Stephanie Plum - Seven Up Part 29

"He took her yesterday. He wants to ransom her for the heart."

The surprise in his eyes ratcheted up a notch. "You know about the heart?"

Lula and I exchanged glances.

"I . . . um, have the heart," I said.

"Jesus Christ. How the f.u.c.k did you get the heart?"

"It don't matter how she got it," Lula said.

"Right," I said. "What matters is that we get this all settled. First off, I want my grandmother back home. And then I want Mooner and Dougie."

"Your grandmother I might be able to arrange," Ronald said. "I don't know where my Uncle Eddie's hiding out, but I talk to him once in a while. He's got a cell phone. Those other two are something different. I don't know anything about them. So far as I can tell n.o.body n.o.body knows anything about them." knows anything about them."

"Eddie is supposed to call me tonight at seven. I don't want anything to go wrong. I'm going to give him the heart, and I want my grandmother back. If anything bad happens to my grandmother or she doesn't get swapped for the heart tonight, it's going to be ugly."

"I hear you."

Lula and I left. We closed two doors behind us, straddled the Harley, and took off. Two blocks later I had to pull over because we were laughing so hard I was afraid we were going to fall off the bike.

"That was the best," Lula said. "You want to get a man to pay attention, you just get him with his pants down."

"I've never seen anyone doing it doing it before!" I said to Lula. My face was flaming under the laughter. "I've never even looked in a mirror." before!" I said to Lula. My face was flaming under the laughter. "I've never even looked in a mirror."

"You never want to look in a mirror," Lula said. "Men love mirrors. They look at themselves doing the deed and they see Rex the Wonder Horse. Women look at themselves and think they need to renew their members.h.i.+p at the gym."

I was trying to get myself under control when my mother called on my cell phone.

"There's something funny going on," my mother said. "Where's your grandmother? Why hasn't she come home?"

"She'll be home tonight."

"You said that last night. Who is this man she's with? I don't like this one bit. What will people say?"

"Don't worry. Grandma's being very discreet. She just had this thing thing to do." I didn't know what else to say so I made some crackling staticky sounds. "Uh-oh," I yelled, "I'm breaking up. I have to go." to do." I didn't know what else to say so I made some crackling staticky sounds. "Uh-oh," I yelled, "I'm breaking up. I have to go."

Lula was staring over my shoulder. "I can see clear down the street," she said, "and there's a big black car just drove out of the lot by the paving company. And there's three men just came out the front door, and I could swear they're pointing at us."

I looked to see what was happening. From this distance it was impossible to see details, but one of them might have been pointing. The men got into the car and the car turned in our direction.

"Maybe Ronald forgot to tell us something," Lula said.

I had a weird feeling in my chest. "He could have called."

"My second thought is maybe you shouldn't have told him you have the heart."

s.h.i.+t.

Lula and I jumped on the bike, but by now the car was only a block away and gaining.

"Hang on," I yelled. And we shot forward. I accelerated to the corner and took it wide. I wasn't that good on the bike yet to take chances.

"Yow," Lula shouted in my ear, "they're right on your a.s.s."

My peripheral vision caught the car coming up on my side. We were on a two-lane street with two blocks to go to Broad. These side streets were empty, but Broad would be busy at this time of day. If I could get to Broad I could lose them. The car eased past me, put some s.p.a.ce between us, and then angled across the road, blocking my progress. The Lincoln's doors opened, all four men jumped out, and I slid to a stop. I felt Lula's arm rest on my shoulder and from the corner of my eye I got a glimpse of her Glock.

Everything came to a standstill.

Finally one of the men stepped forward. "Ronnie said I should give you his card in case you need to get in touch with him. It has his cell phone number on it."

"Thanks," I said, taking the card from him. "That was smart of Ronald to think of that."

"Yeah. He's a smart guy."

Then they all piled into the car and drove away.

Lula reset the safety on the gun. "I think I messed my pants," she said.

RANGER WAS IN the office when we got back.

"Seven o'clock tonight," I said to Ranger. "At the Silver Dollar Diner. Morelli knows about it, but he's promised no police action."

Ranger watched me. "Do you need me there, too?"

"Wouldn't hurt."

He got to his feet. "Wear the wire. Turn it on at six-thirty."

"How about me?" Lula asked. "Am I invited?"

"You're riding shotgun," I said. "I need someone to carry the cooler."

THE SILVER DOLLAR Diner is in Hamilton Towns.h.i.+p, just a short distance from the Burg, and an even shorter distance from my apartment. It's open twenty-four hours a day and has a menu that would take twelve hours to recite. You can get breakfast anytime and a nice greasy grilled cheese at two in the morning. It's surrounded by all of the ugliness that makes Jersey so great. Convenience stores, branch banks, warehouse grocery stores, video stores, strip malls, and dry cleaners. And neon signs and traffic lights as far as the eye can see.

Lula and I got there at six-thirty with the frozen heart clunking around in the Igloo cooler and my wire feeling uncomfortable and itchy under my plaid flannel s.h.i.+rt. We sat in a booth and ordered cheeseburgers and fries and looked out the window at the traffic streaming past.

