I could feel Diesel smiling behind me.
“I’m not coming back here,” he said. “I’m never setting foot in this house again. And I’ll swear on a Bible I didn’t put these monkeys here.”
Stephanie Plum 14.5 - Plum Spooky
SEVENTEEN
THE FIRST THOUGHTS in my head when I woke up were about Gail Scanlon and her monkeys. The next thoughts were about the big guy sprawled on top of me.
“Hey!” I said to Diesel.
“Mmmm.”
“You’re on top of me again.”
“Life is good.”
“It’s not good. I can’t breathe.”
“If you couldn’t breathe, you’d be dead.”
“If you don’t get off me, you’re going to be dead.”
Diesel rolled to the other side of the bed and settled in with a sigh.
“I’m going to take a shower and go check on the monkeys,” I told him.
No answer. Diesel was already asleep.
A half hour later, I had my hair fluffed out and my eyelashes gunked up, and I was anxious to start my day. Diesel was still sleeping, so I called Lula while I drank my coffee.
“How are you feeling?” I asked Lula.
“I’m feeling fine, but I have a craving for another one of them breakfast sandwiches.”
“I have to check on Munch’s house on Crocker Street. I could pick you up on the way, and we could stop somewhere.”
“I’ll be outside waiting for you.”
I finished my coffee, took my bag from the hook in the hall, and saw Munch’s jacket still lying on the floor. I remembered the grocery list I’d taken from the yellow pad and pulled the crumpled piece of paper out of the jacket pocket. It was soggy but legible.
“Diesel!” I yelled. “Get out here.”
Nothing. No sound of man getting out of bed.
I stomped into the bedroom and yelled at him up close. “Diesel!”
“Jeez,” he said. “Now what?”
“I ripped this page off a pad in Munch’s house. So much happened last night, I forgot about it. It looks like a shopping list.”
Diesel looked at the list. “Barium, rockets, HTPB.”
“I have to go,” I said. “I told Lula I’d pick her up.”
Twenty minutes and ten traffic lights later, I pulled to the curb in front of Lula’s house and Lula got into the car.
“Why are you going to Munch’s house?”