Plum Spooky Part 5

"Time to go," I said to Diesel. "If we stay any longer, I'll eat more pineapple upside-down cake."

"Will that be a bad thing?"

"It will be tomorrow when I can't zip my jeans."

Diesel smiled and looked down at my jeans, and it was clear he wouldn't mind if I couldn't zip them.

"One of us has to get Carl," I said.

Diesel hauled himself out of the chair. "I guess that would be me."

He ambled off, and moments later, he called from upstairs. "Got a problem here."

I found Diesel standing in the doorway to an empty bathroom.

"Where's Carl?" I asked.

"Don't know," Diesel said, "but the window is open. It was closed and locked when I put Carl in here."

I went to the window and looked out. No Carl.

"I used to escape through this window all the time when I was in high school," I said. "What are we going to do?"

"We're going to check out Scanlon's apartment."

"What about Carl?"

"Easy come, easy go," Diesel said.

"Maybe you can sniff him out. Look for his ectoplasm or something. Follow his sensory imprint."

"Sorry. I don't do monkeys."

"Well, that's just peachy. That's fine." I threw my hands into the air and stomped off to the stairs. "Don't help. Who needs you anyway? I'll look for him myself."

Diesel followed after me. "I didn't say I wouldn't help. I just said I didn't think I could tune in to monkey ectoplasm."

I stopped at the front door and yelled that I was leaving. "Thanks for dinner," I said.

My mother came to the door with a bag of leftovers. "Here's for lunch."

My grandmother was with her. "Where's Carl?"

"He went on ahead," I told her. "We're going to catch up with him later."

We slowly drove around the block but didn't see Carl.

We parked and walked a four-block grid, including alleyways. No Carl.

"Are you getting anything?" I asked Diesel.

"Yeah, I'm getting tired of walking around looking for a wisea.s.s monkey."

"I feel responsible. Susan trusted me to take care of Carl until she came home."

"Honey, Susan's never coming home. She just dumped her monkey on you."

"You don't know that for sure."

"True. I was putting myself in Susan's place." He draped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into him. "Here's my deal. If you snoop around Scanlon's apartment with me, I'll come back and look for Carl in the morning."

"Deal."

Connie had listed Scanlon's address as 2206 Niley Circle in Hamilton Towns.h.i.+p. I was familiar with Niley Circle. It was part of a large town house condo complex off Klockner Boulevard. I found the complex and parked in the lot. Diesel and I got out and studied the cl.u.s.ter of narrow town houses in front of us. Easy to find Scanlon's, since the door was sealed with yellow crime-scene tape.

Diesel ripped the tape off and opened the door.

"How did you do that?" I asked him. "How did you just turn the k.n.o.b and open the door?"

"I don't know. It's a gift. I can flush a toilet without touching the little lever, too."

"Really?"

Diesel grinned down at me. "You are so gullible."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You're sc.u.m."

"It's okay," Diesel said, planting a kiss on the top of my head. "It's cute."

We were standing in a small foyer in the dark. This was a two-story town house, so presumably, there were stairs somewhere, plus furniture and a kitchen and all the things one ordinarily finds in a home. Unfortunately, I couldn't see any of them because it was pitch black. I felt Diesel leave my side, and I could hear him moving around the room.

"Can you see where you're going?" I asked him.

"Yep. Can't you?"

I blew out a sigh. "No."

"Maybe you need to eat more carrots or blueberries or something."

I took a couple steps forward and fell over a large unseen object. Diesel crossed the room, picked me up, and set me on my feet.

"Stand here, and don't move, and let me look around," Diesel said.

I listened to him search the condo for what seemed like forever and a day. My eyes adjusted to the absence of light enough to see a few large shapes but never enough to make out detail. From time to time, I'd see a penlight flick on, and moments later, it would flick off. Diesel could see in the dark, but not perfectly.

"This is boring," I said to him.

"I'm almost done."

"Are you finding anything helpful?"

"He was planning on leaving the country. He had a suitcase packed, and his pa.s.sport is out on his dresser. No travel itinerary. There are computer connections but no computer. And Wulf's been here. The place reeks of him."

