“Not necessary. This is all I need.”
“And when you’re done tracking down my bear you’re gonna need to figure out who’s dumping bodies in my lot,” Vinnie said. “Business was bad before and now it’s nonexistent. It’s like we got death cooties.”
“Morelli’s on the case,” I told him.
“Well tell him to work faster. I’m dying here. We’re going under. Another week of this and Harry’s gonna pull his money and we’ll all be up shit’s creek.”
• • •
Belmen was staying in an inexpensive motel south of town, on the way to Bordentown. I pulled into the lot and parked next to a white Camry that shouted rental car and had bear slobber on the side window. The structure was classic 1970, two-story, pink stucco and white trim. Belmen was in unit 14A. I knocked on the door, and a trim forty-something man who fit Belmen’s description answered. A few feet behind him I could see Bruce sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Where’s the pizza?” Belmen asked, giving me the once-over.
“Excuse me?”
“Aren’t you the pizza delivery lady? I ordered pizzas.”
“Sorry. I work for Vincent Plum Bail Bonds.”
“Vinnie’s a bad man,” Belmen said. He stepped to the side and made a swooping motion to the bear. “Kill!”
Bruce lunged off the bed and rushed at me, mouth open.
I jumped back and slammed the door shut.
“Jeez Louise,” I said to Belmen through the door. “I just want to talk to you.”
“About what?”
“Do I have to yell through the door?”
“Yes.”
I blew out a sigh and counted to five. “I know you’re anxious to get to Vegas, but you need to show up for your court date. If you don’t show up you’ll be considered a felon, and it will be one more charge against you. If you show up and explain what happened you might get off light since it’s your first offense.”
“I don’t think it was my fault,” he said. “I don’t even remember. It happened so fast.”
“The bartender said you were drunk.”
“I’d had a couple drinks. Maybe I was drunk.”
“Promise me you’ll show up for court.”
“All right. I promise, but if I go to jail you have to take care of Bruce.”
“I can’t take care of Bruce. They don’t allow bears in my apartment building.”
“I can’t just abandon him,” Belmen said.
“I’ll figure something out. And just out of morbid curiosity, would he have killed me?”
“No. Bruce is a pussycat. He was just playing with you.”
Yeah, right. I’ve never bought off a judge before but in this case I’d do whatever it took.
SEVENTEEN
I WAS RELIEVED to see Mooner’s bus was no longer in front of the coffee shop. I didn’t want to face Vinnie and explain to him that the bear was staying with Boris. Vinnie would have a differing opinion. Vinnie would go on a rant and send me back to get the bear. This would be a disaster because not only didn’t I have a clue how to wrestle the bear away from his owner, I also wasn’t sure Vinnie and Mooner were good bear parents. I was worried they’d feed Mooner’s homemade brownies to Bruce, and he’d hallucinate he was a hummingbird or something.
Aside from the missing bus nothing much had changed since I left. Lula and Connie were still camped out in the window.
“Hey girlfriend,” Lula said. “How’d it go with the bear?”
“It went okay. I talked to Boris, and he promised to show up for his court date.”
“Yeah, but what about the bear? Where’s the bear?”
“The bear’s with Boris. I made an executive decision to leave him there.”
The door to the coffee shop opened and Bella marched in. “You!” she said, pointing her finger at me, eyes narrowed. “I know what you do with my grandson. You take advantage. He don’t stay at birthday party like good boy. He come to you for nicky nacky. You
“She scares the crap out of me,” Lula said. “And you’re in big trouble. You did nicky nacky and now you got the vordo.”
I looked to Connie. “What’s vordo?”
“Beats me,” Connie said. “I never heard of vordo.”
“It has to be some Italian voodoo thing,” Lula said. “Like if you were a guy it would make your dick fall off.”
I hiked my bag up onto my shoulder. “I don’t want to think about it. I’m going to see if I can find Ziggy.”
Lula set a grocery bag on the table. “I’ll go with you. I went to Giovichinni’s while you were gone, and I got stuff for us.”
“Stuff?”
She pulled a couple ropes of garlic out of the bag and gave one to me. “All we gotta do is wear this and we won’t get no love bites from vampires.”
“I appreciate the thought, but I don’t think Ziggy is a vampire.”
“Yeah, but you don’t know for sure, right?”
“I’m pretty sure.”
“Pretty sure don’t cut it,” Lula said, wrapping the garlic around her neck. “I already got one foot in the land of the living dead, and I’m not taking no chances.”
I drove the short distance from the coffee shop to Ziggy’s house and parked. We got out, rang the doorbell, and waited. No answer. I left Lula at the front door, and I walked to the rear. I knocked. Nothing. I felt for the key. No key. I snooped around, trying to see in the windows but no luck there. I returned to Lula in the front of the house, and Ziggy’s neighbor stepped out with her dog.
“Are you looking for Ziggy?” she asked. “Because he isn’t home. I saw him leave in the middle of the night. I was up with heartburn that would kill a cow, and I saw Ziggy go out with a suitcase. And his car is still gone. I can’t ever remember Ziggy going anywhere before. He was a real homebody.” She squinted at Lula. “Is that garlic?”
“Yes,” I said. “Lula’s making marinara tonight. She’s getting into the mood early.”
I called Connie and told her about Ziggy. “Do you have anything on him?” I asked. “Any idea where he might have gone?”
“I’ll run a family history.”
I meandered through the Burg looking for Ziggy’s black Chrysler. After forty minutes I gave up and returned to the coffee shop.
“Whoa,” Lula said to Connie. “What happened to you?”
Connie’s hair was like the wild woman of Borneo. Her lipstick was smeared, and she had crazy eyes.
“What?” Connie asked. “What do you mean?”
“You look like you stuck your finger in an electric socket and took a bunch of volts.”
“It’s the coffee. I sit here all day drinking coffee. I’ve got an eye twitch, I’m having heart palpitations, and I can’t unclench my ass muscles. I need a different office.”
“Now that the bear’s gone you could move back into the bus,” I told her.
“Not the bus,” Connie said. “I can’t go back to the bus. All that black fur and Mooner smell.”
“It’s not gonna smell like Mooner,” Lula said. “It’s gonna smell like bear.”
