“What did you find out?” I asked them.
“He worked with the dead guy,” Lula said. “And the dead guy was always talking about the money he was gonna get when Rizzi got out of prison. And so this jerk-off figured now that the dead guy is dead, he was gonna come look for the money.”
“That's it?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you get his name?”
“Morty Dill. He was all taken with Brenda here. He would have told us anything.”
“He reminded me of my fifth husband,” Brenda said. “Sort of cute the way he kept calling me darlin'.”
“I know all about you from Star magazine,” Lula said. “I thought your fifth husband was that English guy who got caught with his pants down in the movie theater. You're thinking of your sixth husband, who was the country singer. Kenny Bold.”
“Are you sure?”
“There was the guy you married right out of high school. The plumber. Then there was the ice skater who turned out to be gay. The third guy was a stock car driver. Then you remarried the plumber, but that only lasted a couple weeks. And then the English guy.”
“You're right,” Brenda said. “I'd forgotten about the second marriage to the plumber.”
A black Mercedes sedan with tinted windows cruised down the street, stopped in front of the house for a moment, and sped away.
“Guess he don't like a crowd,” Lula said. “My opinion is, people gonna be coming out of the woodwork to get that robbery money.”
“Morty said Allen had directions to the money,” Brenda said. “Morty was looking for the directions.”
I looked back at the house. “I suppose we should join in the hunt. Or at least we should wait around to see if anyone finds the directions.”
An hour later, everyone cleared out. The house had been searched from top to bottom and the result was a big zero.
“I'm not going to get an Emmy on this episode,” Brenda said. “This is a huge yawn.”
“You'd get an Emmy if we found the directions,” I told her. “Let's just think about this a little. Supposedly, Allen Gratelli had directions to the money, and next thing, he was dead in Morelli's basement. So, if the directions weren't on him, and they aren't in his house... where would they be?”
“In his car,” Lula said.
“I don't remember seeing his car. It wasn't parked in front of Morelli's house.”
“If I was doing B&E on a cop's house, I wouldn't park in front of it,” Lula said. “When we break into someplace we always park around the corner.”
Stephanie Plum 14 - Fearless Forteen
CHAPTER TWELVE
A half hour later, we were back in Morelli's neighborhood. According to Connie's research, Gratelli drove a silver Camry. Lula motored around the block and, sure enough, there was Gratelli's car, parked around the corner, a block away. Lula pulled in behind it, and we all got out and looked into the Camry. There was a briefcase on the backseat. The cameraman panned across the car and went in for a close-up.
“There it is,” Brenda whispered into her mic. “There's the briefcase with the directions to millions of stolen dollars.”
We tried the doors. Locked.
“No problemo,” Lula said. She opened her trunk and removed a slim metal tool.
She rammed the tool into the doorframe and popped the lock. “It's not like I steal cars or anything,” Lula said, “but a girl needs to be prepared. A girl's gotta have skills, you see what I'm saying?”
I took the briefcase from the car and set it on the hood.
It was a Samsonite hardside attache case. The kind gorillas can jump on and not make a dent. I released the two locks and everyone crowded close together, excited to see if the directions were inside. I lifted the lid and... Bang!