Morelli kissed my shoulder. “Roche would know if Kenny was in the house.”

“How would Roche know?”

Morelli sighed. “Roche would know because he’s wired the house.”

I pushed away. “You didn’t tell me! How long has the house been wired?”

“You aren’t going to make a big deal of this, are you?”

“What else haven’t you told me?”

“That’s it. I swear.”

I didn’t believe it for a second. He was wearing his cop face. I thought back to dinner, and how he’d miraculously appeared. “How did you know my mother was cooking lamb?”

“I smelled it when you opened the door.”

“Bullshit!” I grabbed my purse from the front seat and dumped the contents between us. Hairbrush, hair spray, lipstick, pepper spray, travel pack of tissues, stun gun, gum, sunglasses … black plastic transformer. Fuck.

I snatched at the bug. “You son of a bitch! You wired my pocketbook!”

“It was for your own good. I was worried about you.”

“That’s despicable! That’s an invasion of privacy! How dare you do this without asking me first!” And it was also a lie. He was afraid I’d get a bead on Kenny and not cut him in. I rolled the window down and threw the transformer out into the street.

“Shit,” Morelli said. “That thing’s worth four hundred dollars.” He opened the door and went out to retrieve it.

I pulled the door closed and locked it. Damn him any way. I should have known better than to try to work with a Morelli. I climbed over the seat and slid behind the wheel.

Morelli tried the passenger side door, but it was locked. All the doors were locked, and they were going to stay that way. He could freeze his stupid dick off for all I cared. Serve him right. I revved the engine and took off, leaving him standing in the middle of the street in his shirt and socks, with his woody hanging half-mast.

I got a block down Hamilton and reconsidered. Probably it wasn’t a good idea to leave a cop standing naked in the middle of the street. What would happen if a bad guy came along? Morelli probably couldn’t even run in his condition. Okay, I thought, I’ll help him out. I made a U-turn and retraced to the side street. Morelli was right where I’d left him. Hands on hips, looking disgusted.

… I slowed, rolled my window down, and tossed him his gun. “Just in case,” I said. Then I floored it and roared away.

I quietly crept up the stairs and breathed a long sigh of relief when I was safely locked in my bedroom. I didn’t want to explain my I’ve-been-making-out-in-a-Buick-rat’s-nest hair to my mother. Nor did I want her to glean through X-ray vision that my panties were stuffed into my jacket pocket. I undressed with the lights off, slunk into bed, and pulled the covers up to my chin.