Ten Big Ones (Stephanie Plum 10)

Grandma held out a grocery bag. 'I found this in the kitchen. We can put the chips in it and take them with us so she isn't tempted to eat any more.'

Tut the chips in the bag and give them to Cindy,' I told

Grandma.

1 thought it might be a good idea if we took them,' Grandma said.

'Yeah,' Lula said. That's a much better idea than making poor

Cindy cart them off.'

I wasn't great in the willpower department. Even as I was standing there, I could feel the Cheez Doodles calling my name. I didn't want a whole grocery bag of doodles and chips in the car with me. I didn't want to end up looking like Carol.

'Give all the chips to Cindy,' I said. 'The chips should stay in the family.'

r /> Grandma looked over at Carol. 'Are you gonna be okay if we give her all the chips? You aren't gonna flip out, are you?'

`I'm okay now,' Carol said. 'Actually, I feel kind of sick. I think

I'm going to lie down for a while.'

We filled the grocery bag with the remaining chips and left

Carol standing at the door, the pallor of her skin looking slightly green under the orange doodle dust. Cindy drove off with the chips. And Grandma and Lula and I stuffed ourselves into the

Buick.

'Hunh,' Lula said, settling in. 'We could have taken a few bags with us.'

'I had my eye on that bag of barbecue chips.' Grandma said. 'It's gonna be hard for me to keep up my strength without some chips.'

'Uh oh,' Lula said. 'Look at this, a couple of bags of chips somehow got in my big o purse... just like what happened to

Carol.'

'Chips are devilish like that,' Grandma said.

'Yeah,' Lula said. 'Guess we should eat them so they don't go to waste.'

'How many bags do you have?' I asked her.

Three. You want one?'

I blew out a sigh, and Lula handed me a bag of Fritos. Not only was I going to eat them... I was secretly glad she snitched them.

'Now what?' Lula wanted to know. `I'm not going to have to go back to the filing, am I?'

'Sally Sweet's next up,' I said.

`I'm in,' Lula said.

Sally lived on the opposite side of town. By the time we got there, he'd be done with his morning bus run, and it'd be a good time to bring him in and get him rebonded.

I called Morelli on the way over to get a report on Eddie

Gazarra.

'He's going to be okay,' Morelli said. 'He'll probably get released from the hospital tomorrow.'