“Roughly... a hundred and forty thousand, more or less.”
“No deal. No way. I need all the money. At three o’clock, we shoot the horse, and then we shoot the old lady. I’m almost hoping you don’t get the money. I really want to shoot the old lady.”
I got into my piece-?of-?crap car and drove to my apartment building. By the time I got there, I’d sort of stopped crying. I ran up the stairs and took a minute to blow my nose and get myself under control before I opened the door.
Snuggy was on the couch, watching television. He was looking more like Dublin bum than leprechaun.
“Where do you keep all your green pants?” I asked him. “Do you live near here?”
“I have an apartment in Hamilton Township. By the pet cemetery.”
That figured.
Diesel strolled out of my bedroom wearing his same clothes but looking fresh out of the shower. His hair was still damp and the stubble was gone.
“I used your razor and toothbrush,” Diesel said. “I figured you wouldn’t mind.”
“You aren’t diseased, are you?”
“I couldn’t get a disease if I tried.” He stood for a beat with his thumbs hooked into his pants pockets. “Are you okay?”
“Yes.” A tear leaked out of my eye and streaked down my cheek.
“Oh, shit,” Diesel said. “I’m not good at this. It’s not the toothbrush, is it? I’ll buy you a new one.”
“It’s Grandma. He’s going to shoot her because we haven’t got all the money. I talked to him, and he told me they were going to count the money, and if it wasn’t all there, they were going to shoot Grandma and the horse.”
“So we have to get more money,” Snuggy said. “How hard can it be?”
“We’re not talking about small change,” Diesel said. “We need a hundred and forty thousand dollars.”
“Maybe you could pop into a bank,” Snuggy said to Diesel.
Diesel looked at his watch. “Delvina’s keeping the horse and the woman somewhere. Let’s see if we can find them. If we can’t find them by two o’clock, we’ll go to plan B.”
“What’s plan B?” I asked him.
“I don’t actually have a plan B. I suppose plan B would involve the police. I’m going to have Flash take a look at Delvina’s country house.”
Flash works with Diesel. Or maybe Flash works for Diesel. Or maybe Flash is just Diesel’s friend. Hard to tell where Flash fits in the big picture. He’s slim and spikey-?haired and a couple inches taller than me. He lives in Trenton.
He has a girlfriend. He likes to ski. And he’s a handy guy to have on your team. That’s everything I know about Flash.
Diesel punched Flash’s number into his phone. “I need you to check out Lou Delvina’s house in Bucks County,” he said when the connection was made. “He’s holding a horse and Stephanie’s grandmother as hostages somewhere. I’m going to scope out his house in Trenton.”
“Is there something I can do?” Snuggy asked.
“You can stay here and not make a move,” Diesel said. “When we leave, don’t open the door to anyone. Don’t order pizza. Don’t buy Girl Scout cookies. Don’t look out a window. Bolt the door and keep the television low.” Diesel had his head in the refrigerator. “There’s noth
ing in here. How can you live without food?”
“I have peanut butter in the cupboard and some crackers.”
“I like peanut butter and crackers,” Snuggy said.
“Knock yourself out,” Diesel said. He wrapped an arm around me. “Lets hustle. I want to see the car wash, and then we’ll snoop around Delvina’s social club. He has a house in Cranbury, but I don’t think he’d keep a horse and an old lady locked up with his wife.”
I followed Diesel down the stairs, through the small lobby, and out the back door. We got to the car, and he took the keys from me.