AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Three minutes later we were in my car.
“Okay,” Grandma said. “I’m all set. I say we go after Beedle first. It’s not like he can outrun us since his foot got shot up.”
“I thought you needed shampoo.”
“That was a ruse to get out of the house. You’re missing your wingman, so I’m gonna fill in.”
Just when you think your day can’t get any worse, there it is, yet another disaster. Not of the magnitude of Connie going missing, but a disaster all the same.
CHAPTER TWO
Ilike Grandma a lot but having her ride shotgun doesn’t have a lot of appeal. It’s hard to be taken seriously as a bounty hunter when you’re partnered with your grandmother. Not to mention, my mother would have a cow if she knew.
“Mom isn’t going to be happy about this,” I said.
“Yeah, she’ll be nuts, so you better get a move on before she figures it out.” She searched my messenger bag. “Here’s Beedle’s file,” she said. “He’s thirty-one years old and he lives at Ninety-Three Brill Street.”
I looked over at Grandma. I could stun gun her and leave her on the front lawn, but my mom wouldn’t like that either.
“Okay,” I said, “but I get to do all the talking and you have to leave your gun in the car.”
“What gun?”
“The gun you’ve got in your purse. The gun you’re not supposed to have.”
“There’s a crime wave going on,” Grandma said. “A woman has to protect herself. Besides, I’m a responsible gun owner. And anyways, someone on this team has to have a gun, and we all know it’s not going to be you.”
“I don’t need a gun.”
Grandma hefted her purse. “Plus, there’s an added advantage to packing. My forty-five gives me the right amount of weight in case I have to smack someone in the face with my handbag.”
I couldn’t argue with that one. I pulled away from the curb, made a U-turn, and headed for Hamilton Avenue. I wanted to drive by the office and check to see if Connie’s car was there.
“I never heard of Brill Street,” Grandma said. “You’re gonna have to GPS it.”
I turned onto Hamilton and parked across the street from the office. I could see Lula at the desk. No Connie. No Connie’s car at the curb. I called Lula.
“Have you heard from Connie?” I asked.
“No. Nothing. Nada. And I got a empty bakery box. I had to compensate for not getting the Boston cream by eating all the other lame-ass doughnuts. And now I’m getting acid reflux from drinking so much coffee without nothing more to soak it up.”
“Anything else going on?”
“A moron phoned in on account of he wanted to be bonded out. I told him he was gonna have to keep his ass in jail or find some other sucker to fork over the money. I mean it’s not like I can just jump up and run off to the courthouse to bail him out. Who’s gonna sit at the desk if I go to the courthouse?”
“Not to mention, we aren’t authorized to write a bail bond.”
“Say what?”
“Vinnie and Connie are the only ones who are authorized to write a bond.”
“Hunh,” Lula said. “I bet I could if I wanted to.”
“Gotta go,” I said. “Call me if you hear from Connie.”
I tapped 93 Brill Street into my iPhone map app, and it took me to a sketchy area by the train station. The street was narrow and lined with two- and three-story grimy brick row houses. I suspected most of them had been converted into multifamily units. I was able to park a couple houses down from Beedle’s address.
“This is just the sort of place you’d expect an armored-car robber to live,” Grandma said. “I bet this neighborhood is filled with criminals.”
