“Of course not. Everyone knows aliens don’t look like that. Aliens got them big heads with the big eyes and skinny bodies. They look like what’s-?his-?name... Gumby.”
“There you have it,” I said to Diesel. “You don’t look like an alien.”
“Good to know,” Diesel said.
“Anyways, after Mr. Delvina went goofy at the multiplex, we had a difference of opinion, and he kicked me out of the car and drove away. Mr. Delvina wanted to firebomb this apartment because he thinks you two are doing knicky-?knacky here and trying to breed the spawn of the alien devil.” Mickey stopped eating and thought about that for a moment. “How did Mr. Delvina’s car get cooked?” he asked.
“Firebomb,” I told him.
Mickey shook his head. “He never could get the hang of a good firebomb. I always had to make them. It’s important to use the right kind of bottle. People think just anyone can make a firebomb, but that isn’t so.”
“It’s a skill,” Diesel said.
“Exactly,” Mickey said. “We all got special skills, right? Like the boss. He used to be real good at sizing up people. He had instincts.” Mickey gave his head a shake. “I feel bad that the boss is wacko. I think I’ve been one of them en-?ablers. I’ve been going out and getting him the medicine. I shouldn’t have been doing that.” Mickey washed his sandwich down with a diet soda. “You should be careful. Mr. Delvina don’t give up on something once he gets an idea in his head. Even now that he’s screwy.” Mickey wrote his phone number on a piece of paper and gave it to me. “Call me if you see Mr. Delvina, and I’ll come try to catch him.”
Diesel closed the door after Mickey and grinned at me. “People think we’re doing knicky-?knacky up here.”
“Don’t get any ideas.”
“Too late. I have lots of ideas.”
“Are any of them about Lou Delvina?”
“Not right now,” Diesel said.
“Delvina’s not going to be happy when he opens his safe to deposit the money he got today.”
Diesel screwed the top onto the peanut butter jar and put his knife in the dishwasher. “I hate to say this, but we’re going to have to find Delvina and neutralize him somehow before he figures out how to build a better bomb.”
“Neutralize,” I said. “That’s very civilized.”
“Yeah, I’d feel like a real tough guy if I said I was going to whack Delvina, but it wouldn’t be true. I’m not a killer.”
I went to the window and looked out. The fire truck and police car were gone. Delvina’s car was slowly being towed away on a flatbed. Probably there was a cop somewhere in the building going door to door asking questions. I thought it best if we left before he got to the second floor.
I zipped an all-?weather jacket over my sweatshirt and hung my purse on my shoulder. “Delvina is on foot. He can steal a car, call a friend, or he can walk to the car wash. I’m betting on the car wash.”
We locked the apartment and took the stairs to the lobby. We pushed through the lobby doors and stopped. We didn’t have a car.
“Crap,” I said. “No car.”
Diesel surveyed the cars in the lot. “Pick one.”
“You don’t kill people, but you steal cars?”
“Yep.”
I hauled my cell phone out and I called Lula. “I need a ride to my parents’ house.”
My father was out running errands and my mother and grandmother were in the kitchen yelling at each other.
“You’re grounded,” my mother said to my grandmother. “You are not to leave this house.”
“Blow it out your ear,” my grandmother said.
My mother looked at me when I walked in. “What am I supposed to do with her?”
“I think you should make a deal.”