“I hope so,” I said. “I’m looking for Ken Globovic.”
Red spots instantly appeared on Mintner’s cheeks. “What exactly is this in reference to?”
“I work for Vincent Plum Bail Bonds,” I said. “Mr. Globovic has missed his court date, and I need to locate him.”
“Bounty hunter?” Mintner asked.
“Bond enforcement.”
Mintner nodded. “Of course. He should never have been released from jail. He’s a maniac. Broke into my house and came after me with a baseball bat. Broke my arm and practically totaled my living room.”
“Was the bat his only weapon?”
“So far as I know,” Mintner said. “I imagine all the details are in the police report.”
“Why did he come after you?”
“I don’t know,” Mintner said. “Because he’s a maniac? He just burst through the door and rushed at me. I didn’t get a chance to ask him why he was trying to kill me.”
“He must have been unhappy about something,” Lula said.
“He’s a Zeta,” Mintner said. “They’re all troublemakers. It’s the fraternity from hell. The school has been trying to close it for years, but the Zeta alums are big contributors to the endowment.”
“We were just there,” Lula said. “It seemed like a nice place, except for the guy in the dress getting whacked with the paddle.”
Mintner looked like he wanted to pop a couple Xanax. “They’re all perverts,” he said. “A bunch of sickos. I’d have the house burned to the ground, but they’d only rebuild. And Globovic is the worst. He’s the ringleader. He’s the mastermind for all the depravation. Every sick toga party springs out of his sick brain.”
“You’d never know from his picture,” Lula said. “He looks like that Winnie-the-Pooh kid, Christopher Robin.”
“I want him found and locked up for the rest of his life,” Mintner said. “Or at least until he’s too old and decrepit to find my house.”
“Do you have any ideas where I should start looking?” I asked him.
“I’m sure he hasn’t gone far. He has connections here. Friends. Misguided people who want to help him. And there’s something going on at the Zeta house. Something evil. And Globovic is involved.”
“Whoa,” Lula said. “Evil? You mean like demons and the devil?”
Mintner looked over at me. “Who is she?”
“That’s Lula,” I said.
“I’m her assistant,” Lula said. “We’re like the Lone Ranger and What’s-His-Name.”
I gave Mintner my card and told him to call me if he heard anything about Globovic.
•••
“So what did you think of him?” Lula asked when we were out of the building.
“He doesn’t like the Zeta house.”
“Do you think there’s something evil going on there?”
“Evil is a pretty strong word. Sometimes people say evil when they mean bad.”
“I don’t like evil,” Lula said. “Evil gives me the creepy crawlies. I saw a movie once where a woman was possessed by a evil spirit and the woman’s head would spin around and she’d vomit up cockroaches. One day she was perfectly normal, and then bam! she’s vomiting up cockroaches. All because of this evil spirit. And in the movie that evil spirit was lurking in a house that looked sort of like the Zeta house.”
“You’re making that up.”