ESTHER HAMISH'S RENTAL was a lot like my parents' house. Living room, dining room, kitchen on the ground floor. Three small bedrooms and bath on the second floor. Narrow backyard.
Minuscule front yard. A stand-alone, two-car garage to the rear of the property.
The interior was clean but tired. The bathroom and kitchen were serviceable but dated. Again, a lot like my parents' house.
And clearly the house was occupied.
'When will it be available?' Valerie asked.
'Two weeks,' Esther said. 'I have a young family in here now, and they just bought a house. They'll be moving in two weeks.'
'Wait a minute,' I said. 'The paper said immediate occupancy.'
'Well, two weeks is almost immediate,' Esther said. 'When you get to be my age, two weeks is nothing.'
Two weeks. I'll be dead in two weeks! Valerie needs to move out of my apartment now.
Valerie turned to my mother. 'What do you think?'
'It's perfect,' my mother said.
Esther looked at Sally. 'Are you the son-in-law?'
'Nope,' Sally said. 'I'm the bus driver and the wedding planner.'
'The son-in-law is a lawyer,' my mother said proudly.
Esther perked up when she heard that.
'You should take it,' Grandma said to Valerie.
'Yeah,' Sally said. 'You should take it.'
'Okay,' Valerie said. 'It's a deal.'
So here we go again, there's good news, and there's bad news.
The good news is I'm getting my apartment back. The bad news is I'm not getting it back soon enough.
'I need a doughnut,' I said, more to myself than anyone else.
'That's a good idea,' Grandma said. 'I could go for a doughnut.'
'Back to the bus,' Sally said. 'We're all going for doughnuts.'
Five minutes later, Sally was parked in front of Tasty Pastry. The doors whooshed open and everyone tramped out for celebratory doughnuts. Grandma picked out two, my mother picked out two, Valerie got two, and Sally got two. And I got a dozen. I said they were for the office, but if my day didn't improve there was a good chance I'd eat every last one of them.
Renee Platt was behind the counter. 'Wow, it's really brave of you to take on the Slayers,' she said to me. 'I sure wouldn't want to mess with any of those guys.'
'Who are the Slayers?' my mother wanted to know.
'Nobody special,' I told my mother. 'And I didn't take them on.'
'I heard you went into their territory with a tank and ran over a bunch of them,' Renee said. 'Including the head guy. And I heard you're the only one who can identify the Red Devil. And that you've sworn a blood oath to get him.'
'Omigod,' I said. 'Who did you hear that from?'
'Everybody knows,' Renee said. Its all over town.'
My mother crossed herself and ate her two doughnuts on the spot. 'It's the Hungarian side of the family.' Grandma said. 'We're tough. We come from a long line of army deserters and nasty alcoholics.'
'Probably we should be going home now,' I said. My mother looked like the two doughnuts didn't do it. My mother had her lips pressed so tight together her face was turning blue. I was a trial to my mother.
We all trooped out to the bus and took our seats. 'Let me know if you need help rounding up those Slayers,' Grandma said to me.
'I don't know what they are, but I bet I could kick some Slayer butt.'
They're a gang,' Sally said. 'A really bad gang. I have to go through their territory to pick up a couple kids on my bus route, and it's like going through a war zone. They have sentries on the corners and soldiers patrolling the streets. And I don't know what it is, but these guys never smile. They just stand there, staring, like the living dead.'
'What do gangs do?' Grandma wanted to know.
They act tough,' Sally said. 'And these days they control a lot of the drug traffic. And they kill each other.'
'I don't know what this world's coming to,' Grandma said. 'Used to be the mob did that. What's left for the mob to do? No wonder Lou Raguzzi looks so bad. I saw him the other day at Stiva's and his shoes were all run down at the heel. He probably can't afford to buy shoes.'
'Lou's doing fine,' my mother said. 'He's being audited by the IRS. He got those shoes special so he wouldn't look too successful.'
Everyone crossed themselves at the mention of the IRS. Street gangs and the mob paled in comparison to fear of the tax code.
'I'm going to have to take off,' Sally said, stopping in front of my parents' house. 'I have to get across town to start picking the little dudes up.'
'Thanks for the ride,' Grandma said, making her way down the bus steps. 'Maybe I'll see you tonight. There's a good viewing at Stiva's. Charley Whitehead's laid out, and the Knights of Columbus should be there tonight. They always put on a good show. They're the best of the lodges.'
I took Valerie's diaper bag, and my mother took Valerie's purse, and we all followed Grandma off the bus and up to the house.
'I have to go, too,' I said, depositing the diaper bag in the hallway.
'It was nice of you to help your sister find a place,' my mother said to me.
I hiked my own bag onto my shoulder. 'Thanks, but it was self-serving.'
'It would have been self-serving to order her out of your apartment. Finding her a house was a nice thing to do.'
I took my bag of doughnuts, called goodbye to everyone, and let myself out. I climbed into Ranger's truck, and I sat there for a moment, trying to calm myself. I was going to be in big trouble if the rumors got back to the Slayers. The Slayers wouldn't like being run over and hunted down by a pasty-faced white woman. It wasn't the sort of thing that earned gangland prestige points. Not much I can do about it now, I thought. The best I could do was to stay away from them and try to keep a low profile. With any luck, the Slayers would be busy selling drugs and shooting each other and not have time for me.
I rolled the engine over, drove the length of the block, turned at the corner, and headed for Joe's house. Security check. I wanted to see for myself that the house was still standing, that no further damage had been done. I'd moved out of the house, but there were still ties. Just as there were still ties to Morelli. Truth was, I'd broken up with him so many times it was beginning to feel like the normal thing to do. For that matter, I wasn't sure if we'd actually broken up. It felt more like a reorganization.
Morelli's street was pretty much deserted, except for a van in front of Morelli's house. The van belonged to Joe's cousin, Mooch.
Mooch was covering the graffiti, painting Joe's front door a bright red. The graffiti was still on the sidewalk, but it didn't look as if anything new had been added. I slowed but I didn't stop. Mooch didn't look around from his work, and I didn't call out.
Next stop was Carol Cantell. I wasn't obligated to check on her every day, but I'd become attached to Carol. How could you not like someone who held up a Frito-Lay truck and then ate the evidence?
I parked in front of the Cantell house and walked to the porch. Carol's sister, Cindy, opened the door before I rang the bell. 'We were in the front room, and we saw you pull up in the truck,' Cindy said. 'Is something wrong?'
I looked around Cindy to Carol. 'Social visit. I wanted to make sure everything was okay.'
'I'm feeling a lot better,' Carol said. 'I think I got the chips out of my system.'
Cindy leaned closer. 'Boy, you smell great,' she said to me. 'You smell like… I don't know. Not exactly perfume.'
'It's shower gel,' I said. 'I borrowed it from a guy I know.'
Carol came over and sniffed at me. Is he married?'
