Plum Spooky (Stephanie Plum 14.50)
Page 115
“You’ll drive me home first, won’t you? You won’t just pop out in the middle of the Turnpike?”
“I still have a loose end. Wulf made a deal to get barium, and the barium is supposed to come in to night.”
“Do you think he’ll still want the barium now that we’ve torched his project?”
“Don’t know. Probably Wulf will move on to something new. He gets bored. Even as a kid, he was always restless. Still, I have to see it through.”
I called Morelli when I finally got cell ser vice.
“I have a sort of disaster to report,” I told him.
“I hate when a conversation starts like this.”
“It’s not a big thing. It’s that this mine blew up in the Barrens, and I thought someone should look into it, but I don’t know any of the local cops.”
“I’m assuming it’s best if I don’t involve you?”
“Yeah. You could say it was an anonymous phone call. The thing is, there might have been people in the mine.”
“Oh shit.”
“I’m pretty sure they were bad people.”
“That makes all the difference,” Morelli said.
“Listen, it was an accident. I think Elmer might have farted, and next thing, some boxes were on fire, and then it was one of those chain-?reaction things.”
“But you’re okay?”
“Yes. And Diesel and Carl are okay, too. And we rescued Gail Scanlon.”
“Anthony is gone, and I’m going to be lonely to night.”
“I’ll keep that in mind and get back to you.”
Diesel was smiling when I hung up.
“What?” I said.
“You’re gonna get some.”
“And?”
“It would be better if it was me.”
“You’re leaving.”
“I could squeeze you in,” Diesel said.
I burst out laughing. “What’s so awful about that is you’re serious!”
Diesel was laughing, too. “I know. I want you bad.”
We were about to get on the Expressway. We stopped for a light, I looked left and realized Martin Munch was alongside us, at the wheel of a scorched and dented black SUV. There were four other guys in the car with him. They were wearing the khaki uniforms, and they were soot-?smudged and their hair looked singed.
“That’s him!” I said. “It’s Munch.”
“Hang tight,” Diesel said.