“Does this mean I can kick her since we’re not bringing her in?” Lula asked.
“No!”
“What are we gonna do with her?”
“We’re going to get her out of my apartment.”
We dragged Joyce and her belongings into the hall, I locked my door, and Lula and I went back to the truck.
“I feel much better,” I said to Lula. “It would have been satisfying to take her to jail, but at least she’s out of my space.”
“Yeah, now all you gotta do is get rid of her cooties. You want to buy some bleach today, and maybe you can get some of that holy water to sprinkle around.”
“I’ll add it to my shopping list.”
“She had a good idea with the chicken salad,” Lula said. “We should stop at Giovichinni’s an
d get some. I’m gonna eat healthier and set a good example now that I got my honey pot.”
I motored down Hamilton and slowed when I passed the bonds office construction site.
“They’re making good progress,” Lula said. “They got windows in now, and they’re putting on the brick front. Too bad Vinnie gonna be dead when they finally finish.”
There was room for me to pull the truck to the curb in front of Giovichinni’s. Lula and I got out and went straight to the deli counter. I got a chicken club sandwich, and Lula got a large-size tub of chicken salad, a large-size tub of coleslaw, and a large-size tub of rice pudding.
Gina Giovichinni was at the register when we checked out.
“Omigod,” she said, looking at my black-and-green eye. “I heard Morelli beat you, but I didn’t believe it until now.”
“He didn’t beat me,” I said. “I fell in a parking garage.”
“He pushed you, right?” Gina said.
“No!”
I grabbed my sandwich, went through the store’s front door, and stopped short. Buggy was sitting in the back of my truck.
“It’s my apple dumpling!” Lula said. “Are you hungry?” she asked him.
Buggy eyed the bag. “Yuh,” Buggy said.
Lula handed him her food and ran back to Giovichinni’s to get more. I got behind the wheel, locked the doors, and ate my sandwich. I unlocked the doors when Lula returned and relocked them as soon as she was settled. I was afraid the apple dumpling would yank me out of my truck and drive away.
“Now what?” Lula clicked her seat belt in place.
“I think our luck has changed. We captured Buggy. We got Joyce out of my apartment. I say we go get Lahonka.”
“Wham,” Lula said. “And double wham!” She turned and looked out the back window at Buggy. “We should take him with us.”
“What?”
“If you take him back to that empty house, there’s no telling what could go on. He’s such a bad boy.”
I checked the bad boy out in the mirror. He had a glob of rice pudding on his shirt. “I thought he was an apple dumpling.”
“You could be a apple dumpling and a bad boy all at the same time,” Lula said. “They could go together. That’s what makes him so appealing. He looks like a acorn squash, but he’s real complex. I like that in a man. And besides, I don’t have any more Snickers bars. I don’t know how we’re gonna get him out of the truck.”
Good point. I put the truck in gear and drove to Lahonka’s apartment. Lula and I got out, and Lula told the acorn squash to wait in the truck.