“No blood,” she said. “You can’t have my blood.”
“No one’s taking your blood,” Connie said. “You fainted.”
“Did I pee my pants?” Lula asked. “I heard sometimes you pee your pants when you faint.”
We got Lula up on her feet and moved her to the couch.
“I didn’t actually faint,” Lula said. “I just had a moment. You better not tell anybody I fainted. It would ruin my reputation for being sensitive but tough.”
“I’ve got your messenger bag from Lula,” Connie said to me. “I put it in the bottom file drawer.”
I retrieved my bag and pulled my phone out. Twelve missed calls from my mother and four from Morelli. I didn’t want to talk to either of them. I didn’t know what to say.
“I’m picking Gobbles up so he can check back in with the court,” I said to Connie. “Hopefully we can get him rebonded right away, so he doesn’t have to spend a night in jail.”
“Vinnie’s there now. I’ll tell him to wait for you.”
“I’ll go with you,” Lula said. “And on the way back we can stop at a drugstore, and I can get some cortisone cream for my neck. It’s already feeling better now that the flea collar is off. Except I feel underdressed without my bedazzles.”
•••
Gobbles was waiting on the sidewalk in front of Julie’s house when I pulled up. He got in the backseat, and he looked nervous.
“I hope this goes okay,” he said. “I don’t want to be in jail. It’s scary when they close the door, and you’re behind bars like a caged animal.”
“Vinnie is there now,” I said. “We’ll do everything we can to get you released.”
Ten minutes later I parked in the public lot, took Gobbles directly into the courthouse, and turned him over to Vinnie.
“He’s going to be okay,” Lula said. “I got one of those feelings again.”
I dropped Lula off at the drugstore, and Morelli called while I was waiting for her.
“I got a hospital report on you,” he said. “Are you okay?”
“I’m good. I just have to wait to see if I get sick.”
“I’m not going to ask about last night,” he said. “I don’t want to know.”
“Nothing happened. I had a horrible day, and it didn’t seem like a good idea to leave me alone in my apartment.”
“I guess I can identify. I had a colonoscopy.”
“I heard. How are you doing?”
“I’m doing great,” Morelli said. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you yesterday.”
“As it turned out, it was lucky you weren’t available. When you didn’t answer Lula’s call, she went to Ranger, and he was able to track me down. I was driving a Rangeman car, and I had the GPS key fob in my pocket.”
“I heard you got run over by a truck.”
“I was looking for an FTA and Pooka came out of nowhere and clipped me with his right front quarter panel. Have they found him yet?”
“Not that I know. Everybody and their brother is looking for him.”
“He must have had a contingency plan. As soon as the fireworks were discovered and confiscated, he was out of his apartment by the college and into another house. And he moved again after he captured me. He drugged me, drew blood for his fleas, supposedly infected me with plague, and he packed up and took off.”
“?‘Supposedly infected’?”