Read Online Three to Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich - Free Book Online Page B

what with this weather. Only crazy men go out to get their oil changed on a day like this, and I don’t need any of that lunatic dick shit. Nope, I might as well sit here. Better than standing on my corner.”
    She could be right.
    “Okay,” I said. “Be careful.”
    “Hunh,” Jackie said.
    I drove over to the office and told Lula that Jackie was hunkered in for the siege.
    “Hunh,” Lula said.
    Vinnie popped out of his office.
    “Well?” Vinnie asked.
    We all looked at him. Well what?
    Vinnie settled on me. “Where’s Mo? Why don’t we have Mo in custody? How hard could it be to catch an old man who sells candy?”
    “Mo’s done a disappearing act,” I said. “He’s temporarily vanished.”
    “So where have you looked? You check his apartment? You check his sister? You check his boyfriend?”
    The office went suddenly silent.
    I found my voice first. “Boyfriend?”
    Vinnie smiled. His teeth white and even in his olive complexion. “You didn’t know?”
    “Oh my God,” Connie said, doing the sign of the cross. “Oh my God.”
    My head was reeling. “Are you sure?” I asked Vinnie. As if I’d doubt Vinnie for a nanosecond when it came to expertise in alternative sexual behavior.
    “Moses Bedemier is a flaming fruit,” Vinnie said, his face wreathed in happiness, his hands jiggling change in the deep pockets of his pleated polyester slacks. “Moses Bedemier wears ladies’ panties.”
    Vincent Plum, bail bonds. Specializing in sensitivity and political correctness.
    I turned to Lula. “I thought you said Mo was a customer.”
    “Unh-uh. I said I knew him. Sometimes when I was on the corner he’d ride by late at night and ask directions of Jackie or me. He’d want to know where to find Freddie the Frog or Little Lionel. I figure he do some drugs.”
    “Oh my God,” Connie said. “A homosexual and a drug user. Oh my God.”
    “How do you know?” I asked Vinnie.
    “I’d heard rumors. And then I saw himand his significant other having dinner in New Hope a couple months ago.”
    “How do you know it was a significant other and not just a friend?”
    “What, you want details?” Vinnie said, smiling wide, enjoying the moment.
    I grimaced and shook my head, no.
    Connie squeezed her eyes shut tight.
    “Yo ass,” Lula said.
    “Do you have a name?” I asked Vinnie. “What’s this guy look like?”
    “The guy was Mo’s age. Smaller, slimmer. Soft, like Mo. Dark hair, bald on top. I don’t have a name, but I can make some phone calls.”
    I didn’t give much credence to the drug buyer theory, but I wouldn’t want it to be said I’d left a stone unturned. When Lula was hooking she’d plied her trade on Stark Street, a mile-long strip of bars and crack houses and row houses converted to airless apartments and rooms to let. It’d be a waste of time for me to canvass Stark Street. No one would talk to me. That left me with two alternatives. Lula was one of them. Ranger was the other.

CHAPTER 4
    I could ask Ranger to make inquiries on Mo. Or I could ask Lula. This was a dilemma, being that Ranger would be my first choice, but Lula was here in front of me, on the scent, reading my mind.
    “Well?” Lula asked. Shifting her weight. Nervous. Belligerent. Rhino mode. Looking like her feelings would be hurt if I didn’t ask her to work with me. Looking like at any moment she might narrow her eyes and squash me like a bug.
    So I was beginning to see the wisdom of using Lula. No point to hurting her feelings, right? And probably Lula would be cool with this. I mean, what was the big deal? All she had to do was show Mo’s picture to a fewdrug dealers and hookers. So she wasn’t subtle. Hey, was that a crime?
    “You have a lot of contacts on Stark Street,” I said to Lula. “Maybe you could flash Mo’s picture. See if someone can give us a lead.”
    Lula’s face brightened. “You bet. I could do that.”
    “Yeah,” Vinnie said. “Get her out of the office for a while. She makes me