Plum Boxed Set 1, Books 1-3 Stephanie Plum Novels) (14 page)

He opened the door and instantly clamped a hand over his nose. “Whoa,” he gasped. “What’s that smell?”

“That’s what I was wondering,” I said. “It seems to be hanging in the hall here.”

“Smells like dead dog.”

I sighed. “Yeah. That was my first impression, too.”

I retreated back to my apartment. I needed to rewash everything, and I’d run out of quarters. I was going to have to go home to do my laundry. I looked at my watch. It was almost six. I’d call my mother on the car phone and warn her I’d be there for dinner after all.

I parked in front of the house, and my mother appeared like magic, driven by some mysterious maternal instinct always to know when her daughter set foot on the curb.

“A new car,” she said. “How nice. Where did you get it?”

I had the basket under one arm and the plastic trash bag under the other. “I borrowed it from a friend.”

“Who?”

“You don’t know him. Someone I went to school with.”

“Well, you’re lucky to have friends like that. You should bake him something. A cake.”

I pushed past her, heading for the cellar stairs. “I brought my laundry. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Of course I don’t mind. What’s that smell? Is that you? You smell like a garbage can.”

“I accidentally dropped my keys in a Dumpster, and I had to climb in and get them out.”

“I don’t understand how these things happen to you. They don’t happen to anyone else. Who else do you know dropped their keys in a Dumpster? No one, that’s who. Only you would do such a thing.”

Grandma Mazur came out of the kitchen. “I smell throw-up.”

“It’s Stephanie,” my mother said. “She was in a Dumpster.”

“What was she doing in a Dumpster? Was she looking for bodies? I saw a movie on TV where the mob splattered some guy’s brains all over the place and then left him for rat food in a Dumpster.”

“She was looking for her keys,” my mother told Grandma Mazur. “It was an accident.”

“Well that’s disappointing,” Grandma Mazur said. “I expected something better from her.”

When we were done eating, I called Eddie Gazarra, put the second load of laundry in the washer, and hosed down my shoes and my keys. I sprayed the inside of the Jeep with Lysol and opened the windows wide. The alarm wasn’t usable with the windows open, but I didn’t think I was running much risk of the car being reclaimed from in front of my parents’ house. I took a shower and dressed in clean clothes fresh from the dryer.

I was spooked over John Kuzack’s death and not anxious to walk into a dark apartment, so I made a point of getting home early. I’d just locked the door behind me when the phone rang. The voice was muffled, so that I had to strain to hear, squinting at the handset as if that would help.

Fear is not a logical emotion. No one can physically hurt me on the phone, but I flinched all the same when I realized it was Ramirez.

I immediately hung up, and when the phone rang again I snapped the plug from the wall jack. I needed an answering machine to monitor my calls, but I couldn’t afford to buy one until I made a recovery. First thing in the morning I was going to have to go after Lonnie Dodd.

I
AWOKE TO THE STEADY DRUMMING OF RAIN
on my fire escape. Wonderful. Just what I needed to complicate my life further. I crawled out of bed and pulled the curtain aside, not pleased at the sight of an all-day soaker. The parking lot had slicked up, reflecting light from mysterious sources. The rest of the world was gunmetal gray, the cloud cover low and unending, the buildings robbed of color behind the rain.

I showered and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, letting my hair dry on its own. No sense fussing when I was going to get drenched the instant I stepped out of the building. I did the breakfast thing, brushed my teeth, and applied a nice thick line of turquoise eyeliner to offset the gloom. I was wearing my Dumpster shoes in honor of the rain. I looked down and sniffed. Maybe I smelled a hint of boiled ham, but all things considered I didn’t think that was so bad.

I did a pocketbook inventory, making sure I had all my goodies—cuffs, bludgeoning baton, flashlight, gun, extra ammo (not much good to me since I’d already forgotten how to load the gun—still, you never knew when you might need something heavy to throw at an escaping felon). I crammed Dodd’s file in along with a collapsible umbrella and a package of peanut butter crackers for emergency snacking. I grabbed the ultracool black and purple Gore-Tex jacket I’d purchased when I was of the privileged working class, and I headed for the parking lot.

This was the sort of day to read comic books under a blanket tent and eat the icing from the middle of the Oreos. This was
not
the sort of day to chase down desperados. Unfortunately, I was hard up for money and couldn’t be choosy about selecting desperado days.

