Chapter Twenty-Two
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Bob woke me up at seven o’clock. The sun was shining. It was a glorious day, and Bob had to tinkle. I got dressed, strapped my gun on, shrugged into my sweatshirt, and laced up my sneakers. I stepped out the back door to my building and spotted a Rangeman SUV parked next to my car. This wasn’t a big surprise. It was Ranger in protective mode. Bob and I went over to say hello.
Hal was behind the wheel and Ramon was riding shotgun. Hal reached out the window to scratch Bob’s head and hand me an AirTag.
“Ranger wants you to wear this,” Hal said.
I dropped the AirTag into my sweatshirt pocket. “Have you been here all night?”
“No. We came on duty at six o’clock. Junior and Shank were here last night.”
“There’s a Rangeman named Shank?”
“Don’t ask,” Hal said.
“Tell Ranger it’s all good here. I’m going to walk Bob and then run a few errands. A security escort isn’t necessary.”
“I’ll pass it on,” Hal said.
Bob and I did two blocks and when we got back to my apartment building the Rangeman car was gone. I didn’t have any dog food, so I made scrambled eggs and toast for Bob and me. Bob is lactose intolerant so there was no butter on his toast. We had just finished eating when Morelli showed up.
“You’re usually at work by now,” I said.
“I just got off work,” Morelli said. “I’m on my way home. I thought I’d stop in and get Bob.”
“How did you know Bob was here?”
“My doorbell cam. I saw you and Bob leave my house and not return.”
“Of course.”
Morelli looked at the empty bowl on the floor next to Bob’s water bowl. “Bob ate breakfast?”
“Scrambled eggs and dry toast.”
Morelli grabbed me and kissed me. “Thanks for taking care of Bob.”
“Is that why you kissed me?”
“No. I kissed you because it’s my second-favorite thing to do.”
“And your first favorite?”
“Watching the Giants.”
I punched him in the shoulder, and he hugged me closer and kissed me again. His beard was way past five o’clock shadow and looked very sexy. If this kept up, I was going to have beard rash, and it would be totally worth it.
“Before I forget,” Morelli said. “We got lucky with the fingers. Three hits. Elena Stockard Djordjevic, Rosa Sanchez, Marianne Markoni. No Julie Werly.”
“So, she might be alive.”
“We have nothing to prove that she’s dead.”
Bob was pushing against Morelli trying to get his attention. Morelli bent down and hugged Bob and scratched his ear. He straightened and looked into my living room.
“You have furniture and carpet, and it looks like fresh paint. When did all this happen?”
“Herbert.”
“You told me about Herbert doing nice things, but I didn’t get the whole picture.”
“The whole picture is hard to explain. Mostly because I can’t explain it to myself. It’s a little disturbing.”
“Whoa,” Morelli said, eyeballing my window. He crossed the room and ran his finger along the glass. “There’s a story here.”
“After I was firebombed three times, Ranger decided to install bulletproof glass.”
“And?”
“And Zoran tried to break in last night, and I tried to shoot him, but the bullet got stuck in the glass.”
Morelli looked down at the floor. I couldn’t tell if he was trying not to laugh or trying not to grind his teeth. He picked his head up and crooked his finger at me in one of those come here motions. I walked over and he hung his arm across my shoulders.
“Is it too late to cancel the engagement?” he asked me.
I knew he wasn’t serious about canceling the engagement. He was making a statement about my job.
“Maybe,” I said.
“Your life is…” He shook his head. “I have no words.”
“If you had words, would they be good words?”
“They’d be words of desperation. I’m crazy in love with you, and you’re a train wreck waiting to happen.”
“Remember when we were kids, and we played choo-choo and I was the tunnel, and you were the train?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I always wanted to be the train. I don’t think I’m a train wreck waiting to happen. I think I’m finally getting to be the train.”
“Cupcake, you’re one hell of a train.”
“Thanks.”
“In all honesty, I’d rather you went back to being the tunnel,” Morelli said.
“I’m thinking about it. There were some good parts to being the tunnel.”
“And I have some new variations on being the train.”
“If I decide to be the train, do you want to cancel the engagement?” I asked him.
“Actually, it was dinner with your family that had me on the fence about the engagement.”
I punched him in the arm again.
“And the birthday party was the clincher.”
“You got to do your Saturday Night Fever thing.”
“Yeah, I look hot when I do that. Travolta looks like a pussy compared to me.”
