Diesel gave me a playful punch in the shoulder. “Are we good, or what?” he said. “Cross two names off our list.”
I answered my cell phone.
“Your sister is coming over for dinner tonight,” my mother said. “I'm making lasagna, and I've got an ice-cream cake for dessert. I thought you would want to come.”
“I think I might be working tonight.”
“What, you can't take time out to eat? Everybody has to eat.”
“Yes, but I have a partner—”
“There's always extra. Bring your partner. Is it Lula?”
“No.”
“Is it Ranger?”
“No.”
“Who is it?”
“Diesel.”
Silence.
“From that Christmas where our tree burned up?” my mother finally asked.
“Yeah.”
I imagined her making the sign of the cross.
“What are you doing with Diesel?” she asked. “No, don't tell me. I don't want to know.”
Stephanie Plum 12.5 - Plum Lovin
Chapter 5
It was midmorning and clouds were creeping in above us. We were in front of Jeanine Chans house, and we were reading her file,
“Not much here,” Diesel said. “She's thirty-five. Single. Never been married. No kids. She works at the button factory. File says she has a problem.”
Jeanine lived in a single-story, low-rent row house about a quarter mile from my parents' house in the Burg. There were twenty-one units to a block. They were all redbrick. Front doors opened to small stoops that were directly on the sidewalk. Back doors opened to tiny yards that bordered an alley. Two bedrooms, one bath, small eat-in kitchen. No garages. All the units were identical.
I rang the bell twice, the door opened a crack, and Jeanine looked out. “Yes?” she asked.
“We're looking for Jeanine Chan,” I said.
“I'm Jeanine.”
She was maybe an inch shorter than me. She had brown almond-shaped eyes and shoulder-length dark brown hair.
She was slim and dressed in a gray shapeless sweatshirt and matching sweatpants.
I introduced myself, and then I introduced Diesel.
Jeanine's eyes sort of glazed over when she saw Diesel.
“Annie suggested you might have a problem,” I said to Jeanine.