Fearless Fourteen - Janet Evanovich [60]
Morelli cut his eyes to me. “The really scary part of all this is I’m starting to understand Mooner.”
“Just think of it as learning a foreign language,” I said to Morelli. “Pretend you’re visiting the Republic of Moon.”
We finished the subs, potato salad, and coleslaw, Mooner sang happy birthday to Ken, and we dug into the cake.
We ate half a cake and the phone rang.
“I’m at the police station bonding out Gary-the-Stalker,” Connie said. “Someone needs to take him somewhere and get him to shut up about the big pizza before he gets carted away and shot full of Thorazine. And it’s not me, because I’m late for JoAnn Garber’s baby shower.”
“I’ll come get him. How do you want to do this?”
“I’ll take him with me, and we’ll make the switch at the firehouse,” Connie said.
“I’m on it.”
I TOOK POSSESSION of Gary fifteen minutes later.
“How did you get to the television station?” I asked him.
“I drove. I followed Brenda from her hotel. I tried to talk to her before she got into the car, but she was moving too fast. And then she parked in a special lot at the station, and I couldn’t get in. So I had to find a place on the street, and then it wasn’t easy getting into the building. I had to climb in through a window in the back.”
“Most people would leave a message on Brenda’s cell phone.”
“I’m not most people.”
No kidding.
“And she keeps changing her number,” Gary said.
“Because she doesn’t want you bothering her?”
“She’s very brave. And she doesn’t want to impose.”
“Has it ever occurred to you that you might be delusional?”
“That’s what the psychiatrist said, but I think he’s wrong. There’s an evil flying pizza out there, and it’s got Brenda’s name on it.”
“I’m assuming your car is still parked on the street.”
“Yes.”
“I’m going to take you to your car, and then you’re going to go home.”
“Yes.”
“Where is home?”
“Morelli’s garage,” Gary said.
“Excuse me?”
“I have a little camper that I tow behind my car. I parked it in Morelli’s garage yesterday, and it’s still there.”
“Does Morelli know this?”
“I don’t think it ever came up.”
We located his car, he followed me to Morelli’s house, and we both parked at the curb. I got out and looked at his white Taurus.
“I thought this was a rental,” I said to him. “No one buys a white Taurus.”
“It matches my hair,” Gary said. “And it’s my zodiac sign.”
It made as much sense as anything else in my life. “Have you had dinner?”
“No.”
“Prowl through the fridge and make yourself a sandwich. If you’re lucky, there’s still some birthday cake left.”
“Whose birthday?” he asked.
“Ken’s.”
I brought him into the house, and he settled in with Zook and Mooner, so he could lurk. Morelli was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher.
“I brought Gary back here,” I told him. “He’s helping out with the wood elves.”
“That’s a comfort.”
“Yeah, I knew you’d be excited. I had Ranger run a check on Stanley Zero. I have the printout upstairs. One of us should take a look at him.”
FIFTEEN
THE PHONE RANG at two in the morning. Morelli came awake first, a bare arm reaching across me to get at the bedside phone. Not the first time he’d gotten a call in the middle of the night.
“Yeah?” he said.
There was a short conversation, and Morelli hung up and flopped back onto his side of the bed.
“You’re not going to believe this,” he said. “On second thought, it makes perfect sense. That was your friend and mine, supercop Carl Costanza. He’s working a shift with Big Dog, and they got a report that there were lights in the cemetery. Turns out it was a bunch of people who all got the idea to dig up Rose. One of them was your Grandma Mazur.”
“Is she in jail?”
“No. Everyone ran away when Carl and Big Dog drove up, but your grandmother recognized Carl and told him she needed a ride home.”
“Omigod.”
“Yeah. Carl said they’re bringing her here. She didn’t want to get dropped off at your parents’ house in a police car because people would talk.”
I rolled out of bed, scuffed through the clothes on the floor, and found what I needed.
Zook was in the hall when I opened Morelli’s bedroom