“This is true,” I said.
Morelli looked back at the bullet in the window. “Are you safe here?”
“Yes. I have seven locks on my door and bulletproof glass on my windows, and Ranger monitors the hall.”
“Ranger monitors your hall?”
“You have a Ring doorbell, and I have Ranger.”
“Fair enough. I have to go. I need sleep. I’ll call you later.”
By the time I got to the office the healthy breakfast was a distant memory and I needed a doughnut.
“How was your normal night at your parents’ house?” Lula asked. “Do you have your sanity put back together?”
I almost burst out laughing. “My normal night with my family was completely normal, and my sanity is in good shape.” I took a doughnut from the box on Connie’s desk. “What’s happening here? Anything new?”
“I think we had a no-show at court yesterday, but it hasn’t come through yet,” Connie said. “No new videos from Hoodie.”
“I have a couple errands to run this morning,” I said. “I have to pick up a fruit basket from Jug Produce and deliver it to Harry. I need the address for his office on Beryl Street.”
Connie wrote the address on a scrap of paper and handed it to me.
“I need to include a note with the basket,” I said. “Do we have any note cards?”
“I have some in the back,” Connie said. “There are several different kinds. They should be on the first rack by the coffee machine.”
I picked out a couple cards and got coffee. “I’m ready to roll,” I said to Lula.
“Me too,” Lula said. “I want to see Harry’s office. I have to see if it’s as good as Jug’s.” She looked at me and shook her head. “Harry’s going to be real disappointed when he sees you in that T-shirt.”
Lula was wearing a red spandex dress that barely covered her hooha. The top of the dress had a low V-neck, and her giant nipples were straining against the spandex. I didn’t think Harry would notice what I was wearing if I was standing next to Lula. I disappeared when I stood next to Lula.
We went to Jug Produce first. The fruit basket was waiting at the desk as promised, but I needed to get the card written out and signed. The woman at the reception desk made a phone call and told us we could go on up.
Jug was at his desk, and Mr. Big was curled up in a blue velvet dog bed placed on a corner of the desk.
“Boy, this dog has the life,” Lula said.
“You bet your sweet aunt Mary,” Jug said.
I gave Big some ear scratches and handed Jug a blank card. “I thought it would be nice if you sent a thank-you note to Harry for writing your bail bond.”
Jug took the card, wrote his thank-you, and handed the card back to me.
Dear Asshole,
Thanks for nothing.
Bruno
“Short but sweet,” I said.
“No point getting too nasty,” Jug said. “I try to be classy and show some restraint.”
“It looks like you’re back at work,” Lula said to Jug.
“Yeah, my babysitters let me go out of the house, but I’m stuck here at the office. They don’t want me talking to the press. They think I’ll say something stupid.”
“What do you think?” Lula asked. “Would you say something stupid to the press?”
“Probably,” Jug said.
We left Bruno’s office, picked up the fruit basket, and went back to my Trailblazer. I took a fresh blank card out of my messenger bag and wrote:
Dear Harry,
Thanks for bailing me out.
Bruno
I tucked the card into the fruit basket and drove to Harry’s office on Beryl Street. Lula and I went in with the fruit basket and stopped at the reception desk.
“We’re here to give this fruit basket to Harry,” I said to the woman behind the desk.
“He’s in a meeting,” she said, “but I’ll be happy to give him the basket when he gets out.”
“Are you sure he’s in a meeting?” Lula said. “Because I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be happy to have missed me.”
The woman looked at Lula. “You could be right. Seventh floor. I’ll tell his assistant you’re on your way up.”
The assistant was waiting for us when we exited the elevator. He looked at Lula and grinned. “You have a fruit basket?”
“Yeah, and it’s a big one,” Lula said, nodding in my direction.
I had my arms wrapped around the basket, holding it against my chest.
“Harry likes big ones,” the assistant said. “Follow me.”
We were ushered into Harry’s inner sanctum office, and Harry looked up when we entered.
“These ladies have a fruit basket for you,” the assistant said.
I went to place the basket on Harry’s desk and a pear slipped out from the cellophane wrapping and rolled on the floor. Lula bent to pick it up and gave Harry a full moon with her red thong buried deep inside her vast lunar canyon.
Harry stood at his desk to get a better view.
Lula stood, tugged her skirt down, and handed the pear to Harry. “Looks like you’ve got a lot of pears in this basket,” Lula said.
