to Morelli. 'Don't you worry about a thing. Lula's here to take care of you.'
Morelli looked over at me. 'You're kidding.'
'I wanted to make sure you were safe.'
And that was true. I was worried about Spiro returning and setting the house on fire. Spiro was nuts.
Lula set her bag in the hall and walked to the curb with me. Big Blue was soaking up sun on the street, ready to spring into action. I had an extra car key from Grandma. I'd gotten an extra apartment key from my building super, Dillon Ruddick. I had Morelli's credit card for the food. I was ready to roll.
It was early afternoon, and if I didn't hit too much traffic on Route One I'd be home to feed Morelli dinner.
'We'll be fine,' Lula said. 'I brought some videos to watch. And I got the whole bag of tricks with me if anything nasty goes down. I even got a taser. It's brand-new. Never been used. I bet I could give a guy the runs with that taser.'
'I should be back in a couple hours,' I told her. I slid behind the wheel and turned the key in the ignition. Something under the car went phunnnf, and flames shot out on all sides and the car instantly died. I got out, and Lula and I got on our hands and knees and checked the undercarriage.
'Guess that was a bomb,' Lula said.
Little black dots floated in front of my eyes, and there was a lot of clanging in my head. When the clanging stopped, I stood and brushed road gravel off my knees, using the activity to get myself under control. I was freaking out deep inside, and that wasn't a good thing. I needed to be brave. I needed to think clearly. I needed to be Ranger. Get a grip, I said to myself. Don't give in to the panic. Don't let this bastard run your life and make you afraid.
'You're starting to scare me,' Lula said. 'You look like you're having a whole conversation with someone and it isn't me.'
'Giving myself a pep talk,' I said. 'Tell Morelli about the bomb. I'm taking his SUV.'
'You're whiter than usual,' Lula said.
'Yeah, but I didn't totally faint or throw up, so I'm doing good, right?'
I backed Morelli's car out of the garage and hit the first stop on my list.
A party store on Route 33 in Hamilton Township. Valerie had, at last count, three bridesmaids, one maid of honor (me), and two flower girls (Angie and
Mary Alice). We were riding in six cars. The party store had dolls in fancy gowns for the hood, bows for all the door handles, and streaming ribbons that got attached to the back of each car. Everything corresponded to the color of the gown inside the car. Mine was eggplant. Could it get any worse?
I was going to look like the attendant to the dead.
'I'm here to pick up the car decorations for the Plum wedding,' I said to the girl at the counter.
'We have them right here, ready to go,' she said, 'but there's a problem with one of them. I don't know what happened. The woman who makes these is always so careful. One of the dolls looks like ... an eggplant.'
'It's a vegetarian wedding,' I told her. 'New Age.'
I lugged the six boxes out to the car and drove them to my parents' house. I left the SUV idling at the curb, ran in with the boxes, dumped them on the kitchen table, and turned to leave.
'Where are you going so fast?' Grandma wanted to know. 'Don't you want a sandwich? We have olive loaf.'
'No time. Lots of errands today. And I need to get back to Morelli.' Also I didn't want to leave the car unattended long enough for Spiro to set another bomb.
My mother was at the stove, stirring a pot of vanilla pudding. 'I hope Joseph is feeling better. That was a terrible thing last night.'
'He's on the couch, watching television. His leg is achy, but he's going to be okay.' I looked over at Grandma Mazur. 'He said to tell you the lid was down, and rumor has it Mama Mac went to the hereafter without the mole. Morelli said the medical examiner thinks the mole is still in the parking lot somewhere, but there might not be a lot left of it due to all the foot traffic around the scene.'
'I get a chill just thinking about it,' Grandma said. 'Someone could be walking around with Mama Mac's mole on the bottom of their shoe.'
From the corner of my eye I saw my mother take a bottle out of a cupboard, pour two fingers of whisky into a juice glass, and knock it back. Guess the ironing wasn't doing it for her anymore.
'Gotta go,' I said. 'If you need me I'll be staying with Morelli. He needs help getting around.'
'The organist at the church would like to know if you want her to accompany you when you play the cello,' Grandma said. 'I saw her at the market this morning.'
I smacked my forehead with the heel of my hand. 'With all the excitement I forgot to tell you. I don't have a cello anymore. I gave it away. It was taking up too much space in my closet. You know how it is when you live in an apartment. Never enough closet space.'
'But you loved your cello,' Grandma said.
I tried to plaster an appropriate expression of remorse on my face. 'That's the way it goes. A girl has to have priorities.'
'Who got the cello?'
'Who?' My mind was racing. Who got the cello? 'My cello teacher,' I said. 'I gave it to my cello teacher.'
