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“This could get old,” Vinnie said to me. “They’re just plugging in, right? Like, an hour and they’re gone?”
I unlocked my door and the Hobbits rushed in. They plugged their phones and their laptops into outlets all over the apartment. They used the bathroom, tested out the couch, turned the television on, cooed over Rex, looked in my refrigerator and cupboards.
I found a relatively quiet corner and called Ranger.
“What’s all that noise?” Ranger asked. “It sounds like you’re having a party.”
“It’s Hobbits,” I said. “They’re using my electric. I saw the Meagan Building this morning. There was a lot of damage. Will they have to raze the building?”
“I don’t know. They’re checking the structural integrity. The bonds office burned like it was made out of cardboard. Ten minutes after you left, the roof went down. Whoever set the fire must have used a decent amount of accelerant.”
“Do you think this is the end of it?”
“If Bluttovich destroyed both businesses to cover his tracks, it’ll end here. That would be the good business decision. If this has become a personal vendetta against Vinnie, it’s probably not over.”
“Hard to believe Vinnie is that important to Bluttovich. He doesn’t even know Vinnie.”
“From what I can tell, Bluttovich is a power-hungry maniac. If he thinks Vinnie is a threat, he’ll take him down.”
“Where do we go from here?”
“I have men working on it. I’ll get back to you in a couple hours.”
I disconnected and went to the kitchen for a soda. Mooner was watching Rex. Everyone else was in front of the television, except Vinnie.
“Where’s Vinnie?” I asked Mooner.
“Bathroom.”
The doorbell rang, and Mooner answered.
I looked out from the kitchen and saw two guys.
“Vincent Plum?” the one guy asked.
“No, dude,” Mooner said. “I’m, like, the Moon Man. I’m Bungo.”
“Cripes,” the guy said. “He’s stoned.”
“He’s the right height. Brown hair. Slim weasel body,” the other guy said. “Hit him.”
I saw the guy’s arm extend with the stun gun, and I ran for Mooner. I reached the door just as Mooner collapsed, and I got tagged, too.
BY THE TIME my brain unscrambled, I was tied hands and feet and had duct tape across my mouth. I was rolling around on the floor of a van, bumping into Mooner, who was also bound and taped. It was a panel van with solid sides and two doors in the rear with small windows. The driver and his partner were up front. I didn’t want to go there. I could mostly see sky through the windows. A streetlight flashed by. A tree. No way of knowing where we were going. The driver and his partner weren’t talking.
The van turned from a smooth road to a bumpy road, hooked a corner, and the road was smooth again. It came to a stop, and the rear doors opened. Mo and Eugene looked in at Mooner and me.
“What the hell’s this?” Mo asked.
The driver came around. “What do you mean? It’s Vincent Plum and some girl. She got in the way, so we took her, too. She looks like fun.”
“That’s not Vincent Plum, you moron.”
“How do you know? Have you ever seen Vincent Plum?”
“I saw him when he stuck his head out of his office. We followed him and the girl from the bonds office to the apartment. That’s how we knew where to find them. We would have snatched him then, but Larry was whining and bleeding all over the place.”
Eugene joined the group and looked in at Mooner and me. “What the fuck’s this?”
