“Hey, look who‘s here,” Connie said, eyeballing Diesel. “Long time, no see.”
Vinnie stuck his head out of his inner office. “Who‘s here?”
There are many members of my family tree who would like to take an axe to Vinnie‘s limb. He‘s a decent judge of people, and that makes him a good bail bondsman. Unfortunately, he‘s also oily, addicted to every vice possible, and sees nothing wrong with being a sexual deviant, so his score as a human being isn‘t all that great.
“It‘s Diesel,” Connie said. “Stephanie‘s friend.”
“So what are you doing here?” Vinnie asked Diesel. “Are you porking her?”
“Not yet,” Diesel said.
“Why aren‘t you working? What do you do?”
“I work for the power company. I‘m the guy who pushes the disconnect button.”
“That sounds like fun,” Vinnie said.
“It has its moments.”
I gave Connie my body receipt. “You‘ll never guess. Purely by accident, I ran into Hector Mendez.”
“I thought he was dead.”
“Nope. He‘s alive and kicking.”
“He‘s alive, but he wasn‘t doing much kicking after Kung Fu Princess here got done with him,” Diesel said.
“Ha!” Vinnie said. “I bet she got him in the ol‘ casabas.”
“Gave my boys the creepy crawlies just looking at it,” Diesel told him.
“Gives my boys the creepy crawlies thinking she‘s wasting her time on Mendez,” Vinnie said. “Mendez is penny-?ante. I need to see Munch get his shrimp ass hauled back to the slammer. I don‘t have Munch by the end of the month, and I‘m gonna have to move to South America. I‘m out Munch money, and I‘m in the red. And Harry don‘t like the color red unless it‘s blood.”
“Harry?” Diesel asked.
“Harry the Hammer. His financial backer who also happens to be his father-?in-?law,” I told him.
Diesel smiled, and Vinnie gave his head a shake, as if even after all these years he still didn‘t believe it.
I took my capture check from Connie and dropped it into my bag. “See you all tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” Vinnie said, “and make sure you have Munch‘s body receipt next time you waltz in here.”
Diesel and I left the office, and Diesel beeped the Escalade unlocked. “And you‘re working for him, why?”
“It annoys my mother. I don‘t have to wear pantyhose. And I‘m not sure anyone else would hire me.”
“All good reasons.”
Diesel drove us back to my apartment, an
d when we walked in, Carl was still watching tele vision.
“I was hoping he‘d made dinner,” Diesel said.
“Do you cook?”
“No. Do you?”