“Just checking,” I said.
Morelli headed for the kitchen. “Marianne is a neighbor. She lives two doors down, and she brings her dog over to play with Bob. Who’s spreading rumors?”
“Joyce Barnhardt.”
Morelli poured out two mugs of coffee and handed one to me. “My mother dropped cinnamon rolls off this morning when she was on her way to church with my grandmother. They both asked about you. Conjecture out there is that I punched you in the nose.”
I took a roll and leaned against the counter. “I got that one, too. People seem genuinely disappointed when I deny it.”
“It’s nice to have you back in my kitchen, and I hate to ruin the moment, but I wouldn’t mind knowing when you had a chance to gossip with Joyce.”
“She’s squatting in my apartment. I can’t get rid of her.”
Morelli choked on his coffee. He wiped coffee off his chin with the back of his hand.
“You want to run that by me again?”
“Have you heard of the Pink Panthers?”
“Are you talking about the movies or the network of jewel thieves?”
“Jewel thieves. Joyce thinks they’re after her.”
“Keep going,” Morelli said.
“According to Joyce, Frank Korda was a Pink Panther. She was playing footsie with Korda, and she was helping him plan a big New York job with the Panthers. And then something went wrong, and the Panthers tried to kill them, but Joyce managed to escape.”
“And she’s living with you, why?”
“She doesn’t seem to have any money, and she’s afraid to go back to her condo.”
“Because the Panthers still want to kill her?”
“That’s the fear. And there’s a little chest she needs to find.”
“And she wants you to find it for her?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s start at the beginning,” Morelli said. “Korda wasn’t a Pink Panther. In fact, there’s no actual organization called the Pink Panthers. Interpol assigned that name to cover a group of diamond thieves loosely associated with one another. For the most part, they’re hardened criminals from what was once part of Yugoslavia and is now Montenegro.”
I finished my cinnamon roll and sipped my coffee. I wasn’t completely shocked to hear this. It had all seemed pretty far-fetched.
“Moving on,” Morelli said. “We collected enough forensic evidence from Frank Korda and the crushed Mercedes to build a case. I can’t tell you more than that because we’re still waiting on some of the tests, but I can guarantee you the killer wasn’t from Montenegro.”
“Joyce?”
“Unlikely, but she’s not ruled out.”
“I know she’s a primo liar, but she seemed to believe the Pink Panther thing.”
“Maybe Korda was conning her,” Morelli said.
“For what reason?”
Morelli shrugged. “Not for sex. You could buy Joyce with beads from the Dollar Store.”
I didn’t want to get into the treasure chest thing. In light of the information Morelli just gave me, the treasure chest story made no sense. Still, on the very slim chance I would go after the chest and break into the Korda home, I didn’t want to involve Morelli in the crime. Mostly because I was afraid he’d choose the law over me and turn me in.
Morelli ran a finger along the neckline of my T-shirt. “Speaking of sex, I have some beads upstairs, if you’re interested.”
“Are you equating me with Joyce?”
“No. I wouldn’t offer my beads to Joyce.”
“It’s an attractive offer, but I’m off men.”
“All men?” Morelli asked.
“Yes.”
“As long as it’s
I hiked my bag onto my shoulder. “Places to go. Things to do.”
Morelli grabbed me and dragged me up against him. He kissed me with enough tongue to make me reconsider the beads, and I felt the heat curl through my stomach.
“Mmmmm,” I said.
“Too bad you can’t stay. I could sweeten the bead deal by throwing in another cinnamon roll.”
“It was a really great cinnamon roll.”
An hour later, I was back at Morelli’s front door. “I can’t believe I did that,” I said to Morelli.
“Does this count as our make-up sex? Or do we still have make-up sex coming to us?”
“I was supposed to be off men. And I didn’t get any beads.”
“Yeah, I lied about the beads, but you can have another cinnamon roll if you want.”
“I’ll take a rain check,” I told him.
“Do you need help getting Joyce out of your apartment? I could physically remove her.”
“I’ve done that. She comes back in through the fire escape.”
“I can put better locks on your windows. I can install an alarm. I can arrange to have security screening or bars.”
“It might come to that, but for now I’m going home to talk to her.”
I had the door open, and I looked across the street at the Lincoln.
“Do you want me to get rid of them?” Morelli asked.
“No. I’m sort of getting used to them following me around. I think they’re mostly harmless.”
Morelli kissed me on the forehead. “You know where to find me.”
“More or less.”
I climbed into the truck, and before going back to Joyce, I decided to have one last go at Lahonka. I parked in front of her apartment and stared at the empty yard. No toys. I walked to the door and knocked, and the door swung open on jerry-rigged hinges. The apartment was empty. No furniture. No big-screen television. No Lahonka.
Lancer and Slasher had parked behind me. They were sitting quietly, taking it all in. I knocked on the door to the apartment next to Lahonka, and an older man answered.
“I’m looking for Lahonka,” I told him.
“She’s gone. She took off early this morning. Backed a truck up to her door, loaded everything into it, and took off.”
“Do you know where she went?”
“South is all she said. She has a sister in New Orleans and one in Tampa, Florida. She might have gone to one of them.”
I thanked him and returned to my truck. Once someone flees the area, the file gets moved to the back burner for me. If the bond is high enough, Connie takes over the search electronically. If she locates the skip, she can use an out-of-state bounty hunter, or she can send Vinnie or Ranger. Lahonka’s bond was marginal.
I cut across town with the Lincoln half a car length behind me. I stopped at Tasty Pastry Bakery on Hamilton and got a bag of croissants for Joyce. I would have gotten something for Lancer and Slasher, but I’d already treated them to a pizza, and it wasn’t like I was rolling in money. They followed me to the edge of my apartment building lot and parked on the side street. I backed up until I was parallel with them, and I powered my window down.
“What’s the plan?” I asked Slasher.
