'No.'
'Would he like to be?'
The question stuck with me until I was well out of Cantell's neighborhood. I hadn't a clue to the answer. I worked with Ranger, I drove his truck and I was living in his apartment, and yet I knew almost nothing about him. A few facts. He'd been married when he was very young, and he had a daughter in Florida. He'd dropped out of college to join the army. While in the army, he'd been
Special Forces. That was about it. He never shared his thoughts.
He rarely showed emotion. A smile once in a while. His apartment yielded little. He had good taste in furniture, leaning toward earth tones, and he had great taste in soap.
It was lunchtime, and I hadn't any idea what to do next, so I parked in the Shop n Bag lot and ate two of the doughnuts. I was scraping a blob of custard off my shirt when my phone rang.
'Where are you?' Morelli wanted to know.
'I'm in the Shop n Bag lot, and I'm eating lunch.'
'Have you heard the rumors?'
'There are so many. Which ones are you talking about?'
Morelli gave an exasperated sigh.
'Oh,' I said. 'Those rumors. Yeah, I heard those rumors.'
'What are you going to do about them?'
'I'm sort of hiding.'
'You'd better hide really well, because I'll put you under house arrest if I find you.'
'On what charges?'
'Reckless endangerment of self and driving me nuts. Where are you hiding? You're not staying with your parents. I checked.'
'I'm staying at a friend's place.'
'Is it safe?'
'Yep.' Except from the friend.
'I'd feel better if you sounded more scared,' Morelli said. 'These guys are crazy. They're unpredictable and irrational. They operate under a whole different set of rules.'
Morelli disconnected and it was my turn to give an exasperated sigh. I was trying hard not to be scared.
I decided as long as I was in the lot I might as well do some food shopping, so I locked the truck and ambled into the store. I got a box of Frosted Flakes, a loaf of nice mushy white bread, a jar of peanut butter (the good kind that's been hydrogenated and is full of trans fats and sugar), and ajar of non-gourmet olives.
I was pushing my cart down the sanitary products aisle when Mrs Zuch spotted me.
'Stephanie Plum!' she said. 'I can't remember when I last saw you. I see your grandmother all the time, and I hear all about your exploits.'
'Whatever Grandma said, it's not true.'
'And this business about the Slayers…'
That's especially not true.'
'Everyone's talking about it. How you single-handed put them out of business. It's a shame about the killer.'
'Killer?'
'You know, the contract that's out on you. I hear they brought someone in from California. I'm surprised you're out and about like this. You don't even look like you're wearing a bulletproof vest, or anything.'
Was she serious? 'It's all rumor,' I said. 'None of it's true.'
'I understand,' Mrs Zuch said. 'And I think it's admirable that you're being so brave and so modest. But if it was me, I'd be wearing the vest.'
'I don't think the Slayers spend a lot of time in Shop n Bag.'
'You could be right,' Mrs Zuch said. 'But just in case, I think I'll move on now.'
And Mrs Zuch put distance between us.
I made an effort not to furtively look over my shoulder while I wheeled my shopping cart to check out. My phone rang when I got to the truck.
'What's all this noise about a contract killer?' Connie wanted to know. 'Have you talked to Joe?'
'I talked to Joe, but he didn't say anything about a killer.'
'Vinnie just wrote a bond on a lad from Slayerland, and all the kid could talk about was how you're going down.'
I rested my forehead on the steering wheel. This was out of control. 'I can't talk now,' I told Connie. I'll call you back.'
I dialed Morelli, and I did some deep breathing while I waited.
'Yeah?' Morelli said.
'It's me. You know when you asked me if I heard the rumors?
Just exactly what rumors were you referring to?'
'Your vow to rid the world of Slayers rumor. Your vow to identify the Red Devil rumor. Oh yeah, and the contract killer rumor. That's my personal favorite.'
'I just heard about the contract killer. Is it true?'
'Don't know. We're checking. Are you still in the Shop n Bag lot?'
A little alarm went off in my brain. He wouldn't actually try to catch me and lock me up in his house, would he?
'I did some grocery shopping, and I'm on my way back to the office,' I told him. 'Let me know if you hear anything.'
I disconnected, plunged the key into the ignition, and took off, driving in the opposite direction of the office. This was dandy. Now I had to hide out from the Slayers and from Morelli.
I had time to kill before I met Lula for our movie date and capture, so I headed for the mall. When in doubt… shop. I parked at the Macy's entrance and meandered through the shoe department. My credit card was pretty much maxed out, and I didn't see anything worth going to debtors' prison over, so I wandered out of Macy's and hit the Godiva store. I collected all the loose change in the bottom of my bag, and I got two pieces of chocolate. If you buy chocolate with loose change the calories don't count. And anyway, one of the pieces was a raspberry truffle, so it was fruit. And fruit is healthy, right?
My cell phone rang while I was eating the second truffle.
'I thought you were going back to the office.' Morelli said.
'Changed my mind at the last minute.'
'Where are you?'
'Point Pleasant. I had some time, so I thought I'd take a walk on the boardwalk. It's such a nice day. A little windy here, though.'
'Sounds like there are a lot of people there.'
'I'm in a pavilion.'
'Sounds more like a shopping center.'
'And you called, why?' I asked.
'They've released your car. I had it detailed and all the graffiti came off. You can pick it up anytime.'
'Thanks. That's great. I'll send my dad over for it.'
'You can run, but you can't hide, Cupcake,' Morelli said. 'I'll find you.'
'You are such a cop.'
'Tell me about it.'
I disconnected and left the mall. It was almost six, so I headed for Lula's house. I ate the rest of the doughnuts while I sat in traffic on Route 1. Lula was outside, sitting on her stoop, waiting for me. 'You're late,' she said. 'We're gonna miss the beginning of the movie. I hate that.'
Traffic,' I told her. 'And anyway, I'm only five minutes late. We have lots of time.'
'Yeah, but I gotta get popcorn. You can't watch no mutant movie without popcorn. And probably I need soda and some candy to balance out all that salt and grease on the popcorn.'
I parked in the multiplex lot and took a last look at the Pancek file. 'Harold Pancek,' I read to Lula. Twenty-two
