“Did you get a diddle for it?” Gazarra asked.
“No!”
He made another tsch.
“Well,” Roseanne said, “what's it gonna be?”
I pushed the hair out of my face. “It's going to be a kick in the kidney if you don't get your butt in that cop car.” When up against it . . . try an empty threat.
Stephanie Plum 7 - Seven Up
6
I PARKED IN my lot and slogged up to my apartment, leaving puddles in my wake. Benny and Ziggy were waiting in the hall.
“We brought you some strawberry preserves,” Benny said. “It's the good kind, too. It's Smucker's.”
I took the jam and opened my door. “What's up?”
“We heard you caught Chooch having a snort with Father Carolli.”
They were smiling, enjoying the moment.
“That Choochy, he's a pip,” Ziggy said. “Did he really shoot Jesus?”
I smiled with them. Choochy was indeed a pip. “News travels fast,” I said.
“We're what you call plugged in,” Ziggy said. “Anyhow, we just want to get it straight from you. How did Choochy look? Was he okay? Was he, you know, crazy?”
“He took a couple shots at Mooner, but he missed. Carolli said Chooch has been excitable ever since his stroke.”
“He don't hear so good, either,” Benny said.
They exchanged glances on that one. No smiles.
Water was dripping from my Levi's, forming a pool on the kitchen floor. Ziggy and Benny were standing clear of it.
“Where's the little geeky guy?” Benny asked. “Isn't he hanging out with you anymore?”
“He had things to do.”
I PEELED MY clothes off the minute Benny and Ziggy left. Rex was running on his wheel, occasionally pausing to watch me, not understanding the concept of rain. Sometimes he sat under his water bottle and it dripped on his head, but mostly his experience with weather was limited.
I slipped into a new T-shirt and clean Levi's and blasted my hair with the hair dryer. When I was done I had a lot of volume but not much shape, so I created a distraction by applying bright blue eyeliner.
I was pulling my boots on when the phone rang.
“Your sister's on her way over,” my mother said. “She needs someone to talk to.”
Valerie must really be desperate to choose me to talk to. We like each other okay, but we've never been close. Too many basic personality differences. And when she moved to California we drifted even further apart.
Funny how things turn out. We all thought Valerie had the perfect marriage.
The phone rang again and it was Morelli.
“He's humming,” Morelli said. “When are you going to come get him?”
“Humming?”