I revved the engine and cut off the rest of the sentence. I didn't have to read his lips to know where he was going. I put the helmet on, Ranger remoted the gate open for me, and I wheeled out of the garage.
It felt great to be on the bike. The air was cool, and traffic was light. It was just a few minutes short of rush hour. I took it slow, getting the feel of the machine. I cut to the alley and brought the bike in through Morellis backyard. Morelli had an empty tool shed next to his house. The shed was locked with a combination lock, and I knew the combination. I spun the dial, opened the shed, and locked the bike away.
Morelli was waiting for me in the kitchen. “Let me guess,” Morelli said. "He
gave you a bike. A Due."
“Yeah. It was terrific riding over here.” I went to the fridge and studied the inside. Not a lot there. “I'll take Bob out, and you can dial supper,” I said.
“What do you want?”
“Anything without sugar.”
?
?You're still on the no-sugar thing?”
“Yeah. I hope you took a nap this afternoon.”
Morelli poked me with his crutch. “Where are your clothes? You weren't wearing this when you left this morning.”
“I left them at work. I didn't have a way to carry them on the bike. I could use a backpack.” I still had the wind breaker zipped over the shirt. I thought it was best to delay the short-shirt confrontation until after we'd eaten. I clipped Bob to his leash and took off. I got back just as the Pino's delivery kid was leaving.
“I ordered roast beef subs,” Morelli said. “Hope that's okay.”
I took a sub and unwrapped it and gave it to Bob. I handed a sub to Morelli, and I unwrapped the third for myself. We were in the living room, on the couch, as always. We ate, and we watched the news.
“The news is always the same,” I said. “Death, destruction, blah, blah, blah. There should be a news station that only does happy news.”
I collected the wrappers when we were done eating and carted them off to the kitchen. Morelli followed after me on his crutches.
“Take your jacket off,” Morelli said. “I want to see the rest of the uniform.”
“Later.”
“Now.”
“I was thinking I might go back to work just for a couple hours. I started a search and didn't get to finish it.”
Morelli had me backed into a corner. “I don't think so. I have plans for tonight. Let's see the shirt.”
“I don't want to hear any yelling.”
“It's that bad?”
It wasn't just the shirt. It was also the gun. Morelli was going to be unhappy that I was carrying. He knew I was a moron when it came to guns. I took the jacket off and twirled for him. “What do you think?”
“I'm going to kill him. Don't worry. I'll make it look like an accident.”
“He didn't pick out the shirt. His housekeeper picked out the shirt. She's short. It probably came to her knees.”
“Who picked out the gun?”
“Ranger picked out the gun.”
“Is it loaded?”
“I don't know. I didn't look.”