Page 100 of Now or Never

“Boy,” Lula said. “You know how to ruin a perfectly good day.”

“I’m on a mission.”

“Does this mission have a name?” Lula asked.

“Take Down Zoran.”

“This mission might be above your pay grade,” Lula said. “It’s not like you’re Buffy.”

I hiked my messenger bag higher on my shoulder. “Are you coming with me or what?”

“Let’s do it,” Lula said.

We bypassed the front door to Zoran’s house and went straight to the back door. Lula had already broken the lock the last time we were here, so it was easy entry. I walked in and yelled, “Bond enforcement.”

I opened a couple kitchen drawers, found a garbage bag, pulled on some disposable gloves, and started collecting garbage. I cleaned out the fridge and emptied trash. I went to the bedroom and added a sock that was on the floor. I went to the bathroom and added the toothbrush, a comb, his razor, and the roach just for fun.

I did a walk-through to see if there was something I missed the first time around.

“There’s nothing to see here,” Lula said. “There’s no grocery notes or laptops. There’s hardly any junk in his junk drawer. And the only thing in his freezer are some breakfast sausages in a baggie.”

I hadn’t checked the freezer. I went to the kitchen and looked in the freezer.

“These aren’t sausages,” I said to Lula. “They’re fingers with freezer frost. I must have missed it last time I was here.”

“No way!”

I added the baggie with the fingers to the big garbage bag.

“Our work is done here,” I said to Lula.

I left the garbage bag in the trash can behind the house, pulled my gloves off, stuffed them into my messenger bag, and called Morelli.

“Come and get it,” I said. “I cleaned out the freezer, so you don’t want to wait too long to pick up the trash.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone where I assumed he was trying to get a grip. “It isn’t a head, is it?” he finally said. “I hate when it’s a head.”

“It’s not a head.”

Lula and I went back to my SUV and buckled in.

“Are we going shopping now?” Lula asked.

“No,” I said, “I’m going to drop you off at the office, and then I’m going to my parents’ house. I feel like I need a dose of normal.”

“Normal is relative,” Lula said. “Seems like these days finding fingers in the freezer is our new normal.”

That was the gruesome truth.

I left Lula at the office and drove the short distance to my parents’ house. I turned onto Green Street and felt a sense of calm settle in. My family was a little dysfunctional, but at least they didn’t have fangs, and the only body parts in their freezer belonged to cows and chickens. The calm disappeared when I saw that a Prius was parked in my spot at the curb. I parked behind the Prius and debated going in. I told myself that Herbert wasn’t the only one who owned a Prius. The car could belong to one of Grandma’s lady friends. With that in mind I trudged to the front door and let myself in.

My father was asleep in his chair in front of the TV. I couldhear clanking sounds coming from the kitchen and the house smelled like cookies. Grandma was at the dining room table with Herbert.

“What’s going on?” I asked Grandma.

“I ran into Herbert at Giovichinni’s, and he gave me a ride home,” Grandma said. “He has a Prius.”

“I like to be on the cutting edge with my purchases,” Herbert said. “Hybrid is the way to go, and the new Prius has improved acceleration and improved interior design features.”

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