I walked over to the first cab in line and rapped on his window. “Where’d Eula go?” I asked.

“I dunno,” he said. “She took a cab.”

“She had money for a cab?”

“Sure. She makes out pretty good here.”

“Do you know where she lives?”

“She lives on that bench. The last one on the right.”

Wonderful. I got into my car and made a U-turn into the small, metered parking lot. I waited until someone pulled out, then I parked in their slot, ate my sandwich, drank the milk, and waited with my arms crossed over my chest.

Two hours later a cab pulled up and Eula got out. She waddled to her bench and sat down with an obvious sense of possession. I pulled out of my parking spot and eased to the curb in front of her. I smiled.

She smiled back.

I got out of the car and walked over to her. “Remember me?”

“Yeah,” she said. “You went off with my stuff.”

“I put it in a locker for you.”

“Took you long enough.”

I was born a month premature, and I never did learn the value of patience. “You see these two keys? Your stuff’s locked up in lockers that can only be opened with these two keys. Either you get in my car, or I’m flushing these keys.”

“That’d be a mean thing to do to a poor old lady.”

It was all I could do to keep from growling.

“Okay,” she said, heaving herself up. “I guess I may as well go. It ain’t so sunny anymore anyway.”

The Trenton Police Department houses itself in a three-story red-brick block-type building. A sister block, attached at street level, provides space for the courts and related offices. On every side of the municipal complex is the ghetto. This is very convenient, as the police never have to go far to find crime.

I parked in the lot attached to the station and squired Eula through the front hall to the cop at the front desk. If it had been after business hours, or if I’d had an unruly fugitive on my hands, I’d have gotten myself buzzed through the back door directly to the docket lieutenant. None of that was necessary for Eula, so I sat her down while I tried to determine if the judge who’d originally set her bond was working cases. It turned out he wasn’t, and I had no recourse but to take her to the docket lieutenant anyway and have them hold her.

I gave her the locker keys, picked up my body receipt, and left through the back door.

Morelli was waiting for me in the parking lot, leaning against my car, hands shoved into his pockets, doing his imitation of a street tough, which probably wasn’t an imitation.

“What’s new?” Morelli said.

“Not much. What’s new with you?”

He shrugged. “Slow day.”

“Un-huh.”

“Got any leads on Kenny?” he asked.

“Nothing I’d share with you. You swiped the phone bill last night.”