Smokin Seventeen - Janet Evanovich [71]
“Excuse me,” I said. “I’ll be right back.”
I found my stun gun, walked behind Dave, and gave him a double dose of volts. He slumped off the chair, and I grabbed him before he fell on his face. I didn’t care a lot if he broke his nose again, but I didn’t want more blood on the carpet. I dragged him out to the hall, grabbed my bag and sweatshirt, locked my apartment door, and took the stairs to the lobby.
I searched the parking lot for a black Lexus. None in sight, so I ran to the Shelby and took off. I called Dillon and asked him to check for a body laid out in front of my door.
“He should be okay in a few minutes,” I said to Dillon. “He had a dizzy spell. Maybe you can help him get to his car. Just make sure he doesn’t talk you into letting him into my apartment.”
“Okeydokey,” Dillon said. “No problemo.”
I hung up with Dillon and called Morelli.
“I have some information on Nick Alpha,” I said to Morelli. “He’s living in an apartment over his dry-cleaning business on Stark, and he has a safe in his second bedroom, and I’m pretty sure the safe is filled with bags of money. I don’t think it came from dry cleaning.”
“I’ll pass the information on,” Morelli said. “Don’t ever tell me how you found this out.”
I drove down Hamilton to the bonds office lot. Mooner’s bus and Connie’s car were parked curbside. No Vinnie. No Lula. I parked behind Connie, and let myself into the bus. The walls and the ceiling were upholstered in cream microfiber. The floor was tan Berber carpet. Countertops were pale green faux marble Formica. No more Death Star. Mooner was watching television with his sunglasses on. Connie was working at her computer.
“This is great,” I said, sitting in a club chair. “Uncle Jimmy did a good job.”
“What is butter!” Mooner yelled at the television.
Connie looked at me. “The bus is better, but it isn’t perfect. It’s still got Mooner.”
“That’s because he owns it,” I told her. “Where is everyone?”
“Vinnie is downtown bonding someone out, and Lula is at the dentist.”
“Did she say what was wrong?”
“No. She left a message on my cell. I have a vision of her getting her fangs ground down.”
That dragged a grimace out of both of us.
“What did you do over the weekend?” Connie asked. “Anything interesting?”
“I took Grandma to Lou Dugan’s viewing Saturday night, and Nick Alpha was there.”
“I’m not surprised. They were business partners before Nick got sent to prison. Dugan was part owner of the gym on Stark Street where Benito Ramirez trained.”
I told her about the conversation at the viewing.
Connie’s eyes got wide. “He said he was going to kill you?”
“Yeah. And he said he’d killed before.”
“Did you tell Morelli?”
“He’s going to talk to Nick, but I’m not sure how effective that’ll be.”
“Do you think Nick was serious about killing you?”
I nodded my head. “Yeah, I think he was serious. He had a lot of time in prison to work himself up over Jimmy’s death. Morelli will do what he can as a cop, but I need to go proactive. It occurred to me that Nick could have killed Dugan, Lucarelli, Beck, and Kulicki. If I can prove it, I can have him sent away forever, and I won’t have to worry about him killing me.”
“He knew Dugan, Lucarelli, and Kulicki,” Connie said. “He could have had something against them. Timing is right. Alpha got out of prison just before the killings started.”
“I broke into his apartment last night, but I couldn’t find any evidence.”
“That doesn’t mean Alpha didn’t kill those people.”
I helped myself to coffee and returned to my chair. “True, but Ranger doesn’t think Alpha feels right. He thinks Alpha is a shooter, and all the victims were strangled with their neck’s broken. So if Ranger’s right, I have to get something else on Nick Alpha. I’m sure he’s dirty. I just have to find out what he’s into right now.”
“I’m sure I can get answers for you,” Connie said. “The difficulty will be proving it.”
“If I can tell the police exactly where to look, they can set something up. After I get things in motion I can lock myself in my