“Oh yeah? Well, God don't know jack-shit about rules. I'm telling you, that's a stupid rule.”
Lula had her hands on her hips, and her eyes bugged out of her head. “Don't you talk about God like that, you worthless ho. I'm not gonna stand here and let you blaspheme God.”
“Hold it!” I shouted. “What about the police?”
“What about them?” Jackie wanted to know.
“We need to call them.”
Jackie and Lula looked at me like I was speaking Klingon.
“Someone killed Cameron Brown before Jackie made Swiss cheese out of him. We can't just leave Brown lying there alongside the Dumpster,” I told them.
“No need to worry about that,” Lula said. “That place is crawling with cops by now. They'll find Cameron. He's right out there in the open.”
“Yeah, but shooting dead people is probably a crime. That makes us accessories if we don't report it.”
“I'm not going to the police,” Jackie said. "Unh-uh. No way.
“It's the right thing to do,” I said.
“The hell,” Jackie said. “It's the stupid thing to do.”
“Stephanie's right,” Lula told Jackie. “It's the dope and the liquor that's stopping you from doing the right thing. Just like it's the dope and the liquor that makes you blaspheme God. You gotta do something for yourself,” Lula said to Jackie. “You gotta go to detox.”
“Don't need detox,” Jackie said.
“Uh-huh,” Lula told her.
“Unh-uh. ”
“Uh-huh. ”
“I know what you're doing,” Jackie said. “You've been trying to get me to detox ever since you got straight. This here's just a trick.”
“You bet your ass,” Lula said. “And either you go to detox, or we turn you in.” Lula looked at me. “Isn't that right?”
“Yeah,” I said. “That's right.” Seemed like that's what the court would do anyway. Probably the clinic on Perry Street would do it better.
It started with polite rapping on my door. And then when I didn't answer, it turned to pounding. I looked through my peephole and saw Morelli pacing and muttering. He turned and gave my door another shot with his fist.
“Come on, Stephanie,” he said. “Wake up. Get out of bed and answer your door.”
It was eight-thirty, and I'd been awake for an hour. I'd taken a shower, gotten dressed and had breakfast. I wasn't answering my door because I didn't want to talk to Morelli. I suspected he'd just come from RiverEdge.
I heard him fiddling with the lock. The lock clicked open. Thirty seconds later he had the deadbolt. My front door pushed open but caught on the chain.
“I know you're there,” Morelli said. “I can smell your shampoo. Open the door, or I'm coming back with a bolt cutter.”
I slid the chain and opened the door. “Now what?”
“We found Cameron Brown.”
I opened my eyes wider to simulate surprise. “No!”
“Yes. Frozen solid. And extremely dead. Been dead for days is my guess. Found him next to the Dumpster at the RiverEdge condo complex.”
“I'll have to tell Jackie.”