I changed out of the dress into jeans and sneakers and a flannel shirt. I retrieved my .38 from the cookie jar, made sure it was loaded, and slipped it into my pocketbook.

When I came back to the living room Morelli was hand-feeding a corn chip to Rex.

“Looks to me like you’re dressed for action,” Morelli said. “I heard you lifting the lid on the cookie jar.”

“Mancuso made threatening sounds about my grandmother.”

Morelli pulled the power on the Rangers. “He’s getting restless and frustrated, and he’s getting stupid. It was stupid to come after you in the mall. It was stupid of him to sneak into Stiva’s. And it was stupid to call you. Every time he does something like that he risks exposure. Kenny can be cunning when he’s on top of himself. When he loses it, he’s all ego and impulse.

“He’s feeling desperate because his gun deal got screwed up. He’s looking for a scapegoat, looking for someone to punish. Either he had a buyer who paid him some front money, or else he sold off a batch of shit before the bulk of it was stolen. My money’s on the buyer theory. I think he’s in a sweat because he can’t meet his contract and the front money’s been spent.”

“He thinks Spiro has the stuff.”

“These two would eat their young if you gave them the chance.”

I had my jacket in my hand when the phone rang again. It was Louie Moon.

“He was here,” Moon said. “Kenny Mancuso. He came back, and he cut Spiro.”

“Where’s Spiro now?”

“He’s at St. Francis. I took him there, and then I came back to see to things. You know, close up and all.”

Fifteen minutes later we were at St. Francis. Two uniforms, Vince Roman and a new guy I didn’t know, stood flatfooted, weighted to the earth by their gun belts, at the emergency room desk.

“What’s the deal?” Morelli asked.

“Took a statement from Stiva’s kid. Got slashed by your cousin.” Vince cut his eyes to the door behind the desk. “Got Spiro back there, stitching him up.”

“How bad?”

“Could have been worse. Guess Kenny tried to cut Spiro’s hand off, but the blade glanced off the rodent’s big gold ID bracelet. Wait’ll you see the bracelet. Right out of the Liberace collection.”

This got a chuckle out of Vince and his partner.

“Don’t suppose anyone tagged Kenny?”

“Kenny’s the wind.”

Spiro was sitting up on a hospital bed in the ER when we found him. There were two other people in the ER, and Spiro was separated from them by a privacy curtain partially pulled closed. His right arm was heavily bandaged from hand to forearm. His white shirt was blood-splattered, open at the neck. A blood-soaked necktie and kitchen towel had been tossed onto the floor beside the bed.

Spiro came out of his stupor when he saw me. “You were supposed to protect me!” he yelled. “Where the hell were you when I needed you?”