Stephanie Plum 9 - To The Nines
Chapter Ten
Lula was standing over Connie. “Do you think she's dead? She's not moving under the pillow.”
“Take the pillow off her.”
“Not me. I hate dead. If she's dead, I don't want to see.”
I walked over and took the pillow off Connie's face.
Connie opened an eye and looked up at me. “Did you bring Singh in?”
“No. I think Singh might be dead.”
“Dead or alive,” Connie said. “It's all the same to me.” She sat up in the bed. “I can't get any sleep in this hotel. People keep coming in and out delivering stuff. Did you see you got flowers?”
“About the flowers,” I said. And I told them about the carnation killer.
“Holy crap,” Lula said. “Why didn't you tell me sooner?”
“I didn't know what to say. The whole thing is so bizarre. And the police wanted the details kept from the public while they tried to match the photos to a victim.”
“Hey, I can keep a secret. Look at me. My mouth is zipped,” Lula said.
“You can't keep a secret, ever,” I said. “You have no sense of secret.”
“That's so not true. I didn't tell you about Joe and Terry Gilman, did I?”
For a couple beats no one in the room said anything. We just stared at each other with our mouths open.
“I didn't say that,” Lula said.
I felt my eyebrows pull together. “What about Joe and Terry Gilman?”
“You keep doing that and you're going to need Botox,” Lula said.
“Are you talking about the jumping out the window incident?”
“No. I'm talking about the coming out of the motel, looking chummy incident.”
“When?”
“I guess it must have been about two weeks ago. It was a Saturday afternoon and I was going shopping at Quaker Bridge and you know how there are a couple motels on Route One that are mostly by the hour? Well, I saw them coming out of one of those skanky motels. It was the one with the blue trim and the wishing well in the front. I almost ran off the road.”
“You're sure it was Joe and Terry?”
“I bet they were doing police business,” Lula said. “That's why I didn't tell you. I knew you'd get that look that you got now. And you'd get all huffy and make a big thing for nothing.”
I used my fingertips to smooth away the frown line in my forehead. “I don't get huffy. Do I look huffy?”
“Fuckin' A,” Lula said.
At least she took my mind off the flower freak. It's always nice to have a choice of things to worry about.
“Open the box from Ranger,” I said to Lula. “I have to call Morelli and tell him about the flowers.”
Morelli answered on a sigh. “Yeah?”