“I always need a baby-sitter. I’ll see what I can do.”

I took a fast shower, ran my fingers through my hair, and dressed in Levi’s and a flannel shirt. I removed the gun from my pocketbook and cautiously returned it to the cookie jar. I turned on the answering machine and locked up after myself.

The air was crisp and the sky was almost blue. Frost sparkled on the Buick’s windows like pixie dust. I slid behind the wheel, powered up, and turned the defroster on full blast.

Going with the philosophy that doing anything (no matter how tedious and insignificant) is better than doing nothing, I dedicated the morning to drive-bys on Kenny’s friends and relatives. While I drove I kept an eye out for my Jeep and for white trucks with black lettering. I wasn’t finding anything, but the list of items to look for was getting longer, so maybe I was making progress. If the list got long enough, sooner or later I was bound to find something.

After the third pass I gave up and headed for the office. I needed to pick up my check for bringing Petras in, and I wanted to access my answering machine. I found a space available two doors down from Vinnie, and I took a stab at parallel-parking Big Blue. In slightly less than ten minutes, I got the car pretty well angled in,with only one rear tire on the sidewalk.

“Nice parking job,” Connie said. “I was afraid you were going to run out of gas before you berthed the QE Two.”

I dumped my pocketbook onto the Naugahyde couch. “I’m getting better. I only hit the car behind me twice, and I missed the parking meter totally.”

A familiar face popped up from behind Connie. “Sheeeit, that better not a been my car you hit.”

“Lula!”

Lula posed her 230 pounds with hand on outthrust hip. She was wearing white sweats and white sneakers. Her hair had been dyed orange and looked like it had been cut by a bush hog and straightened with wallpaper paste.

“Hey, girl,” Lula said. “What you doing dragging your sad ass in here?”

“Came to pick up a paycheck. What are you doing here? Trying to make bail?”

“Hell no. I just been hired to whip this office into shape. I’m gonna file my ass off.”

“What about your previous profession?”

“I’m retired. I gave the corner over to Jackie. I couldn’t go back to bein’ a ho after I was cut so bad last summer.”

Connie was smiling ear to ear. “I figure she can handle Vinnie.”

“Yeah,” Lula said. “He try anything with me, and I’ll stomp on the little motherfucker. He mess with a big woman like me, and he be nothin’ more than a smelly spot on the carpet.”

I liked Lula a lot. We’d met a few months ago, when I was just starting out on my bounty hunter career, and I’d found myself looking for answers on her corner on Stark Street.