like the car that had gotten blown up. I knew from past experience it would be upgraded in every way possible. And probably it had a tracking device stuck in a place I'd never think to look. Ranger liked to keep tabs on his cars and his people. A new black Land Rover with a driver waited behind the CR-V.
"This is for you, too," Tank said, giving me a cell phone. "It's programmed with your number."
And he was gone.
Grandma looked after him. "Was he from the rental car company?"
"Sort of."
I returned to the kitchen and drank my coffee while I checked the answering machine in my apartment. I had two calls from my insurance company. The first told me I would be receiving forms by priority mail. The second told me I was canceled. There were three calls of nothing but breathing. I assumed this was the rabbit. The last message was from Evelyn's neighbor, Carol Nadich.
"Hey, Steph," she said. "I haven't seen Evelyn or Annie, but something funny is going on here. Give me a call when you get a chance."
"I'm going out," I said to my mother and grandmother. "And I'm taking my stuff. I'm going to stay with a friend for a couple days. I'm leaving Rex here."
My mother looked up from cutting soup vegetables. "You aren't moving in with Joe Morelli again, are you?" she asked. "I don't know what to tell people. What do I say?"
"I'm not staying with Morelli. Don't tell people anything. There's nothing to tell. If you need to talk to me, you can reach me on my cell phone." I stopped at the door. "Morelli says you should have a security chain put on the doors. He said they're not safe this way."
"What would happen?" my mother said. "We have nothing to steal. This is a respectable neighborhood. Nothing ever happens here."
I carted my bag out to the car, tossed it onto the backseat, and climbed behind the wheel. Better to talk to Carol in person. It took less than two minutes to get to her house. I parked and did a survey of the street. Everything looked normal. I knocked once, and she answered her door.
"Quiet street," I said. "Where is everybody?"
"Soccer games. Every dad and every kid on this street goes to soccer on Saturday."
"So what's weird?"
"Do you know the Pagarellis?"
I shook my head, no.
"They live next door to Betty Lando. Moved in about six months ago. Old Mr. Pagarelli sits out on the porch all the time. He's a widow, living with his son and daughter-in-law. And the daughter-in-law won't let the old guy smoke in the house, so he's always out on the porch. Anyway, Betty said she was talking to him the other day, and he was bragging about how he was working for Eddie Abruzzi. He told Betty that Abruzzi pays him to watch my house. Is that creepy, or what? I mean, what's it to him that Evelyn took off? I don't see what the problem is as long as she makes her rent payment."
"Anything else?"
"Evelyn's car is parked in the driveway. It showed up this morning."
That took some of the wind out of my sails. Stephanie Plum, master detective. I'd driven past Evelyn's car and never noticed. "Did you hear it drive up? Did you see anyone?"
"Nope. Lenny discovered it. He went out for the paper, and he noticed Evelyn's car was here."
"Do you ever hear anyone next door?"
"Only you."
I did a grimace.
"In the beginning there were lots of people looking for Evelyn," Carol said. "Soder and his friends. And Abruzzi. Soder would just walk into the house. I guess he had a key. Abruzzi, too."
I looked over at Evelyn's front door. "You don't suppose Evelyn's in there now?"
"I knocked on the door, and I looked in the back window, and I didn't see anyone."
I moved from Carol's porch to Evelyn's porch, and Carol tagged along behind me. I knocked on the door, hard. I put my ear to the front window. I shrugged my shoulders.
"Nothing going on in there," Carol said. "Right?"
We walked to the back of the house and looked in the kitchen window. As far as I could tell, nothing had been touched. I tried the knob. Still locked. Too bad the window was repaired, I would have liked to get inside. I did another shrug.
Carol and I walked over to the car. We stood four feet away.
"I didn't look in the car," Carol said.
"We should do that," I told