Ten Big Ones (Stephanie Plum 10)

'It's me. You know when you asked me if I heard the rumors?

Just exactly what rumors were you referring to?'

Tour vow to rid the world of Slayers rumor. Your vow to identify the Red Devil rumor. Oh yeah, and the contract killer rumor.

That's my personal favorite.'

'I just heard about the contract killer. Is it true?'

'Don't know. We're checking. Are you still in the Shop n Bag lot?'

A little alarm went off in my brain. He wouldn't actually try to catch me and lock me up in his house, would he?

'I did some grocery shopping, and I'm on my way back to the office,' I told him. 'Let me know if you hear anything.'

I disconnected, plunged the key into the ignition, and took off, driving in the opposite direction of the office. This was dandy. Now

I had to hide out from the Slayers and from Morelli.

I had time to kill before I met Lula for our movie date and capture, so I headed for the mall. When in doubt... shop. I parked at the Macy's entrance and meandered through the shoe department. My credit card was pretty much maxed out, and I didn't see anything worth going to debtors' prison over, so I wandered out of Macy's and hit the Godiva store. I collected all the loose change in the bottom of my bag, and I got two pieces of chocolate. If you buy chocolate with loose change the calories don't count. And anyway, one of the pieces was a raspberry truffle, so it was fruit. And fruit is healthy, right?

My cell phone rang while I was eating the second truffle.

'I thought you were going back to the office.' Morelli said.

'Changed my mind at the last minute.'

'Where are you?'

'Point Pleasant. I had some time, so I thought I'd take a walk on the boardwalk. It's such a nice day. A little windy here, though.'

'Sounds like there are a lot of people there.'

'I'm in a pavilion.'

'Sounds more like a shopping center.'

'And you called, why?' I asked.

They've released your car. I had it detailed and all the graffiti came off. You can pick it up anytime.'

'T

hanks. That's great. I'll send my dad over for it.'

'You can run, but you can't hide, Cupcake,' Morelli said. 'I'll find you.'

'You are such a cop.'

'Tell me about it.'

I disconnected and left the mall. It was almost six, so I headed for Lula's house. I ate the rest of the doughnuts while I sat in traffic on Route 1.

Lula was outside, sitting on her stoop, waiting for me. 'You're late,' she said. 'We're gonna miss the beginning of the movie. I hate that.'

Traffic,' I told her. 'And anyway, I'm only five minutes late. We have lots of time.'

'Yeah, but I gotta get popcorn. You can't watch no mutant movie without popcorn. And probably I need soda and some candy to balance out all that salt and grease on the popcorn.'