“Lots of women would marry me.”
“Oh yeah? Who?”
“Lots of women. And I'm not paying through the nose for a woman I'm not even getting anything from.”
They left the bedroom, and moments later, I heard them on the stairs. The door opened and closed, and the apartment was quiet. I didn't know what to do. I was afraid to crawl out from under the bed. I wa
s pretty sure they were no longer in the apartment, but what if I was wrong?
I waited a couple minutes more and slithered to the edge, where I had a better view. I held my breath and listened. I carefully looked around. Now or never, I thought. I belly-crawled out, got to my feet, and forced myself to creep down the hall to the living room. I almost keeled over with relief when no one was there. I hurried to the foyer at the bottom of the stairs and hesitated.
If the two bad guys saw me leave, they might think I was coming from the downstairs apartment. Unless they watched the evening news. Then they'd know who I was because I was blue.
I locked the door, placed the key on the top of the door-jamb, opened the front door a crack, and looked out. No one standing there with a gun in his hand. No black mafia staff cars with tinted windows lined up at the curb. I casually walked away from the house, down the block to the corner, around the corner, and angled myself behind the wheel of Morelli's SUV. I two-handed the key into the ignition and pulled away from the curb with a white-knuckle grip on the wheel. Okay, so I was a little freaked, but I hadn't messed my pants.
That was pretty good, right?
By the time I got to Morelli's house, I'd calmed down a little but not entirely. It was almost noon and Morelli was sitting on his front step with Bob. I plunked myself down next to him, he put his arm around me, and I collapsed into him.
“Either you like me a lot, or you've had a bad morning,” Morelli said.
“It's both. I did some legwork and ended up at Jelly Kantner's apartment.”
“At his apartment or in his apartment?”
“In.”
“Were you invited in?”
“No, but I also wasn't told to stay out.”
“Nobody home,” Morelli said.
“Mmm. Anyway, it was obvious someone was staying with Jelly, and it wasn't a woman.”
“You think it was Dom?”
“Yes. And I wasn't the only one to reach that conclusion, because just as I was about to leave, two guys showed up.”
I felt Morelli tense against me and go silent for a beat. “You told them you were the maid?”
“I didn't tell them anything. I was under the bed.”
“This is why our relationship is stressful,” Morelli said.
“I think they were Dom's two remaining partners. They were looking for him because they wanted the money. And they have Loretta. They're holding her hostage, but so far Dom hasn't come through.”
“Did you get to see them? Do you have names?”
“No names. One is married and one isn't. One of them lives in an apartment. One was wearing beat-up CAT boots and jeans, and the other was wearing tan slacks with cuffs and brown shoes. I couldn't see more than that.”
What I didn't say was that the voice on the single guy sounded familiar. It had a slight rasp, like a smoker. And there wasn't a lot of inflection. I couldn't associate a name or face with the voice. I just felt like I'd heard it before.
“I'll bring Bob in and then I'll go to Jelly's and wait for Dom,” Morelli said. “Where's Zook?”
“Zook's in the house with Lula.”
“I got back about ten minutes ago, and Lula's car was here, but no one was in the house.”