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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE I fell asleep on the couch and woke up at midnight. I shuffled off to my bedroom and crawled under the covers. When I woke up in the morning, Bob was sprawled next to me,

and Morelli was on the edge of the bed next to Bob. I got up and took a shower. I got dressed and went to the kitchen for coffee. Morelli came in a couple minutes later. “I smell coffee,” he

said. “How long have you been up?” “Not long,” I said. “When did you get home last night?” “Around three o’clock. Bob was in my spot in the bed and wouldn’t give it up.” Morelli got a mug

and filled it with coffee. “What’s for breakfast?” “Chocolate cake.” “That works for me.” We stood in the kitchen eating cake and drinking coffee. “I have to go back to work this morning,”

Morelli said. “I need to follow up on a couple things from last night, and then I’m taking my rotation at babysitting Bella.” “Must have been a riot last night.” “Pretty much. It started out

as an organized smash-and-grab and turned into a bloodbath. There were a lot of people involved. Some didn’t walk away.” He rinsed his plate off in the sink and put it in the dishwasher.

“What are you doing today?” “The bus was leaking water yesterday. I’m going to check it out. See if any real damage was done. And then I’m going to Benji’s grand opening. He bought the comic

book store and renamed it Benji Land.” “Clever,” Morelli said. “Where do you suppose Benji got enough money to buy the store?” I shrugged. “Do you have any ideas?” “I have one or two. How

about you?” “I have one or two.” He kissed me and the kiss lingered. “I’m definitely not on call tonight,” he said. “I think we should go out to a fancy dinner and then come home to my house

and get naked.” “I like it,” I said. “And if we finish up early enough, we can catch the end of the ball game.” “You’re such a romantic.” Morelli grinned. “I have to go home to change

clothes. I’ll take Bob with me. Thanks for letting us spend the night. Do you have anything you want me to tell the Rangeman guys parked in your lot?” “Tell them I’ll be out in a couple

minutes.” When Morelli asked about my plans for the day, the unmentioned elephant in the room was Vinnie. Neither of us had been able to make any progress at finding Vinnie. I can’t speak

for Morelli, but I was exasperated that I couldn’t go more proactive. Surely there was something we could do to find him. +++ The sun was shining, and the air had a chill in it. I drove to

the office, parked behind Connie’s car, and walked to the school bus. The door was open, and I could hear a fan going inside. I looked in at Connie. “Trying to dry things out?” “It could be

worse, but it’s obvious we need something better. It’ll take at least a year to rebuild, and we can’t conduct business in this.” “What if there is no business?” I asked her. “What if there’s

no Vinnie?” “Harry will find someone else. Harry needs this business. It’s part of his corporate image.” I didn’t want to ask about Harry’s corporate image. There are things about Harry

best left unknown. Lula stumbled in. “I don’t know how anyone can walk in sneakers. My balance is all whackadoodle. When I’m in heels my boobies and booty are compensating for each other.

They’re all synchronized. There’s just nothing happening when I’m flat- footed. None of my voluptuous body parts knows which way to swing.” I didn’t have this problem. My body parts were a

lot less voluptuous than Lula’s. They didn’t swing anywhere. “Anything new going on with the kidnappers?” Lula asked. I shared the fingernail picture with her. “That’s disgusting,” Lula

said. “I’m not happy to see this. Okay, so he’s an annoying jerk, but that don’t mean I’m gonna stand around and let some kidnapper torture him. This is something else. If anyone tortures

him, it should be us. Or at least someone we hired to torture him.” Connie and I agreed. “So, what are we going to do about this?” Lula asked. “I think we should entertain the possibility of

raising the money.” “It’s eleven million dollars!” I said. “Yeah, but we might be able to get _some_ of it,” she said. “We could buy a bunch of scratch lottery tickets. And we could start a

GoFundMe page. You always have to start with something that gets people’s attention. We could tell people we want to save the highly endangered pointy-toed weasel.” “I guess I could try to

bargain with them next time we get a phone call,” I said. “Omigosh,” Lula said. “I’ve got it! We could put up Lost posters. My neighbor did that when their cat disappeared. A lot of people

called her saying they saw her cat. Maybe someone saw Vinnie get snatched. Or they might have seen him get dragged into a building.” “The Lost poster might work,” Connie said. “We could

offer a reward.” “I’ll make the poster,” Lula said. “I always got a good grade in art when I was in school. First thing, I’m going to need a picture of Vinnie.” “I don’t have any on hand,”

