'He is her husband of record. And as such, he has a right to a viewing.'
'I don't suppose you got to talk to him?'
'Mostly he talked to Scooter. Financial arrangements and everything.'
Connie had been the one to rebond Bernie. She'd gotten back to the office minutes before me and was in the process of repairing a chipped nail. 'I don't usually go to viewings, but I'm going to that one,' she said, adding a fresh coat of fire engine red to her index finger.
Meri Maisonet was on the couch with a stack of files, making notes, not saying anything, but not missing much either. I wasn't sure how I felt about her. She seemed likeable enough, but something was off. Usually people are a little nervous on a new job. They try too hard. Or they try to become background. Meri Maisonet didn't show any of that. She was dressed in running shoes, jeans, and another of the three-button knit shirts. No big hair lacquered with hair spray. Only lip gloss. Not exactly a Jersey girl, but then she hadn't been in Jersey for very long.
'Ho
w's it going?' I said to her.
'I have the information you asked me to get on Charles Chin and Dooby Biagi. I haven't had a chance to make the phone calls. I was going to do that now. I haven't done anything on Lonnie Johnson yet. Sorry.'
'It's okay. Lonnie Johnson is probably in Peru. I've run into a brick wall on him. I thought it wouldn't hurt to have someone new take a look. Don't spend a lot of time and energy on him, but maybe you can make a feeler phone call once in a while to one of the contacts.'
'I read about Ranger and Carmen in the paper,' she said. 'And the little girl… Julie Martine. How terrible. What a tragedy.'
'Yeah,' Lula said. 'It's pretty freaky. Is there any information on the viewing yet?' she asked me. 'I don't want to miss that one.'
'Tomorrow at six.'
'Darn. I got a gig tomorrow at seven. I'm wearing my new feather outfit, and Sally and me got a new song rehearsed. I'll have to get there when the doors open, so I can fit it all in.'
'Isn't seven early for a band to play?'
'It's another old people's home. They get medicated at eight, and it's lights out at nine,' Lula said.
'It's a little creepy that her husband murdered her, and now he's arranging a viewing,' Meri said. 'Is he here in Trenton?'
'I don't know,' I said to Meri. 'He made the arrangements over the phone.'
'I never heard for sure that anyone said he murdered her,' Lula said.
'The paper said he was wanted for suspicion,' Meri said. 'Do you know him? Does he work for this office?'
'Yeah, we all know him,' Lula said. 'He's a good guy, too. If he does something bad it's because he has a good reason.'
'Hard to believe there's a good reason for murdering your wife,' Meri said.
'Maybe she was a spy,' Lula said. 'She could have been a secret agent or a terrorist.'
'Or an alien from Mars,' Connie said.
'Hunh,' Lula said. 'You're making fun of me, but I was serious. Who's to know if she was a double agent or something?'
'She wasn't a double agent,' I said. 'She was a woman on the edge.'
'She shot at Stephanie,' Lula told Meri. 'Put a ding in her car.'
'Why did she do that?' Meri asked.
'Frustrated because she couldn't find her husband,' I said. 'I approached her at the wrong time.'
'Now what are we going to do?' Lula wanted to know. 'You got someone on target for this afternoon?'
'I have some errands I have to run, and then tonight I'm going after Caroline Scarzolli.'