One for the Money (Stephanie Plum 1)

“I suspected as much.”

“You have any ideas who would do such a thing?”

“No names.”

“How about Morelli?”

“That's a possibility.”

“I missed you at the station yesterday.”

He was fishing. He knew there was something screwy about all of this. He just hadn't figured it out yet. Welcome to the club, Dorsey. “I'll try to get there today.”

“Try real hard.”

I hung up and topped off my coffee. “Dorsey wants me to come in.”

“Are you going?”

“No. He's going to ask questions I can't answer.”

“You should put in some time on Stark Street this morning.”

“Not this morning. I have things to do.”

“What things?”

“Personal things.”

He raised an eyebrow.

“I have some loose ends to tie up . . . just in case,” I said.

“Just in case what?”

I made an exasperated gesture. “Just in case something happens to me. For the past ten days I've been stalked by a professional sadist, and now I'm on the happy bomber's hit list. I feel a little insecure, okay? Give me a break, Morelli. I need to see some people. I have a few personal errands to run.”

He gently peeled a strip of loose skin off my nose. “You're going to be okay,” he said softly. “I understand that you're scared. I get scared too. But we're the good guys, and the good guys always win.”

I really felt like a jerk, because here was Morelli being nice to me, and what I actually wanted to do was hop on over to Bernie's to buy a blender and get my free daiquiri mix.

“How were you planning on running these errands without the Jeep?” he asked.

“I retrieved the Nova.”

He winced. “You didn't park it in the lot, did you?”

“I was hoping the bomber wouldn't know it was my car.”

“Oh boy.”

“I'm sure I have nothing to worry about,” I said.

“Yeah. I'm sure, too. I'll go down with you just to make double sure.”

I collected my gear, checked the windows, and reset the answering machine. Morelli was waiting for me at the door. We walked downstairs together, and we both paused when we reached the Nova.

“Even if the bomber knew this was your car, he'd have to be stupid to try the same thing twice,” Morelli said. “Statistically the second hit comes from a different direction.”