Smokin' Seventeen by Janet Evanovich Page B

mind the big guy with the boner so much.”
    Connie wrote Belmen’s address on a note card and handed it to me. “If you want the whole file I have to go into the bus to print it.”
    “Not necessary. This is all I need.”
    “And when you’re done tracking down my bear you’re gonna need to figure out who’s dumping bodies in my lot,” Vinnie said. “Business was bad before and now it’s nonexistent. It’s like we got death cooties.”
    “Morelli’s on the case,” I told him.
    “Well tell him to work faster. I’m dying here. We’re going under. Another week of this and Harry’s gonna pull his money and we’ll all be up shit’s creek.”
    • • •
    Belmen was staying in an inexpensive motel south of town, on the way to Bordentown. I pulled into the lot and parkednext to a white Camry that shouted rental car and had bear slobber on the side window. The structure was classic 1970, two-story, pink stucco and white trim. Belmen was in unit 14A. I knocked on the door, and a trim forty-something man who fit Belmen’s description answered. A few feet behind him I could see Bruce sitting on the edge of the bed.
    “Where’s the pizza?” Belmen asked, giving me the once-over.
    “Excuse me?”
    “Aren’t you the pizza delivery lady? I ordered pizzas.”
    “Sorry. I work for Vincent Plum Bail Bonds.”
    “Vinnie’s a bad man,” Belmen said. He stepped to the side and made a swooping motion to the bear. “Kill!”
    Bruce lunged off the bed and rushed at me, mouth open. GROWL!
    I jumped back and slammed the door shut.
    “Jeez Louise,” I said to Belmen through the door. “I just want to talk to you.”
    “About what?”
    “Do I have to yell through the door?”
    “Yes.”
    I blew out a sigh and counted to five. “I know you’re anxious to get to Vegas, but you need to show up for your court date. If you don’t show up you’ll be considered a felon, and it will be one more charge against you. If you show up and explain what happened you might get off light since it’s your first offense.”
    “I don’t think it was my fault,” he said. “I don’t even remember. It happened so fast.”
    “The bartender said you were drunk.”
    “I’d had a couple drinks. Maybe I was drunk.”
    “Promise me you’ll show up for court.”
    “All right. I promise, but if I go to jail you have to take care of Bruce.”
    “I can’t take care of Bruce. They don’t allow bears in my apartment building.”
    “I can’t just abandon him,” Belmen said.
    “I’ll figure something out. And just out of morbid curiosity, would he have killed me?”
    “No. Bruce is a pussycat. He was just playing with you.”
    Yeah, right. I’ve never bought off a judge before but in this case I’d do whatever it took.

SEVENTEEN
    I WAS RELIEVED to see Mooner’s bus was no longer in front of the coffee shop. I didn’t want to face Vinnie and explain to him that the bear was staying with Boris. Vinnie would have a differing opinion. Vinnie would go on a rant and send me back to get the bear. This would be a disaster because not only didn’t I have a clue how to wrestle the bear away from his owner, I also wasn’t sure Vinnie and Mooner were good bear parents. I was worried they’d feed Mooner’s homemade brownies to Bruce, and he’d hallucinate he was a hummingbird or something.
    Aside from the missing bus nothing much had changed since I left. Lula and Connie were still camped out in the window.
    “Hey girlfriend,” Lula said. “How’d it go with the bear?”
    “It went okay. I talked to Boris, and he promised to show up for his court date.”
    “Yeah, but what about the bear? Where’s the bear?”
    “The bear’s with Boris. I made an executive decision to leave him there.”
    The door to the coffee shop opened and Bella marched in. “You!” she said, pointing her finger at me, eyes narrowed. “I know what you do with my grandson. You take advantage. He don’t stay at birthday party like good boy. He come