Free 20 Takedown Twenty by Janet Evanovich

were consistent with the other victims.”
    “Do you know what was used to strangle her?”
    “A Venetian blind cord. Just like always.”
    “You’d have to be pretty strong to strangle someone.”
    “Not necessarily. The women selected were frail,” Morelli said. “And two of them had blunt force trauma to the back of their heads. They were knocked out and then strangled.”
    “Anything else?”
    “We haven’t made it public, but they all had a single sunflower somewhere in their home. Melvina had it in a jelly jar in her kitchen. Lois had one in a vase on her dining room table.”
    “A calling card?”
    “Something like that.”
    I brought the banana cream pie and two forks to the table, and we dug in.
    “You even defrosted it,” Morelli said.
    “I’m no slouch when it comes to pie.”
    We finished the pie and carried our dishes into the kitchen. Morelli gave the last chunk of pie crust to Rex, gave a smallpiece of chicken he’d been saving to Bob, and reached out for me, pulling me flat against him. “I haven’t taken any pills today,” he said. “I have full control over my tongue.”
    “No time,” I told him. “Lula will be here any minute. Maybe we can test out your tongue after Bingo.”
    “Can’t do it after Bingo. I promised my brother I’d go to the ball game with him.” He looked at my splinted finger. “Do you really want drugs?”
    “No. I’m feeling better now that I’m full of wine and pie.”
    Morelli moved to kiss me, and the doorbell rang.
    “Don’t answer it,” he said. “Eventually she’ll go away.”
    “She won’t go away. She’ll shoot the lock off the door. I’ll have to pay for a new door.”
    “Hey!” Lula yelled. “I know you’re in there. I can hear you breathing. What are you doing?”
    I opened the door, and Lula looked past me and waved at Morelli.
    “I saw your car in the lot,” Lula said.
    “I’ll give you twenty bucks if you go away,” Morelli said to Lula.
    “I gotta take Stephanie and her granny to Bingo,” Lula told him. “I bet we win the jackpot. I feel lucky. I got my lucky undies on.”
    Morelli snapped the leash onto Bob and gave me a fast kiss. “I can’t compete with her lucky undies. I’ll try to catch you tomorrow.”

EIGHT
    I’D BEEN TO the Senior Center before and it always smelled like eucalyptus, canned peas, and orange blossom air freshener. It was a single-story redbrick structure straddling the line between Trenton and Hamilton Township. Bingo was held in the largest of the meeting rooms. Rectangular folding tables were set out in rows that ran perpendicular to the small stage at one end. The caller sat at a little table on the stage, and an overhead flat-screen television flashed the numbers as they were called.
    “This is a real professional setup,” Lula said, taking a seat.
    “It’s pretty good, but it’s not as good as some of the Bingo halls in Atlantic City,” Grandma said. “Some of them are all electronic. You don’t need cards or daubers or nothing.”
    I’d elected to play four cards. Grandma took twelve cards. And Lula bought thirty.
    “Are you going to be able to keep track of all those cards?” Grandma asked Lula. “That’s a lot of cards.”
    “Yeah, but the more cards you got, the more chances you got to win, right?”
    “That’s true,” Grandma said. “Do you play Bingo a lot?”
    Lula laid all her cards out in front of her. “I’m one of those intermittent players.”
    “Me too,” Grandma said. “I don’t know how these women have the time to do this every night. I got a schedule to keep. I gotta see
Dancing with the Stars
and
America’s Got Talent
. I record my shows when I have to, but it’s not like seeing them live.”
    We were sitting to the side and back of the room and I could see all the players. Most were women in their sixties and seventies. The demographic would be a lot younger when we went to Bingo at the firehouse. There were a few men mixed in with the women. I