“Just so,” Habib said.
“Are you going to follow me around today?” I asked.
“That's the plan,” Mitchell said. “I hope you're gonna do something interesting. I don't feel like spending the day at the mall lookin' at ladies' shoes. Like we said, our boss is getting antsy.”
“Why does your boss want Ranger?”
“Ranger has something that belongs to him, and he'd like to discuss the matter. You could tell him that.”
I suspected that discussing the matter might involve a fatal accident. “I'll pass it along if I happen to hear from him.”
“You tell him he just gives back what he's got and everyone's gonna be happy. Bygones will be bygones. No hard feelings.”
“Uh-huh. Well, I've got to be running along now. I'll see you guys later.”
“When you come back to the parking lot I would appreciate your bringing me an aspirin,” Habib said. “I am suffering with this neck whiplashing.”
“I don't know about you,” I said to
Bob when we got in the elevator, “but I'm sort of freaked out.”
Grandma was reading the comics to Rex when I came in. Bob sidled up to join in the fun, and I took the phone into the living room to call Brian Simon.
Simon answered on the third ring. “ 'Lo.”
“That was a short trip,” I said.
“Who's this?”
“It's Stephanie.”
“How'd you get my number? I have an unlisted number.”
“It's printed on your dog's collar.”
“Oh.”
“So I imagine now that you're home, you're going to be around to get Bob.”
“I'm kind of busy today—”
“No problem. I'll drop him off. Where do you live?”
A moment of silence. “Okay, here's the thing,” Simon said. “I don't actually want Bob back.”
“He's your dog!”
“Not anymore. Possession is nine-tenths of the law. You have the food. You have the pooper-scooper. You have the dog. Listen, he's a nice dog, but I don't have time for him. And he makes my nose run. I think I'm allergic.”
“I think you're a jerk.”
Simon sighed. “You're not the first woman to tell me that.”
“I can't keep him here. He howls when I leave.”
“Don't I know it. And if you leave him alone he eats the furniture.”
“What? What do you mean, he eats the furniture?”