Four to Score

Lula hoisted her up and sat her in a chair. 'You should see a doctor about these spells,' Lula said.

Joyce nodded. 'Yeah. Thanks.'

We got Joyce a cold beer and went off to find Kuntz.

I went outside to Morelli. 'You see Eddie Kuntz leave?'

'What's he look like?'

'Five-eleven. Bodybuilder. He was wearing black pleated slacks and a black short-sleeve shirt.'

'Yeah, I saw him. He left about five minutes ago. Drove off in a Chevy Blazer.'

'He alone?'

'Yep.'

'Nobody followed him?'

'Not that I noticed.'

I returned to the bar and stood at the entrance looking for Sally and Lula. The room was crowded, and the noise level had risen considerably. I was jostled forward and then sharply yanked back, face-to-face with an angry woman I didn't recognize.

'I knew it was you!' she said. 'You bitch.'

I knocked her hands off me. 'What's your problem?'

'You're my problem. Everything was fine before you came along.'

'What are you talking about?'

'You know what I'm talking about. And if you have any sense in that big bimbo head of yours you'll get out of town. You'll go far away. Because if you don't I'm gonna find you and turn you into a pile of ashes . . . just like your apartment.'

'You set fire to my apartment!'

'Hell no, not me. Do I look crazy enough to do something like that?'

'Yes.'

She laughed very softly, but her eyes were small and hard with emotions that had nothing to do with joy. 'Believe what you want. Just stay away from my boyfriend.' She gave me a rough shove backward and stalked off toward the door, disappearing in the crowd.

I started after her, but the guy next to me moved in. 'So,' he said, 'you want a boyfriend all your own?'

'Jesus,' I said. 'Get a life.'

'Hey,' he said, 'just asking. No reason to get all huffy.'

I shoved my way around him, but the woman was gone. I worked through the room to the door. I looked outside. I went back inside and looked some more. No luck.

I found Sally and Lula at the bar.

'This is impossible,' Lula said. 'There's wall-to-wall people here. You can't hardly even get a drink, much less find someone.'

I told them Morelli saw Kuntz take off in the Blazer, but I didn't tell them about the angry woman. The angry woman was a separate issue. Probably.

'If there's not gonna be any more action here, Sally and me are taking off for this place he knows has good music,' Lula said. 'You want to come with?'

'No thanks, I'm calling it a night.'

Sally and Lula gave each other the elbows.

*    *    *    *    *

'SO WHAT HAPPENED?' Morelli asked when I got back to the truck.

'Nothing.'

'Just like always?'

'Yeah, except this was more nothing than usual.' I rummaged through my shoulder bag, found my cell phone and dialed Kuntz. No answer. 'This is too weird. Why would he leave the bar like that?'

'Were you with him the whole time? Maybe someone gave him another clue, and he went off on his own.'

We were still parked at the curb, and I was thinking I should go back to the bar and ask some questions. 'Wait here,' I told Morelli.

'Again?'

'This will only take a few minutes.'

I went to the bartender who'd been tending bar near us when Joyce went down.

'Do you remember the dark-haired guy I was with?' I asked. 'The one dressed in black.'

'Yeah. Eddie Kuntz.'