10 Ten Big Ones (16 page)

'And it's disgustingly arrogant and macho. '

'Yeah, ' Morelli said. That's the best part. '

I looked back at Grandma and Lula. 'How do you expect to accomplish this?'

'I thought I'd drag you into my car and carry you kicking and screaming into my house. '

'In front of Grandma and Lula?'

'No, ' Morelli said. 'I can't do it in front of your grandmother. '

The smile faded. 'Can we get serious? This isn't just rumor. These guys are out to get you. '

'What am I supposed to do? I live here. I can't go into hiding for the rest of my life. '

Morelli's pager buzzed, and he looked at the readout. `I hate this thing, ' he said. 'You're going to be careful?'

'Yes. '

'You're going to get off the street?'

'Yes. '

He gave me a fast kiss on the forehead and took off.

Grandma and Lula watched Morelli drive away.

'I don't usually like cops, ' Lula said, 'but he's hot. '

'He's a looker all right, ' Grandma said. 'And he's got a way about him. There's nothing like a man with a gun. '

'He don't get his way from a gun, ' Lula said. 'His way is natural born. '

I did some mental knuckle cracking and sidled up to the big purple Lincoln, hoping it would shield me from potential sniper fire. Morelli had done a good job of rattling my nerves. Stating the obvious to Morelli, that I lived in Trenton and couldn't hide for the rest of my life, wasn't a declaration made from bravery. It was a declaration tinged with desperation and maybe even a little hysteria. I was backed into a corner, the victim of circumstances.

And I was at a loss how to fix it.

Pancek by day. The Pancek search was a good thing because I suspected after our initial trip to Canter Street, the search would shift to Newark, far away from the Slayers.

'Everybody in the car, ' I said. 'We're going on a Harold hunt. '

I docked the Lincoln in front of Pancek's row house, and we all got out and stood on the stoop while I rang the bell. There was no answer, of course. I rang again. I dialed his number on my cell phone. We could hear the phone ring on the other side of the door.

The machine picked up. I left a message.

'Hi, this is Stephanie Plum, ' I said. 'I need to talk to you. ' I left my cell number and disconnected.

I tried Pancek's next-door neighbor.

'He left early this morning, ' she said. 'Must have been around seven. I went out to get the paper, and he was loading up his car.

Usually you take grocery bags into the house, but he was taking them out. '

'Did he say anything?'

'No. But that wasn't unusual. He's sort of an odd guy. Not real friendly. Lived in there all alone. I never saw anyone else go in.

Guess he didn't have a lot of friends. '

I left my card with her, and I asked her to call if Pancek returned.

'Now what?* Grandma wanted to know. `I'm ready to catch this guy. Where do we go next?'

'Newark. His family is in Newark. '

'I don't know if I can go with you, ' Grandma said. `I'm supposed to go to the mall with Midgie Herrel at one o'clock. '

I took Route 1 to Route 18 and got on the Jersey Turnpike.

Grandma was home, waiting for Midgie. Sally, Valerie, and my mom were busy planning the wedding. Lula was sailing along with me in the purple Lincoln, riding shotgun, nosing through a big bag of food we bought before leaving Trenton.

'What do you want first?' she asked. 'You want a sandwich or a

Tastykake?

By the time we got to Newark, Lula and I had almost emptied the food bag. My jeans were feeling unusually tight and my stomach felt seasick. I suspected the queasy stomach was more fear of death than overeating. Still, it would have been good if I'd stopped after the third Tastykake.

Panceks mother had posted the bond. I had her address plus the address of Panceks former apartment. I knew Pancek drove a dark blue Honda Civic, and I had his plate number. It would be nice to find the Civic parked in front of one of the addresses.

Lula was reading a map, directing me through Newark. 'Turn left at the next corner, ' she said. 'His mommas house is on the first block, two houses in on the right side. ' nine

Lula and I were in a neighborhood that looked a lot like parts of the Burg. The homes were modest redbrick row houses, their front stoops set into sidewalk. Cars were parked on both sides, narrowing the street to barely two lanes. It was early afternoon and not much was happening. We drove past Pancek's mother's house, looking for the Civic. We did a four-block grid but came up empty.

By late afternoon we'd talked to Pancek's mother, two former neighbors, his former girlfriend, and his best buddy from high school. No one was giving Pancek up, and we hadn't run across his car.

'We're all out of Tastykakes, ' Lula said. It's either time to go home or time to go shopping. '

'Time to go home, ' I said.

