Fearless Fourteen - Janet Evanovich [91]
Brenda’s theme song came up, and we all sat forward. Brenda popped onto the screen wearing a low scoop-neck sweater and a tiny skirt. She had two black eyes and a Band-Aid on her nose.
“Here I am with an exclusive on the nine-million-dollar-mystery conclusion,” Brenda said. “You’ll have to excuse my appearance, as I was in a freak pizza accident.”
There was film of the maroon Econoline going out of control, crashing into the deli, and exploding. And then Brenda was on film with the tissues up her nose. “And here we have an interview with the man who took down the vicious criminal responsible for murder, mayhem, and kidnapping.”
The camera panned to Mooner, and everyone in Morelli’s living room yelled and whistled.
“Tell us exactly how you did it,” Brenda said, pointing the mic at Mooner.
“It was with my potato rocket,” Mooner said, looking into the camera. “And my munitions man, Gary, deserves some credit for giving me exactly the right potato.”
The camera returned to Brenda. “There you have it,” she said. “Another exclusive from Brenda. And, sadly for you, but happily for me, this is my last piece of news on this station. I’m going national with my own reality show. And I’m cohosting the show with my very own stalker and psychic, Gary.”
There was more whistling and cheering on our part, and Gary took a bow.
Dom stood and raised a bottle of beer. “Now that all this is over and Loretta’s safe, I want to say, let bygones be bygones, and I still think Morelli’s a piece of shit for getting Loretta pregnant and walking away, but I’m not gonna kill him like I planned.”
Loretta looked up at Dom. “What the heck are you talking about? Morelli isn’t Mario’s father. Morelli was a jerk. I wouldn’t have anything to do with him.”
“Then who’s the father?” Dom wanted to know.
“It was Lenny Garvis. I got pregnant the night before he died. I didn’t want to make a big deal about it. Mario always knew, but I didn’t tell anyone else.”
Lenny Garvis! He was in Morelli’s class. Two years ahead of me and mentally a few years behind. I remembered his death. The idiot choked on a peanut butter and banana sandwich. I mean, how could you possibly choke on a peanut butter sandwich?
Dom wasn’t convinced. “I saw you in the garage with Morelli.”
“That wasn’t me,” Loretta said. “That was Jenny Ragucci. She was such a slut.”
Morelli smiled. “It could have been Jenny Ragucci. That makes much more sense. I had good luck with sluts.”
I looked over at him.
“All in the past,” Morelli said. “I’m a cupcake man now.”
“Whoa, dude,” Mooner said. “That’s so, like, cosmic.”
Table of Contents
COVER
TITLE
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY