“Did you hear about the bodies?” she asked.
“Morelli and I made the discovery,” I said.
Grandma’s eyes opened wide. “No kidding! Were you there when they dug them up? Are you going to be on TV?”
I retrieved my pocketbook from the hall closet and did a fast check of the contents. “I don’t think I’ll be on TV.”
“Boy,” Grandma said, “I sure would have liked to have been there.”
“How was church?” I asked.
“Boring,” she said. “A big waste of time. We got a bunch of duds in that congregation. Nobody hot to trot. I’m gonna try the bingo hall tonight. I hear they got some live lookers coming to bingo.”
Ranger was already parked when I swung into the municipal lot on Woodley. He was dressed in army fatigues and a khaki flight jacket.
“What’s up?” I said by way of greeting.
“I got word on one of my FTAs. Earl Forster. Robbed a liquor store and shot the clerk in the foot. Jumped on a three-hundred-thousand-dollar bond. Just got a phone call saying Forster’s stopped by to see his girlfriend in New Brunswick. I have a man in place, but I need to be there for the takedown. Can you handle the search for Harp by yourself?”
“No problem. Lula knows what he looks like. She knows his corners.”
“Don’t get close to him,” Ranger said. “Only use him to get to Mo. If Mo and Harp go off together, let Mo put Harp away before you go in. We think Mo might be killing drug dealers. We
Cheery thought for the day.
“If it looks like you can do a takedown, but you need extra help, get me on the cell phone or the pager,” Ranger said.
“Be careful,” I said to the back of his car as he drove away. No point saying it to his face.
Lula barreled into the lot ten minutes later. “Sorry I’m late,” she said. “I got this intestinal problem, you know.” She looked around. “Where’s Ranger?”
“Had business elsewhere. We’re on our own.”
If I was doing a serious stakeout with another person, I’d use two cars or have one person on foot with a second car in backup. I suspected this would be more of a ride around and look for a man who didn’t show up. And since I had no idea what Harp looked like, I elected to ride with Lula.
It was another gray day with a light rain beginning to fall. Temperatures were in the forties, so nothing was freezing. Lula motored the Firebird out of the lot and headed for Stark Street. We kept our eyes open for the Batmobile, Elliot Harp and bad guys in general. We worked our way down Stark, hit the end of the business district, turned and retraced our route. Lula wove her way through the projects, cruised center city and crossed over to King. When she reached Ferris she drove by Mo’s. The store was padlocked and sealed with crime scene tape. We did this circuit two more times. It was raining. Not many people out on the street.
“I’m starving to death,” Lula said. “I need a burger. I need fries.”
I could see the glow of a fast-food drive-through shining red and yellow through the misting rain. I could feel the force field sucking us forward to the speaker box.
“I want a triple-decker burger,” Lula yelled at the box. “I want bacon and cheese and special sauce. I want a large fries, and I want lots of them little ketchup packets. And I want a large chocolate milkshake.” She turned to me. “You want something?”
“I’ll have the same.”
“Double that order,” Lula shouted. “And don’t forget about the ketchup.”
We took the bags of food and parked on Stark Street where we could watch the action. Trouble was, there wasn’t much action to watch.
“You ever wonder about him?” Lula asked.
“Who?”
“Ranger.”
“What’s to wonder?”
“I bet you don’t know anything about him,” Lula said. “Nobody knows anything about him. I bet you don’t even know where he lives.”
“I know his address.”
“Hah! That vacant lot.”
I sipped at my milkshake, and Lula finished up her fries.
“I think we should do some detecting on Ranger,” Lula said. “I think someday we should follow his ass.”
“Hmm,” I said, not feeling especially qualified to follow Ranger’s ass.
“In fact, I might follow it tomorrow morning. You run with him every day?”
“Not if I can help it.”
“Well if you run with him tomorrow, you call me. I could use some exercise.”
