Fearless Fourteen - Janet Evanovich [79]
“Probably we shouldn’t wait for Susan to get done,” I said.
“Yeah. I just remembered I got something to do.”
We hurried down the stairs and slunk through the lobby to the lot. We didn’t see Carl.
“I hope Carl’s okay,” I said to Lula.
“Carl’s probably on his way to stick up a 7-Eleven.”
NINETEEN
I DROPPED LULA at the office and went to my apartment to check on Rex. I leaned over his cage and told him about my day so far. He was in his soup can and probably wasn’t listening, but I talked to him anyway. I gave him an olive and a corn chip, and I called Susan Stitch.
“Did you find Carl?” I asked her.
“Yep. He escapes like that all the time. He’s such a clever little dickens. He was on the first floor visiting with Mrs. Rooney. He likes to play with her beagle.”
“Would this be a good time to get rebonded?”
“It’s perfect, but you don’t have to worry about it. Ron and I are going to the courthouse together. We’re meeting his lawyer there, and hopefully this can all be worked out.”
“That’s great,” I said, assuming Ron was the guy with the leg cast and stiffy. “Good luck.”
I hung up, and I took a moment to enjoy being in my own space. Morelli’s house had ice cream sandwiches, but my apartment was home. My apartment was quiet and sane and was free from überelves and bank robbers.
My cell rang, and I saw on the screen that it was Morelli. I was tempted not to answer, but I knew he’d keep calling until I connected.
“Hola,” I said to him.
“Do you have a landline?”
“Yes. I’ll get back to you on my kitchen phone.”
“Here’s the deal,” he said when we reconnected. “The address I gave you earlier is actually a storage facility down by the river. The lockers are big. Garage-size. People keep furniture and boats and ATVs in them. It’s not a stretch to drive a van into one. It’s locker number twenty-four, and it’s rigged with a lock that will open with any key. Inside is an exact replica of the van used in the robbery. The key is in the ignition. We’ve got nine million in dummy money in the back of the van. All you have to do is go along with the deal.”
“How am I going to communicate?”
“I’ll put a wire on you. Give me twenty minutes.”
I put the phone down and went back to talking to Rex.
“I hate this,” I said to him. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not the hero type. I wanted to be Wonder Woman when I was a kid. Now that I’m an adult, I think kicking ass leaves a lot to be desired. For one thing, I’m not that good at it. And wearing a wire makes my stomach feel squishy. I’m always afraid I’ll get found out, and I’ll end up with a bullet in the head like Allen Gratelli.”
It was a sobering thought when said out loud.
“Not that it would happen,” I said to Rex.
I refilled Rex’s water bottle and gave him an extra bowl of hamster food, just in case. And then Rex and I waited in silence in the kitchen for Morelli to arrive.
Ten minutes later, Morelli knocked and opened the door. He had a key.
“I’m not supposed to be doing this,” he said. “I’m still working the gang thing, but I didn’t want anyone else feeling you up when they taped the wire.”
“If something happened to me, you’d take care of Rex, wouldn’t you?”
“Nothing’s going to happen to you.”
“Yes, but if it did.”
“If anything happened to you, I’d be so destroyed they’d have to strap me to a bed and feed me through a tube. After five or six years, I might be capable of taking care of Rex. In the interim, you should assign a guardian.”
Morelli had his hands under my shirt and supposedly was installing the wire, but his thumb kept tracing a line across the tip of my breast. I was starting to lose focus.
“If you’re trying to get my mind off the ransom, it’s working,” I told him.
“Yeah, sometimes I love my job,” he said, giving me a whole-hand fondle. He took a small receiver out of his pocket, put the attached earbud into his ear, and stepped back. “Push the button and switch it on.”
I felt along the battery pack and pushed the button. “Testing,” I said. “Mary had a little lamb. Yada, yada, yada.”
“Perfect,” Morelli said.