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“I fell off after we won,” Snuggy said. “And it had nothing to do with my driving. It was one of those freak things.”
“How about this,” Diesel said to Doug. “You get into the RV, or we leave you in the parking lot and don’t come back.”
Snuggy went in first, pulling on Doug’s halter, and Diesel put his shoulder to Doug’s butt. After a lot of swearing on Diesel’s part, and a lot of nervous foot stamping on Doug’s part, Doug got himself into the RV.
“Jeez,” Snuggy said to Doug. “Quit your complaining. Look at Diesel. He doesn’t fit in here, either, but he’s making the best of it.”
Doug turned his horse eye on Diesel, and I didn’t think it looked friendly.
“Maybe you want to give Doug some room,” I said to Diesel. “Maybe you want to go up front and hang with Snuggy.”
Stephanie Plum 13.5 - Plum Lucky
Chapter 8
It was four o’clock when we cruised into the lot to my building and parked the RV in the back, next to the Dumpster.
“We should get Doug out of the RV for a couple minutes,” Snuggy said. “Let him stretch his legs and go potty.”
The possibility that Doug might have to go potty got us all on our feet. We maneuvered Doug into the back bedroom, turned him around, and managed to get him out the door and down the steps. Snuggy walked Doug around in the lot, but apparently Doug didn’t feel the need to do anything. I wasn’t all that unhappy, because I didn’t know how I was going to explain a load of horse shit in the parking lot.
“Ask him about Grandma,” I said to Snuggy. “Does he know where she is?”
Here’s the thing. I didn’t entirely buy into the whole horse talk business, but a part of me wanted to believe. Not only did I want to believe for Grandma’s sake, but I liked the idea that communication was possible between species.
I also liked the idea that reindeer could fly, there was such a thing as the birthday cake diet, and, most of all, I wanted to go to heaven.
“What about it?” Snuggy said to Doug. “Un-?hunh, un-?hunh, un-?hunh.”
I looked up at Diesel. “Are you getting anything?”
“Yeah, a real strong desire to quit my job and go to bartending school.”
“Doug says before they drove him to the warehouse, they had him outside, in a yard, and he was tied to a thing in the ground, like a dog. He said it was humiliating. He doesn’t know exactly where it was, but he might be able to spot it if you drive him around.”
“That’s a little vague,” Diesel said.
“Doug thinks they might have Grandma there because he heard a lot of yelling, and then they pulled the shades down, so he couldn’t see in the window. And he thinks he might have heard a gunshot.”
“No!” I had my hand to my heart. “When?”
“Just before they loaded him into the horse trailer.”
I whipped my phone out and dialed Delvina.
“What?” Delvina said.
“Is my grandmother all right?”
“Was she ever all right?”
“I want to talk to her,” I told him.
“No way. We got her locked in the crapper, and I’m not opening that door until I get a cattle prod. Do you have the rest of my money?”
“Not yet, but I’m working on it.”
Delvina disconnected.
