Takedown Twenty (Stephanie Plum 20)

“Yeah, but I had the extra-large-size soda, and my body processes food real fast.”

“No problem. I’ll get out here and watch the apartment until you get back.”

“Yeah, but you’re not exactly inconspicuous standing here on the corner.”

“I’m fine. I’m in jeans and a T-shirt. I have a broken nose and finger. I look like everyone else.”

“You look like no one else. You’re white.”

“I could be Hispanic.”

“Not on your best day,” Lula said. “Besides, this is the wrong block for Hispanic. Hispanics get killed on this block.”

“So what do you suggest?”

“I think we should go shopping. There’s a shoe sale at Macy’s. And I might put one of them Brahmin bags on layaway.”

“This was your idea. Remember how I needed money, and you said we should go after Antwan Brown?”

“I temporarily forgot about that while I was thinking about how fine I’d look with my new handbag.”

“Maybe it’s not such a bad idea to go to the mall. It’s just a couple miles away from the personal products plant. You could drop me off there and go shopping while I fill out an application.”

“I got a better idea. You sit in the car, and I’ll run across to the burger place to tinkle.” She took her Glock out of her purse and gave it to me. “If anyone tries to steal my wheel covers you have to shoot them.”

TWENTY-FOUR

LULA RETURNED TO the car with a bag of food.

“They had apple pies in there,” she said. “I thought it would help us pass the time if we had apple pies.”

We ate our apple pies and watched the apartment building. A little after three o’clock Bear came out and walked up the street. Antwan wasn’t with him.

“You got your wish,” Lula said. “It looks to me like Antwan is in there all by himself.”

“We don’t know that,” I told her. “We just know Bear isn’t with him.”

“Yeah, but I got a feeling. I’m having one of those psychic aura moments. I’m like that sometimes. I’m one of those people that gets out-of-body messages.”

“And you think this is a good time to strike?”

Lula closed her eyes. “I see him now. It’s real clear. He’s all by himself, and he’s tired after eating a bunch of burgers. He might even have taken a pill for his ear, and he’s all like Where am I? What’s going on? Like he’s fuzzy, you see what I’m saying?”

“Uh-huh.”

“So I’m thinking we gotta go for it. Go get him now when he’s fuzzy.”

Deep inside my brain I knew this was a bad idea, but I needed the money. I wanted to get Antwan behind me, collect my capture fee, and move forward with my life.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do it.”

I had cuffs tucked into my back pocket and my stun gun in hand. Lula had a second pair of cuffs, some defense spray, and her gun, which I insisted remain in her purse.

We crept up the stairs, marched to Antwan’s door, and knocked. No answer.

“You see what’s going on?” Lula said. “He’s too fuzzy to answer the door.”

I knocked again, louder. BANG, BANG, BANG.