'They aren't loners. I don't know how much time they spend on the computer.'
We turned the corner and headed for home. 'You've been busy using your breaking and entering skills,' I said.
'I just enter. I don't usually break.'
'You broke down Pitch's door.'
'Lost my temper.'
Bob hunched again.
'Oh, for crissake,' I said.
MORELLI WAS SITTING on his front step when we got back with Bob. 'Lucky you,' he said. 'A two-bag day.'
'I think we should stop feeding him.'
'Yeah,' Morelli said. 'That would work.' He stood and took Bob's leash and looked over at Ranger.
'It's been quiet,' Ranger said. 'No shooting. No one tailing us. No death threats or poison darts.'
Morelli nodded.
'Your watch,' Ranger said to Morelli. And he left.
'The bodyguard thing is getting old,' I told Morelli.
'Did you tell that to Ranger?'
'Would it do any good?'
Morelli followed me into the house. 'I have some bad news and then I have some bad news,' Morelli said.
'Let's start with the bad news first.'
'I checked your email account this afternoon just before I left work. You have another carnation letter. It's on the sideboard. I printed it out for you.'
I looked at the email.
It will happen soon. Nothing can stop it. Are you excited?
'This guy's turning out to be a real pain in the ass,' I said. 'Now what's the bad news?'
'Grandma Bella's on her way over.'
'What?'
'She called just as you were coming down the street with Bob. She said she had another vision and she had to tell you.'
'You're kidding!'
'I'm not kidding.'
'Why didn't you tell her not to come? Why didn't you tell her I wasn't home?' All right, maybe I sounded a little whiney, but this was Grandma Bella we were expecting. And whiney was better than flat-out hysteria, right?
'She's coming with a dish of my mother's manicotti. Have you ever tasted my mother's manicotti?'
'You sold me out for manicotti!'
Morelli grinned and kissed me on the forehead. 'You can have some, too. And by the way, your hair is cute.'
I narrowed my eyes at him. I wasn't feeling cute. In fact, I'd decided I didn't like cute. Cute wasn't a word anyone would use to describe Morelli or Ranger. Cute implied a degree of helplessness. Kittens were cute.
A car stopped in front of the house and I took a deep breath. Calm down, I thought. Don't want to be rude. Don't want to let them sense fear. There was a knock at the door and Joe reached for the handle.
'Touch that handle and you die,' I said. 'She's coming here to see me. I'll let her in.'
The grin returned. 'Woman in charge,' Morelli said.
I opened the door and smiled at the two women. 'How nice to see you again,' I said. 'Come in.'
'We can't stay,' Joe's mother said. 'We're on our way to church. We just wanted to drop this manicotti off.'
I took the casserole and Grandma Bella fixed her scary eye on me.
'I had a vision,' Bella said.
I looked down at her and screwed my face into an expression that I hoped conveyed mild interest. 'Really?'
'It was you. You were dead. Just like the last time. You went into the ground.'
'Uh-hunh.'
'I saw you in the box.'
'Mahogany? The model with the scroll work?'
'Top of the line,' Bella said.
