“Like what?”
“We should stop shooting people! There has to be a better way to solve a problem.”
“I guess,” Lula said. “But personally, I like shooting someone once in a while. Nothing serious. Like maybe just shooting someone in the little toe. I’ve done that a couple times.”
I cut my eyes to the rearview mirror and glanced at Tiki. He was still strapped in and he looked benign, but I didn’t trust him. I thought he might be encouraging thoughts of shooting.
Connie was packing up to leave when we got back to the office. “The black Escalade belongs to Abu Darhmal, the second doctor listed at The Clinic. Darhmal is forty years old and has a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Maryland. No medical degree that I could find. He’s originally from Somalia. Looks to me like he has a green card but isn’t a U.S. citizen. I could find no address other than The Clinic. He taught at college level before settling in at The Clinic four years ago. No wife or other dependents. He was accused of human trafficking four years ago but was acquitted. Probably why he left academia.” Connie handed me the report.
“Maybe Nurse Norma is doing Dr. Darhmal,” Lula said.
“She’d have to do him fast,” I said. “He left immediately after she got there.”
“The Clinic is even sketchier,” Connie said. “It’s listed as a medical recovery facility, but that’s it. No hours of operation. A phone number that goes directly to voicemail. It’s owned by a holding company. Franz Sunshine Enterprises. Franz Sunshine is the president. He’s also president of FS Financials. Sunshine bought the Clinic building at auction four years ago. Its assessed assets come to just under five hundred thousand dollars. That’s not a lot for a viable business.”
Connie gave me that file as well. “I’m out of here,” she said. “There’s a glass of wine waiting for me somewhere.”
“I’m out of here too,” Lula said.
I checked my watch. It was almost six o’clock. Too late to try the bridesmaid dress on for size. I’d have to do it tomorrow. I left the bonds office and drove to my parents’ house.
“Just in time for dinner,” Grandma said when I strolled into the kitchen.
“That was my plan,” I said, setting Tiki onto the kitchen table.
My mother was spooning mashed potatoes into a bowl. “What is that?” she asked. “It looks like a totem pole.”
“It’s a Hawaiian tiki,” I told her. “Vinnie took it as security on a bond and I’m babysitting it because he didn’t want it in the office.”
“It’s cute,” Grandma said. “It reminds me of a big tater tot.”
I looked over my mother’s shoulder. “Pot roast?”
My mother nodded. “With mashed potatoes, green beans, and gravy.”
“And chocolate pudding for dessert,” Grandma said.
I set a plate for myself at the table and helped carry the food in.
“Have you heard any more about Geoffrey Cubbin?” I asked Grandma, taking my seat.
“Nothing about Cubbin,” she said, “but there’s talk going around that some residents of Cranberry Manor were planning to kidnap him and squeeze some information out about the money.”
“Do you have names?”
“Nope. Just the rumor. I heard about it at the bakery this morning when I went for coffee cake.”
I forked a slab of meat onto my plate. “Those people are pretty old. Hard to believe they’d be able to kidnap Cubbin.”
“They want their money back,” Grandma said. “And they haven’t got a lot to lose. If they get arrested it’s not like they’ll spend a lot of years in prison. Most of them have one foot in the grave already.”
I helped myself to potatoes. “I’ll go back to Cranberry Manor tomorrow and dig around,” I told Grandma. “See if you can get me a name.”
“You bet,” Grandma said. “I’m on the job.”
“Gravy,” my father said. “I need more gravy.”
My mother jumped up and scurried into the kitchen with the gravy boat. At first glance it would seem that she was waiting on my father, but truth is she was happy for an opportunity to go to the kitchen to refresh her “ice tea.”
My family doesn’t spend a lot of unnecessary time on body functions. We eat and we leave to do other things. My father has television shows to watch. My mother and my grandmother have dishes to wash and the kitchen to set straight. I helped in the kitchen and by seven-thirty I was on my way.
I had Tiki on the seat next to me guarding the bag of leftovers. I called Morelli and asked if he was interested in pot roast and chocolate pudding. He asked if I was delivering the food naked. I said no. And he said he wanted it anyway.