CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
I opened the door to my apartment and Potts tumbled in.
“Sorry,” he said. “I was sitting with my back to your door, and I guess I fell asleep.”
“It’s eight thirty in the morning. How long have you been out here?”
“Not that long,” he said. “An hour maybe.” He got to his feet. “Where are you going? Are you going to the office?”
“Briefly. I need to see if Connie has anything new for me, and then I’m going to check out a couple of addresses.”
I locked my door and took the stairs to the lobby with Potts tagging along. I had my gun tucked into my messenger bag, but it wasn’t loaded. I didn’t have any ammo. Probably I could get some from Connie. Just in case.
Connie was at her desk and Lula was texting when I walked in with Potts.
“I got two possible addresses from your list,” I said to Connie. “I’m going to check them out this morning.”
“Me, too,” Potts said.
“Me, too,” Lula said. “Where are we going?”
“Atlantic City,” I said.
“I’m all about Atlantic City,” Lula said. “Maybe we should bring Grandma with us. She’s like my lucky charm. You got Grandma behind you at a craps table and you can’t lose.”
“We aren’t going to a casino,” I said. “I’m checking out two residences.”
“Yeah, but after that we might need something to eat and we could at least do some slots. I mean, we’re going all that way,” Lula said. “I’ll call Grandma and see if she’s up for it.”
I handed my gun over to Connie. “Do you have any bullets that fit this?” I asked. “I thought I should start carrying it. Just in case.”
“Just in case is a good possibility,” Connie said.
She went to the storeroom and returned with a box of rounds. She loaded my .38, spun the cylinder, and handed it back to me.
“Grandma’s not answering her phone,” Lula said.
I called my mother. No answer there, either. There were hundreds of reasons why they weren’t answering their phone, but the worst stuck in my mind.
“We can stop at the house on our way out of town,” I said.
I parked in my parents’ driveway and noticed that the front door was slightly ajar. I hit the ground running and entered the house with my gun in hand. I stopped in the foyer and listened. Silence. I cautiously walked through the living room and dining room, and into the kitchen. One of the chairs by the kitchen table was overturned, and the cast-iron fry pan was on the floor. I ran upstairs and looked in the bedrooms and the bathroom. They had all been searched. Drawers were open. Clothes were dumped on the floor. The keys were missing from Grandma’s underwear drawer. The ring was still there, in its box. They didn’t know to take the ring.
Lula was behind me. “What do you think?” she asked.
“I think they have Grandma.”
“That’s what I’m thinking, too,” Lula said.
I pocketed the ring, and we went downstairs. Grandma was standing in the foyer, holding a grocery bag.
“This is a nice surprise,” Grandma said. “We already had breakfast but there’s some Entenmann’s crumb cake left.”
“Where were you?” I asked.
“It’s such a beautiful morning, I thought I’d walk to the deli and pick up some fresh rolls and potato salad for lunch.”
“Where’s Mom?” I asked.