Tricky Twenty-Two (Stephanie Plum 22)

“You assume correct.”

“I wouldn’t mind if you snitched for me. I’ll be attending both events, but I won’t have the access you’ll have.”

“I thought you were handing over your gun and your badge.”

“It’s a process. There are things I have to set in place first.”

“Another job?”

“Yeah. In the meantime I’m doing the one I have as best as I can.”

“Gee, that’s freakin’ noble of you.”

“Yep. That’s me. Mr. Noble.”

“I don’t get it. So you have heartburn. Big deal. Everyone has heartburn. That’s not a good enough reason to stop being a cop. What are you going to do? Sell insurance? Manage a minimart?”

“Maybe.”

“You never talked about this with me. We were practically living together, and you never said anything about this.”

“It’s something I have to figure out on my own.”

I did an eye roll. “Men.”

He leaned closer and I thought he was going to kiss me, but it turned out he was looking at my pimple.

“Is this it?” he asked.

“It’s better than it was yesterday.”

“And it’s all my fault?”

“Yes!”

He rocked back on his heels and grinned. “Sorry about that.”

“You don’t look sorry.”

“I am. I swear. Would you like a donut? Coffee?”

“No, but thanks. I need to go. Things to do.”

I slid behind the wheel, and he looked in at me. “Nice seeing you,” he said.

I did another eye roll. I couldn’t help myself. I watched Morelli drive out of the lot, and then I backtracked a block from the bakery to the office and parked behind Lula’s Firebird.

Connie looked up when I walked in. “Where’s Lula?”

“She’s with Hal. I think they’re going to check out some onion rings.”

“Rangeman Hal?”

“Yep. It’s been one of those days. Zeta is trying to discourage us from looking for Gobbles. They bombed Lula with a beer balloon, and then they filled the Mercedes with geese.”

“Real geese?” Connie asked.

“Yeah. It wasn’t pretty. Anyway, long story short, Ranger dropped me off at my parents’ house so I could get Big Blue, and Lula went with Hal.”