talked.
'Not someone he's happy to hear from,' Mary Lou said. 'He hasn't cracked a smile.'
Morelli hung up and ate a sandwich, still standing at the counter. He washed it down with a Coke. I thought the Coke was a good sign. If he was in for the night he probably would have had a beer. He flipped the light off and left the kitchen.
Now I had a problem. If I chose to watch the wrong half of the house I might miss Morelli leaving. And by the time I ran to the car and took off after him, it could be too late. Mary Lou and I could split up, but that would negate my reason for inviting Mary Lou along. I'd wanted another set of eyes looking for Ramirez.
'Come on,' I said, creeping toward the house. 'We need to get closer.'
I pressed my nose to the windowpane on Morelli's back door. I could see clear to the front, looking through the kitchen and dining room. I could hear the television, but I couldn't see it. And I couldn't see any sign of Morelli.
'Do you see him?' Mary Lou wanted to know.
'No.'
She peered through the back door window with me. 'Too bad we can't see the front door from here. How will we know if Morelli goes out?'
'He shuts his lights off when he goes out.'
Blink. The lights went out, and the sound of the front door opening and shutting carried back to us.
'Shit!' I sprang away from the door and took off for the car.
Mary Lou ran after me, doing pretty good considering the tight pants and cowboy boots and the fact that she had legs several inches shorter than mine.
We piled into the car. Mary Lou rammed the key into the ignition, and the mom car jumped into chase mode. We whipped around the corner and saw Morelli's taillights disappear as he made a right-hand turn two blocks down.
'Perfect,' I said. 'We don't want to be so close that he sees us.'
'Do you think he's going to see Terry?'
'It's possible. Or maybe he's relieving someone on stakeout.' Now that the first rush of emotion was behind me, I found it hard to believe Joe was romantically or sexually involved with Terry. It had nothing to do with Joe the man. It had to do with Joe the cop. Joe wouldn't get himself entangled with the Grizollis.
He'd told me he had something in common with Terry—that they were both in vice. And I suspected that was the connection. I thought it possible that Joe and Terry were working together, although I couldn't imagine in what capacity. And since the Feds were in town, I guessed Vito Grizolli was involved. Maybe Joe and Terry were acting as intermediaries between Vito and the Feds. And Bunchy's interest in the checks might support my skimming theory. Although I didn't know why the government would be interested in skimming.
Joe turned onto Hamilton, drove a quarter mile, and pulled into the 7-Eleven. Mary Lou zipped past him, circled a block, and waited at the side of the road with her lights off. Joe came out of the store carrying a bag and got back into his car.
'Oh, man, I'm dying to know what's in the bag,' Mary Lou said. 'Do they sell condoms at the 7-Eleven? I never noticed.'
'He's got dessert in that bag,' I said. 'My money's on ice cream. Chocolate.'
'And I bet he's taking the ice cream to Terry!'
His engine caught, and he retraced his route down Hamilton.
'He's not going to Terry's,' I said. 'He's going home.'
'What a rip. I thought I was going to see some action.'
I didn't actually want to see a whole lot of action. I just wanted to find Uncle Fred and get on with my life. Unfortunately, I wasn't going to learn anything new if Morelli sat in front of his television eating ice cream all night.
Mary Lou dropped a block behind Morelli, keeping him in sight. He parked in front of his house, and Mary Lou and I parked on the cross street again. We got out of the mom car, skulked back down the alley, and stopped short at the edge of Morelli's yard. The light was on in his kitchen, and Morelli was moving in front of the window.
'What's he doing?' Mary Lou asked. 'What's he doing?'
'Getting a spoon. I was right—he went out to buy ice cream.'
The light blinked out, and Morelli disappeared. Mary Lou and I scuttled across Morelli's backyard and squinted into his window.
'Do you see him?' Mary Lou asked.
'No. He's disappeared.'
'I didn't hear the front door open.'
'No, and he's got the television on. He's just out of sight somewhere.'
Mary Lou crept closer. 'Too bad he's got the shades pulled on his front windows.'
'I'll try to be more considerate next time,' Morelli said, standing inches behind us.
Mary Lou and I yelped and instinctively sprang away, but Morelli had both of us by the back of our jackets.
'Look who we have here,' Morelli said. 'Lucy and Ethel. Is this the girls' night out?'