“Do you want some?” Harry asked.
“No thanks,” Lula said. “I don’t eat pears.”
“We’re good now,” I said to Harry. “The thank-you note is in the fruit basket.”
Harry took the note out and read it. “This doesn’t look like Harry’s writing.”
“He dictated it to me,” I said. “And I might have paraphrased. He was very sincere about his message.”
“Who’s your friend here?”
“I’m Lula,” Lula said. “I work for you.”
“Lucky me,” Harry said. “Can I touch your tit?”
“No, but you could take a look at it if you want,” Lula said. “I got prizewinning titties. Everybody says so. And my nipples are world-record nipples.”
Lula pulled one of the girls out of the V-neck and Harry almost fell on the floor. His face got red, and he started to sweat.
“Wow,” Harry said. “Holy crap. Can I see the other one?”
“No,” Lula said, stuffing her boob back into her dress. “You only get to see one. Anyways they’re both the same.”
“We have to go now,” I said. “Things to do. Felons to catch. Sorry about the pears.”
“Do you want some?” Harry asked me.
“No!” I said. “But thanks for the offer.”
I hurried out of Harry’s office and Lula followed.
“That went well,” Lula said. “And he has a real nice office. It’s not Oval Office caliber, but it’s still pretty nice.”
We got into my SUV, and I sat there for a moment, thinking about my next move.
“We’re missing something with Zoran,” I said. “He can find me, but I can’t find him.”
“That’s on account of he already knows where you are. Everybody knows where you are. You’re at the office or your apartment or your parents’ house. He isn’t in any of the places where he should be—like his house, his laundromat, or his parents’ house.”
“He has transportation. He’s out buying drugs. He’s stalking me.”
“So, it’s simple. We know where Zoran’s going to be,” Lula said. “He’s going to be wherever you are.”
That was like getting hit by a lightning bolt. I don’t have to find Zoran. I can let him come to me. I can set a trap with me as the bait. I just have to make sure he doesn’t get too close. He likes to come out at night, so I have today to find a location where he’ll be trapped and I’ll be protected. I’ll do some scouting around and then I’ll bring Ranger in. And since I have some time, it wouldn’t hurt to enlarge the search area. Ranger and I only searched Stark and Freemont.
“You got that look like something’s going on in your head,” Lula said.
“I want to take a look at the area between the laundromat and Zoran’s house. We’ve never covered those streets.”
“That sounds reasonable,” Lula said. “We should be looking for abandoned haunted houses and loose manhole covers. No telling where his hidey-hole is located.”
If he had Julie Werly, which was a big if , it would have to be someplace quiet. Like a cellar. His house didn’t have a cellar. It was built on a slab.
I drove to Exeter Street and slowly cruised around, dividing the neighborhood into four-block grids. I was looking for houses that seemed empty or unkempt and larger houses that might have cellars. I designated two houses that had possibilities. One was directly behind Zoran’s house and the other was across the street from the Werly house.
The whole time we were doing this I was checking my rearview mirror to see if I was being followed. Cars would come and go, but I didn’t see anything that looked like a tail.
I parked in front of Zoran’s house.
“Uh-oh, are we going in here again?” Lula asked. “If we’re going in here, I’m not looking in the freezer. I’m not looking nowhere.”
“I’m not going in. I want to walk around these two blocks and get a better look at the yards and houses. There are two houses that interest me.”
“You’re just looking from the outside, right?”
“Right.”
We walked the two blocks, and we returned to the car. It was almost noon, with bright sun overhead and a couple puffy clouds in the sky. Not vampire-stalking conditions. I had the AirTag in my pocket and my gun on my hip. I didn’t feel at risk, but I wasn’t going to push my luck either. I thought the two houses warranted investigation. And I thought it best if someone else did the investigating.
“I’m going to get Morelli to take a look at those two houses,” I said to Lula.
I called Morelli and he didn’t pick up. Probably sleeping with his ringer turned off. I called Ranger and got the control room. I was told he was on a conference call, and they asked if I needed them to break in. I told them it wasn’t an emergency, but I’d like him to call me when he was done.
“I need a soda,” Lula said. “And a sandwich. They had good-looking sandwiches at the deli on the corner.”
We drove down Freemont, parked on the street, and went into the deli. It was part bakery, part deli, and part grocery, with a fresh-fruit section advertising Jug Produce.
