Game On: Tempting Twenty-Eight (Stephanie Plum #28)(38)

I got coffee, snitched a piece of bacon, and sat at the table. My mom brought a stack of pancakes and bacon and we all dug in.

“This is real maple syrup,” Grandma said to Melvin. “We don’t fool around with the fake stuff.”

“How’s it going?” I asked Melvin.

“I penetrated his network this morning,” Melvin said. “I’m downloading now. I’m not sure what I’m going to get. I’ve gotten this far before and then it suddenly cut off. He has some kind of a fail-safe system that I haven’t figured out.”

“Melvin hasn’t got any clothes here,” my mom said. “If he’s going to continue to stay, he needs clothes.”

“Maybe I should go home,” Melvin said.

“Not while you’re making progress hacking Oswald,” I said. “And not while he’s still out there.”

“Besides, we’re having meat loaf tonight,” Grandma said. “You don’t want to miss that.”

“I’ll get clothes for you,” I said. “Is there anything else you want from your loft?”

“No. I’ve mostly got what I need,” Melvin said.

I took Melvin’s key and went to the office.

“I smell bacon on you,” Lula said when I walked in. “I bet you had breakfast at your mama’s house.”

“I wanted to check on Melvin.”

“How’s he doing?”

“He’s good, but he needs clothes,” I said.

I was trying not to stare at Lula’s hair. It was a strange shade of blond with undertones of green and it was puffed up into a teased bouffant.

“So, what do you think?” Lula said. “I tried a new salon.”

“It’s not suburban soccer mom,” I said.

“Yeah, but what is it?” Lula asked.

“It’s 1970 double-wide,” Connie said. “It’s Hairspray.”

“I guess I could live with that,” Lula said. “It’s just a hard color to coordinate with. For instance, I couldn’t do pastels with this, but then I don’t own any pastels so it’s all good.”

“I got two new FTAs in this morning,” Connie said. “One of them is Mary Jane Merkle. She had an accelerated court date, and she didn’t show.”

“That’s the bakery shooter, right?” Lula asked.

“She’s in the Burg and she probably just forgot the date,” Connie said. “It’s a low bond, but it shouldn’t be a lot of effort.”

I took the two files and shoved them into my messenger bag.

“I heard the viewing was packed to overflowing last night,” Connie said. “Everyone is talking about Diesel. He’s being called Hero Hottie.”

“They got that right,” Lula said.

And I wore sweatpants to bed and left before he even woke up. Mental head slap. He was so tempting and so wrong.

“I’m going to Melvin’s loft first,” I said to Lula. “Are you on board?”

“Hell yeah. I’m ready to rock. I hope we come across that Oswald guy. I’d like to punch him in the face and stomp on him.”

“Okay, that might be fun but what we really want to do it get him in cuffs without leaving bruises or drawing blood.”

“Sure,” Lula said. “I get that.”



* * *




There were two pickup trucks and four cars parked in the lot in front of Deacon Plumbing. Lights were on inside and I could see people wandering around. Deacon was open for business. A young woman walked out and got into one of the cars. She backed out of her space and drove around the building toward the loading dock.

“I bet she’s going to pick up a refrigerator,” Lula said.

“She’s driving a Kia,” I said. “It would have to be a very small refrigerator.”

I followed the Kia and stopped at the edge of the loading dock apron where several cars were parked.

“This looks like employee parking,” Lula said. “These look like plumbers’ cars.”

“I’m hanging here until I see what’s up with the Kia.”

“She’s parking by Melvin’s front door,” Lula said. “Did Melvin mention having a girlfriend? She looks to be about his age.”

“He didn’t say anything about a girlfriend.”

“We for sure know he doesn’t have someone coming in to clean.”

The woman got out of her car, went to the door, and knocked. She waited a couple of beats and knocked again.

“This is the first time she’s been here,” I said. “She went into the store to ask about Melvin just like we did.”

The woman turned from the door and looked around. She didn’t seem to notice us or maybe she didn’t care. Two women sitting in employee parking didn’t interest her. She hammered on Melvin’s door one last time and left when there was no answer.

“What do you make of this?” Lula asked. “Do you think Oswald could have sent her? She doesn’t look like a killer. She looks like someone who’s fashion challenged. Her clothes are too big for her, and she has her hair pulled back in a braid that’s messy.

I followed her out of the parking lot and onto the highway. I kept a decent distance back and eventually she took the turnoff to Quaker Bridge Mall.