Eleven on Top (Stephanie Plum 11)

No more Michael Barroni.

“Did you ever find Barroni's car?” I asked Morelli.

“No. No car. No body. No sign of struggle. He was alone when Sol Rosen saw him lock up and take off. Sol said he was putting out trash from his diner and he saw Barroni leave. He said Barroni looked normal. Maybe distracted. Sol said Barroni waved but didn't say anything.”

“Do you think it's a random crime? Barroni was in the wrong place at the wrong time?”

"No. Barroni lived four blocks from his store. Every day he went straight home from work. Four blocks through the Burg. If something had gone down on

Barroni's usual route home someone would have heard or seen something. The

day Barroni disappeared he went someplace else. He didn't take his usual route home."

“Maybe he just got tired of it all. Maybe he started driving west and didn't stop until he got to Flagstaff.”

Morelli fed his pizza crust to Bob. "I'm going to tell you something that's just between us. We've had two other guys disappear on the exact same day as Barroni. They were both from Stark Street, and a missing person on Stark Street isn't big news, so no one's paid much attention. I ran across them when I checked Barroni's missing-person status.

“Both these guys owned their own businesses. They both locked up at the end of the day and were never seen again. One of the men was real stable. He had a wife and kids. He went to church. He ran a bar on Stark Street, but he was clean. The other guy, Benny Gorman, owned a garage. Probably a chump-change chop shop. He'd done time for armed robbery and grand theft auto. And two months ago he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Took a tire iron to a guy and almost killed him. He was supposed to go to trial last week but failed to appear. Ordinarily I'd say he skipped because of the charge but I'm not so sure on this one.”

“Did Vinnie bond Gorman out?”

“Yeah. I talked to Connie. She handed Gorman off to Ranger.”

“And you think the three guys are connected?”

A commercial came on and Morelli channel surfed through a bunch of stations.

“Don't know. I just have a feeling. Its too strong a coincidence.”

I gave Bob the last piece of pizza and snuggled closer to Morelli.

“I have feelings about other things, too,” Morelli said, sliding an arm around my shoulders, his fingertips skimming along my neck and down my arm.

“Would you like me to tell you about my other feelings?”

My toes curled in my shoes and I got warm in a bunch of private places. And that was the last we saw of the game.

Morelli is an early riser in many ways. I had a memory of him kissing my bare shoulder, whispering an obscene suggestion, and leaving the bed. He returned a short time later with his hair still damp from the shower. He kissed me again and wished me luck with my new job. And then he was gone... off on his mission to rid Trenton of bad guys.

It was still dark in Morelli's bedroom. The bed was warm and comfy. Bob was

sprawled on Morelli's side of the bed, snuffling into Morelli's pillow. I burrowed under the quilt, and when I reawakened the sunlight was pouring into the room through a break in the curtain. I had a moment of absolute delicious satisfaction immediately followed by panic. According to the bedside clock it was nine o'clock. I was massively late for my first day at the button factory!

I scrambled out of bed, gathered my clothes up off the floor, and tugged them on. I didn't bother with makeup or hair. No time. I took the stairs at a run, grabbed my purse and my car keys, and bolted out of the house.

I skirted traffic as best I could, pulled into the button factory parking lot on two wheels, parked, jumped out of the car, and hit the pavement running. The time was nine-thirty. I was an hour and a half late.

I took the stairs to save time and I was sweating by the time I skidded to a stop in Alizzi's office.

“You are late,” Alizzi said.

“Yes, but...”

He wagged his finger at me. “This is not a good thing. I told you that you must be on time. And look at you. You are in a T-shirt. If you are going to be late you should at least wear something that is revealing and shows me your breasts. You are fired. Go away.”

“No! Give me another chance. Just one more chance. If you give me another chance I'll wear something revealing tomorrow.”

“Will you perform a lewd act?”