'Babe, it's a safe house. It's on a lake in the woods.'
Oh boy. Bears, black flies, rabid raccoons, and spiders. 'Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll pass. Just tell Tank to stick close to me.'
Ranger put the truck in gear, turned at the corner, drove two blocks down Market, and parked in front of an old Victorian clapboard house. The front door was unlocked and led to a small foyer. There were six mailboxes lined up on the wall. Beyond the mailboxes, a hand-carved mahogany railing followed a broad staircase to the second and third floors. The carpet was threadbare and the wall covering was faded and had begun to peel at the corners, but the foyer and staircase were clean. An air freshener had been plugged into a baseboard outlet and spewed lemony freshness that mingled with the natural mustiness of the house.
We ran through the names on the mailboxes and found Carl Rosen. Apartment 2B. We both knew chances weren't good that he'd be in, but we took the stairs and knocked on his door. No answer. We knocked on the door across the hall. No answer there, either.
We could get Carl Rosen's work address easy enough, but most people were reluctant to talk in their work environment. Better to wait a couple hours and catch him at home.
'Now what?' I asked Ranger.
'I want to go through Bart Cone's house. It'll be easier to do alone, so I'm taking you back to the office. You should be safe there. I'll pick you up at five and we'll try Rosen again.'
CHAPTER 8
MRS. APUSENJA WAS sitting in the office when Ranger dropped me off. She was on the couch, arms crossed over her chest, lips pressed tightly together.
She jumped up when I walked in and pointed her finger at me. 'You!' Mrs. Apusenja said. 'What do you do all day? Do you look for Samuel Singh? Do you look for poor little Boo? Where are they? Why haven't you found them?'
Connie rolled her eyes.
'Hunh,' Lula said from behind a file cabinet.
'I've only been looking for a couple days&' I said.
'This is the fourth day. Do you know what I think? I think you don't know what you're doing. I want someone new on the case. I demand someone new.'
We all looked at the door to Vinnie's inner office. It was closed and locked. There was silence behind the door.
Connie got up and rapped on the door. No response. 'Hey,' Connie yelled. 'Mrs. Apusenja wants to talk to you. Open the door!'
The door still didn't open.
Connie returned to her desk, got a key from the middle drawer, and went back and opened Vinnie's door. 'Guess you didn't hear me,' Connie said, standing hand on hip, looking in at Vinnie. 'Mrs. Apusenja wants to talk to you.'
Vinnie came to the door and smiled an oily smile out at Mrs. Apusenja. 'Nice to see you again,' he said. 'Do you have some new information for us?'
'I have this for you. The new information is that I will go to the papers if you do not find Samuel Singh. I will ruin you. How does it look for my Nonnie? People will talk. And he owes me two weeks' rent. Who will pay that?'
'Of course we'll find him,' Vinnie said. 'I've got my best man looking for Singh. And Stephanie's helping him.'
'You are a boil on the backside of your profession,' Mrs. Apusenja said. And she left.
'How many years have I been in this business? A lot of years, right?' Vinnie asked. 'And I'm good at it. I'm good at writing bond. I do a service for the community. Does the honest law-abiding taxpayer have to pay my salary? No. Does the city of Trenton have to hire cops to go find their scofflaws? No. All because of me. I go get the scumbags at no cost to the general population. I risk my neck!'
Connie and Lula and I raised our eyebrows.
'Well, okay, I risk Stephanie's neck,' Vinnie said. 'But it's all in the family, right?'
'Yeesh,' Lula said.
'I should have let Sebring write the damn visa bond,' Vinnie said. 'What was I thinking?'
Les Sebring was Vinnie's competitor. There were several bail bonds offices in the Trenton area, but Sebring's agency was the largest.
'So what are you doing standing here?' Vinnie asked, flapping his arms. 'Go find him, for crissake.' Vinnie looked around and sniffed the air. 'What's that smell? It smells like roast leg of lamb.'
'It was my afternoon snack,' Lula said. 'I got it delivered from the Greek deli. I'm on the all-you-can-eat meat diet. I didn't eat the whole leg, though. I don't want to go overboard.'
'Yeah,' Connie said. 'She only ate half a leg.'
Vinnie stepped back into his office and closed and locked the door.
'Sounds like we should go find this guy,' Lula said.
I'd like nothing better than to find Samuel Singh, but I didn't know how. And worse, I was having a hard time focusing on the hunt. I couldn't get Lillian Paressi out of my head. I kept seeing her marching into the Blue Bird, angrily clutching the flowers. Red rose, white carnation. The note was innocuous. Nothing to get angry over. So the flowers had to be part of a continuing harassment. And surely she talked to someone about it. I was hoping Carl Rosen was that someone.
