Hard Eight (12 page)

Please let it be Evelyn. It would make everything so easy.

I left my car and walked the short distance to the store. I browsed the section to the rear of the coffee bar, staying hidden behind racks of books. I didn’t know Dotty personally, but I worried that she might recognize me, all the same. I scanned the store for Evelyn and Annie. I didn’t want them to see me, either.

Dotty looked up from her coffee and focused. I followed her line of sight, but I didn’t see Annie or Evelyn. I was looking so intently for Annie and Evelyn that I almost missed the red-haired guy making his way toward Dotty. It was Steven Soder. My first reaction was to intercept him. I didn’t know what he was doing here, but he was going to ruin everything. Evelyn would run when she saw him. And then it hit me, brain surgeon that I am. Dotty was waiting for Soder.

Soder got a coffee and took it to Dotty’s table. He sat across from her and slouched in his chair. An arrogant posture. I could see his face, and he didn’t look friendly.

Dotty leaned forward and said something to Soder. He made a crooked smile that was close to a snarl and nodded his head. They had a brief conversation. Soder stuck his finger in Dotty’s face and said something that turned Dotty white. He stood, made one last parting remark, and left. His coffee remained, untouched, on the table. Dotty collected herself, made certain Soder was out of sight, and then she left, too.

I followed Dotty to the parking lot. She got into her car, and I ran for mine. Hold the phone. No car. Okay, I know I’m a little dingy sometimes, but I usually remember where I’ve parked the car. I trotted up and down the aisle. I tried one aisle over. No car.

Dotty pulled out of her space and headed for the exit. A sleek black car followed a short distance behind Dotty. Jeanne Ellen.

“Damn!”

I rammed my hand into my bag, found my cell phone, and pounded out Ranger’s number.

“Call Jeanne Ellen and find out what she did with my car,” I said to Ranger. “
Now!
”

A minute later Jeanne Ellen called me. “I might have seen a black CR-V in front of the deli,” she said.

I punched the end button so hard I broke a nail. I dropped the phone back into my bag and stomped off, down the strip mall to the deli. I found my car and checked it over. There were no scratch marks from where Jeanne Ellen had popped the lock. No loose wires from hot-wiring. Somehow she’d gotten into the car and moved it without leaving a trace of herself. This was a trick Ranger could easily accomplish, and I couldn’t hope to pull off. The fact that Jeanne Ellen could do it really grated on me.

I left the strip mall and returned to Dotty’s house. No one was home. No car in the driveway. Probably Dotty had taken Jeanne Ellen straight to Evelyn. Fine. Who cares. I’m not even making any money on this. I did an eye roll. It wasn’t fine. If I go back to Mabel with nothing, she’ll start bawling again. I’d walk on molten lava and shards of glass before I’d face more of Mabel crying.

I hung around until early afternoon. I read the paper, filed my nails, organized my shoulder bag, and talked on my cell phone with Mary Lou Stankovik for a half hour. My legs were twitchy from the confinement, and my butt was asleep. I’d had a lot of time to think about Jeanne Ellen Burrows, and none of the thoughts were friendly. In fact, after about an hour of Jeanne Ellen Burrows thinking I was darn cranky, and I’m not sure, but I think steam might have started escaping from the top of my head. Jeanne Ellen had bigger boobs and a smaller ass than
me. She was a better bounty hunter. She had a nicer car. And she had leather pants. I could deal with this. What I couldn’t deal with was her involvement with Ranger. I’d thought their relationship had ended, but clearly I was wrong. He knew where she was every minute of the day.

While
she
had a relationship,
I
had the threat of a single night of gorilla sex hanging over my head. Okay, so I’d made the deal during a moment of professional desperation. His aid in exchange for my body. And yes, maybe it had been flirty and fun, in a scary sort of way. And true, I’m attracted to him. I mean, I’m only human, for crying out loud. A woman would have to be
dead
not to be attracted to Ranger. And it’s not like I’m having any luck getting Morelli into my bed these days.

So here I am with my one night. And there’s Jeanne Ellen with some sort of relationship. Well, forget it. I’m not fooling around with a man who’s possibly in a relationship.

I dialed Ranger and drummed my fingers on the steering wheel while I waited for the connection.

“Yo,” Ranger said.

“I owe you
nothing
,” I said. “The deal is off.”

