Plum Lucky (Stephanie Plum 13.50)

“Holy crap!” I said.

“Doug says he’s sorry. He says it slipped out.”

The doors opened, and we all rushed into the lobby and out into the parking lot. Doug took a wide stance and whizzed for about fifteen minutes. He walked around a little and dropped a load of road apples. We had a pooper-?scooper law in Trenton, but I wasn’t sure it applied to horse shit. I’d need a snow shovel and a twenty-?gallon garbage

bag to pooper-?scooper what Doug dropped.

“Maybe an apartment isn’t the best place for Doug,” I said to Snuggy.

“He’s too cramped in the RV. I don’t know where else to put him.”

“I have a friend who owns a building with a parking garage. It’s very secure and the garage is well lit and really clean.” Actually, cleaner than my apartment.

“That might be okay,” Snuggy said. “He’d have room to walk around in a parking garage. And maybe I could bring some straw in for him to stand on just for a couple days until his surgery.”

I dialed Ranger.

“Yo,” Ranger said.

“Yo yourself. I was wondering if I could park something in your garage for a couple days.”

“Something?”

“A horse.”

A moment of silence.

“Babe,” Ranger said.

“He used to be a racehorse.”

More silence.

“He’s sort of a homeless horse,” I said.

“I’m leaving for the airport in two seconds, and I won’t be back for a couple days. You can put the horse in the garage, but I don’t want that horse in my apartment.”

“Who would put a horse in an apartment? That’s dumb.”

“Where’s the horse staying now?”

“My apartment.”

“I can always count on you to brighten my day,” Ranger said. And he disconnected.

I ran upstairs to tell Diesel and to get my purse.

“Snuggy can stay with Doug as long as he promises not to leave Rangeman property,” Diesel said.

“I’m going to ride over with Snuggy. I’ll be back as soon as I get them settled in. I thought I’d call Delvina before I go.”

Diesel was foraging in the refrigerator. He found the leftover pizza and dug in. “If he lets you choose the exchange site, ask for the car wash again.”

I called Delvina and told him we had the money.

“I’ll get back to you,” Delvina said. “I gotta make arrangements.”

“The car wash was good last time,” I told him. “Why don’t we do the car wash again?”