Lean Mean Thirteen Read Online Free Page B

office.
    Lula came out when I drove up. She wrenched the passenger side door open and looked in at me. "What the heck is this?"
    "A Crown Vic."
    "I know it's a Crown Vic. Everybody knows a Crown Vic. What are you doing driving one?
    Three days ago, you were driving an Escape."
    "A tree fell on it. It was totaled."
    "Must have been a big tree."
    "Are you going to get in?"
    "I'm weighing the consequences. People see me in this they think I'm arrested… again. It's gonna be damaging to my good reputation. Even without that, it'll be humiliating. Hard enough being hot without overcoming a humiliating automotive experience. I got a image to think about."
    "We could use your car."
    "Yeah, but suppose by some miracle you catch Diggery? I'm not putting his moldy ass in my Firebird."
    "Well, I'm not driving to Bordentown in this POS all by myself. I'll buy you lunch if you'll get in the car."
    Lula slid onto the passenger seat and buckled up. "I got a craving for a Cluck Burger Deluxe today. And a large fries. And maybe one of them Clucky Apple Pies." I had sixteen dollars and fifty-seven cents in my purse, and it had to last me until I brought in a skip and got a new infusion of money. Two-fifty for a Cluck Burger Deluxe. A dollarfifty for fries. Another dollar for the pie. Then she'd need a drink. And I'd get a bargain-meal cheeseburger for ninety-nine cents. That would give me ten dollars left for an emergency. Good thing Morelli was bringing dinner.
    I took Hamilton to Broad and headed south. I thought I was hearing a strange grinding sound coming from under the hood, so I turned the radio up.
    "You're not gonna guess what Connie picked up on the police band this morning," Lula said. "Dickie's missing, and it don't look good. There was blood and bullets all over the place. Hope you got a alibi."
    "I was with Morelli." Earlier in the evening.
    "Don't come much better than that” Lula said.
    "Did you hear if they have any suspects?"
    "You mean besides you?"
    "Yeah."
    "Nope. You're it, so far as I could tell." Lula cut her eyes to me. "I don't suppose it was you."
    "No."
    "Okay, so it wasn't you directly, but it might have had something to do with the bugs you put on him."
    "You didn't just say that. And you're never going to say that again," I said to Lula. "In fact, yesterday you didn't see or hear anything about bugs."
    "I must have hallucinated it."
    "Exactly."
    "My lips are sealed."
    I turned off South Broad and took Route to Groveville Road. I crossed the railroad tracks and started looking for the road that led to Diggery's house.
    "This don't look familiar," Lula said.
    "That's because we were here in the summer last time."
    "I think it's 'cause we're in the wrong place. You should have MapQuested this," Lula said.
    "I always MapQuest."
    "We're not in the wrong place. We just missed a road."
    "Do you know the name of the road?"
    "No."
    "See, you needed to MapQuest."
    A rusted-out pickup blew past us. It had a gun rack across the back window, a Grateful Dead sticker on the bumper, and a rebel flag flying from the antenna. It looked to me like it belonged in Diggery's neighborhood, so I hung a U-turn and kept it in sight, leaving Groveville Road for a winding two-lane road strewn with potholes.
    "This looks more like it," Lula said, watching the countryside fly by. "I remember some of these pathetic excuses for a house."
    We passed a shanty constructed of tar paper and particleboard, eased around a bend in the road, and Diggery's trailer was to the left, set back about fifty feet. I continued driving until I was out of sight of the trailer. I turned around, cruised past Diggery's again, and parked just beyond the bend. If Diggery saw me parking in front of his house, he'd be halfway to Newark by the time I got out of my car.
    "I don't think anybody's home," Lula said. "I didn't see any cars in the yard."
    "I'm going to snoop around anyway. Are you coming?"
    "I suppose, but if I see that snake, I'm outta there. I hate snakes. I