Connie said. “I’ll get one tonight. I should be able to find something online. Right now, I’m going out with a Realtor to look at office space. It would be great if you two could look for a

storage unit for the files. They can’t stay in my garage. It isn’t secure.” “What about the grand opening?” Lula asked. “When are we doing that?” “How about after lunch?” Connie said. “Do

you have anyplace special you want us to look for storage?” Lula asked Connie. “Find something cheap and convenient,” Connie said. “It doesn’t have to be climate controlled, but it has to be

secure.” Lula looked at the box of doughnuts on the table. “What about the doughnuts? Are we leaving them here? It would be a shame to leave them here to get stale if nobody is here eating

them.” “Take the doughnuts,” Connie said. Lula and I walked back to Hamilton Avenue and got into the Discovery. “It’s a pleasure riding around with you in this car,” Lula said. “It even

smells nice.” “It smells like doughnuts,” I said. “It’s the happiest smell in the whole world,” Lula said. “I don’t know anything about storage units,” I said. “See what you can find on your

phone.” “I’m suggesting that we start with the closest ones first. There are two on Broad. Then there’s one on Chambers.” The first one on Broad didn’t have any available units. The second

one was too expensive. The one on Chambers had been turned into condominiums. “There are a bunch in Hamilton Township,” Lula said. “That’s not so far away.” After two hours of searching, we

came away with three possibilities, and we went back to the bus to rendezvous with Connie. “Pino’s is delivering,” Connie said. “I went with meatball subs. What did you find out about

getting a storage unit?” “We have three possibilities,” I said. “They’re all in Hamilton Township and they’re all about equal.” I gave her two brochures. “The third one didn’t have a

brochure,” I said. “New ownership.” “But they were real nice,” Lula said. “They liked my camo gear, and they didn’t have any rats or anything.” “Did the others have rats?” Connie asked. “We

didn’t see any,” I said. “There were droppings in one,” Lula said. “I know rat droppings when I see them, and they were rat droppings.” “How’d you do?” I asked Connie. “Did you find an

office?” “No. I didn’t think it would be this difficult. We’re going out again this afternoon. The Realtor is picking me up at Benji’s.” “Suppose we got one of those already-made houses,”

Lula said. “I see them riding down the highway all the time. They got curtains on the windows and everything.” Pino’s grandson Zak yelled, “Knock knock,” and stuck his head in the door. “I

got subs,” he said. “Grandpa threw in macaroni for free because he made too much for the people at table number four.” “I like macaroni,” Lula said. Connie took the bags, paid for the subs,

and gave Zak a tip that made him smile. The couch was still too wet to sit on so we huddled around the tiny table. “This is like camping out,” Lula said. “I never camped out, but I bet it’s

like this.” “I camped out once,” Connie said. “It sucked. Nature isn’t what you see on television. I had bug bites all over me and there’s nothing to do. You’re just out there in the woods.”

“Didn’t you have television?” Lula asked. “No. We were in a tent. No electricity. No toilet.” “I wouldn’t do that kind of camping,” Lula said. “I gotta have television and a toilet.” We

finished lunch and left the bus. Everyone got into the Discovery, and I drove to Benji Land. Carpenter Beedle’s Mercedes was parked in front of the store. There were a few people wandering

around inside. One of them was Sparks in his Sir Lancelot costume. Benji came over to us. “There’s a food truck out back,” he said. “It’s all free. Wieners and soft drinks.” “That was nice

of you to give us Thor,” Lula said. “It’s the good Thor, too.” Sir Lancelot came over. “What do you think of Benji’s store? It’s wonderful, right? There’s a whole Tolkien section now. Plus,

he’s added D&D, Magic: The Gathering, and Pokémon game-play nights.” “I gotta go see Tolkien,” Lula said. “Point me in a direction.” Beedle ambled over. “How’s it going?” he asked.

