Tricky Twenty-Two(58)
“Oh boy.”
“Why else would he be raising fleas?”
“No clue,” Morelli said. “Maybe there’s a market for fleas, and he’s selling them on eBay. Maybe they’re pets. Maybe they’re used for scientific experiments.”
Morelli examined the shells that were lined up on the table.
“There are two different setups here,” he said. “I can see where one has a place for a canister. I don’t know about exploding fleas, but at the very least this is illegal. You can’t manufacture, store, or transport fireworks in New Jersey without a permit. And I don’t see any permits displayed. I’m shutting this down, and I’ll bring someone in to take a look at it, and clean it out.”
A half hour later, the area was secured by two uniforms, and a munitions guy was at work.
“Are you going to take a look at his apartment?” I asked Morelli.
“I’m going to question him and list him as a person of interest, but I can’t go into his apartment. It’s not like I’m a bounty hunter with blanket permission. I have to go to a judge before I can get in.”
“Would you like me to go back in?”
“No! I have enough problems. I’m drinking Prilosec by the gallons. You’re like Calamity Jane. I’m afraid you’ll come out of there with the plague.”
“So you think he might be harboring plague-infected fleas?”
“No. I was making a point.” He checked his watch. “You want to go to lunch?”
“Sure.”
We went to a deli that was a block from the school and sat at one of the small outside tables.
“You look nice,” Morelli said. “Are you going someplace special?”
“Turning over a new leaf.”
“I thought the old leaf was pretty good.”
“Thanks. I’ll probably be back to the old leaf tomorrow.”
I ordered a ham and cheese panini, and Morelli ordered cottage cheese.
“You’re going to get kicked out of Trenton for ordering cottage cheese,” I said.
“I don’t know what to eat. Everything bothers me.”
“Have you seen a doctor?”
“Yeah. He has stomach problems, too. So what are you going to do about Globovic? I get the feeling you’re not working too hard to bring him in.”
“There’s a complication. Globovic was working with a guy named Becker to make fireworks for homecoming. They ran into some problems and asked Pooka to help them, and Pooka took over. Globovic got arrested and shortly after that Becker went missing and hasn’t been seen since. Globovic is FTA because he’s trying to find Becker.”
“Why hasn’t anyone reported this to the police?”
“Globovic doesn’t think the police will pay attention to him because Becker called his parents and told them he was fine.”
“What do you think?” Morelli asked me.
“I think there’s something bad going on. Three men are dead and Becker is missing.”
“You realize this isn’t your job, right? You’re not on the payroll to save the world?”
“So then who’s supposed to save the world?”
“Good point,” Morelli said. “For sure not me. I need a bathroom. I’ll be right back.”
Gobbles called while Morelli was away.
“How did it go?” he asked. “Did you find anything in his apartment? I heard you got into the Zeta cellar and the police are there now.”
“His apartment was just as you described it. The aquariums were filled with fleas.”
“That makes sense. We were just starting to build the new models, and we all had flea bites. Pooka said he probably brought them in. That he’d been having flea problems in his apartment. It was the first week of school, and we were having an alum mixer, and Harry Getz was there. So Becker asked Getz to send someone around to get rid of the fleas.”
“Why Getz?” I asked.
“He owns an extermination company. Actually I guess it’s construction, but they do exterminating, too. He was partners with another Zeta alum, Doug Linken, and the company was in the toilet.”
“And did he get rid of the fleas?”
“Yeah. Some guy came and sprayed the cellar.”
“Did Getz ever go into the cellar?”
“Yeah, he came back to check on the fleas and Becker took him down. That was when the three of us had keys. Getz saw that we were building fireworks and didn’t like it. Said it was a fire hazard, and we needed to clean it out. He said he was going to have a talk with Pooka.”
“What day was that?”
“It was the day Getz got shot. He was at Zeta around lunchtime, and he was shot that night. It was a Wednesday, and then Becker disappeared the next day, and Pooka had the locks changed a second time.”