Seven Up - By Janet Evanovich Page 0,75

grilled cheese at two in the morning. It's surrounded by all of the ugliness that makes Jersey so great. Convenience stores, branch banks, warehouse grocery stores, video stores, strip malls, and dry cleaners. And neon signs and traffic lights as far as the eye can see.

Lula and I got there at six-thirty with the frozen heart clunking around in the Igloo cooler and my wire feeling uncomfortable and itchy under my plaid flannel shirt. We sat in a booth and ordered cheeseburgers and fries and looked out the window at the traffic streaming past.

I tested the wire and got the confirmation phone call back from Ranger. He was out there . . . somewhere. He was watching the diner. And he was invisible. Joe was there, too. Probably they'd communicated with each other. I've watched them work jobs together in the past. There were rules that men like Joe and Ranger used to dictate their roles. Rules I'd never understand. Rules that allowed two alpha males to coexist for the common good.

The diner was still crowded with second-shift eaters. The first-shift eaters were the seniors who came for the early-bird special. By seven it would start to thin. This wasn't Manhattan, where people ate fashionably late at eight or nine. Trenton worked hard and much of it was asleep by ten.

My cell phone rang at seven and my heart did a little tap dance when I heard DeChooch's voice.

"Do you have the heart with you?" he asked.

"Yes. It's right here beside me in the cooler. How's Grandma? I want to talk to her."

There was some scuffling and mumbling and Grandma came on the line.

"Howdy," Grandma said.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm hunky-dory."

She sounded too happy. "Have you been drinking?"

"Eddie and me might have had a couple cocktails before dinner, but don't worry . . . I'm sharp as a tack."

Lula was sitting across the table from me and she was smiling and shaking her head. I knew Ranger would be doing the same.

Eddie came back on the line. "Are you ready for the instructions?"

"Yes."

"Do you know how to get to Nottingham Way?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Take Nottingham to Mulberry Street and turn right onto Cherry."

"Wait a minute. Ronald, your nephew, lives on Cherry."

"Yeah. You're taking the heart to Ronald. He's gonna see it gets back to Richmond."

Damn. I was going to get Grandma back, but I wasn't going to get Eddie DeChooch. I'd been hoping Ranger or Joe would snag him at the drop site.

"And what about Grandma?"

"As soon as I get a call from Ronald I'll turn your grandmother loose."

I slid my cell phone back into my jacket pocket and told Lula and Ranger the plan.

"He's pretty cagey for an old guy," Lula said. "That's not a bad plan."

I'd already paid for the food, so I dropped a tip on the table and Lula and I left. The black and green around my eyes had faded to yellow and the yellow was hidden behind dark glasses. Lula hadn't worn her leathers. She was dressed in boots and jeans and a T-shirt that had a lot of cows on it and advertised Ben & Jerry's ice cream. We were just two normal women out for a couple burgers at the diner. Even the cooler seemed innocuous. No reason to suspect it contained a heart to ransom my grandmother.

And these other people, scarfing down fries and cole slaw, ordering rice pudding for dessert. What were their secrets? Who was to say they weren't spies and thugs and jewel thieves? I looked around. For that matter, who was to say they were human?

I took my time getting to Cherry Street. I was worried about Grandma and nervous about giving Ronald a pig heart. So I drove very carefully. Crashing the bike would put a real crimp in my rescue effort. Anyway, it was a nice night to be on a Harley. No bugs and no rain. I could feel Lula behind me, holding tight to the cooler.

The porch light was on at Ronald's house. Guess he was waiting for me. Hope he had room in his freezer for an organ. I left Lula on the bike with her Glock in her hand, and I walked the cooler to the front door and rang the bell.

Ronald opened the door and looked out at me and then at Lula. "Do you two sleep together, too?"

"No," I said. "I sleep with Joe Morelli."

Ronald looked a little grim at that since Morelli is a vice cop and Ronald is a vice purveyor.

"Before