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“It’s a Rangeman car. It’s . . . equipped.”
“Legally equipped?”
I brushed hair back from my face. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“I’ll check the car out before I turn it over,” Morelli said. “I’m not going to get blown up, am I?”
“Maybe you should call Ranger first.”
Morelli grunted. “My favorite thing to do.”
“I thought you did your favorite thing last night. And then you did your second favorite and third favorite.”
He smiled, his teeth white in the dark room. “You wouldn’t let me do my fourth favorite.”
“You can permanently wipe that off the list. That’s disgusting.”
He kissed me on my forehead and left.
• • •
It was almost nine o’clock when I rolled into the office. I’d made a stop at my apartment to shower and change clothes. Diesel wasn’t there, and the bed hadn’t been slept in. I had a twinge of anxiety over his safety and gave myself a mental slap in the face. He was fine. He was always fine. In fact, he might be immortal.
Connie was applying clear coat to her nails when I walked in, and Lula was pacing.
“I got a case of nerves,” Lula said. “I’m worried about the zombies. This could be the start of something. There could be an apocalypse coming. And what about the ones that are already walking around? How long before they stop looking for dead brains and start going after live brains? It could be any day now. And our brains are going to be at the top of their list because you ran over one of them and ripped off some of his rags.”
Lula’s hair was au naturel today, resulting in a massive, impenetrable afro. I thought the zombies would have a hard time getting to Lula’s brain.
“How about you?” Lula asked me. “Aren’t you nervous? Weren’t you agitated over the zombies all last night?”
I shook my head. “I spent the night with Morelli. I was agitated over other things.”
“Did you tell him you punted a zombie?”
“Yes. I gave him the piece of cloth. He’s going to have it tested today. And he swapped cars with me so the lab guys could take a look at that too.”
“You’ve got one sexy guy who gives you cars, and another sexy guy who agitates you,” Lula said. “It’s not fair that you have two sexy guys, and I’m depending on battery-operated devices.”
It got better or worse depending on your point of view. There was a third guy in my life. I wasn’t sure what role he played, but he was definitely sexy.
“We have two open files,” I said. “Chucci and Slick. I’m curious about Slick. I say we check on him first.”
“I guess that would be okay,” Lula said, “but if I smell carnations and outhouse I’m out of there.”
“Fair enough.”
We left the office, and Lula was relieved to see we’d be using Morelli’s green SUV.
“This is good,” she said. “This is an unrecognizable car for the zombies. They won’t immediately know who we are when we park in the cemetery lot.”
I buckled up and pulled away from the curb. “You need to stop obsessing about zombies. They aren’t real. Something bad is happening, but it’s not the result of a zombie uprising.”
“How can you be sure?”
I didn’t have an answer for this. It was like believing in God. You did or you didn’t. Or in my case, I wasn’t sure so I hedged my bets by going to mass at Christmas. And I only used the Lord’s name in vain under extreme circumstances.
“I just don’t think there are zombies,” I said.
