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I cuffed Walburg and we walked him out to my car and stuffed him into the backseat. The Rangeman guys were parked next to me. They looked bored.
Cluck-in-a-Bucket was my first stop on my way to the police station. It was early for lunch, but I got lunch for everyone anyway, including the Rangemen.
“I’ll take the Rangemen their chicken and biscuits,” Lula said. “And I’ll hitch a ride with them being that they got a better car than you, and their car don’t have the bomber in the backseat.” She climbed out of the Whatever and looked back at Walburg. “No offense meant,” she said to him.
“No offense taken,” he said.
The next stop was the Morelli house.
“Thanks for the help,” I said to Bella, handing her buckets of chicken, biscuits, and coleslaw.
“You still slut,” she said.
I watched her scuttle away and disappear inside her house.
“Do you think I have to worry about my teeth?” Walburg asked.
“Eventually,” I said.
“I don’t suppose you’d consider not taking me back to jail?”
“You bombed my car and the bail bonds office.”
“Yes, but I didn’t bomb your apartment.”
“Not yet,” I said. “Why are you doing this?”
“It’s what I do.”
“Yes, but you’re going to jail for a long time for it. Doesn’t that bother you?”
“I won’t go to jail,” he said. “The government wants me. I’m a genius. They’ll get me off, just like always. At the very worst they’ll put an ankle bracelet on me and set me up in a lab in the desert. I have friends in high places. I’ve done favors for them. They won’t want those favors to come to an end. And the military needs my expertise.”
“Do you like the desert?”
“I like to make bombs. I don’t care where I make them. If I don’t want to stay in the desert after a while, I’ll cut a deal.”
I cut across town, parked in the municipal building lot, and got Walburg out of the Whatever.
The Rangeman SUV parked alongside me.
“Do you need help getting him in?” the driver asked.
“No, but thanks. This shouldn’t take long.”
Almost an hour later I returned to my car.
“Sorry,” I said to the Rangemen, “I had to give a statement about the two bombings.” I looked in the SUV. “Where’s Lula?”
“She got tired of waiting and called someone to pick her up.”
I drove past what used to be the office on my way home. The collapsed building was ringed with crime scene tape, and a CSI truck was parked at the curb. Three men were poking around in the rubble and Connie was standing on the sidewalk, watching the men. I parked across the street and walked over to Connie.
“What’s happening?”
“Two of the CSI guys are looking for evidence, and someone from the fire marshal is trying to determine if it’s safe for me to access the file cabinets.”
“The CSI guys don’t need to find a lot of evidence,” I said. “I brought Walburg in, and he confessed to both explosions. I hope Vinnie isn’t going to bond him out again. My apartment is probably next on Walburg’s fun list.”
