Lean Mean Thirteen (Stephanie Plum 13)

barbecue making that stuff."

We moved down the hall to the bedrooms. No need to search under beds because there

weren't any. Two sleeping bags were thrown against a wall in one of the bedrooms. A

television sat on the floor. The closet was filled with clothes. The rest of the room was

cannabis.

“This is kind of cozy,” Lula said. “I bet it's like sleeping in the jungle.”

We checked out the bathroom and the second bedroom. Lots of weed drying out in the

second bedroom, but no Hansens.

“We're missing something,” I said to Lula, going back to the kitchen.

“We opened every door,” Lula said. "We looked around all the racks. We looked behind the

shower curtain, and we moved the clothes all around in the closet. There's no cellar and no

garage and no attic."

"There's a cup of coffee sitting on the counter, and the coffee is still warm. Someone was in

here, and I don't think they had time to leave. You were at the back door, and I was at the

front door. We checked the windows. No one went out through a window."

Lula cut her eyes to the cupboard over the counter.

“Maybe he left just before we got here. You know, lucky coincidence for him.” “Yeah,” I said, cuffs in one hand, stun gun in the other, attention focused on the cupboard.

“That could be it.”

Lula stepped back and two-handed the Glock, aiming it at the cupboard. I reached up and

opened one of the doors. And Stewart Hansen tumbled out, crashing onto the counter, sending

the science experiment flying. He flopped off the counter onto the floor and scrambled like a

cat on black ice-legs moving but no intelligent forward motion.

In the excitement of the moment, Lula squeezed off a shot that went wide of Hansen but

knocked out the ether bottle. The liquid splashed onto the gas stove, and we were all

paralyzed for a moment.

“Pilot light,” Hansen said.

We all dove for the back door, and I think I was in the air when the explosion occurred. Or

maybe it was the explosion that threw me out of the house.

“Holy crap,” Hansen said.

He was on the ground next to me, and Lula was on her back, skirt up to her neck, next to