“That’s it? That’s all you got?”
“Yep.”
“Where’s Marbury?” he asked.
I got a map out of the side-?door pocket and found Marbury. “It’s on the way to Atlantic City” I said. “Give or take a bunch of miles.”
Carl tapped me on the shoulder. “Eep.”
“What?”
“Eep.”
“I don’t speak monkey” I told him. “I don’t know eejs”
He pointed to his crotch and crossed his legs.
“I think he has to go to the bathroom,” I said to Diesel.
Diesel powered a back window down. “Go to it,” he said to Carl.
Carl looked out the window and looked up and down the street and shook his head.
Diesel cut his eyes to Carl. “Dude, you’re a monkey. You can do it anywhere.”
Carl shrugged.
“I think he might have some species confusion,” I said to Diesel.
Diesel put the car into gear and drove back to the main street. He cruised two blocks, found a McDonald’s, and parked. Carl jumped out the window and scampered to the door to McDonald’s. He grabbed the handle with both hands, but he couldn’t get the door to open.
“I’ll get it,” I said to Diesel. “I could use a milk shake. Do you want anything?”
“Double cheeseburger, fries, Coke.”
I opened the door for Carl, and he rushed off. I put my order in, paid the cashier, and was about to leave with my food when there was a muffled scream from the ladies’ rest-?room. A door banged open, and a woman stormed out with Carl in tow.
“Who owns this monkey?” she asked. “It was in the ladies’ room, looking under all the stall doors.”
Carl pointed to me.
“You need to teach your monkey some manners,” the woman said.
I looked down at Carl. “Are you done?” I asked him.
He shrugged, and we quickly walked back to the SUV. I sucked down my milk shake, Diesel ate his burger, and Carl ate his box of cookies.
“Your monkey was looking under the stall doors in the ladies’ room,” I told Diesel.
“That’s my boy,” Diesel said.
Stephanie Plum 14.5 - Plum Spooky
TEN
IT WAS ALMOST four o’clock when we rolled into Marbury. Diesel nosed the SUV into a parking space in front of the post office and unbuckled his seat belt.
“My turn,” he said. “This shouldn’t take long. It sounds like Gail Scanlon’s had a post office box here for years. I’m hoping someone knows her.”