Explosive Eighteen - Janet Evanovich [73]
Morelli strolled into the kitchen the moment the coffee was done. He kissed me and poured himself a glass of juice.
“I stopped in last night to tell you we made an arrest on the Korda case,” he said. “Where were you?”
“Atlantic City. I was looking for a lead on the two guys who’ve been following me.”
“And?”
“I didn’t have a chance to follow through, but I think they might be working for a food purveyor that services the casino. Billings.” I took a chunk of babka. “Tell me about the arrest. Who’s the suspect?”
“Carol Baumgarten. You probably don’t know her. She’s from Lawrenceville. We brought her in, and she totally cooperated. Claimed she never intended to kill anyone. She got tossed aside for Barnhardt, and she wanted to teach them a lesson. Her idea was to put them in the trunk, leave the car at the junkyard, and call Korda’s wife to retrieve him. Problem was, Korda’s wife never picked the message up on her cell phone, and Korda had a heart attack. By the time Baumgarten got worried and returned to the junkyard to rescue Korda, he’d already been compacted. So she panicked and started going through Stoli like it was water.”
“How did you find her?”
“Cab records. She called a cab to take her back to her car at the jewelry store. I guess she followed Korda for days, waiting for the right time.”
“I’m surprised you’re sharing this with me.”
“We have a taped confession and tons of physical evidence. Her prints were all over Joyce’s car. And I’m sure there are DNA matches. The woman sheds hair like a cat. And with the way things operate in this town, every detail will be circulated at Mabel’s Hair Salon and Giovichinni’s Market today. I don’t know how it gets leaked out, but it always does.”
“Did you talk to Berger?”
“No. We’ve been playing phone tag. I’ll try to hook up today.”
Morelli left, and I went to my computer to get information on Billings. I found the company and scrolled through a bunch of pages. It looked like they distributed gourmet prepared food, specialty items, and premium meat and poultry. The warehouse and central offices were just north of Bordentown. It was a private company owned by Chester Billings. He wasn’t exactly squeaky clean. He’d been charged with income-tax evasion three years ago, but he’d settled up and nothing more had come of it. He’d also been charged with possession of stolen goods, but nothing had come of that, either.
I plugged Chester Billings into a new search program that would give me some personal history. He was born in New Brunswick. Parents were Mary and William Billings. Sister Brenda. Holy cow. Brenda.
I put Brenda Schwartz into the same search program and read down. There it was … Brenda Billings. Brother Chester.
Okay, so I had finally made a connection. And it was interesting. But I still had no idea why the photograph was important. Or, for that matter, what I had to do to get everyone off my back.
I shut my computer down, took a shower, got dressed, and headed out. Lancer and Slasher fell in line behind me on Hamilton and followed me all the way. We parked in front of the bonds office, and I walked back to talk to them.
“I know who you work for,” I said to Lancer.
“I didn’t tell you,” he said.
“No. I found out on my own.”
“I guess it’s okay then.”
“You don’t seem especially motivated to beat information out of me,” I said.
“We’re following orders,” Lancer said. “We keep our eye on you and report back where you go and who you talk to.”
“Razzle Dazzle is more aggressive.”
Lancer snorted. “He’s a freak. He used to hang out at the casino until they kicked him out. He had a way of getting the slots to pay out. Works for some Somali nutcase. Used to brag about how he could cut off a finger with a single slash of his knife.”
• • •
Connie, Lula, and Vinnie were standing at silent attention when I walked into the office.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“We’re listening,” Connie said. “Do you hear that?”
I cocked my head and listened. “What am I supposed to be hearing?”
“They’re squeaking,” Connie said. “They’re having a meeting.”
“Who?