Two for the Dough (Stephanie Plum 2)

“I guess I could go see Mackey. Haven't seen him in years. Not since he quit working at the A and P.”

I left Grandma to herself and went looking for Spiro. I found him in Con's office, sitting behind the big walnut desk, phone in hand. He broke the connection and motioned me into a chair.

“That was Con,” he said. “He calls all the time. I can't get off the phone with him. He's getting to be a real pain in the ass.”

I thought it would be nice if Spiro made a move on me, so I could give him some volts. Maybe I could give the little jerk some anyway. If I could get him to turn around I could give it to him in the back of the neck and claim it was someone else. I could say some crazed mourner ran into the office and stuck it to Spiro and then ran off.

“So, what's the word?” Spiro asked.

“You're right about the caskets. They're gone.” I put the locker key on his desk. “Let's think about the key again. You only got one, right?”

“Right.”

“Did you ever make a duplicate?”

“No.”

“Did you ever pass it on to someone else?”

“No.”

“How about valet parking? Was it on your key chain?”

“No one had access to the key. I kept the key at home, in the top drawer of my dresser.”

“What about Con?”

“What about him.”

“Did he ever have access to the key?”

“Con doesn't know about the caskets. I did this on my own.”

I wasn't surprised. “Just out of morbid curiosity, what did you expect to do with these caskets? You're not going to sell them to anyone in the burg.”

“I was sort of a middleman. I had a buyer.”

A buyer. Unh! Mental head slap. “Does this buyer know his coffins are history?”

“Not yet.”

“And you'd prefer not to ruin your credibility.”

“Something like that.”

I didn't think I wanted to know any more. I wasn't even sure I wanted to continue to look for the caskets.

“Okay,” I said. “New subject. Kenny Mancuso.”

Spiro sunk deeper into Con's chair. “We used to be friends,” Spiro said. “Me and Kenny and Moogey.”

“I'm surprised Kenny didn't ask you for help. Maybe ask you to hide him out.”

“I should be so lucky.”

“You want to enlarge on that?”

“He's out to get me.”