Smokin' Seventeen: A Stephanie Plum Novel (Stephanie Plum Novels)

from my mother asking if I had heard from Dave Brewer, that he was such a nice young man who came from a wonderful family. Clearly my mother had given up on Morelli as a source for future grandchildren. Ranger had never been in contention. Dave Brewer was up at bat.
    I reached the bonds office lot and saw that everyone wasstill in place, plus Connie’s car had been added to the mix. I parked and crossed to where Connie and Vinnie were standing, looking not too happy.
    “Someone dumped another body,” Connie said. “A young woman this time.”
    “Anyone recognize her?”
    “Juki Beck,” Vinnie said. “I wrote bond for her once, a couple years ago. Shoplifting. At the rate we’re going I’ll have to call in an exorcist before the union lets me build on this lot.”
    “I need to download mail,” Connie said. “Does the bus still smell like bear?”
    “No,” Vinnie said. “It smells like Mooner.”
    I handed Connie my key. “You can use my apartment. Just don’t let Vinnie in.”
    “Nice way to treat your relative,” Vinnie said. “You know, I gave you this job, and I could take it away.”
    “You didn’t
give
me the job,” I said. “I blackmailed you into hiring me. And you’re not going to take it away, because you can’t find anyone else stupid enough to work for you.”
    “Not true,” Vinnie said. “There are a lot of stupid assholes out there. And where the hell’s my bear? Why aren’t you tracking down my bear?”
    “It’s on my list.”
    Connie went to her car, Vinnie went back to the bus, and Morelli broke away from the knot of cops and forensic techs and walked over to me.
    “This guy’s pushing his luck,” Morelli said.
    “Vinnie said he was able to ID the woman.”
    “Yeah. Vinnie and half the cops on the force. She got around.”
    “Did she have a connection to Dugan?”
    “Nothing apparent. She waited tables at Binkey’s Ale House. Divorced. No kids. Twenty-six years old.”
    “Maybe this was a different killer.”
    “Cause of death is the same. Dugan, Lucarelli, and Beck all had their necks broken. Dugan and Lucarelli were decomposed enough not to show a lot of detail. Beck had severe rope burns on her neck. Probably choked unconscious and then had her neck snapped.”
    I felt a wave of nausea slide through my stomach.
    “This guy is strong,” Morelli said. “It’s not that easy to choke someone, and Dugan and Lucarelli were big guys.”
    I looked to the back of the property where Juki Beck had been pulled from the car. I know him, I thought. This monster. This serial killer. He’s moving among us, looking normal. He’s a shoe salesman, or a cop, or a gas station attendant.
    “Why did he bring her here?” I asked Morelli. “I know the lot is shielded by Mooner’s bus, but it still seems risky.”
    “This is the ugly part,” Morelli said.
    “How could it possibly get uglier?”
    “There was a note pinned to her shirt. It said
For Stephanie.
”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “That’s all it said. Two words.
For Stephanie.
”

TWENTY-ONE
     
    I WAS ON MY BACK, looking up at Morelli through cobwebs, and my first thought was that the 7-Eleven victim had exacted revenge on me, and I’d been stun gunned. The cobwebs cleared, and I discounted stun gunning.
    “What happened?” I asked Morelli.
    “You fainted.”
    “That’s ridiculous.”
    “I agree, but if someone sent me a dead woman I might faint, too.” He was down on one knee, bending over me. “Are you ready to get up?”
    “I need a moment.”
    “Don’t take too long. People will think I’m proposing.”
    I slowly got to my feet. “Why me?”
    “I don’t know. Have you been getting threatening letters or phone calls?”
    “The only one threatening me is your grandmother.”
    “Ranger had cameras working and apparently captured the drop. I haven’t seen the video yet, but I’m told the killer was covered head to toe. The interesting thing is he delivered the victim here in her own car.”
    “Have you found the car?”
    “Not yet. And if we don’t it’ll be following the pattern because we never found Dugan’s car or Lucarelli’s car. Disappeared without a trace.” He kissed me on the forehead. “I have to get back to the station. I want to see the video, and I’m going to run some names through the system. See if I can connect someone to you and Dugan. There are only a handful of people who know about this note, so keep it to yourself.”
    “Ranger?”
    “You can tell