man's home just because he goes on a bender. Anyway, why are you so interested in finding Eddie? I thought you were looking for Maxine Nowicki.'
'Eddie's disappearance might be related.'
'For the last time, I'm telling you it's not a disappearance.'
Sounded like denial to me, but what do I know? I went back to the Buick and drove to Mrs. Nowicki's house. It looked even worse than it had the first time I saw it. No one was cutting the grass, and a dog had done number two right in the middle of the sidewalk. Just for the hell of it I walked around the house and looked in the windows. No sign of life.
I got back in the car and headed for Margie's house. I took New York to Olden, turned onto Olden and spotted the beat-up Fairlane Morelli uses for surveillance. He was parked across the street from the 7-Eleven where Helen Badijian had worked before her death. Morelli was working with the Feds, so I assumed it was drugs, but really it could be anything from running guns to blackmarket babies. Or maybe he'd stopped there to have lunch and take a nap.
Margie's house looked better kept than Nowicki's, but empty all the same. I looked in the windows, and I wondered what Margie had done with her cat.
The next-door neighbor stuck her head out her front door and caught me peeking in Margie's window.
'I'm looking for Margie,' I said. 'I work with her at the diner, and I haven't seen her for a couple days, so I got worried. She doesn't seem to be home.'
'She went on vacation. She said it was too hard to work with her finger cut like that, so she took some time off. I think she went to the shore. I'm surprised you didn't know.'
'I knew she wasn't working. I didn't know she went to the shore.' I looked around. 'Where's her cat? She take it with her?'
'No. They don't allow cats in the house she rented. I'm feeding the cat. It's no bother.'
I was half a block away when it hit me. The finger! She'd have to have it looked at. She'd have to get her stitches removed. And Maxine's mother probably needed medical attention, too. She'd still had her head all wrapped up when I saw her in Point Pleasant.
I hustled to the office so I could use the by-street directory. Connie was doing her nails, and Lula had her ears plugged in to a Walkman. Lula's back was to me, and her beads were clicking around her head, and her ass was going side to side in some jive step. She caught me in her peripheral vision and turned the Walkman down.
'Uh oh,' she said. 'You're not getting any.'
'How do you know that?' I yelled. I threw my hands into the air. 'I don't believe this!'
Vinnie poked his head around the corner. 'What's all the racket about?'
'Stephanie's here,' Connie said.
Vinnie had a cigar in his mouth that I'm willing to bet was twice the size of his dick. 'Where's Maxine? I forfeit my money in five days, for crissake. I should never have taken Barnhardt off.'
'I'm closing in.'
'Right,' Vinnie said. 'Closing in on my liver.' He ducked into his office and slammed the door.
I traced Margie's address in the directory and came up with her last name. There are three hospitals in the Trenton area. Helene Fuld is a short distance from Nowicki's neighborhood. Margie's address is equal distance between Helene Fuld and St. Francis.
I went home to Joe's house, helped myself to another wedge of chocolate cake and called my cousin Evelyn, who works at Helene Fuld. I gave her the two names and asked her to nose around. Neither Margie nor Mama Nowicki was wanted by the police, so (assuming they were alive) they had no reason not to return to their doctors. Their only concern was keeping me from following them back to Maxine.
* * * * *
IT WAS three o'clock, and I was sort of hoping another Italian lady would stop around with something new for dinner. I kept looking out the window, but I didn't see any big black cars bearing food. This posed a problem because the idea of being in Morelli's kitchen, making him dinner, felt like a Doris Day movie.
Evelyn called and told me it was my lucky day. Both women had been treated at Fuld. Both women would go to their own doctors for follow-up. She gave me the names of the attending physicians and also the names listed for primary care through their medical plans. I told her I owed her. She said a detailed description of Morelli in bed would do the trick.
I called the doctors and lied my ass off to their receptionists, telling them I'd forgotten my appointment time. Both women had Wednesday appointments. Shit, I was good.
Morelli dragged in with a sweat stain the length of his gray Tshirt. He went to the refrigerator and stuck his head in the freezer. 'I've gotta get air in this house.'
I thought the weather was pretty good compared to yesterday. Today you could sort of see a yellow glow where the sun was behind the layer of funk air.
He pulled his head out of the freezer, tossed his gun on the counter and got a beer.
'Bad day?'
'Average.'
'I saw you in north Trenton.'
'You made me?'
'I recognized the car. I figured you were watching the Seven-Eleven.'
'And watching, and watching, and watching.'
