“I didn’t see any rain.”
“It must have been a rogue cloud. It drifted over me and whoosh there was a downpour.”
“So are we gonna stage a big rescue?” Lula asked me. “We goin’ in with guns blazin’? I would have worn my Ranger outfit if I’d known.”
Lula had forsaken the black for gold. Gold tank top, hot-pink short spandex skirt, gold spike-heeled shoes. It was a wonder Razzle hadn’t taken her out with one shot. She made a really good target.
“We’ll go in with guns not blazing,” I said. “These aren’t hardened criminals.”
“Chester might be a little hardened,” Brenda said.
“You hear that?” Lula said to me. “A little hardened. No telling what we can expect. That means we need to take my Firebird, on account of I got extra ammo in my trunk.”
“Extra ammo might be good,” Brenda said. “You can never have too much ammo.”
We piled into Lula’s Firebird, and I called Ranger when we reached Broad.
“Checking in,” I said to him. “I’m off the radar because I’m in Lula’s car, but I wanted you to know I’m making a sort of mercy illegal capture just north of Bordentown. I might need help.”
“Babe, you’re not off the radar. You’re wearing my watch. I know exactly where you are.”
I looked down at the watch. “I forgot.”
“I’ll have someone follow you. Let me know if you want him to go in.”
“Thanks.”
“It’s good to have a Ranger,” Lula said. “He’s like a personal Spidey.”
• • •
Lula hesitated when she got to the Billings warehouse lot. There were two cars parked. One was the bashed-in Lincoln. The other car was a Mercedes. Lights were on inside the building in the office area.
“What’s the plan?” Lula wanted to know. “We can’t be sellin’ Girl Scout cookies out here. Girl Scouts are supposed to be in bed by now.”
“Park at the back edge, where the Firebird won’t be so visible,” I told her. “We’ll try the front door. If that doesn’t work, we’ll see if we can get in through the loading dock.”
Lula parked, and we all got out.
“Hold on,” Lula said. “I’ll get my ammo.”
I pulled my Glock out of my bag. “I really don’t think we need extra.”
“Yeah, but this is good,” Lula said, opening her trunk.
I looked inside and stopped breathing for a beat. “That’s a rocket launcher!”
“Yep,” Lula said. “It’s the big boy. I got it at a yard sale in the projects. It’s loaded for bear, too. See that mother stuck onto the end of it? It goes KABOOM!”
“No rocket launchers!” I told her. “Absolutely no rocket launchers. This isn’t Afghanistan.”
“We don’t have to use it,” Lula said. “We just knock on their door and show them this bitch. Then they wet their pants and hand over Jason.”
“It could work,” Brenda said. “I almost wet my pants seeing it in the trunk.”
She had a point. I had to admit, I had a moment when I first saw it, too. “I guess it might be okay, as long as we only use it to scare them.”
“Show-and-tell,” Lula said.