Look Alive Twenty-Five (Stephanie Plum 25)

“It might not be so bad,” Lula said. “Things like this always look worse in the dark, what with all the flames and smoke. This is just like that grease fire Wayne Kulicki started at Eat and Go. And that stupid Eat and Go was back in business two days later.”

“They’re pouring a lot of water in there,” Stretch said.

“Yes,” Raymond said. “The number seventeen is going to be ruined.”

I called Morelli and told him I would probably miss my curfew.

“We sort of burned the deli down,” I said. “We’re waiting to talk to one of the officials, and then Ranger will take me to your house.”

“Let me talk to Ranger.”

I handed my phone over to Ranger and waited while Ranger assured him I was undamaged.

There was a loud explosion from somewhere deep in the deli. The firemen took a couple steps back but continued to spray the water.

* * *

¦ ¦ ¦

It was almost midnight when Ranger walked me to Morelli’s front door and handed me over. Bob ran in from the kitchen and jumped on me, almost knocking me over. He snuffled my jeans and my shirt and licked my face.

“He thinks you’re dinner,” Morelli said. “You smell like fried Spam.”

“It was horrible. We burned the deli down.”

“On purpose?”

“No! Lula and Stretch were yelling at each other. She was squirting him with ketchup, and he was whacking her with his spatula. He whacked the ketchup bottle out of her hand, and it flew into the hot fryer. It went downhill fast after that.”

“No one was hurt?”

“No people were hurt, but I imagine some rats got toasted.” I looked down at myself. My sneakers were soaked and my clothes were sooty. “I need a shower.”

“I’ll help.”

“Thanks, but I’m exhausted.”

“That’s okay. I’ll do all the work,” Morelli said. “I’m good with soap.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

MORELLI DRAGGED ME out of bed and handed me some clothes.

“It’s dark out,” I said. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“Technically it’s more the middle of the morning. Get dressed. I have coffee downstairs.”

“I don’t want coffee. I want to go back to bed.”

“I have an early meeting, and I need to drop you off at Rangeman.”

“I don’t need Rangeman. There’s no deli. It’s over.”

“It isn’t over. Five men are missing, and a man is dead. The dead man wasn’t on-site at the deli.”

“Leonard Skoogie and Ernie Sitz were college roommates.”

“Yes. And they were business partners.”