closed. I knocked and waited. No answer. I knocked louder.
'Spiro,' I yelled, 'I know you're in there!'
Spiro ripped the door open. 'Now what?'
'My money.'
'Christ, I have more things to think about than your chickenshit money.'
'Like what?'
'Like crazy Kenny Mancuso setting fire to my goddamn caskets.'
'How do you know it was Kenny?'
'Who else could it be? He's looney tunes, and he's threatening me.'
'You should have told Morelli.'
'Yeah, right. That's all I need. Like I haven't got enough problems, I should have the cops looking up my butt.'
'I've noticed you're not fond of cops.'