I tested the wire and got the confirmation phone call back from Ranger. He was out there . . . somewhere. He was watching the diner. And he was invisible. Joe was there, too. Probably they'd communicated with each other. I've watched them work jobs together in the past. There were rules that men like Joe and Ranger used to dictate their roles. Rules I'd never understand. Rules that allowed two alpha males to coexist for the common good.

The diner was still crowded with second-s.h.i.+ft eaters. The first-s.h.i.+ft eaters were the seniors who came for the early-bird special. By seven it would start to thin. This wasn't Manhattan, where people ate fas.h.i.+onably late at eight or nine. Trenton worked hard and much of it was asleep by ten.

My cell phone rang at seven and my heart did a little tap dance when I heard DeChooch's voice.

"Do you have the heart with you?" he asked.

"Yes. It's right here beside me in the cooler. How's Grandma? I want to talk to her."

There was some scuffling and mumbling and Grandma came on the line.

"Howdy," Grandma said.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm hunky-dory."

She sounded too happy. "Have you been drinking?"

"Eddie and me might have had a couple c.o.c.ktails before dinner, but don't worry . . . I'm sharp as a tack."

Lula was sitting across the table from me and she was smiling and shaking her head. I knew Ranger would be doing the same.

Eddie came back on the line. "Are you ready for the instructions?"

"Yes."

"Do you know how to get to Nottingham Way?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Take Nottingham to Mulberry Street and turn right onto Cherry."

"Wait a minute. Ronald, your nephew, lives on Cherry."

"Yeah. You're taking the heart to Ronald. He's gonna see it gets back to Richmond."

d.a.m.n. I was going to get Grandma back, but I wasn't going to get Eddie DeChooch. I'd been hoping Ranger or Joe would snag him at the drop site.

"And what about Grandma?"

"As soon as I get a call from Ronald I'll turn your grandmother loose."

I slid my cell phone back into my jacket pocket and told Lula and Ranger the plan.

"He's pretty cagey for an old guy," Lula said. "That's not a bad plan."

I'd already paid for the food, so I dropped a tip on the table and Lula and I left. The black and green around my eyes had faded to yellow and the yellow was hidden behind dark gla.s.ses. Lula hadn't worn her leathers. She was dressed in boots and jeans and a T-s.h.i.+rt that had a lot of cows on it and advertised Ben & Jerry's ice cream. We were just two normal women out for a couple burgers at the diner. Even the cooler seemed innocuous. No reason to suspect it contained a heart to ransom my grandmother.

And these other people, scarfing down fries and cole slaw, ordering rice pudding for dessert. What were their secrets? Who was to say they weren't spies and thugs and jewel thieves? I looked around. For that matter, who was to say they were human?

I took my time getting to Cherry Street. I was worried about Grandma and nervous about giving Ronald a pig heart. So I drove very carefully. Cras.h.i.+ng the bike would put a real crimp in my rescue effort. Anyway, it was a nice night to be on a Harley. No bugs and no rain. I could feel Lula behind me, holding tight to the cooler.

The porch light was on at Ronald's house. Guess he was waiting for me. Hope he had room in his freezer for an organ. I left Lula on the bike with her Glock in her hand, and I walked the cooler to the front door and rang the bell.

Ronald opened the door and looked out at me and then at Lula. "Do you two sleep together, too?"

"No," I said. "I sleep with Joe Morelli."

Ronald looked a little grim at that since Morelli is a vice cop and Ronald is a vice purveyor.

"Before I hand this over to you I want you to call and have Grandma released," I said.

"Sure. Come on in."

"I'll stay here. And I want to hear Grandma tell me she's okay."

Ronald shrugged. "Whatever. Let me see the heart."

I slid the top back and Ronald looked inside.

"Jesus," he said, "it's frozen."

I looked in the cooler, too. What I saw was a blechy-looking lump of maroon ice wrapped in plastic.

"Yeah," I said, "it was starting to look a little funky. You can't keep a heart around forever, you know. So I froze it."

"You saw it when it wasn't frozen, though, right? And it looked okay?"

"I'm not exactly an expert on this stuff."

Ronald disappeared and returned with a portable phone. "Here," he said, handing the phone over to me. "Here's your granny."

"I'm at Quaker Bridge with Eddie," Grandma said. "I saw a jacket I like at Macy's, but I have to wait for my Social Security check."

Eddie got on the line. "I'm going to leave her at the pizza place here. You can pick her up anytime."

I repeated it for Ranger. "Okay, let me get this straight. You're going to leave Grandma at the pizza place at Quaker Bridge Mall."

"Yeah," Eddie said, "what are you, wearing a wire?"

"Who, me?"

I gave the phone back to Ronald and handed him the cooler. "If I were you I'd put the heart in the freezer for now and then maybe pack it in dry ice for the trip to Richmond."

He nodded. "I'll do that. Wouldn't want to give Louie D a heart full of maggots."

"Out of morbid curiosity," I said, "was it your idea for me to bring the heart here?"