“Try the back door,” I said to Mooner.
Mooner ambled over and opened the door. “It’s empty, man. Totally.”
I motioned for him to get back into the car. I drove past the other warehouse one last time and left the neighborhood.
“That was bold,” Mooner said. “What’s our next adventure?”
I didn’t have any more adventures, but I knew Connie would be disappointed if I brought him back too soon.
“I think we should go to Holy Cow for ice cream,” I said.
“Cool.”
I picked Holy Cow because it was in Hamilton Township, and it would use up almost an hour. I got a single dip of Jersey mud, and Mooner couldn’t make up his mind. He stood in front of the display case, eyes glazed, lips moving as he silently read the choices.
Morelli called me, and I stepped outside to talk.
“They found three of the other cars,” Morelli said. “They’re going in on foot tomorrow to look for the fourth.”
“Were there more bodies? Did they find anything inside the cars?”
“I’m told the cars were empty.”
“Did you know Nick Alpha is running cockfights?”
“I heard about the cockfights. I didn’t know Alpha was involved.” There was a beat of silence. “You aren’t getting involved in this, are you?”
“No. Of course not. Cockfighting is disgusting.”
“Next time I fall in love it’s going to be with someone who isn’t an expert at fibbing.”
“You’re in love with me?”
“You didn’t know that?”
“I did, but it’s nice to hear.”
“Scares the hell out of me,” Morelli said. And he hung up.
I finished my ice cream and went inside. Mooner was still standing transfixed in front of the counter.
“Give him a scoop of chocolate, a scoop of strawberry, a scoop of coffee, and a scoop of butter pecan,” I said to the girl.
“Fuckin’ A,” Mooner said, smiling wide, and rocked back on his heels.
• • •
Lula was in the bus when we got back.
“I had a abscess,” she said. “That’s why I thought my tooth was growing. The dentist says it’s common to feel like that.”
“So you’re not turning into a vampire,” Connie said.
“Well, I might be, but I don’t have fangs. And I’m feeling much better now that I had the root canal. ’Course, I’m packed full of drugs, so that could have something to do with it.” Lula looked around. “This is nice. It don’t have personality like before, but it don’t feel like the sun died either.”
“Anything for me?” I asked Connie.
“No. None of the new bondees have come up to trial yet. They’ll start next week, and I imagine they won’t all show up for court. Vinnie bonded out some real losers. How did it go on Stark Street?”
“The two warehouses are possibilities.”
Lula snapped to attention. “Stark Street? Warehouses? Did I miss something?”
I filled Lula in on the cockfighting and my plan to get Nick Alpha sent back to jail so he couldn’t kill me.
“That’s a good plan,” Lula said. “He belongs in jail anyway what with doing cruelty to animals. I don’t have patience with people mistreating animals. And I like chickens.”
“Especially when they’re hacked up into pieces and fried,” Connie said.
“Yeah, but that’s a different kind of chicken,” Lula said. “Those are nasty bald, eating chickens. They’re not the Little Red Hen.”
“Eating chickens aren’t bald,” I said.
“I seen them in the supermarket,” Lula said. “And they’re bald.”
“Dude,” Mooner said from the back of the bus. “Something’s wrong with my television. I can’t get it to go on.”
“Imagine that,” Connie said. “Maybe the satellite is behind a cloud.”
“What happens next?” Lula asked. “Are the cops gonna bust up the cockfight tonight?”
“I have to pin down the location before I make the call. And I want to make sure Alpha is there. I don’t want to shut down the operation and not have Alpha involved.”
Lula nodded. “I see what you’re saying. So I’m thinking we’re going out to a cockfight tonight. I gotta put some thought to this. I don’t know if I got a cockfighting outfit at home. I might have to go shopping.”
“I’m not actually going to the cockfight. I’m going to hang around and follow Alpha when he goes out. Then when I’m sure he’s at the cockfight I’ll call Morelli.”
“I could live with that,” Lula said. “What time you want to meet up?”
“Are you sure you feel okay to do this?”
“Hell, yeah. I’m almost a hundred percent.”
This wasn’t something that filled me with confidence. When Lula and I operated at a full hundred percent we weren’t all that great.
“You need a different car,” Connie said. “You’ll be noticed in the Shelby. Lula’s Firebird isn’t any better.”
“I can get a car,” Lula said. “I’ll borrow my cousin Ernie’s car. He’s got a piece of crap SUV. It’ll blend right in on Stark Street.”
I got into the Shelby, drove to my apartment building, and stopped at the entrance to the lot. I was afraid to park. Regina Bugle could be there. Even worse, Dave could be there. And if they weren’t there now, they might be there when I wanted to leave, and I’d be trapped inside my apartment.
I turned around and idled on a side street, running through my options. I could drop in on Morelli, but there would be complications. I didn’t want to involve Morelli in this stage of the Nick Alpha saga. And he wouldn’t want me to go to Stark Street. There would also be complications if I dropped in on Ranger. Mostly related to vordo or the lack thereof. The bonds bus felt claustrophobic. The new decor was much better, but it was still Mooner’s bus. And I was afraid to go to the mall for fear of falling under the influence of another red dress. That left my parents’ house.
I got there early and sat in the kitchen, watching my mother assemble dinner. I always offered to help, and my mother almost always declined. She’d been doing this for a lot of years, and she had her own rhythm. My grandmother was tuned into the rhythm and pitched in as needed.
“I heard they found Sam Grip,” Grandma said.
There was no need for a newspaper or the Internet in the Burg. News traveled at the speed of light the old- fashioned way … over the back fence and in line at the deli.
I got a soda out of the refrigerator. “He was in his car in the Pine Barrens.”
“I hear Skooter Berkower is real worried. He played poker with those guys sometimes. That whole poker group is getting wiped out. Somebody don’t like poker players. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out it’s someone’s wife doing this. Probably one of those guys lost a lot of money and some wife wigged out.”
That would be a decent theory except for the two bodies addressed to me.
“Or maybe it’s Joyce Barnhardt trying to get attention,” Grandma said. “I wouldn’t put it past her. You know how she loves to be in the spotlight.”
I drank some soda and recapped the bottle. “Killing five people seems extreme, even for Joyce.”
“I suppose,” Grandma said. “This sure is a mystery.”
“That’s a lot of potatoes you’re mashing,” I said to my mother.
My mother added a big glob of butter to the potatoes. “We have a lot of people for dinner. Valerie and Albert are coming with the children.”
My sister Valerie has two children by her disastrous first marriage, and two with her second husband Albert