Pancek's best buddy was married, and I couldn't see the wife putting up with Pancek. The girlfriend thought Pancek should rot in hell. That was a direct quote. His neighbors barely knew him.

That left his mother. I had a feeling Mrs Pancek knew more than she was telling us, but from todays performance it was obvious she wasn't ready to rat on her son.

We'd run down all our leads, and there wasn't anything left to do short of staking out the mother's house. I was all in favor of a job well done, but Pancek wasn't worth a stakeout. A stakeout was a major bummer.

Morelli called on my cell phone. He didn't waste time with hello or how are you. Morelli got right to the heart of it. 'Where are you?'

I'm in Newark, looking for a slap. '

1 don't suppose you'd consider staying there. Maybe getting a room. '

'What's up?'

'We have a dead guy here. Gunned down on the street, and then had his nuts surgically removed. '

'Gang member?'

'Big time. Cut. Had a J freshly carved into his forehead. '

'Would that be J for Junkman?'

'That would be my guess, ' Morelli said. 'Are you scared yet?'

'Good. I'm drinking Pepto-Bismol by the case. I hate this. Every time my pager goes off I get an eye twitch, terrified that someone found your body. '

'At least we don't have to worry about me getting my nuts surgically removed. '

There was a moment of silence. That's sick, ' Morelli finally said.

'I was shooting for levity. '

'You failed. ' And he disconnected.

I told Lula about the killing, and we went in search of the turnpike.

These gang guys are crazy, ' Lula said. 'It's like they're alien invaders, or something. Like they don't know how to live on planet

Earth. Hell, they're not even hot aliens. Not that it would matter, but if they were hot looking they'd at least be interesting, you see what I'm saying?'

I wasn't seeing what she was saying. I was taking slow, even breaths, and I was working at controlling my heart rate.

I dropped Lula off at the office, and I drove to Ranger's building. I could see someone in the lobby, talking to the guard at the desk. A car pulled out of the garage, and the gate slid back into place. Too much activity, I thought. Too early for me to sneak inside.

I parked halfway down the block, and I watched the people coining and going. I called Connie, gave her the Haywood Street address, and asked her to check on the building.

'That's Ranger's building, ' Connie said.

'You know about it?'

The RangeMan offices are there. Ranger moved his business into that building about a year ago. '

`I didn't know. '

'Well, it's not like it's the Bat Cave, ' Connie said. 'It's an office building. '

So what was with the top-floor apartment? It was filled with

Ranger's clothes. Clearly he lived there at least part-time. I was disappointed, and I was relieved. I was disappointed because I hadn't discovered some big secret place. And I was relieved because maybe I hadn't invaded Ranger's private space. The relief was unwarranted, of course. His clothes were there. His shower gel, his deodorant, his razor were there. It might not be the Bat

Cave, but it was Ranger's private space.

'Nope, ' I said. 'That was it. See you tomorrow. '

By seven o'clock the building looked just about empty. The fifth and sixth floors were lit, but the lobby door appeared locked, and garage traffic seemed to have stopped. I locked the Lincoln, walked the short distance to the garage, and let myself into

Rangers apartment.

I dropped my keys into the dish on the sideboard and went to the kitchen to say hello to Rex. I had a beer and a peanut butter sandwich, and I moved to the den to take another crack at the television. After ten minutes of pushing buttons on the remote I had the picture up but no sound. I went to school with a guy who owned an appliance store. I called him at the store, and he gave me a remote lesson. Hooray, now I could watch and hear television.

Home sweet home.

I'd set the alarm on the bedside clock, so I could get out earlier in the morning. It was Saturday, but I suspected the security industry didn't slow for weekends, and I didn't want to take a chance on getting kicked out of the one place I felt safe.

I borrowed a black hooded sweatshirt from Ranger's closet. The sweatshirt was miles big, but it was the best I could do by way of disguise. I pulled the hood up, rode the elevator down, and I reached the Lincoln without a problem. Connie wouldn't be in the office for a couple hours, so I crossed the river into Pennsylvania and headed for Yardley. Yardley was just a short distance from

Trenton, but it was light years from Slayerland. Junkman would not be patrolling Yardley looking for Stephanie Plum.

I parked in a public lot, locked my doors, and powered my seat back. It was 7:30 a. M. , and Yardley was sleeping in.

I called Morelli at nine o'clock. 'What are you doing?' I asked.

'Bob and I are at the car wash. Then we're going to Petco to get some dog food. It's a pretty exciting morning. '

'I can hear that. Anything new going on?'

'Nothing you want to know about. I hope you're some place far away. '

'Far enough. Ill be on my cell phone if you have breaking news.