"The crime lab might have taken the computer."

"It's possible. Or Wulf might have taken it."

Diesel wrapped an arm around me and steered me to the foyer and out the front door. We made a halfhearted attempt to reattach the crime-scene tape, but it had lost most of its sticking power, so we left it on the ground and scuttled back to my car.

Halfway home my phone rang.

"Carl's here," Grandma Mazur said. "I went to answer the doorbell, and there he was on the porch looking all dejected."

"Where is he now?"

"He's here in the kitchen, eating cookies."

"I'll be right there."

Thirty minutes later, Diesel walked into my apartment, went straight to the couch, and flipped the ball game on. Carl scampered up beside him.

"Make yourself at home," I said.

"I'm going to pretend that wasn't sarcasm," Diesel said.

"I don't suppose you have any chips?"

I brought him a bag of corn chips and a jar of salsa. I took a chip for Rex and dropped it into his cage, along with a baby carrot. I put my mother's leftover bag in the fridge, and I shuffled back to the couch.

"I'm going to bed," I said to Diesel. "Alone. And I expect to wake up alone."

"You bet."

I looked down at Carl. "And I expect you to behave yourself."

Carl did a palms-up and shrugged.

SIX

I WOKE UP WOKE UP with a heavy arm across my chest. Diesel. I knew from past experiences that Diesel didn't fit on my couch and wasn't the sort of guy to tough it out on the floor, so I'd taken the precaution of going to bed dressed in T-s.h.i.+rt and running shorts. with a heavy arm across my chest. Diesel. I knew from past experiences that Diesel didn't fit on my couch and wasn't the sort of guy to tough it out on the floor, so I'd taken the precaution of going to bed dressed in T-s.h.i.+rt and running shorts.

Diesel s.h.i.+fted next to me and half-opened his eyes. "Coffee," he murmured.

I slithered out from under him, rolled out of bed, and stepped over the clothes he'd left on the floor, including seafoam green boxers with palm trees and hula girls.

I used the bathroom and shuffled into the living room, where Carl was watching the news on tele vision. I got the coffee going and fed Rex. I wasn't sure what monkeys ate in the morning, so I gave Carl a box of Fruit Loops. Diesel ambled into the kitchen and poured himself a mug of coffee.

"What have we got to eat?" he asked.

"Carl's eating the Fruit Loops, so that leaves leftovers from last night, peanut b.u.t.ter, hamster crunchies, and half a jar of salsa. Looks like you ate all the chips."

"I shared with Carl." He retrieved the leftover bag from the refrigerator and dumped it on the counter. Pot roast, gravy, green bean ca.s.serole. No mashed potatoes. He put it all on a plate and nuked it. "There's enough here for two."

I sipped my coffee. "I'll pa.s.s."

Diesel dug into the mountain of food and ate it all.

"It's not fair," I said. "You eat tons of food. Why aren't you fat?"

"High rate of metabolism and clean living."

"What are you doing today?"

"I thought I'd hang out," Diesel said.

"You and Carl?"

"Yeah."

Carl gave Diesel a thumbs-up.

"Well, I'm a working girl," I told him. "I'm going to take a shower and go catch a bad guy."

"Knock yourself out," Diesel said. "If you get a line on Munch, let me know."

LULA WAS ON the couch in the bonds office when I walked in. She was wearing a pink sweat suit and sneakers, and she was holding a box of tissues. She didn't have any makeup on, and her hair was somewhere between rat's nest and exploded canary. the couch in the bonds office when I walked in. She was wearing a pink sweat suit and sneakers, and she was holding a box of tissues. She didn't have any makeup on, and her hair was somewhere between rat's nest and exploded canary.

"What's up?" I asked.

"I'm dying is what's up," Lula said. "I got the flu back. I woke up this morning, and I couldn't stop sneezing. And my eyes are all puffy. And I feel like c.r.a.p."

"Maybe it's an allergy," I said to her.

"I don't get allergies. I never been allergic to anything."

"How'd it go with Tank last night? Did you set a new date for the wedding?"

"I decided December first is a good time on account of it'll be easy to remember for anniversaries."