“Whoa,” Mooner said when he saw me standing at the doorway to the third bedroom. “Where'd all that stuff come from?”
“I thought Dougie gave up dealing?”
“He couldn't help himself, dude. I swear he tried, but it's in his blood, you know? Like, he was born to deal.”
Now I had a better idea of the origin of Mooner's nervousness. Dougie was still involved with bad people. Bad people are just fine when everything's going good. They become a concern when your friend shows up missing.
“Do you know where these boxes came from? Do you know who Dougie was working with?”
“I'm like, clueless. He took a phone call and then next thing there's a truck in the driveway and we've got this inventory. I wasn't paying too much attention. Rocky and Bullwinkle were on, and you know how hard it is to tear yourself away from ol' Rocky.”
“Did Dougie owe money? Was there something wrong with the deal?”
“Didn't seem like it. Seemed like he was real happy. He said the stuff he got was a quick sale. Except for the toasters. Hey, you want a toaster?”
“How much?”
“Ten bucks.”
“Sold.”
I MADE A quick stop at Giovichinni's for a few food-type essentials, and then Bob and I hustled home for lunch. I had my toaster under one arm and my grocery bag in another when I got out of the car.
Benny and Ziggy suddenly materialized from nowhere.
“Let me help you with that bag,” Ziggy said. “A lady like you shouldn't be carrying her own bag.”
“And what's this? A toaster,” Benny said, relieving me of the toaster, looking at the box. “This is a good one, too. It's got those extra-wide slots so you can do English muffins.”
“I'm fine,” I said, but they already had the bag and the toaster and were ahead of me, going through the door to my building.
“We just thought we'd stop by and see how things were going,” Benny said, punching the elevator button. “You have any luck with Eddie yet?”
“I saw him at Stiva's, but he got away.”
“Yeah, we heard about that. That's a shame.”
I opened my door and they handed me my bag and toaster and peeked inside my apartment.
“You don't got Eddie in here, do you?” Ziggy asked.
“No!”
Ziggy shrugged. “It was a long shot.”
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Benny said.
And they left.
“You don't have to pass an intelligence test to get into the mob,” I said to Bob.
I plugged my new toaster in and fed it two slices of bread. I made Bob a peanut butter sandwich with untoasted bread, I took the toasted peanut butter sandwich, and we ate, standing in the kitchen, enjoying the moment.
“I guess it's not so hard to be a housewife,” I said to Bob, “as long as you have peanut butter and bread.”
I called Norma at the DMV and got the license number for Dougie's 'Vette. Then I called Morelli to see if he'd heard anything about anything.