“Bruno is everywhere,” Lula said. “He’s franchising fruit and next he’ll have his ice cream all over the place. That’s the way it is when you’re a tycoon.”
We walked past the fruit to the deli counter. We grabbed a couple premade sandwiches, got a couple bags of chips and a couple sodas. Lula went to the ladies’ room, and I took our food outside to eat. It was a beautiful day with a cloudless blue sky and a little chill in the air. I sat on the wooden bench that had been placed in front of the deli and set the bag of food and the sodas next to me. I tried calling Morelli again. Still no answer. I put my phone down and unwrapped a sandwich, and a tan van drove by and continued down the street. It was an old panel van with a large dent over the left rear wheel. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than to be good. The van met Mrs. Werly’s description. Old tan van with a dent in the back. I grabbed my messenger bag and followed the van. It cruised down the second block of Freemont and crossed the road, and I lost it. There’d been traffic on the cross street and when the street cleared, there was no van.
Halfway down the third block of Freemont, I spotted the rear end of the van. It was parked behind a three-story tenement-type apartment building. Only the back bumper was visible.
I went to my jeans pocket to get my phone and there was no phone. Mental head slap. I’d been so fixated on following the van that I’d left my phone on the bench. Not a problem. I was wearing my smartwatch, I had Ranger’s AirTag in my sweatshirt pocket, and my gun was on my hip.
I stood there for a couple minutes listening, looking for activity. I didn’t pick up anything coming from the back of the tenement, so I crept down the driveway. It was the same van that I saw drive by the deli. Tan. Dented. No windows in the back doors or on the sides of the van. I moved up to the driver’s-side door and looked in the window. There was a brown paper grocery bag, a grungy sweatshirt, and a ball cap on the passenger seat.
The back door to the building was cracked open. It was just steps away from the van. I went to the door and looked in. Small entrance hallway with stairs leading up to a landing and more stairs, and stairs leading down to a short hall with two doors. I’d seen enough. I needed to get help. I took a step back to leave, a basement door opened, and Zoran walked out into the hall. We locked eyes for a beat, and he charged up the stairs at me. I had a gun, but my first instinct wasn’t to use it. My instinct was to run. I stumbled going over the threshold, and he caught me at the van.
He grabbed the back of my sweatshirt and yanked me off my feet. I screamed for help and tried to kick him. We rolled around on the ground with me scratching and clawing at him. He managed to get me facedown with his knee on my back and zzzzt . Everything went black.
A split second before I went scramble brain, I’d seen the stun gun in Zoran’s hand. I’d been stun gunned before, so I knew the drill. You come back slowly. Muscle contractions stop. Eyes open. Blurry. Tingling in fingers. Arms wake up. This time it was different. I’d been out for a while. I was foggy. Not tingly. Fingers and toes were working. I was on my back. Popcorn ceiling. Who has a popcorn ceiling? Popcorn ceilings went out thirty years ago. Popcorn ceilings dampened sound, but they contained asbestos. My building had popcorn ceilings in the basement laundry room. Probably illegal.
The fog was starting to lift. My eyes were focusing better. I tried to sit up and got slightly nauseated. I stayed down for a couple minutes, waiting for the nausea to pass. I tried sitting up again. No nausea. I looked around the room. The size of a small bedroom. Dimly lit by an overhead bulb. No windows. Two doors. A cot against a wall. A small table and a metal folding chair. A trash can. A large screw eye embedded in a concrete floor. Chain attached. The other end of the chain was attached to a thick metal bracelet that was latched onto my ankle. More nausea. This time the nausea wasn’t drug induced. This time the origin of the nausea was raw, cold terror.
I no longer had my gun. I felt for the AirTag. Gone. I got onto all fours and then onto my feet. I took a moment to steady myself. I heard something whimper, and my heart skipped several beats. Something was huddled in a dark corner next to what looked like an under-the-counter refrigerator. There was movement. It was a woman. She was crouched in the corner, but I could see that she was very thin. Large, frightened eyes.
“Julie Werly?” I asked.
“Yes!”
“I came to rescue you.”
The instant I said it, I realized how ridiculous it sounded. I’d totally messed up. I’d allowed myself to get kidnapped, and now I was chained to the floor in some dungeon with a popcorn ceiling. I made a sound that was halfway between a bark of laughter and a sob, and tears were collecting behind my eyes. I’d found Julie Werly, and she was alive. I was happy and scared and pissed off that I hadn’t been able to come in like Batgirl and rescue her. Get it together, I told myself. This isn’t the time to fall apart.
