He put his head down and pushed past me. “Don't worry about it. I'm not interested in hocking your silverware. I just want a place to work.” He flopped the suitcase on its back, unzipped it, took out a laptop computer, and set it on my coffee table.
Shit.
I dialed Vinnie at home. “What's the deal with Briggs?” I asked.
“He needed a place to stay, and I thought if he stayed with you, you could keep an eye on him.”
"Are you nuts?'
“It's only for a couple days until they get a door on his apartment. Which, for your information, I took a lot of grief over. You destroyed that door.”
“I don't baby-?sit FTAs.”
“He's harmless. He's just a little guy. And besides, he threatened me with a civil liberties suit. And if he goes through with it, you're not gonna come out looking like roses. You beat the shit out of him.”
“I didn't!”
“Look, I gotta go. Just humor him, will you?”
Vinnie disconnected.
Briggs was on the couch, booting up his computer. He was sort of cute with his little legs sticking out. Kind of like a big, cranky doll with a bashed-?in face. He had a Band-?Aid across his broken nose, and a beauty of a black eye. I didn't think he could win a lawsuit, but I didn't want to put it to the test.
“This comes at a bad time for me,” I said to him. “I have a date.”
“Yeah, I bet that's a big event in your life. And just between you and me, that dress is a dud.”
“I like this dress. It's romantic.”
“Men don't like romantic, Sis. Men like sexy. Short and tight. Something you can get your hand up real easy. And I'm not saying I'm like that . . . I'm just telling you about men.”
I heard the elevator doors open down the hall. Morelli was here. I snatched my sweater and handbag and ran for the door. “Don't touch anything,” I said. “When I get back I'm going to inspect this apartment, and it better be exactly the way I left it.”
“I go to bed early, so be quiet if you get home late. Being that you're wearing that dress, I don't guess I have to worry about you spending the night with this guy.”
I met Morelli in the hall. “Hmm,” Morelli said when he saw me. “Pretty, but not what I'd expected.”
I couldn't say the same for him. He was exactly what I'd expected. He was edible. California-?cut charcoal silk gabardine suit, French-?blue shirt, very cool tie. Black Italian loafers.
“What did you expect?” I asked.
“Higher heels, shorter skirt, more breast.”
Damn that Briggs. “I had another outfit,” I told him, “but I had to use my little black beaded purse with it, and it was too small to hold my cell phone and pager.”
“This is a wedding,” Morelli said. “You don't need a cell phone and pager.”
“You have a pager clipped to your belt.”
“It's this job I'm on. We're close to wrapping it up, and I don't want to miss the takedown. I'm working with a couple Treasury guys who make me look like a Boy Scout.”
“Dirty?”
“Crazy.”
“I got a break today with Uncle Fred. I found a woman who saw Fred talking to a man in a suit. And then they got in the man's car and drove away.”
“You should call Arnie Mott and let him know what you've got,” Morelli said. “You don't want to withhold information on a possible kidnapping and murder.”