Hard Eight (Stephanie Plum 8)

I was sitting in my lot, staring out the rain-smeared window, and I realized there was a plastic sandwich bag attached to my windshield wiper. I opened the door and snatched the bag off the wiper. There was a note-size piece of white paper folded four times inside the bag. The message on the paper was written in black marker.

Did you like the snakes?

Wonderful. Just the way I wanted to start my day. I returned the note to the bag and put the bag in the glove compartment. On the seat beside me were the two FTA folders Connie had given me. Andrew Bender, still at large. And Laura Minello. I'd go out and capture one of them this morning, but I didn't have any handcuffs. And I'd rather poke myself in the eye with a fork than get another pair of cuffs from the office. That left Annie Soder.

I put the CR-V in gear and drove to the Burg. I parked i

n front of my parents' house, but I knocked on Mabel's door.

“Who did Evelyn hang out with when she was a kid?” I asked Mabel. “Did she have a best friend?”

“Dotty Palowski. They went all through grade school together. High school, too. Then Evelyn got married and Dotty moved away.”

“Did they stay friends?”

“I think they lost touch. Evelyn kept more and more to herself after she married.”

“Do you know where Dotty is now?”

“I don't know where Dotty's living but her folks are still here in the Burg.”

I knew the family. Dotty's parents lived on Roebling. There were some aunts and uncles and cousins in the Burg, too. “I need one more thing,” I said to Mabel. “I need a list of Evelyn's relatives. All of them.”

I had the list in my hand when I left. It wasn't a long list. An aunt and an uncle in the Burg. Three cousins, all in the Trenton area. A cousin in Delaware.

I jumped the railing that divided the porches and went next door to see Grandma Mazur.

“I went to the Shleckner viewing,” Grandma said. “I'm telling you, that Stiva is a genius. When it comes to morticians, you can't beat Stiva. You know how old Shleckner had all those big scabby things on his face? Well, Stiva covered them all somehow. And you couldn't even tell Shleckner had a glass eye. They both look just the same. It was a miracle.”

“How do you know about the glass eye? Didn't they have his eyes closed?”

“Yeah, but they might have come open for a second while I was standing there. It might have happened when I accidentally dropped my reading glasses into the casket.”

“Hmmm,” I said to Grandma.

“Well, you can't blame a person for wondering about those things. Wasn't my fault, either. If they'd left his eyes open I wouldn't have had to wonder.”

“Did anyone see you prying Shleckner's eyes open?”

“No. I was real sneaky.”

“Did you hear anything useful about Evelyn or Annie?”

“No, but I got an earful about Steven Soder. He likes to drink. And he likes to gamble. The rumor is that he's lost a lot of money, and that he lost the bar. The story goes that he lost the bar in a card game a while back, and now he's got partners.”

“I've heard some of those same rumors. Anyone give names to the partners?”

“Eddie Abruzzi is what I heard.”

Oh boy. Why am I not surprised at this?

I was in my car, ready to roll, when my cell phone rang. It was Kloughn.

“Boy, you should see me,” he said. “I've got two black eyes. And my nose is swollen. At least it's straight now. I was real careful how I slept on it.”

“I'm sorry. Really, really sorry.”

“Hey, no biggie. I guess you have to expect stuff like this when you're a crime fighter. So what are we doing today? Are we going after Bender again? I have some ideas. Maybe I could meet you for lunch.”