I looked down and realized a second chain was attached to the screw eye, and the chain went to Julie Werly. The chains were long. Long enough to reach one of the doors, which I assumed was a bathroom. I tugged on the chain. It was too strong to break. Solidly cemented into the floor.
“Are you okay?” I asked Julie. I could see that she was alive. I could also see that she wasn’t okay.
She made soft whimpering sounds and I realized she was crying, trying not to make a lot of noise, trying to choke back the sobs.
“I’m sorry,” she said, wiping tears away. “He gets angry if he hears me crying, so I try not to cry, but I’m getting worn down. I miss my mom and my dad and my students. I’m afraid I’ll never see them again.” She sucked in another sob and bit into her lower lip.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said. “I’m not alone. I work with professionals who are good at finding people and rescuing them. I’m sure they’re tracking me. Pretty soon this nightmare will end and you’ll be back home with your parents.”
“Have you spoken to them?” she asked. “Are they all right?”
“They’re good,” I told her. “They haven’t given up hope that you’ll be found and that you’re okay.”
“I think I’m okay,” she said. “I’m surviving. I think he keeps me alive for my blood. He doesn’t talk to me or hit me. I don’t think I’ve been sexually violated. He brings me food. Sometimes the food is drugged, and I fall asleep, and when I wake up, I have a small Band-Aid over a needle puncture. I’m always tired and I know I’m getting weaker. I imagine he brought you in here to replace me. There was a woman here before me. Her name was Rosa. She was very sick, and one day I woke up and she was gone, and I’ve been alone ever since.”
“Do you know where we are?”
“No. This is where I woke up.” She put her hand to her neck. “I had bite marks on my neck.”
“Do you know how he got you here?”
“Not exactly. I was at home, watching television. Zoran came to the door with pizza, and I let him in. He was always a little odd, but he was always polite. I felt sorry for him. He didn’t seem to have any friends.”
“So, you ate the pizza and passed out?”
“Yes.”
I walked to the door that was open and looked in. Bathroom. My chain didn’t reach to the door that was closed.
“What’s in there?” I asked Julie.
“It’s a small all-purpose room. There’s a kitchenette of sorts, a couch, and a television. Sometimes when he brings food, I can look through the door and see the other room. I think lately he’s been living there. I hear the television.”
“What happens when he brings the food?”
“He tells me to get into the corner by the little fridge. If I move from the corner, he takes the food away and I don’t have anything to eat until the next day. If I stay in the corner, he sets the food tray on the table and leaves. He usually feeds me twice a day, I think. The light stays on all the time, and I haven’t got a watch or anything, so I don’t really know if it’s day or night.”
The door opened and Zoran walked in. “Now that you’re awake and have met your roommate, I suspect you know the process. You go to the corner by the fridge while I set your food on the table. If you move from the corner, I take the food away. I carry a Taser, so I have the ability to cause pain if needed. I also have a very nice SIG Sauer which I’ve recently acquired and have clipped to my belt.”
I went to the corner and crouched next to Julie. Zoran put the food on the table and stood still for a moment. Something was scratching in the other room. Zoran turned on his heel and went to investigate the scratching. I heard the apartment door open, and Zoran swear. There were some pitter-patter sounds, and Mr. Big ran into the dungeon room and rushed over to me. He was excited. Jumping up and down. I swear he was smiling.
Zoran followed Mr. Big. “Do you know this dog?” he asked me.
“No,” I said, “but he seems to like me.”
Zoran took one of the fast-food burgers off the table and unwrapped it. He moved into the doorway and held the burger out for Big to see. “Come and get it,” Zoran said to Big.
Big ran to get the burger and I yelled out his name.
“Mr. Big!”
Big stopped and turned and looked at me. I pointed to Zoran and yelled, “Kill!”
