“Just the Mooner.”

I shoved the Glock into the waistband of my jeans and turned and waved to Lula.

“Close and lock the door,” I said, stepping into the room.

Dougie was way ahead of me. Not only had he already locked the door, but he was pushing a refrigerator in front of it.

“Do you think that's necessary?” I asked.

“I guess it's overkill,” he said. “It's actually been quiet today. It's just that I'm still freaked out from the riot.”

“Looks like they broke your windows.”

“Only one. The fire department broke the other one when they threw the couch out onto the sidewalk.”

I looked at the couch. Half of it was charred. Mooner sat on the uncharred half.

“Hey, dude, you came at the right time,” he said. “We just heated up some crab puffs. We're watching an I Dream of Jeannie retrospective on Nick at Nite. It's, like, awesome the way Jeannie does that blinking thing.”

“Yeah,” Dougie said. “We got lots of crab puffs left. We have to eat them before they expire on Friday.”

I thought it was strange that neither of them commented on the fact that I was wet and bleeding and had walked in with a Glock in my hand. But then, maybe people showed up here like that all the time. “I was wondering if you had any dry clothes,” I said to Dougie. “Did you get rid of all those jeans you were trying to sell?”

“I have a whole bunch in the bedroom upstairs. Mostly small sizes, so maybe you'll find something. And there's shirts up there, too. You can help yourself to whatever you want.”

There were some Band-Aids in the medicine chest in the bathroom. I cleaned myself up as well as I could and picked over Dougie's clothes until I found something that fit.

It was midafternoon, and I hadn't had lunch, so I wolfed down some crab puffs. Then I went into the kitchen and called Morelli on his cell phone.

“Were are you?” he asked.

“Why?”

“I want to know, that's why.”

Something was wrong. My God, not Rex. “What's wrong? Is it Rex? Is Rex all right?”

“Rex is fine. He's in a squad car with Costanza, on his way to my house. I'm still in your apartment. The door was open when I got here, and the place has been ransacked. I don't think anything's destroyed, but it's a real mess. They dumped everything out of your bag, onto the floor. Your wallet and stun gun and pepper spray are still here. Your gun was still in the cookie jar. Looks to me like these guys were more mad than anything. I think they tore through here and didn't even see Rex's cage.”

I had my hand to my heart. Rex was okay. That was all I cared about.

“I'm getting ready to lock up,” he said. “Tell me where you are.”

“I'm at Dougie's.”

“Dougie Kruper?”

“We're watching I Dream of Jeannie.”

“I'll be right there.”

“No! I'm perfectly safe. No one would think to look for me here. And I'm helping Dougie clean. Lula and I caused a riot last night, and I feel responsible, and I need to help clean.” Liar, liar, pants on fire.

“That sounds reasonable, but I don't believe any of it.”

“Listen, I don't interfere with your work, and you can't interfere with mine.”

“Yeah, but I know what I'm doing.”

Tags: Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum Mystery
Source: readsnovelonline.net