Page 4 of Now or Never

“Half hour?”

“Maybe ten minutes,” Lula said. “It was a lot of soda.”

I gave up on the surveillance and drove back to the office.

CHAPTER TWO

Connie looked up from her computer when we walked in. “Did you get someone?”

“We got him and then we lost him,” I said. “Is Vinnie still here?”

“He left right after you did,” Connie said. “He had to go downtown to bond someone out.” She handed me a file. “I got a new FTA. It just came through. Indecent exposure in the supermarket. Not a big-ticket bond, but it’ll get you pizza money.”

I took the file and shoved it into my bag. “Can you get me more information on Bruno Jug?” I asked Connie. “Wives, girlfriends, social clubs, hobbies, vacation houses. Anything.”

“You bet,” Connie said. “I’ll do a search on him, and I’ll ask my cousin Carl. Jug isn’t in the family, but he moves in some of the same circles as Carl.”

Connie is remotely connected to the mob of yesteryear, and shehas some current relatives who have unexplained incomes. Carl would be one of them.

Lula reappeared from the back of the office. “What did I miss? What are you talking about?”

“Bruno Jug,” I said.

“I could use to miss that conversation. I don’t like things that got to do with death.”

“I doubt he does his own wet work,” Connie said. “He’s white-collar. He’s a suit.”

“I still don’t want to talk about him,” Lula said. “I want to talk about the hitch. I expected to see a ring when I came in this morning, and all I got was news that there’s a hitch. Ranger isn’t backing out, is he? That would be real disappointing.”

I dumped my messenger bag onto the couch and slouched into one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs in front of Connie’s desk.

“It’s not Ranger,” I said. “He’s still in Virginia with his tech guy. They’re cleaning up a security breach in an office there.”

“Then what?” Lula asked.

“Remember when Morelli came back from Miami and showed up at the crime scene?”

“Yeah, I remember that,” Lula said.

“Okay, so we got together after.”

“Uh-oh,” Lula said. “How together?”

“Just together. Talking.”

“And?”

“And he asked me to marry him.”

“Holy shit,” Lula said.

Connie, the office manager and the most religious of the three of us, which isn’t saying much, made the sign of the cross.

“And?” Lula asked.

“And I sort of said yes.”

“Holy shit again,” Lula said.

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