“Benji said you didn’t need our help anymore, so I guess everything got resolved.” “Unfortunately, nothing is resolved. A friend of mine is in the security business and he’s running

protection for me.” “Rangeman,” Beedle said. “We’ve been seeing the cars.” “How’s it going with you?” “It’s good. I’m in start-up mode with the finance business, so it’s slow, but it’ll pick

up. I have a couple clients. I see the bail bonds office is operating out of a retired school bus.” “It’s temporary. Connie is looking for something more substantial. Lula and I are looking

for a storage locker for some of the stuff we were able to salvage.” “Did you try Susan Dippy Storage?” “No. It didn’t show up in Google.” “Yeah, it’s under the radar. I keep some stuff

there. It isn’t fancy but it’s convenient. It’s a couple blocks from here on Cord Street. If you go out the back door it’s a three-minute walk. You turn left down the alley and right on the

first cross street.” I found Lula in Superheroes, checking out the Thor action figure with short hair. “I might need this,” Lula said. “It would be good to have both Thors.” “I was just

talking to Beedle, and he told me about some storage units a couple blocks away. I thought we could take a look at them.” “Sure, but I need a free wiener first. I haven’t been to the food

truck yet.” We went out the back door to the food truck. I got a soda, and Lula got a hot dog and a soda. “They’ve got all the good condiments here,” Lula said. “This is a first-class free

wiener. And the bun is just right. Not too big and not too small. Plus, the slit is on the top.” We walked down the alley and turned right on Cord Street. Traffic was sporadic. Houses were

set back on large lots. There were lots of trees. We came to the second block and didn’t see Susan Dippy Storage. When we reached the third block, I saw a car turn out of the alley that ran

behind the houses. “Bingo,” Lula said. “I just got the same idea you got.” We took the cross street to the alley and found Susan Dippy. It was a small cinder-block strip mall of storage

units that had been built into the alley and stretched the length of a block. “I don’t see an office,” Lula said. “Must be at the other end.” We walked halfway down the alley and a car came

at us from behind at high speed. It screeched to a stop and four men in ski masks jumped out and tackled Lula and me. We were all rolling around yelling and kicking and clawing. Lula got to

her feet, one of the men stunned her, and she crumpled to the ground and lay there lifeless. A second car came in from the other direction and two men also in ski masks got out, scooped Lula

up, and stuffed her into their car. A moment later someone gave me a bunch of volts, and I went scramble brain. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO I’d been stun gunned before. This was nothing new. I knew

the recovery process. Tingling in my fingers. Buzzing in my head. Disoriented. I tried to relax and concentrate on breathing. I couldn’t see anything, and it took me a while to realize I had

a sack over my head. My hands were tied behind me. Felt like a plastic zip tie. The fog was lifting. I was cramped into a fetal position, getting pushed along in some kind of cart. Wheels

on concrete, I thought. I was finally alert enough to be scared. I was sightless with the sack over my head, but there were horrible visions stuck in my mind. Connie’s burns, Vinnie hanging

upside down, bloody fingers without fingernails. My heart was racing, and I think I was drooling. Or maybe my nose was running. Hard to tell when you’re in a sack and your hands are tied. I

heard a door swing open, felt the bump of my cart being rolled over a threshold. I was working hard to calm myself. I was telling myself I had to be smart. I had to watch for my moment.

Panic was the enemy. Suddenly the cart was tipped, and I rolled out onto a hard floor. Deep breaths, I told myself. Don’t show fear. Don’t show pain. “Now what?” a male voice said. “You want

me to beat her up? Get her attention?” “Not yet.” Another male voice. “She’s probably still stupid from the stun gun. Take the sack off her so she doesn’t suffocate. She’s no good to us if

she’s dead.” The sack was pulled off, and I still couldn’t see a lot in the dark room, but I could see enough to recognize Marcus and Luther. Not a good sign that they were letting me see

their faces. I took it to mean that they weren’t expecting me to leave the building alive. I didn’t look beyond them. I lay on the floor with my eyes unfocused and my mouth open. Impaired.

Thinking I was pretty good at looking stupid. “She’s breathing kind of fast,” Marcus said. “You’d be breathing fast, too, if you just took fifty thousand volts,” Luther said. “Let’s get

lunch. She’s not going anywhere.” The door slammed shut and I got myself into a sitting position. I was in a room about the size of my parents’ living room. Cement floor. Cement walls. Cold

and damp. My eyes adjusted to the dim light, and I saw a dark blob in the corner. The blob moved and I realized it was Vinnie. “Are you okay?” I asked him. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m having a

great time here.” “We were wondering about that,” I said. “Funny. Very funny.” “Is there a way out?” “You mean if I wasn’t chained to a chemical toilet that’s bolted to the floor?” I scanned

the room. One door. Looked solid. Probably metal. No windows. Low ceiling for an industrial building. Nine or ten square feet I was guessing. Large vent of some sort in the ceiling over the

toilet. “Do you know where we are?” I asked Vinnie.