And don't forget, my mothers expecting us to show up for dinner tonight. '

'You're going to have to pay up, Cupcake. I don't do dinner without reimbursement. '

'I'll run a tab for you. ' And I disconnected.

Truth is, I missed Morelli. He was sexy and smart and his house felt homey. His house didn't have the aphrodisiac shower gel, but it had Bob. I really missed Bob. Go figure that one. Okay, so I had to carry his poop in a plastic bag back to the house. It didn't seem like such a big deal anymore.

I left the lot and cruised through town. I turned onto Hamilton, drove past the office, and parked on a side street. Then I entered the office through the back door.

`I'm trying to decrease my visibility. '

'Good call. '

Vinnie rarely came in on a Saturday, and Lula was always late. I poured myself a cup of coffee, and took a seat across from Connie.

'Any new shootings, firebombings, rumors of my imminent death?'

'Nothing new. ' Connie slid the mouse across the mouse pad and clicked. `I'we got three new skips. I'm printing out the search results for you now. The original paperwork is somewhere in the mess of unfiled documents stacked on the cabinets. '

Oh boy. Lula hadn't filed anything in so long there were more files on top of the cabinets than there were in the drawers.

'We have to go through those stacks, ' Connie said, coming out of her chair. 'And we might as well file them while we search. We're looking for Anton Ward, Shoshanna Brown, and Jamil Rodriguez. '

An hour later, we had the documentation for all three skips, and we'd filed more than half of the outstanding cases.

The front door crashed open, and Lula marched in. 'What's going on here?' she asked. 'I miss anything?'

Connie and I gave Lula a cold ten-second stare.

'Yeah?' Lula asked.

'We just spent an hour doing your filing so we could find the paperwork on three new skips, ' Connie said.

'You didn't have to do that, ' Lula said. 'I got a system. '

'You weren't here, ' Connie said. 'Where the hell were you? You were supposed to be here at nine. '

I'm never here at nine on Saturdays. I'm always late on

Saturdays. Everybody knows that. ' Lula poured herself a cup of coffee. 'Did you hear the news? I was listening to the radio on the way in and they said the Red Devil robbed the deli-mart on

Commerce Street this morning. And he shot the clerk ten times in the head. That's a lot of times to get shot in the head. '

The Red Devil again. Getting more bold. More ruthless. It seemed like years had passed since my Escape got fried and Eddie got shot. I dropped into my seat at the desk and added Connie's search information to the three files.

Shoshanna Brown was wanted for possession. She was a repeater. I'd picked Shoshanna up for priors, and I knew she wouldn't be hard to find. Probably she didn't have a ride to court.

Anton Ward had a high bond. He'd gotten into a fight with his girlfriend and had stabbed her repeatedly with a steak knife. The girlfriend had lived, but she wasn't happy with Anton. Anton had made bail but had failed to show for court. He was nineteen with no priors. Or at least no priors as an adult. Vinnie had a notation on

Ward's bond document that there were gang tattoos on Wards arm.

One of the tattoos was a paw print accompanied by the letters CSS.

Ward was a Comstock Street Slayer.

I paged through the file, looking for the photo. The first photo was a profile. The second was full on. I saw the second photo and froze. Anton Ward was the Red Devil.

'You don't look too good, ' Lula said. 'Are you okay? You look whiter than usual. '

This is the devil guy. '

Connie grabbed the file. 'Are you sure?'

'It's been five days, but I'm pretty sure that's him. '

'I didn't give him to you when I ran the neighborhood check because I couldn't find him, ' Connie said. 'I didn't have time to go through the stacks of unfiled folders. '

'Oops, ' Lula said.

Connie looked through the folder and read from the computer search. 'Anton Ward. Dropped out of high school when he was sixteen. No work history. Lives with his brother. ' She flipped to the bond document. 'His bond was secured by someone named

Francine Taylor. She put her house up as collateral. Vinnie has a note that the daughter, Lauralene, is very pregnant, very young, and expecting to marry Anton Ward. ' Connie handed the file back to me. 'I hate to give this to you. Ordinarily this would go to

Ranger. '

'No problem, ' I said. `I'm turning it over to the police. ' Trenton

PD didn't have the manpower to pursue every skip. This was fine by me because it meant my job was secure. Anton Ward would be different. He was involved in a cop shooting and a possible murder.

Trenton PD would find the manpower to go after Anton Ward.

I called Morelli and told him about Ward.

'I don't want you anywhere near this guy, ' Morelli said.