Top Secret Twenty-One: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich(43)

“Talk about the pot calling the kettle black,” Briggs said. “I never took money for sex acts.”

“That’s ’cause no one would pay you,” Lula said.

Dillan Ruddick called on my cellphone.

“I have your apartment pretty cleaned up, and the claims adjuster is going to be here in ten minutes,” he said. “I thought you might want to walk through with him.”

“Sure,” I told him. “I’m on my way.”

“What about me?” Briggs asked. “Am I on my way too? What was that about?”

“I’m going to meet the claims adjuster at my apartment.”

“I could be helpful,” Briggs said. “I have a good head for finance. I could take notes for you.”





NINETEEN


THE ADJUSTER WAS already in my apartment when I walked in with Briggs.

“This isn’t so bad,” Briggs said. “They’ve got your rug taken up already, and all the stuff’s gone that was in the living room. It doesn’t even smell bad.”

Correction. The apartment didn’t smell as bad as Briggs. Briggs smelled like burning rubber, and he looked like a train had run over him.

“Hey, I remember you,” Dillan said to Briggs. “You’re the little guy who was in the apartment when it got hit by the rocket.”

“Yeah, lucky me,” Briggs said.

The adjuster looked up from his clipboard. “Goodness,” he said, “are you still wearing the same clothes?”

“No,” Briggs said, glancing down at himself. “Different explosion. Some idiot blew up my car this morning.”

“That’s amazing,” the adjuster said. “Two explosions in one week.”

“Three,” Briggs said. “Three explosions.”

“Maybe you want to check out the rest of the apartment while I walk around with the adjuster,” I said to Briggs.

“This is a fairly straightforward claim,” the adjuster said. “Most of the significant damage was confined to one area. There’s some smoke and water damage. And there’s the hole in the wall. That’s actually covered under another policy.”

“Probably you don’t get a lot of claims for damage done by handheld rockets.”

“Not in this neighborhood. Mostly those claims are in the projects and in the area around Stark Street.”

The adjuster left, and Dillan stayed behind.

“We’re doing the same carpet and paint color as last time, right?” Dillan asked.

“Right.”

“That makes it easy. I should have you all put back together in a week, depending on the carpet guy, the masons, carpenters, drywallers, and painters.”

Dillan left, and Briggs went from the bedroom to the kitchen, looking in the refrigerator and the cupboards.

“There’s even mustard in the refrigerator,” he said. “And your dishes look okay. You could move back in.”

“It’s easier for me to live with Morelli,” I said. “I probably need to get a new mattress, and I’d rather not live with the paint smell.” Not to mention that Morelli has a toaster, his mom fills his refrigerator with lasagna and ricotta pie, and he is available for snuggling. Snuggling with Morelli is not to be underestimated.

“I don’t mind paint smell,” Briggs said. “I could live here until you want to come back.”

This was much better than having Briggs live with Morelli and me. I was running the risk that eventually I’d have to eject Briggs at gunpoint, but I’d deal with that later.

“Sure,” I said. “But you have to leave when the carpet goes in.”

“Yeah, I know. Boy, this will be great. This is a terrific apartment.”

“What’s going on with your apartment?”

“They’re saying six months to rewire and rebuild. So I was let out of my lease. There was also some mention of me being an undesirable tenant, being that people wanted to blow me up.”

“Personally, if I was walking in your shoes, I’d take my chances with the giant bugs and gators in Florida.”

“My life will be all straightened out as soon as you find out who’s trying to kill me.”

“That would be a job for a cop. I was looking for Poletti because he skipped out on his bond.”

“But you’re so good at this. I bet you could find the creep.”

“Even if I wanted to help you, I have no idea where to start looking.”

“How about talking to Buster? He’s related to Jimmy Poletti. Maybe they were working together to off me. And Buster was involved in the Mexican business, so he might think I know something.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Do you?”

“What?”

“Do you know something about Buster that would incriminate him?”

“No more than everyone else does. Everyone knew he was in Mexico. And now that it’s come out about the girls, you could assume Buster was part of that. I guess I know more about the money.”

“What about the money?”

“There was a lot of it.”

“In Mexico?”

“Yeah,” Briggs said. “But I don’t know exactly where. Not exactly, only approximately.”