“Yeah,” Lula said. “Do you want to see?”
Grandma leaned forward and Lula pulled her tights down so Grandma could see the bandage and the stitches on the lesser wound.
“That’s a beauty,” Grandma said. “It looks like they did a good job with the stitches, too. That’s important so they don’t leave a scar. And I see you’re wearing one of them thongs. I tried wearing a thong a while back, but I got hemorrhoids from it.”
“My booty was made for a thong,” Lula said. “They fit just right on me on account of I got a lot of cheek. That’s the secret to being a successful thong wearer.”
“I brought the Buick back,” I said. “I was able to get another car.”
My mother’s thing was in a massive heap on the floor at her feet.
“How long is your thing?” I asked.
“Twenty-seven feet,” my mother said.
“It’s nice you got a hobby,” Grandma said to my mother, “but it’s taking up half the kitchen. You’re gonna have to find a new place to knit.”
“It’s not a hobby,” my mother said. “It’s my destiny.”
“You made more sense when you were hitting the hootch,” Grandma said.
“Are you and Joseph going to be here for dinner?” my mom asked.
I did a mental head slap. It was Friday. Date night. And I had Diesel sleeping in my bed. Plus, I was looking at a countdown to Trenton going dark at midnight.
“Maybe,” I said. “I have a lot going on. Probably you shouldn’t count on me.”
“Good thinking,” Grandma said. “It could be a skimpy dinner unless we figure out how to eat the thing.”
Lula and I got back to my Honda and I called Diesel.
“I’m texting information to you on Oswald’s new car,” I said. “It’s a three-year-old black Porsche Panamera with tinted windows. I’ve also got the plate number for you. He got the plate when he bought the car.”
“Do you suppose the plate was made in someone’s basement?”
“It’s possible it was taken off someone else’s car.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I bought a car from the same guy who sold the Porsche to Oswald.”
“That’s my girl,” Diesel said. “I bet you got a bargain.”
“The car salesperson used to arrange business meetings for one of Lula’s friends from a previous life.”
“I’ll keep my eyes open. I’m staking out State and South Broad.”
I called Morelli and gave him the same information. “I might not be able to do date night tonight,” I said. “I need to keep searching for Oswald. Let’s reschedule date night for tomorrow.”
Lula had polished off two doughnuts while I was gone and she’d focused her attention on the chicken and biscuits.
“I’m in a mood to sniff out that loser Oswald,” she said. “I’m pretty sure my moons are lined up again and I got my juju back from you, being that you destroyed two cars in one day. That’s like old times.”
“Do you have any ideas about where you want to sniff?” I asked Lula.
“I’ve been thinking about it. We know that he spends time in the downtown area. So where does he eat? He doesn’t seem like a fast-food person. And the way he moves around doesn’t make it easy for him to do gourmet cooking. He could be eating in nice restaurants but that would make him easy to see. And anyway, I’m guessing by now he’s running out of clean clothes. So that leaves takeout food and stores with fancy prepared food. We can go to the fancy food stores and flash Oswald’s picture. I got an app on my phone that tells me where they are. And then you could ask Melvin to hack into some of the food delivery people.”
“That’s brilliant.”
“Yeah, and I wasn’t even high when I thought about it. Okay, so I might have been double dosing on the pain meds but I’m a big girl. You gotta take that into consideration when you prescribe for me.”
“Are you on meds now?”
“No. I used them all up and they won’t give me anymore. I could get some from the hair salon but I’m afraid Amy is still there, and I’d have to make an appointment.”
I called Melvin and asked if he could hack into delivery services in the downtown area.
“Easy peasy,” he said. “Are we looking for deliveries to O.W.?”
“Yes. How’s life at Rangeman?”