'Ready to ride?' I asked Lula.
'Yeah, I gotta talk to you anyway.'
We took my Mini, and Lula waited until we were away from the curb before she spoke.
'I got three things,' she said. 'First is, there's something bothering me about Meri. I don't know what it is. Second thing, where the heck did Ranger and Tank come from last night? Tank doesn't talk. He wouldn't say nothing. And third is, Tank don't need to talk because he was right about being big. It's like wrestling some prehistoric monster. Like having a go at King Kong. And he's big all over the place, if you know what I mean. I tell you I'm in love. I don't need to go visiting that Pleasure Treasures on account of I found my own pleasure treasure and his name is Tank. Probably he has some other name, but I don't know what it is. He wouldn't tell me that either.'
'Maybe it's just that Meri is new.'
'Melvin is new, and I don't feel like that about him. And it isn't that I don't like Meri. She's real likeable. I just don't feel comfortable somehow.'
I had Dooby Biagi's file on top. Dooby worked the counter at one of the fast-food places and got caught with his hand in the cash register. He said he was making change, but the day manager found more than change in Dooby's pocket. Dooby had a couple hundred plus a pipe and a dime bag of crack.
Dooby lived in a row house in the Burg. According to Meri's research, Dooby rented with three other guys. And needless to say, Dooby was unemployed.
I idled in front of Dooby's house, and Lula and I stared out at it, neither of us moving.
'I don't feel like doing this,'
I finally said.
'Me either,' Lula said. 'I'm wore out with this job. I'm tired of dragging these people off to jail. Nobody's ever happy. I feel like the Grinch.'
'Somebody's got to do it,' I said, trying to convince myself of my worth.
'I know that,' Lula said. 'This here's for the good of society. It's not like the police have time to find these people. I just think I need a mental health day.'
I looked in my rearview mirror for Ranger.
Lula looked too. 'He's back there, isn't he? He's following you around, right? That's how come they were at the Pleasure Treasures.'
'We're hoping the Ranger impostor will come after me. And then when he nabs me he'll lead us to Julie.'
'That's a pretty good plan,' Lula said. 'Unless the Ranger impostor decides to kill you instead.'
I slumped a little lower in my seat.
'It's gonna be a hot one today,' Lula said. 'You know what I'd like to do? I'd like to go to Point Pleasant and play the claw machine in the arcade and get one of them orange and vanilla swirly frozen custard ice creams.'
I put the Mini into gear, hooked a U-turn, and drove back to the office. 'We need to take your car,' I said. 'Is it parked in back?'
'Yep. It's in the lot. The glass truck was parked in my usual spot on the street.'
'Just changing cars,' I said to Connie, as we breezed through the office.
I selected a gun from the cabinet, took a box of rounds, and left the panic button in the gun cabinet. I dropped the gun and the ammo in my bag and Lula and I went out the back door.
'I know this is the wrong thing to do,' I said to Lula, 'but I need a break from all the sad scary things. And I need to get away from Ranger for a couple hours.'
'I don't see nobody back here,' Lula said. 'I think we tricked them.'
Ranger called when we were on the bridge, crossing the Manasquan Inlet. 'Where are you?' he asked.
'I'm taking a day off.'
'You removed the panic button.'
'Yes, but I took a gun. And it's even loaded. And I have extra bullets. And Lula is with me.'