“He‘s not normal,” I said to Diesel.
“And?”
“I need to take a shower.”
“I‘m going to use your Jeep to do some shopping. Do you want anything special for lunch?”
“Anything but tomatoes. My keys are in my bag in the foyer.”
“Thanks, but I don‘t need keys.”
A half hour later, I pulled my clean hair into a ponytail and dressed in jeans and a black V-?neck stretchy T-?shirt. Diesel was still out, so I checked in with Morelli.
“How‘s it going?” I asked.
“Would you consider getting married and moving far away from my family? Maybe France or Phoenix?”
“Not working out with your brother?”
“I‘m locking my gun in my car when I get home so I‘m not tempted to shoot him. He‘s an even bigger slob than I am. I‘ve got empty beer cans all over the house, and he‘s only been with me for twenty-?four hours. Last night, I took him bowling, and he hit on everything that moved and was remotely female. And by the time we got home, he was crying because he missed his wife. Crying! Then he watched tele vision until three in the morning and charged two porn films on my cable account.”
“You need to talk to him.”
“My brother? Are you kidding?”
“Is his wife showing any signs of reconciliation?”
“Not so far, but my mother said she‘d make me a tray of lasagna and come over to clean my house if I kept him another day.”
“Are you going to keep him?”
“Yeah, he‘s my brother.”
“Call me when he leaves.”
“You‘ll be the first to know.”
The locks tumbled on my front door, and Diesel pushed his way in, arms wrapped around bags of food.
“Food shopping isn‘t my favorite thing,” Diesel said. “I wouldn‘t do it for anyone but you.”
“How do you eat if you don‘t shop?”
“People feed me.” He pulled a couple subs out of a bag and tossed one to me. “Women think I‘m adorable.”
“Adorable?”
“Maybe adorable is a stretch.”
I unwrapped my sub and took a bite. “I have a line on Munch. He‘s looking for barium, and there are only two vendors in the area. Solomon Cuddles and Doc Weiner.”
“What would Munch want with barium?”
“I don‘t know,” I said. “I don‘t know anything about barium.”
“It‘s a heavy metal. Hard to find in pure form because it oxidizes when it‘s exposed to air. That‘s all I remember from Chemistry 101.”
Carl walked into the kitchen and did a gesture that said, What about me?