Lonnie Dodd’s address was listed as 2115 Barnes. I hauled my map out and looked up the coordinates. Hamilton Township is about three times the size of Trenton proper and roughly shaped like a wedge of pie that’s suffered some nibbles. Barnes ran with its back pressed to the Conrail tracks just north of Yardville, the beginning of the lower third of the county.

I took Chambers to Broad and cut up on Apollo. Barnes struck off from Apollo. The sky had lightened marginally, and it was possible to read house numbers as I drove. The closer I got to 2115 the more depressed I became. Property value was dropping at a frightening rate. What had begun as a respectable blue-collar neighborhood with trim single-family bungalows on good-sized lots had deteriorated to neglected low-income to no-income housing.

Twenty-one fifteen was at the end of the street. The grass was overgrown and had gone to seed. A rusted bike and a washing machine with its top lid askew decorated the front yard. The house itself was a small cinder block rancher built on a slab. It looked to be more of an outbuilding than a home. Something intended for chickens or porkers. A sheet had been tacked haphazardly over the front picture window. Probably to afford the inhabitants privacy while they crushed cans of Bull’s-Eye beer against their foreheads and plotted mayhem.

I told myself it was now or never. Rain pattered on the roof and sluiced down the windshield. I pumped myself up by applying fresh lipstick. There was no great surge of power, so I deepened the blue liner and added mascara and blush. I checked myself out in the rearview mirror. Wonder Woman, eat your heart out. Yeah, right. I studied Dodd’s picture one last time. Didn’t want to overwhelm the wrong man. I dropped my keys into my pocketbook, pulled my hood up, and got out of the car. I knocked on the door and caught myself secretly hoping no one was home. The rain and the neighborhood and the grim little house were giving me the creeps. If the second knock goes unanswered, I thought, I’ll consider it the will of God that I’m not destined to catch Dodd, and I’ll get the hell out of here.

No one answered on the second knock, but I’d heard a toilet flush, and I knew someone was in there. Damn. I gave the door a few good shots with my fist. “Open up,” I yelled at the top of my voice. “Pizza delivery.”

A skinny guy with dark, tangled shoulder-length hair answered the door. He was a couple inches taller than me. He was barefoot and shirtless, wearing a pair of filthy, lowslung jeans that were unsnapped and only half zipped. Beyond him I could see a trash-filled living room. The air drifting out was pungent with cat fumes.

“I didn’t order no pizza,” he said.

“Are you Lonnie Dodd?”

“Yeah. What’s with the pizza delivery shit?”

“It was a ploy to get you to answer your door.”

“A what?”

“I work for Vincent Plum, your bond agent. You missed your trial date, and Mr. Plum would like you to reschedule.”

“Fuck that. I’m not rescheduling nothing.”

The rain was running off my jacket in sheets, soaking my jeans and shoes. “It would only take a few minutes. I’d be happy to drive you.”

“Plum doesn’t have no limo service. Plum only hires two kinds of people … women with big pointy tits and scumbag bounty hunters. Nothing personal, and it’s hard to see with that raincoat on, but you don’t look like you got big pointy tits. That leaves scumbag bounty hunter.”

Without warning he reached out into the rain, grabbed my pocketbook off my shoulder, and tossed the contents onto the tan shag carpet behind him. The gun landed with a thunk.

“You could get into a lot of crap carrying concealed in this state,” he said.

I narrowed my eyes. “Are you going to cooperate here?”

“What do you think?”

“I think if you’re smart you’ll get a shirt and some shoes and come downtown with me.”

“Guess I’m not that smart.”

“Fine. Then just give me my stuff, and I’ll be more than happy to leave.” Truer words were never spoken.

“I’m not giving you nothing. This here stuff looks like
my
stuff now.”

I was debating kicking him in the nuts when he gave me a shove to the chest, knocking me backward off the small cement pad. I came down hard on my ass in the mud.

“Take a hike,” he said, “or I’ll shoot you with your own fucking gun.”

The door slammed shut and the bolt clicked into place. I got up and wiped my hands on my jacket. I couldn’t believe I’d just stood there flat-footed and let him take my shoulder bag. What had I been thinking?

