I called Joyce and told her I had Ranger, and she should meet us in the lot behind the office. It was the darkest spot I could think of.

I finished my sandwich and beer, and Lula and I packed off in the Cherokee. We got to the corner of Stark and Belmont, and I had to do a double-take to make sure the man standing there wasn't Ranger.

When Morgan got closer, the differences were apparent. The skin tone was the same, but his features were more coarse. There was more age around his mouth and eyes, less intelligence in his expression. “Joyce better not look too close,” I said to Lula.

“I told you to have another bottle of beer,” Lula said. “Anyway, it's real dark behind the office, and if things go right Joyce'll break down before she gets too far.”

We cuffed Morgan's hands in front of him, which is a dumb thing to do, but Joyce wasn't a good enough bounty hunter to know it. Then we gave him the key to the cuffs. The deal was that he'd put the key in his mouth when we got to the lot. He'd refuse to talk to Joyce, playing sullen. We'd arrange for her to get a flat, and when she got out to take a look, Morgan would take the cuffs off and escape into the night.

We got to the alley early, so I could drop Lula. We'd decided she would hide behind the small Dumpster that serviced Vinnie and his neighbor, and when Joyce was busy taking Ranger into custody, Lula would drive a spike into Joyce's tire. Déjà vu. I angled the Cherokee so that Joyce would be forced to park next to the Dumpster. Lula jumped out and hid, and almost immediately lights flashed at the corner.

Joyce pulled her SUV in next to me and got out. I got out, too. Morgan was slumped in the backseat, his head down to his chest.

Joyce squinted into the car. “I can't see him. Put your lights on.”

“No way,” I said. “And you'd be smart to leave yours off, too. He's got a lot of people looking for him.”

“Why's he all slumped over?”

“Drugged.”

Joyce nodded. “I was wondering how you were gonna do it.”

I made a big deal and some noise over pulling Morgan out of the backseat. He collapsed against me, snatching a cheap feel, and Joyce and I half-dragged him over to her car and stuffed him in.

“One last thing,” I said to Joyce, handing her a statement I'd prepared at Lula's. “You need to sign this.”

“What is it?”

“It's a document attesting to the fact that you willingly went to the pet cemetery with Carol and asked her to tie you to the tree.”

“What are you, nuts? I'm not signing that.”

“Then I'm hauling Ranger out of your backseat.”

Joyce looked at the SUV and her precious cargo. “What the hell,” she said, taking the pen and signing her name. “I got what I wanted.”

“You take off first,” I said to Joyce, pulling my Glock out of my pocket. “I'll make sure you get out of the alley safely.”

“I can't believe you did this,” Joyce said. “I didn't think you were such a sneaky little shit.”

Honey, you don't know the half of it. “It was for Carol,” I said.

I stood there with the Glock drawn and watched Joyce drive away. The instant she turned from the alley to the street, Lula jumped into the car, and we took off.

“I give her about a quarter-mile,” Lula said. “I'm the queen of the spike-and-run.”

I had a visual on Joyce. There was no traffic, and she was a block ahead of me. Her taillights wobbled and the car slowed.

“Good, good, good,” Lula said.

Joyce drove another block at reduced speed.

“She'd like to just drive on that tire,” Lula said, “but she's worried about her fancy new SUV.”

There was another flash of brake lights, and Joyce pulled to the curb. We were a block behind her with our lights killed, looking parked. Joyce had gotten out and turned toward the back of her

car when a van swerved around me and skidded to a stop alongside her. Two men jumped out, guns drawn. One trained his gun on Joyce, and the other grabbed Morgan just as he set foot on the pavement.

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