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

you saw? A tattoo? A scar? Did you recognize his shoes?”
    “It was just a feeling. It was the way he moved.”
    “This is like going out in the field with a clairvoyant.”
    “Does that ever work?”
    “Sometimes,” Morelli said. “How comfortable do you feel with this? On a scale of one to ten with ten being a positive identification … how would you rate this?”
    “If I was rating gut instinct it would be a nine. When I temper that with rational thought it goes way down. Maybe to a five or six.”
    “Five or six is still pretty strong.”
    “I would much rather Nick Alpha turned out to be the killer.”
    “I’m not going to discount Alpha, but it wouldn’t hurt to dig around in Dave’s life.”
    “How do we begin?”
    “There’s no
we
. This is a police investigation.”
    “I didn’t come over here to talk to a cop. I came here to talk to …”
    I stopped because I didn’t know what to call Morelli. Friend sounded lame. Boyfriend was too high school. We weren’t engaged, married, or living together.
    “I don’t even know what to call you,” I said, hands in the air. “What kind of a relationship is this?”
    “It’s a relationship that sucks. Who had the brilliant idea we should be free to date?”
    “You did.”
    “I don’t think so,” Morelli said.
    “I distinctly remember. You said we needed to explore other possibilities.”
    Morelli reached for the Tums. He shook out two for himself and two for me.
    “How’d it go in south Jersey?” I asked him.
    “We found the fifth car. We also found a sixth that had been torched. It looks like there might be the remains of two bodies in the torched car.”
    “More poker players?”
    “No one else is missing. The guys who only played occasionally are all accounted for.”
    “Maybe it’s an unrelated car.”
    “Hard to believe. It was found in the same area.”
    I held my hand out. “Give me two more Tums for the road. I have to go home.”
    “You don’t have to go home.”
    “I’m getting a headache. I need to go home and put a pillow over my face.”
    “Will that help?”
    “It worked this afternoon.”
    He gave me the bottle of Tums. “Take the whole bottle. I’ve got more. You know where to find me when the headache goes away.”
    • • •
     
    It was dark when I reached the lot to my apartment building. I rode around looking for Regina’s car, Dave’s parents’ car, and Nick Alpha’s car. I didn’t see any of them, so I parked andcrossed to the back door. I was talking to myself again, getting into the elevator.
    “This is getting old,” I said. “I’m tired of looking for people who want to kill me. It’s exhausting. And what am I supposed to do with Morelli, and my missing sex drive, and my job that’s not bringing in any money?”
    I popped a couple more Tums, rode to the second floor, and unlocked my door. I stepped in, closed and locked the door, and realized Dave was in my kitchen.
    “Surprise,” he said.
    I turned to leave, and he put himself between me and the door.
    I stepped away from him and narrowed my eyes. “Get out.”
    “I just got here.”
    “How did you get in?”
    “I took a key out of the drawer last time I was here cooking.”
    I walked into the kitchen and took the lid off the cookie jar. No gun.
    “I have the gun,” he said. “Not that I need it.”
    I threw the lid at him, and he ducked away. I grabbed the cookie jar and whacked him on the side of his head. He staggered back, and pulled himself together.
    “You should stop hitting me,” he said, snatching the cookie jar out of my hand, throwing it across the room. “What did I ever do to you?”
    “For starters you broke into my apartment.”
    “I didn’t break in. I walked in. I have a key … like Morelli.”
    “I
gave
Morelli a key, and you
stole
yours.”
    “That’s not all I’m stealing. I’m stealing you.”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Just like Morelli stole my girl back in high school. I took her to the prom and Morelli took her to bed. She was wearing
my
class ring and
my
corsage. She was
my
date, and he seduced her in the school parking lot.”
    “He seduced every girl in the school in the parking lot. And one in a bakery. You can’t take it personally.”
    “The hell I can’t. I’ve got
his
girl now. And I’m going to even the score.”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “Dead or alive,” Dave said. “Your choice.”
    Okay, that was scary. I was doing pretty good up to that point, but that took my