Seven Up (Stephanie Plum 7)

“No shit.”

And he disconnected.

“Listen,” I said to Lula, “why don't we go have a piece of pizza and just chill until it's time.”

“Sounds good to me,” Lula said. “I don't see any shoes I like anyway.”

At six-thirty I drained the ice melt out of the cooler and asked the kid at the pizza counter for some fresh ice.

He handed me a cupful.

“Actually I need it for the cooler,” I said. “I need more than a cup.”

He looked over the counter at the cooler. “I don't think I'm allowed to give you that much ice.”

“You don't give us ice and our heart's gonna go bad,” Lula said. “We gotta keep it cold.”

The kid did another take on the cooler. “Your heart?”

Lula slid the top back and showed him the heart.

“Holy crap, lady,” the kid said. “Take all the ice you want.”

We filled the cooler half full, so that the heart looked nice and fresh on its bed of new ice. Then I went into the ladies' room and flipped the wire on.

“Testing,” I said. “Can you hear me?”

A second later my phone rang. “I can hear you,” Ranger said. “And I can hear the woman in the stall next to you.”

I left Lula at the pizza place and walked to the middle of the mall, in front of Macy's. I sat on a bench with the cooler on my lap and my cell phone in my jacket pocket for easy access.

At exactly seven the phone rang.

“Are you ready for the instructions?” Eddie DeChooch asked.

“I'm ready.”

“Drive to the first underpass going south on Route One . . .”

And at that moment I was tapped on the shoulder by the security guard.

“Excuse me, ma'am,” he said, “but I'm going to have to ask to see the contents of that cooler.”

“Who's there?” DeChooch wanted to know. “Who is that?”

“It's no one,” I said to DeChooch. “Go ahead with the directions.”

“I'm going to have to ask you to step away from the cooler,” the guard said. “Now.”

From the corner of my eye I could see another guard approaching.

“Listen,” I said to DeChooch. “I've got a little problem here. Could you call me back in about ten minutes?”

“I don't like this,” DeChooch said. “It's off. It's all off.”

“No! Wait!”

He hung up.