Vinnie was a hemorrhoid.
I sipped my coffee. 'So you're the one writing bonds now?'
`I'm doing the low money bonds. Vinnie gets off his doughnut to do guys like Anton Ward.'
`I need a favor.'
'Uh oh,' Connie said. 'I got a bad feeling about this.'
`I want you to help me bond out Anton Ward. I need to talk to him.'
'No way. Un uh. Nope. No can do. Forget it.'
'This was your idea! You were the one who said I had to find out why I was on Junkman's list.'
'And you think Ward is going to tell you out of gratitude?'
'No. I was planning on beating it out of him.'
Connie considered that. 'Beating might work,' she said. 'Who's going to slap him around?'
The and Lula. You could do it, too, if you want.'
'So let me get this straight,' Connie said. 'We bond him out.
Then we escort him from the jail to the trunk of Lula's Firebird and take him somewhere for further discussion.'
'Yeah. And then when we're done we can revoke his bond.'
'I like it,' Connie said. 'Did you think of this all by yourself?'
'Yep.'
Think of what all by herself?' Lula said, swinging through the front door. 'Man, it's crappy out there. It's gonna rain cats and dogs all day.'
'Stephanie's got a plan to bond out Anton Ward and beat some information out of him,' Connie said.
Lula's mood changed to smiley face. 'No shit? Are you messin' with me? That's inspired. You aren't gonna leave me out, are you?
I'm good at smackin' people around. And I'd just love to smack
Anton Ward around.'
'You're in,' I said to Lula. 'We just have to figure some things out first. Like, where are we going to take him for his beating?'
'It has to be someplace isolated, so no one hears him screaming,'
Lula said.
'And it has to be cheap,' I said. 'I haven't got any money.'
'I have just the place,' Connie said. "Vinnie has a house in Point
Pleasant. It's right on the beach, and no one's going to be around now. The season's over.'
That's a great plan,' Lula said. 'The arcade will still be open, and in between beatin' on Anton Ward I can play the claw machine.'
'Do you think we'll have to beat him a lot?' I asked Connie. A bunch of her relatives were mob, and I figured she knew about these things.