Two for the Dough (Stephanie Plum 2)

“Uh-oh,” he said, “the fact that you're waiting for me in the hall is probably not a good sign.” He looked at my apartment door. “You don't have a dead body in there, do you?”

“Not entirely.”

“You want to enlarge on that?”

“I have a dead finger on my kitchen floor.”

“Is the finger attached to anything? Like a hand or an arm?”

“It's just a finger. I think it belongs to George Mayer.”

“You recognized it?”

“No. It's just that I know George is missing one. You see, Mrs. Mayer was going on about George's lodge, and how he wanted to be buried with his ring, and so Grandma had to check the ring out, and in the process broke off one of George's fingers. Turns out the finger was wax. Somehow Kenny got into the mortuary this morning, left Spiro a note, and chopped off George's finger. And then while I was at the mall tonight with Mary Lou, Kenny threatened me in the shoe department. That must have been when he put the finger in my pocket.”

“Have you been drinking?”

I gave him a don't-be-stupid look and pointed to my kitchen.

Morelli moved past me and stood hands on hips, staring down at the finger on the floor. “You're right. It's a finger.”

“When I came in tonight the phone was ringing. It was Kenny, telling me he left a message in my jacket pocket.”

“And the message was the finger.”

“Yeah.”

“How did it get on the floor?”

“It sort of dropped there when I went to the bathroom to throw up.”

Morelli helped himself to a paper towel and used it to pick up the finger. I gave him a plastic bag, he dropped the finger in, sealed the bag, and slipped the bag into his jacket pocket. He leaned against the kitchen counter and crossed his arms over his chest. “Let's start from the beginning.”

I gave him all the details except for the part about Joyce Barnhardt. I told him about the silver-lettered note I'd received, and about the silver K on my bedroom wall, and about the screwdriver, and about how it would seem they'd come from Kenny.

He was quiet when I finished. After several seconds he asked me if I bought the shoes.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Let's see.”

I showed him the shoes.

“Very sexy,” he said. “I think I'm getting excited.”

I quickly put the shoes back in the box. “You have any idea what Kenny meant when he said Spiro had something of his?”

“No. Do you?”

“No.”

“Would you tell me if you did?”

“I might.”

Morelli opened the refrigerator and stared at the shelves. “You're out of beer.”

“I had to choose between food and the shoes.”