Ranger was silent for a couple beats. Probably wondering why he ever made the deal in the first place. “Having a bad day?” he finally asked.

“My bad day has nothing to do with this,” I said. And I hung up.

My cell phone chirped, and I debated answering. Curiosity ultimately won out over cowardice. Pretty much the story of my life.

“I’ve been under a lot of stress,” I said. “I might even be sick with a fever.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“I thought you might want to retract the part where you tell me the deal is off,” Ranger said.

There was a long silence on the phone.

“Well?” Ranger asked.

“I’m thinking.”

“That’s always dangerous,” Ranger said. And he hung up.

I was still contemplating the retraction when Dotty rolled in. She parked in her driveway, took two grocery bags from the backseat, and let herself into the house.

My phone rang again. I did an eye roll and snapped my phone open. “Yes.”

“Have you been waiting long?” It was Jeanne Ellen.

I whipped my head around, looking up and down the street. “Where are you?”

“Behind the blue van. You’ll be happy to know you didn’t miss anything this afternoon. Dotty had a full day of housewifey things to do.”

“Did she know you were following her?”

There was a pause where I assumed Jeanne Ellen was stunned that I might think she’d ever get made. “Of course not,” Jeanne Ellen said. “She didn’t have Evelyn in her day planner today.”

“Well, cheer up,” I said. “The day’s not over.”

“True. I thought I’d stay here a bit longer, but the street feels crowded with both of us sitting here.”

“And?”

“And I thought it would be a good idea for you to leave.”

“No way.
You
should leave.”

“If anything happens I’ll call you,” Jeanne Ellen said.

“That’s a big fib.”

“True, again. Let me tell you something that isn’t a fib. If you don’t leave, I’ll put a bullet hole in your car.”

I knew from past experience that bullet holes were very bad for resale. I disconnected, put the car in gear, and drove away. I drove exactly two blocks and parked in front of a small white ranch. I locked up and walked around the block until I was directly behind Dotty’s house, one street over. There was no activity on the street. Not a lot of life visible from Dotty’s neighbors. Everyone was still at the mall, the soccer game, the Little League game, the car wash. I cut between two houses and straddled the white picket fence that enclosed Dotty’s backyard. I crossed the small yard, and knocked on Dotty’s back door.

Dotty opened the door and stared out at me, surprised to find a strange woman on her property.

“I’m Stephanie Plum,” I said. “I hope I didn’t startle you by showing up at your back door like this.”

Relief replaced surprise. “Of course, your parents live next to Mabel Markowitz. I went to school with your sister.”

“I’d like to talk to you about Evelyn. Mabel is worried about her, and I said I’d do some inquiring around. I came to the back door because the front of your house is under surveillance.”

Dotty’s mouth dropped and her eyes widened. “Someone’s watching me?”

“Steven Soder has hired a private detective to find Annie. The detective’s name is Jeanne Ellen Burrows, and she’s in a black Jaguar, behind the blue van. I spotted her when I drove up, and I didn’t want her to see me, so I
came through the back.” Take that, Jeanne Ellen Burrows. Direct hit.
Kapow!

“Omigod,” Dottie said. “What should I do?”

“Do you know where Evelyn is?”

“No. Sorry. Evelyn and I sort of lost touch.”

She was lying. She’d waited too long to say no. And now spots of color were blooming on her cheeks. She was possibly the worst liar I’d ever seen. She was a disgrace to Burg women. Burg women were
great
liars. No wonder Dotty had to move to South River.

I let myself into her kitchen and closed the door. “Listen,” I said, “don’t worry about Jeanne Ellen. She’s not dangerous. You just don’t want to lead her to Evelyn.”

“You mean
if
I knew where Evelyn was then I should be careful about going there.”

“Careful isn’t good enough. Jeanne Ellen will follow you, and you’ll never see her. Don’t go anywhere near Evelyn. Stay away from her.”

Dotty wasn’t liking this advice. “Hmmm,” she said.

“Maybe we should talk about Evelyn.”

She shook her head. “I can’t talk about Evelyn.”

I gave her my card. “Call me if you change your mind. If Evelyn gets in touch with you, and you need to go see her, please consider letting me help you. You can call Mabel and check me out.”

Dotty looked at the card and nodded. “Okay.”

I let myself out the back door and slipped through the yards to the street. I walked the half block back to my car and took off for home.

