Page 36 of Now or Never

This made sense. I can make apprehensions, but I’m not qualified to write a bond. Only Connie and Vinnie can writea bond. If I got Eugene to court, Connie would have to come downtown anyway to do the paperwork.

“I’ll watch the office while you’re gone,” I said.

Connie and Eugene left, and I took Connie’s place behind the desk.

“You look serious over there,” Lula said. “What are you doing with Connie’s computer?”

“I’m searching for information on Zoran.”

“Why?”

“I’m going after him.”

“Oh, no. No, no, no, no. Bad idea. Double-doody idea. And not necessary. The police will find him. They’ll lock him up in a nice, padded cell and shoot him full of Thorazine. And here’s the good news. He’ll get free dental. He can get his fangs filed down so he fits into the prison population better.”

I sent a file to Connie’s printer. “This is a sick person. He needs to be found before he kills someone else. And it’s what we do, right? We find people.”

“Yeah, but we aren’t all that good at it,” Lula said. “And I’m not sure he’s a people.”

“When Connie returns, I’ll have her run a more complete search. Right now, I’m printing out his credit report, his work history, and an article from the Trenton paper. The headline isLove Bite Lands Vampire in Jail.”

“I’m not in favor of this,” Lula said. “I’m gonna be real unhappy if I get killed by a vampire.”

“You have to at least be curious about this guy. You’re the one who always has to slow up to look at a car crash. This is like a car crash.”

“Nuh-uh. That’s you. I’m the one with my eyes closed. You’re the one who rushed out to see some idiot jump off a fourth-floor ledge.”

“That was official business. He was FTA. And he didn’t jump. He slipped.” I took the pages from the printer. “Zoran’s credit history is clean. No litigation or derogatory comments. He has an AmEx card and a Costco Visa. No investment history. His house is mortgaged. Looks like he pays on time. No mention of him owning a laundromat. Drives a Chevy Colorado pickup. It’s on a lease.”

“That makes sense,” Lula said. “He probably needs a truck to cart his victims off to the landfill.”

“The article is interesting. They interviewed Zoran’s parents. Leo and Pat. His father worked for Boeing in Seattle for twenty-three years. He retired four years ago, and they moved to Jamesburg to be closer to Pat’s family. Zoran’s mother works part-time as office help for the Methodist church. Zoran is an only child. Blah, blah, blah. He got good grades in school. Always had an interesting imagination.”

“Maybe he didn’t have an imagination,” Lula said. “Maybe his parents thought he was imagining being a vampire except he wasn’t imagining.”

“I’m at a dead end until Connie returns and I can go to Jamesburg. I don’t have any other leads.”

Lula dragged one of the plastic chairs over next to me. “Connie won’t be back for at least an hour. Pull up the Robin Hoodie videos. I want to see the new one about the cookies again. And there’s another good one where he opens the back of the truck and it’s full of toilet paper. That’s the fun thing about hijacking. You don’t always know what you’re gonna find inside.”

It was almost four thirty when Connie returned.

“I had to do some fast talking, but I managed to get himrescheduled and bonded,” Connie said. “I dropped him off at his parents’ house. His new court date is in two weeks and we’re going to track him down the day before and lock him in his room until it’s time to escort him to the courthouse.”

“He hasn’t got any wheels,” Lula said. “He’s going to have to loot a bike store. That’s going to be a good video, watching all those homeless guys who are probably still jacked up on cookies, riding around on a bike.”

“Jeez,” Connie said. “Maybe I should give him his bike back.”

“No way,” Lula said. “Bikes for the homeless is an excellent idea. It’s a way for them to get exercise instead of nodding off on the sidewalk at all hours or sitting around in their tent all day. I don’t know why people didn’t think of this sooner. It’ll let them get to a variety of soup kitchens and detox clinics, and it’ll enlarge their panhandling ability.”

I narrowed my eyes at Lula. “And the real reason you want to give bikes to the homeless?”

“Okay, so I want to see the video, but you can’t blame me for that. Admit it, you’d want to see the video. I mean, who wouldn’t want to see that video. It would be an award winner if there was an award for YouTube videos.” Lula’s eyes almost popped out of her head. “OMG! That’s my best idea yet. A YouTube award show!”

“They might have one,” Connie said. “Sort of.”

I hiked my messenger bag onto my shoulder. “I’m out of here. I’m going to Jamesburg to talk to Zoran’s parents.” I turned to Connie. “I got a credit report, a work history that didn’t say much, and a newspaper article off the net. I could use more info on Zoran.”

“I’ll see what I can dig up,” Connie said.

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