I’d been thinking about Clarence Sampson and not about Lonnie Dodd. Lonnie Dodd wasn’t a fat drunk. I should have approached him with a much more defensive posture. I should have stood farther back, out of his reach. And I should have had my defense spray in my hand, not in my pocketbook.

I had a lot to learn as a bounty hunter. I lacked skills, but even more problematic, I lacked attitude. Ranger had tried to tell me, but it hadn’t taken hold. Never let your guard down, he’d said. When you walk the street, you have to see everything, every second. You let your mind wander, and you could be dead. When you go after your FTA, always be prepared for the worst.

It had seemed overly dramatic at the time. Looking at it in retrospect, it had been good advice.

I stomped back to the Jeep and stood there fuming, swearing at myself and Dodd and E.E. Martin. I threw in a few choice thoughts about Ramirez and Morelli and kicked a tire.

“Now what?” I yelled in the rain. “Now what are you going to do, girl genius?”

Well, I sure as hell wasn’t going to leave without Lonnie Dodd shackled and stuffed into my back seat. As I saw it, I needed help, and I had two choices. The police or Ranger. If I called the police I might be in trouble with the gun. It’d have to be Ranger.

I closed my eyes. I really didn’t want to call Ranger. I’d wanted to do this myself. I’d wanted to show everyone I was capable.

“Pride goeth before the fall,” I said. I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but it felt right.

I took a deep groaning breath, shucked the muddy, dripping-wet raincoat, slid behind the wheel, and called Ranger.

“Yo,” he said.

“I have a problem.”

“Are you naked?”

“No, I’m not naked.”

“Too bad.”

“I have an FTA cornered in his house, but I’m not having any luck making an apprehension.”

“You want to be more specific about the not having any luck part.”

“He took my pocketbook and kicked me out of the house.”

Pause. “I don’t suppose you managed to keep your gun.”

“Don’t suppose I did. On the bright side, the gun wasn’t loaded.”

“You have ammo in your pocketbook?”

“I might have had a few loose bullets rolling around.”

“Where are you now?”

“In front of the house, in the Jeep.”

“And you want me to come over there and persuade your FTA to behave.”

“Yeah.”

“Good thing for you I’m into this Henry Higgins shit. What’s the address?”

I gave him the address and hung up feeling disgusted with myself. I’d virtually armed my FTA, and now I was sending Ranger in to clean up the mess I’d made of things. I was going to have to get smarter faster. I was going to learn how to load the damn gun, and I was going to learn how to shoot it. I might not ever have the guts to shoot Joe Morelli, but I was pretty sure I could shoot Lonnie Dodd.

I watched the clock on the dash, waiting for Ranger, anxious to resolve this unfinished business. Ten minutes passed before his Mercedes appeared at the end of the street, gliding through the rain, sleek and sinister, water not daring to adhere to the paint finish.

We simultaneously got out of our cars. He wore a black baseball cap, tight black jeans, and a black T-shirt. He strapped on his black nylon gun belt and holster, the gun held tight to his leg by a black Velcro strap. At first glance he’d pass for a SWAT cop. He shrugged into a Kevlar vest. “What’s the FTA’s name?”

“Lonnie Dodd.”

“You got a photo?”

I ran to the Jeep, pulled out Dodd’s picture, and gave it to Ranger.

“What’d he do?” Ranger wanted to know.

“Auto theft. First-time offender.”

“He alone?”

“As far as I know. I can’t guarantee it.”

“This house have a back door?”

“Don’t know.”

“Let’s find out.”

We took a direct route to the back, cutting through the tall grass, keeping our eyes on the front door, watching the windows for movement. I hadn’t bothered with my jacket. It seemed like an unnecessary encumbrance at this point. My energies were directed at catching Dodd. I was soaked to the skin, and it was liberating to know I couldn’t get any wetter. The backyard was similar to the front: tall grass, a rusted swing set, two garbage cans overflowing with garbage, their dented lids lying on the ground nearby. A back door opened to the yard.

Ranger pulled me close to the building, out of window sight. “You stay here and watch the back door. I’m going in the front. I don’t want you to be a hero. You see anybody run for the train tracks, you keep out of their way. Got that?”

Water dripped from the tip of my nose. “Sorry to put you through this.”

“This is partly my fault. I haven’t been taking you serious enough. If you’re really going to do this job, you’re going to need somebody to help you with the takedown. And we need to spend some time talking about apprehension techniques.”