_______

I stepped out of the elevator and felt my heart sink at the sight of Kloughn camping in my hall. He was sitting with his back to the wall, legs outstretched, arms crossed over his chest. His face brightened when he saw me, and he scrambled to his feet.

“Boy,” he said, “you’ve been gone all afternoon. Where were you? You didn’t catch Bender, did you? You wouldn’t catch him without me, would you? I mean, we’re a team, right?”

“Right,” I said. “We’re a team.” A team without handcuffs.

I let us into my apartment, and we both migrated to the kitchen. I slid a look at the answering machine. Nothing was blinking. No message from Morelli, pleading for a date. Not that Morelli ever pleaded for anything. Still, a girl could hope. Large mental sigh. I was going to spend Saturday night with Albert Kloughn. It felt like doomsday.

Kloughn was looking at me expectantly. He was like a puppy, eyes bright, tail wagging, waiting to be taken for a walk. Endearing . . . in an incredibly annoying sort of way.

“Now what?” he asked. “What do we do now?”

I needed to think about this. Usually the problem is
finding
the FTA. I never had a problem finding Bender. I had a problem hanging on to him.

I opened the refrigerator and stared inside. My motto has always been, When all else fails, eat something. “Let’s make dinner,” I said.

“Oh boy, a home-cooked meal. That would really hit the spot. I haven’t eaten in hours. Okay, I had a candy bar just before you got here, but that doesn’t count, does it? I mean, it’s not like real food. And I’m still hungry. It’s not like it’s a meal, right?”

“Right.”

“What should we cook? Pasta? You got some fish? We could have fish. Or a nice steak. I still eat meat. Lots of people don’t eat meat anymore, but I still eat it. I eat everything.”

“Do you eat peanut butter?”

“Sure. I love peanut butter. Peanut butter is a staple, right?”

“Right.” I ate a lot of peanut butter. You don’t have to cook it. You only dirty one knife in the preparation. And you can count on it. It’s always the same. As opposed to picking out a piece of fish, which in my experience is risky.

I made us peanut butter and bread-and-butter pickle sandwiches. And because I had company, I added a layer of potato chips.

“This is very creative,” Kloughn said. “You get a lot of textures this way. And you don’t get your fingers greasy by eating the potato chips separately. I’ll have to remember this. I’m always looking for new recipes.”

Alright, I was going to take another shot at capturing Bender. I was going to break into his house, one more time. As soon as I located a pair of handcuffs.

I dialed Lula’s number.

“So,” I said to Lula, “what’s going on tonight?”

“I’m just trying to figure out what to wear, on account of it’s Saturday. And it’s not like I’m some loser who can’t get a date. I’d be out of the house by now, but I can’t make up my mind between two dresses.”

“Do you have handcuffs?”

“Sure. I got handcuffs. You never know when you need handcuffs.”

“Maybe I could borrow them. Just for a couple hours. I need to bring Bender in.”

“You’re gonna go get Bender tonight? You need help? I could cancel my date. Then I wouldn’t have to decide on a dress. You have to come over here to get the cuffs anyway. You might as well take me with.”

“You don’t actually have a date, do you?”

“I could if I wanted.”

“I’ll pick you up in a half hour.”

Lula was in the front seat, and Kloughn was in the backseat. We were parked in front of Bender’s apartment, trying to decide on the best approach.

“You watch the back door,” I said to Lula. “And Albert and I will go in the front door.”

“I don’t like that plan,” Lula said. “I want to go in the front door. And I want to be the one holding the cuffs.”

“I think Stephanie should hold the cuffs,” Kloughn said. “She’s the bounty hunter.”

“Hunh,” Lula said. “What am I, chopped liver? And besides, they’re my cuffs. I should get to hold them. Either I hold them, or you haven’t got no cuffs.”

“Fine!” I said to Lula. “
You
go in the front door, and
you
hold the cuffs, fust make sure you get them on Bender.”

“What about me?” Kloughn wanted to know. “Where do I go? Do I take the back door? What do I do back there? Do I bust in the door?”

“No! No door busting. You stand there and wait. Your job is to make sure Bender doesn’t escape from the back
door. So if the back door opens and Bender runs out, you have to stop him.”

“You can count on me. He won’t get past me. I know I look pretty tough, but I’m even tougher than that. I’m
real
tough.”