13
“I feel much better now that my hair's back in shape,” Grandma said, hoisting herself up onto the front seat of the Buick. “I even had her put a rinse in it. Can you tell the difference?”
She'd gone from gunmetal gray to apricot.
“It's more of a strawberry blond now,” I said.
“Yeah, that's it. Strawberry blond. I always wanted to be one of those.”
Vinnie's office was just down the street. I parked at the curb and pulled Grandma in after me.
“I've never been here before,” Grandma said, taking it all in. “Isn't this something?”
“Vinnie's on the phone,” Connie said. “He'll be with you in a minute.”
Lula came over to get a closer look at Grandma. “So you're Stephanie's grandma,” Lula said. “I've heard a lot about you.”
Grandma's eyes brightened. “Oh yeah? What'd you hear?”
“For starters I heard you got stuck with an ice pick.”
Grandma held her bandaged hand out for Lula to see. “It was this here hand, and it got stuck just about clean through.”
Lula and Connie looked at the hand.
“And that isn't all that's happened,” Grandma said. “The other night Stephanie got a man's part in Express Mail. Opened it up right in front of me. I saw the whole thing. It was stuck to a piece of foam with a hatpin.”
“Get out,” Lula said.
“That's just the way it came through the mail,” Grandma said. “Sliced off like a chicken neck and stuck with a hatpin. Reminded me of my husband.”
Lula leaned forward so she could whisper. “You talking about size? Was your man's part that big?”
“Heck no,” Grandma said. “His part was that dead.”
Vinnie stuck his head out of his office door, and swallowed hard when he saw Grandma. “Oh jeez,” he said.
“I just picked Grandma up at the beauty parlor,” I told him “And now we're going shopping. Thought I'd stop by to see what you wanted, since I was just down the street.”
Vinnie's five-foot-nine frame hunched. His thinning black hair was slicked back and had the same level of shine as his pointy-toed black shoes. “I want to know what's happening with Mancuso. This was supposed to be a simple pickup, and now I'm hanging out for a lot of money.”
“I'm closing in,” I said. “Sometimes these things take time.”
“Time is money,” Vinnie said. “My money.”
Connie rolled her eyes.
And Lula said, “Say what?”
We all knew Vinnie's bond business was financed by an insurance company.
Vinnie balanced on his toes, hands loose at his sides. City boy. Slack-jointed. Tight-assed. “This case is out of your league. I'm giving it over to Mo Barnes.”
“I don't know Mo Barnes from Adam's donkey,” Grandma said to Vinnie. “But I know he can't hold a candle to my granddaughter. She's the best there is when it comes to bounty huntering, and you'd be a darn fool to take her off this Mancuso case. Especially now that I'm working with her. We're about to crack his case wide open.”
“No offense,” Vinnie said, “but you and your granddaughter couldn't crack a walnut with both hands, much less bring Mancuso in.”
Grandma pulled herself up and edged her chin out a half inch.