Free Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich Page B

from the cookies and had to go home."
    My mother was at the stove sauteing ground beef for stuffed peppers. She reached for the cupboard where she kept her liquor stash, paused, then pulled herself together and went on with the sauteing.
    "Sissy Cramp and I went shopping today," Grandma said, "and I got these new clothes and went to the beauty parlor. I thought I should spruce up since Elmer has all that nice black hair. It's a marvel that at his age he hasn't got a gray hair on his head."
    "He hasn't got any hair on his head," I told Grandma. "He wears a wig."
    "That would explain a lot of things," Grandma said.
    My mother and I looked at each other and shared a grimace.
    "I read somewhere red is the hot color for hair this year," Grandma said. "So I had Dolly do me red this time. What do you think?"
    "I think it's fun," I told Grandma. "It brings out the color in your eyes." I could see my mother bite into her lower lip, and I knew she was eyeing the liquor cabinet again.
    "It makes me feel like a whole new person," Grandma said. "Sissy says I look just like Shirley MacLaine."
    I zipped my jacket. "I just stopped in to say hello. I have to get back to the office." I checked myself out in the hall mirror on my way to the door to make sure there were no leftover effects from the stun gun… like my tongue hanging out or my eyes rolling around in my head. I didn't notice anything, so I left my parents' house, buckled myself into the Cayenne, and called Lula.
    "Unhunh," Lula said.
    "I'm going to check on Carl Coglin. Want to ride along with me?"
    "Sure. Maybe I can explode another squirrel on myself." Five minutes later, I picked her up in front of the bonds office.
    "Now this is what I call a car," Lula said, getting into the Cayenne. "Only one place you get a car like this."
    "It's Rangers."
    "Don't I know it. I get a rush just sitting in it. I swear, that man is so hot and so fine it's like he isn't even human."
    "Mmm," I said.
    "Mmm. What's that supposed to mean? You think he isn't fine?"
    "He involved me in a murder."
    "He told you to choke Dickie in front of the whole law office staff?"
    "Well, no. Not exactly."
    "Not that Dickie don't deserve getting choked."
    "Dickie s scum."
    "Fuckin' A," Lula said.
    "Although it would appear I'm the sole beneficiary in his will."
    "Say what?"
    "Apparently, he had a will drawn up when we were married, making me heir, and he never got around to changing it."
    "How do you know that?"
    "Joyce has a copy. She told the police about it, and they brought me in for questioning."
    "Then it's Joyce that involved you in this murder."
    "Yes!"
    "Bitch," Lula said.
    I drove up Hamilton and pointed the Porsche toward North Trenton. It was four o'clock, and another day was slipping by without a capture. If this continued, I'd have to scrounge around for another job. At least something part-time.
    "What's the plan here?" Lula wanted to know.
    "If he's home, we grab him and cuff him and drag him to the car. You have cuffs, right?"
    "Not with me. You're the big-deal bounty hunter. You're supposed to have the cuffs."
    "I lost my cuffs."
    "Again? Honest to goodness, I've never seen anybody lose things like you."
    "You usually have cuffs," I said to Lula.
    "They're sort of attached to my bed. Tank was over, and we got playful." Eeek. Either one of them in handcuffs attached to a bed wasn't a good picture. "I didn't realize you were a couple."
    "We're one of them couples who don't see each other all the time. We just see each other some of the time. And sometimes it goes to once in a while."
    "Okay, then we can grab Coglin and stun-gun him. Do you have your stun gun?"
    "Sure I got my stun gun." Lula pulled her stun gun out of her big purse. "Uh-oh, low battery."
    I knew she had her Glock. And I knew it was loaded. But I didn't especially want her to shoot Coglin.
    "How about I grab him and sit on him until he gives up?" Lula said.
    "I guess that would work."
    I cruised down Coglin s street and idled in front