The smile widened. 'Bob misses you. He hasn't seen you in a couple days.'
Bob is Morelli's big orange dog. And this is Morelli's ploy when he wants me to do a sleepover. Not that he needs a ploy.
'I'll have to call you later this afternoon,' I said. 'I don't know how my day will go. I'm on a mission to clean up a bunch of FTAs for Vinnie.'
He curled his fingers into my T-shirt, pulled me to him, and kissed me. There was a lot of tongue involved and some wandering hands. When he was done he held me at arm's length. 'Be careful,' he said.
'Too late,' I told him.
He moved me five steps backward into the elevator, pushed the button, and sent me up to the atrium where Lula was waiting.
'I'm not even going to guess what went on in that parking garage,' Lula said. 'But you better wipe that goofy smile off your face, or people are gonna get the right idea.'
I called Connie and told her about Pickle.
'Vinnie's out of town,' she said. 'I'll bond Pickle out. And before I forget, there was a woman in here asking for you. She said her name was Carmen.'
Offhand, I couldn't think of anyone I knew named Carmen. 'Did she say what she wanted?'
'She said it was personal. I'm guessing she was in her late twenties. Soft-spoken. Pretty. And crazy.'
Great. 'What kind of crazy are we talking about? Crazy stressed? Crazy dressed in clown shoes with a red rubber nose? Or crazy crazy?'
'Crazy stressed and crazy crazy. She was dressed all in black. Like Ranger. Black boots, black c
argo pants, black T-shirt. And she was… intense. She said she would track you down. And then she asked about Ranger. I guess she's looking for him too.'
'We got choices to make,' Lula said when I put my phone away. 'We could cruise for shoes, or we could embarrass ourselves some more by pretending to be bounty hunters.'
'I think we're on a roll. I say we keep pretending to be bounty hunters.'
'I want to see the woman who stabbed her husband in the ass,' Lula said. 'Let's do her next.'
'She's in the Burg,' I said to Lula, pulling the file on Mary Lee Truk. 'I'll call my mom and see if she knows her.'
The Burg is a small chunk of Trenton just outside the center of the city. It's a working-class neighborhood that can't keep a secret and takes care of its own. My parents live in the Burg. My best friend Mary Lou Molnar lives in the Burg. Morelli's family is in the Burg. Morelli and I have moved out… but we haven't moved far.
Grandma Mazur answered the phone. 'Of course I know Mary Lee Truk,' Grandma said. 'I play bingo with her mother.'
'Does Mary Lee get along with her husband?'
'Not since she stabbed him in the behind. I understand he got real cranky about that and packed up and left.'
'Why did she stab him?'
'The story is that she asked him if he thought she was putting on weight, and he said yes, and then she stabbed him. It was one of them spontaneous acts. Mary Lee's going through the change, and everyone knows you don't just up and tell a menopausal woman she's getting fat. I swear some men have no brains at all.
'And by the way, I forgot to tell you before, but some woman came to the house this afternoon, looking for you. I said I didn't know exactly where you were, and she said that was okay, that she'd find you with or without anyone's help. And she was dressed like that hottie you work with, Ranger.'
Lula pulled the Firebird into the curb, and we sat looking at the Truk house.
'I don't have a good feeling about this,' Lula said.
'You were the one who wanted to do the butt stabber.'
'That was before I knew the menopause story. What if she has a hot flash while we're there and goes loony tunes?'
'Just don't turn your back on her. And don't comment on her weight.'