“Animal Control said they were harmless.”

&nbs

p; He threw his hands into the air. “You're impossible.”

“What are you doing here, anyway? I haven't heard from you in weeks.”

“I heard the call go out on the radio and had a misguided urge to make sure you were okay. You haven't heard from me because we broke up, remember?”

“Yes, but there's all kinds of broken up.”

“Oh yeah? What kind is this? First you decide you don't want to marry me . . .”

“That was a mutual agreement.”

“Then you go off with Ranger . . .”

“That was work-related.”

He had his hands planted on his hips. “Let's get back to the snakes, okay? You have any idea who left them?”

“I guess I could make a list.”

“Jesus,” he said, “you've got a list. Not one or two people. A whole list. You have a whole list of people who might want to leave snakes on your doorknob.”

“The last couple days have been sort of busy.”

“Is that pizza in your hair?”

“I accidentally rolled on Andy Bender's lunch. He would be on the list. A guy named Martin Paulson isn't too happy with me. There's my ex-husband. Then I had an unfortunate encounter with Eddie Abruzzi.”

That caught Morelli's attention. “Eddie Abruzzi?”

I told him about Evelyn and Annie and the Abruzzi connection.

“I don't suppose you'd listen to me if I told you to stay away from Abruzzi,” Morelli said.

“I'm trying to stay away from Abruzzi.”

Morelli grabbed me by the front of my shirt, pulled me to him, and kissed me. His tongue touched mine, and I felt liquid fire slide through my stomach and head south. He released me and turned to go.

“Hey!” I said. “What was that?”

“Temporary insanity. You drive me nuts.”

And he stalked off down the hall and disappeared into the elevator.

I TOOK A shower and dressed in clean jeans and T-shirt. I did the makeup thing this time and put some gel in my hair. Sort of like locking the barn after the horses have escaped.

I went into the kitchen and stared into the refrigerator for a while, but nothing materialized. No cake. No hot sausage sandwich. No macaroni and cheese magically appeared. I took a bag of chocolate chip cookies out of the freezer and ate one. You were supposed to bake them first, but that seemed like unnecessary effort.

I'd talked to Annie's best friend and that hadn't given me a lot. Okay, so what would I do if I needed to protect my daughter from her father? Where would I go?

I wouldn't have a lot of money, so I'd need to rely on a friend or relative. I'd need to go far enough that my car wouldn't be recognized, and I wouldn't run the risk of bumping into Soder or one of his friends. This narrowed the search down to the entire world, except for the Burg.

I was contemplating the world when my doorbell rang. I wasn't expecting anyone, and I'd just received a bag of snakes, so I wasn't all that crazy about answering the door. I looked out my peephole and grimaced. It was Albert Kloughn. But wait a minute, he was holding a pizza box. Hello.

I opened the door and gave a quick look up and down the hall. I was pretty sure there'd been four snakes in the bag . . . still, doesn't hurt to keep your eyes open for renegade reptiles.

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