Page 82 of Now or Never

I got into the SUV and checked my text messages. One from Grandma.Did you remember to get Stella a present? She likes lavender soap.

“I have to go home,” I said to Ranger. “I’m supposed to be at my aunt Stella’s birthday party at six o’clock, and I need to stop someplace and get her a present.”

“Babe,” Ranger said.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Morelli rang my bell and opened my door at precisely five thirty. I was showered. My hair was washed, dried, and round-brushed. I was wearing my only dress-up outfit: the navy skirt and jacket. I was putting the bow on Aunt Stella’s present.

“Wow,” Morelli said, walking into the living room. “You’ve been busy.”

“Not me. Herbert Slovinski.”

“We went to high school with him,” Morelli said. “He was a year behind me. He played clarinet.”

“You were friends?”

“No. The band was lined up on the side of the field before halftime and I ran for a pass and plowed into him. Knocked him on his ass. Clarinet ended up in the trombone section.”

“I’d forgotten. That was the game with New Brunswick. We lost.”

“Yeah. We lost a lot,” he said. “The band wasn’t very good either.”

“The majorettes were good.”

Morelli grinned. “You were hot in your little costume. You couldn’t twirl a baton for crap, but you could really strut out in a parade.”

“My one talent,” I said. “Strutting.”

“You have other talents. I’d tell you about them, but we’d end up late for the party.” He looked around the room. “What’s your connection to Herbert? As I remember him, he was too weird to even be a geek. He had a couple other weird friends, and they used to play D & D at lunchtime. I think he took his mother to the prom.”

“I ran into him at the Luger viewing, and I can’t get rid of him. He keeps trying to do nice things for me. Like paint my apartment, and get carpet installed, and buy me a television. He always does it when I’m not home. He bribes the super to let him in.”

“Honey, that’s creepy.”

“I thought so in the beginning, but it’s not like he’s a predator. I think he’s just needy. Grandma was here for dinner yesterday, and Herbert popped in. Turned out Grandma knew him, so he got invited for dinner.”

“You made dinner?”

“I helped.”

Another grin from Morelli. The men in my life thought it was amusing that I might attempt to make dinner. I had to admit that the amusement was justified.

I handed my phone to Morelli. “Read the text message. It came in yesterday. It’s from Zoran.”

He read the message and handed the phone back to me. “I talked to Jimmy about Julie Werly. He said it was an odd case.There was a blood trail that started in the living room, led through the house and into the yard. He said it wasn’t a lot of blood. Just steady drips. And then it stopped in the yard. He thought the body had been loaded onto something or into something and dragged across the yard and through the hedge to the sidewalk. It all ended there. It was assumed the killer had a truck or a car parked on the side street, loaded the body into it, and took off. There are a lot of open questions. What was the motive? Why was the body removed? What was the murder weapon?”

“Why was it determined that Julie was killed?”

“The blood, the imprint on the grass, and that something heavy had been dragged through the hedge. It’s six months and she hasn’t surfaced.”

“Julie is one of four women who were associated with Zoran and went missing. One was his wife. The other two were hookers.”

“We’ve had his house under electronic surveillance, and he hasn’t returned,” Morelli said. “We’ve also been watching the uncle and the parents. He hasn’t shown up at either doorstep.”

“You’ve been watching the wrong doorstep. He rang my bell when Grandma and Herbert were in my kitchen. Herbert answered the door and almost messed himself. He said Zoran had a knife raised, like he was going to kill someone, and his mouth was open, and he could see his fangs. And then Zoran hissed at Herbert, and Herbert said he thought Zoran’s eyes were red with flames in them.”

“And?”

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