Big jumped at Zoran and sank his spiky little teeth into Zoran’s leg. Zoran staggered back and batted Mr. Big away. Mr. Big attacked again, this time getting Zoran in the crotch. I ran to the table, grabbed the chair, and hit Zoran full force, in the back. He turned, and I smashed him in the face with the chair. Big unlatched himself from Zoran’s privates, and Zoran went down to his knees, stunned, blood pouring out of his nose. I grabbed the gun out of the holster and shot Zoran in the leg, and then, just to be safe, I shot him in the other leg. Zoran was on his back and screaming, and I was frozen, not sure what to do next. I had no phone. I was chained to the floor. I should have looked in his pocket for a key to my ankle bracelet, but I didn’t want to get that close to him. And then Ranger ran in, followed by Lula, Lou, and Bruno.
The burger was lying on the floor. “Don’t let Mr. Big eat the burger,” I said. “It might contain drugs.”
“Holy cow,” Lula said. “Holy moly. Holy hell.”
“Is there anyone else we should worry about?” Ranger asked me.
“No,” I said. “Just Zoran. I yelled ‘kill’ and Mr. Big attacked Zoran, and I hit Zoran in the face with the chair, and then I shot him. Twice.”
Zoran was moaning and making weird hissing sounds.
Tank and another Rangeman came into the room. Tank looked at me, still holding the gun, and then he looked at Zoran, bleeding from his face and both legs.
“Did you shoot him in the face?” Tank asked.
“No,” I said. “I hit him in the face with the chair.”
Tank smiled. “Nice.”
Tank’s partner ran to get the med kit, and Tank started triage on Zoran.
Ranger was talking to his control room, telling them that there were multiple victims needing medical assistance, and asking them to get Morelli on the phone. Bruno and Lou were looking on from the kitchen area. Bruno was holding Mr. Big. Lula was with Julie. I dragged my chain into the bathroom, splashed cold water on my face, and dried off with a paper towel. I looked at myself in the mirror. My face was pale, and I could have used some lip gloss, but other than that, I looked almost okay.
Ranger was waiting by the door when I came out. “Babe,” he said. “Feel better?”
“Yeah.”
He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and wrapped his arms around me, holding me close. “I had some bad moments on this one. This one really scared me,” he said.
I nodded against him. “Me too.”
“Can you walk me through it?”
I gave him the short version that ended with getting stunned and drugged. “Where are we?”
“Third block of Freemont,” Ranger said. “Probably the three-story tenement you entered. It’s used by druggies. Half-empty. We’re in the basement. I imagine this was the manager’s apartment. Maybe Zoran is the manager.”
“How did you find me?”
“Lula called. She saw your phone and food on the bench and couldn’t find you, and she went into panic mode. Control room said she was screaming on the phone, so they broke into my conference call. When I got to the deli she was with Bruno and Lou. They came to get lunch and check on the Jug Produce display. I guess it’s new.”
“Zoran took my AirTag.”
“He didn’t take it. It must have fallen out of your pocket when he was moving you. I was able to track it to the van behind the building. It was lying on the ground. The dog found it. We were organizing a search when Bruno realized the dog was missing. Bruno and Lou walked around to the street to look for the dog, and Tank and I went to the back door to get into the building. The door was locked but the whole door is rotting away. I’m sure that’s how the dog got in. There was a gap on the bottom of the door that he was able to squeeze through. We kicked the door open, and we were standing in the back hallway when we heard gunshots coming from the basement.”
Now that the doors were open, I could hear street sounds. Sirens. People talking. Paramedics came in. A couple of cops walked in with them. One of Ranger’s men came with a key for the ankle iron and went to work setting me free.
“I called Morelli,” Ranger said. “He’s on his way.”
Tank came over. “Do you want me to have the cars moved so the first responders can get closer?” he asked Ranger.
“Yes. Everyone can be dismissed back to standard.”
“What cars?” I asked him.
“I have half of Rangeman on the street. I didn’t know what I was going to find here or how extensive the search was going to be.”
A couple of paramedics and Lula had Julie Werly on her feet. Bruno and Lou were still in the little kitchenette, taking it all in. And Morelli’s partner, Jimmy, was standing in the hall, talking to a uniform.
“Fill Jimmy in,” I said to Ranger. “I need to talk to Bruno and Lou.”
I walked over and gave Mr. Big some ear scratches. “This is the hero of the day,” I said to Bruno and Lou. “He distracted Zoran so I could take him down.”
“So, you hit the vampire in the face with the chair and then you shot him… twice,” Lou said.
“Yes.”
“Let me know if you ever need a job. I could find a place for you.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Or you could marry me,” Bruno said. “The divorce will go through any day now.”
“Gee, thanks,” I said, “but I’m engaged.”