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the alley that led to Coglin's backyard. No car in his parking place, so I parked there. “Gonna see if he's hiding in a closet?” Lula asked.
“Yep.”
I knocked on Coglin s back door and yelled, “Bond enforcement!”
No answer.
I opened the door and yelled again. Still no answer. I stepped into the kitchen and looked
around. It was just as we'd left it over an hour ago, except for the opossum on the kitchen
table. The opossum looked like a balloon with feet. And it smelled worse than squirrel. A lot
worse.
“Whoa,” Lula said. “He wasn't kidding about this sucker defrosting.”
“Maybe we should put it in the freezer for him.”
Lula had her scarf over her nose. "I'm not touching it. Bad enough I got squirrel on me. I
don't need no 'possum cooties. Anyways, it's not gonna fit in his freezer with the way it's all
swelled up."
“Coglin isn't here,” I said to Lula. "He would have done something with this animal if he'd
returned."
“Fuckin' A,” Lula said. “I'm outta here.”
I parked in front of the office, behind Lula's Firebird, and Lula and I got out of the Vic and
gaped at the telephone pole at the corner. It was plastered with posters of me. It was a candid
photo, and the caption read wanted
FOR MURDER.
“What the heck?” I said. My first reaction was panic deep in my chest. The police were looking for me. That only lasted a moment. This wasn't any sort of official “wanted” poster. This was made on someone's home scanner and printer. I tore the posters off the pole and looked down the street. I could see posters on a pole half a block away.
“There's posters all over the place,” Lula said. “They're stuck to store windows, and they're stuck on parked cars.” She unlocked her Firebird. “I'm going home. I gotta get this squirrel funk off me.”
I went into the office and showed Connie the posters.
“It's Joyce,” Connie said. “I saw her putting them up, but I didn't realize what they were.” "They're probably all over town. I should probably ride around and take them down, but I
have better things to do with my time… like find out who killed Dickie."
“Anything I can do to help?”
“Yes. I need a background search. Joyce says he's worth lots of money.”
Connie punched his name into one of the search programs and the screen filled with
information. “He leased a $, Audi a year ago. His house is appraised at $,. And it's mortgaged to the rafters. No litigation pending against him. Nothing derogatory in his file. He's part owner of the building housing his law firm. His partners are also listed as owners. Looks like the building was bought outright. No mortgage there.”
Connie printed the report and passed it over to me.
