Free 22 Tricky Twenty-Two by Janet Evanovich Page A

in class until eleven.”
    “That’s good because it gives us time to go see Pooka and get the key to the cellar.”
    “What’s with this cellar obsession? It makes no sense that Gobbles would be hiding in the cellar. He doesn’t even have a second exit.”
    “He could have a secret exit. There could be a secret tunnel that goes to the restaurant on M and Hawthorne.”
    “That’s a long tunnel.”
    “Well, I got a feeling. I’m extra perceptionary that way. I just know things. Sometimes I wake up at night and I think it’s gonna rain, and it almost always does.”
    “Amazing.”
    “Yeah, not everyone’s got a talent like that. I could be a weathergirl on television. The hell with Doppler and all that shit. If I say it’s gonna rain you could go to the bank with it.”
    “Okay, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to talk to Pooka again. At the very least he should be able to tell us who Gobbles hung with.”
    We hiked to the science building and took the elevator to the third floor. We shared the elevator with six other women who looked like students. The elevator doors opened at the third floor and the women rushed out and down the hall to the biology lab.
    “Guess the wonder kid is at work,” Lula said. “I think the
wonder
part is how he gets anything done what with all the women ogling him.”
    Pooka’s office door was closed. I rapped on it and someone yelled,
“Go away!”
    “That sounds like Pooka,” Lula said. “Hey, baggy pants,” she yelled back. “Open the door.”
    The door was wrenched open and Pooka glared out at us. “I’m busy.”
    “How busy could you be in those pajamas?” Lula asked him.
    Pooka looked down at his pants. “These aren’t pajamas. These are dhoti.”
    “Doody?”
    “
Dhoti.
They’re Indian.”
    “Did the necklace tell you to wear them?” Lula asked.
    “The amulet is more effective when my boys can breathe.”
    “That makes sense,” Lula said. “I bet there’d be a lot less aggression in the world if everybody’s boys had some breathing room. I mean, how can you be happy when your nuts are all cramped together? One of the Zeta people told us you were the house dude. You ever see anyone vomiting up cockroaches there?”
    “No.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “I would have remembered.”
    “I’m still looking for Ken Globovic,” I said to Pooka. “Who were his close friends?”
    “I don’t know. I have more important things to do than keep track of Globovic’s friends.”
    “Like what?” Lula asked.
    “Like
anything.
Anything
would be more important than paying attention to Ken Globovic’s every move.”
    “Not to us,” Lula said. “We gotta find him or we don’t get paid.”
    “Not my problem,” Pooka said. “Get out of my office.”
    “Nuh-unh,” Lula said. “I’m not leaving until you help us find Gobbles.”
    “I’m calling security,” Pooka said.
    Lula leaned forward. “You make one move to that phone, and I’m gonna sit on you until you’re a grease spot on the floor.”
    “I have research to do,” Pooka said. “You’re wasting my valuable time.”
    “Now we’re getting somewhere,” Lula said. “What kind of research? Are you working on global warming?”
    “No.”
    “Then your research isn’t so important, is it?”
    “Global warming is a hoax. It’s an example of one more fraud fed to the American people by its corrupt government,” Pooka said.
    “You shouldn’t be talking about the government like that,” Lula said. “It’s disrespectful. And they might come get you and lock you up.”
    Pooka stared at Lula. “Have you heard something?”
    “Not exactly,” Lula said. “It’s more I get these premonitions on account of you sound like a nut.”
    “Brian Karwatt,” Pooka said.
    “What about him?” I asked.
    “Globovic hung out with Brian Karwatt. Now get out of my office.”
    “Yeah, but I got a premonition about the cellar at the Zeta house,” Lula said. “I think Gobbles might be hiding out