I had hair from hell, I'd blown my nose in my shirt, I was covered with rust and crud, my jeans were torn, and I was holding a roll of toilet paper from McDonald's, and no one noticed. Not that I was surprised by this. After all, these guys were from the Burg, and a game was on television. Morelli continued to stare after the others had turned away.
'Fell down an elevator shaft and got sprayed with pepper spray,' I said to him. 'Picked up the toilet paper at McDonalds.'
'And you're okay?'
I nodded.
'Could you get me a cold one?'
I got into the shower and stood there until there was no more hot water. I got dressed in Morelli's sweats, blasted my hair with the dryer, and crawled into bed. It was close to seven when I woke up. The house was quiet. I shuffled into the bathroom, glanced in the mirror, and realized there was a note pinned to my sweatshirt.
WENT OUT TO EAT WITH MOOCH AND TONY. DIDN'T WANT TO WAKE YOU. CALL MY CELL IF YOU WANT ME TO BRING SOMETHING HOME. THERE'S LEFTOVER PIZZA IN THE FRIDGE.
Apparently Guy Day continued into Guy Night. I shuffled downstairs and ate the leftover pizza. I washed it down with a Bud. I checked out the doughnut box.
Three doughnuts left in the box. I blew out a sigh. I wanted a doughnut. I paced in the kitchen. I finished off a bag of chips. I drank another Bud. I couldn't stop thinking about the doughnuts. It's only been one friggin' day, I thought. Surely I can make it through one lousy day without a doughnut. I went to the living room and remoted the television. I flipped through the channels. I couldn't concentrate. I was haunted by the doughnuts. I stormed into the kitchen space, got the doughnuts, and threw them in the garbage. I paced around, and I got the doughnuts out of the garbage. I rammed them down the garbage disposal and ran the disposal. I stared into the sink at the empty drain. No doughnuts. I couldn't believe I had to disposal the doughnuts. I was pathetic. I went back to the living room and tried television again. Nothing held my attention. I was restless. Big Blue was at the curb, but I had nowhere to go. It was Sunday night. The mall was closed. I wasn't up to a visit with my parents. Probably I shouldn't be driving Big Blue anyway. It was sitting out there unprotected.
A couple minutes after nine, Morelli swung in on his crutches. 'You're looking better,' he said. 'You were out like a light when I left. I guess falling down an elevator shaft is exhausting. Did you get your man?'
'No. He ran away.'
Morelli grinned. 'You're not supposed to let them do that.'
'Did I miss anything important?'
'Yeah. I just got a call from Laski. Four bodies were found in a shallow grave in a patch of woods off upper Stark this afternoon. Some kids stumbled across it. They said they were looking for their dog, but they were probably looking for a place to smoke weed.' Morelli eased him self onto the couch.
'Laski said the bodies were pretty decomposed, but there were rings and belt buckles. None of the bodies has been officially identified yet, but Laski's certain one of them is Barroni. He was wearing an initialed belt buckle when he disappeared, and the wedding ring matches the description his wife, Carla, gave when she filed missing persons.'
I sat next to Morelli. 'That's so sad. I always hoped they'd suddenly reappear. Did Laski know how they were killed?'
'Shot. Multiple times. All in the chest, as if they'd been standing together and someone sprayed them with bullets like in an old Al Capone movie.'
'What about the cars?'
'Laski said there was a dirt road going in. Most likely used by kids looking for privacy for one reason or another. So cars could have driven in there. But no cars were found with the bodies.'
'I have profiles on the four missing men. I've been trying to tie them together. And I had a feeling Anthony Barroni and Spiro Stiva were involved somehow.
Now I'm not so sure. Maybe Spiro came back for the sole purpose of terrorizing me and eventually killing me. Maybe he's a lone gun out there and not hanging with anyone. That would partially explain why no one's seen him.'
'There's a description out on him now. There's a corroborating witness that Spiro, or at least someone with a badly scarred face, was seen in the area when my garage went up. I don't know what to say about the men who were just found. It's pretty clear that someone called a meeting and executed them.'
'They had to have known the gunman,' I said. 'I can't see any of these men getting in his car and driving off to a meeting on upper Stark at the request of a stranger.'
'I agree, but we don't know the relationship. It could have been something impersonal, like blackmail. And the blackmailer decided to terminate.'
'Do you think that's it?'
'No,' Morelli said. 'I think they all knew each other, and there was a fifth member of the group who had his own agenda.'
'They were all in the same unit at Fort Dix.'
Morelli turned and looked at me. 'You found that out?'
'Yeah.'
'So, not only are you hot but you're smart, too?'
'You think I'm hot?'
Morelli had his hand up my shirt, tinkering with my bra. 'Cupcake, I'm not sharing my house with you because you can cook.'
