'Do you need an escort out of here? Are you in public parking?'

'No, I'm illegally parked in the chief's spot.'

Morelli looked over at the reserved space. The Lincoln? What happened to the truck?'

'Too high profile.'

My cell phone rang at six forty-five Monday morning.

'Junkman tagged the second gang member on his list,' Morelli said. 'You don't want to know the details, but it took us less time to locate all the body parts this time since we knew where to look.'

Not good information on an empty stomach.

I rolled out of bed and went to the kitchen to say good morning to Rex. I made coffee and drank it with my meager bowl of healthy, tasteless cereal. After two cups of coffee I still wasn't motivated to start my day, so I went back to bed.

The phone rang again at eight o'clock. It was Connie. 'You remembered about Carol Cantell, right?'

'Sure. What was I supposed to remember?'

'She's got court today.'

'Shit. I'd completely forgotten. 'What's her court time?'

'She's supposed to be there at nine, but her case probably won't be heard until after lunch.'

'Call her sister and have her go over to Carol's house. I'll pick

Lula up at the office in a half hour.'

No time for a shower. I borrowed a hat and another shirt from Ranger and pulled on my one remaining pair of clean jeans. I was in the elevator when I realized I'd buttoned the top snap on the jeans. Hooray. The diet was working. Good thing, too, because I was hating every minute of it and would love an excuse to quit.

I remoted the gate open and ran to the car. I was parking closer now that I was driving the Lincoln. Not as afraid of discovery by Ranger's men. I was on the cell phone at the first red light, calling Cantell.

'What?' she yelled into the phone. "What?'

'It's Stephanie Plum,' I said, in my most reassuring, soothing voice. 'How are things going?'

'I'm fat… that's how it's frigging going. I have nothing to wear. I look like a blimp.'

'You remembered your court date?'

'I'm not going. I can't get into any of my clothes, and everyone's going to laugh at me. I ate a truckful of chips, for crying out loud.'

'Lula and I are coming over to help. Just hang in there.'

'Hurry up. I'm losing it. I need salt. I need grease. I need something crunchy in my mouth. I'm running a fever here.'

Cindy was sitting on Carol's front porch when we drove up.

'She won't let me in,' Cindy said. 'I know she's in there. I can hear her pacing.'

I rapped on the front door. 'Carol, open the door. It's Stephanie.'

'Have you got food?'

I crinkled a bag of Cheez Doodles so she could hear it through the door. 'Lula and I stopped on the way over and bought Doodles to get you through the court session.'

Carol cracked the door. 'Let me see.'

I shoved the Cheez Doodles at her. She grabbed the bag from me, ripped it open, and shoved a handful of doodles into her mouth.

'Oh yeah,' she said, sounding a lot like Lowanda doing phone sex. 'I feel better already.'

'I thought you were over the doodle craving,' Lula said.

'I'm not good with stress,' Carol said. 'It's a glandular thing.'

'It's a mental thing,' Lula said. 'You're a nut.'

We all followed Carol upstairs to her bedroom. 'I did my hair, and I put on my makeup, and then I went to get dressed, and I just sort of had a brain fart,' Carol said.

We stood at the doorway and surveyed the disaster area. It looked like her closet exploded, and then her room was ransacked by monkeys.

'Guess you couldn't decide what to wear,' Lula said, stepping over the clothes carnage that littered the floor.

'Nothing fits!' Carol wailed.

'Would have been good if you'd discovered that yesterday,' Lula said. 'You ever think of preparing ahead?'

I was picking through the crumpled piles of clothes on the floor, looking for slacks with elastic waistbands, bulky tops, scarves that matched. 'Help me out here,' I said. 'Let's start with the slacks. Black would be good. Everything goes with black.'

'Yeah, and it don't show the cellulite lumps,' Lula said. 'Black is real slimming.'

Ten minutes later we had Carol squashed into black slacks. The button was open at the waist but you couldn't see it under the hip-length dark blue cotton shirt.

'Good thing you got this nice big roomy shirt,' Lula said to Carol.

Carol looked down at it. 'It's a nightgown.'

'Do you have any roomy shirts that aren't nightgowns?' I asked her.

'They all have doodle stains on them,' she said. 'It's hard to get those orange smudges out of stuff.'

'You know what I think?' I said. I think this outfit looks good. No one will know you're wearing a nightgown. It looks just like a shirt. And the color is good for you.'

'Yeah,' Lula and Cindy said. The color is good.'

'Okay,' I said, 'we're ready to go.'

'I've got her purse and jacket,' Cindy said.

I've got a towel so she don't get doodle crumbs on herself on the way to the courthouse,' Lula said.

'I can't do it!' Carol sobbed.

'Yes, you can,' we all said. 'You can do it.'

'Hit me,' Carol said. 'I need a hit.'

I gave her a new bag of Cheez Doodles. She tore the bag open and scarfed a handful of doodles.

'You gotta pace yourself,' Lula said to Carol. 'You got a long day ahead of you, and you don't want to run out of doodles.'

Carol clutched the bag to her chest and we nudged her forward, down the stairs, out to the car.

I got Carol Cantell settled in at the courthouse and then I left. Lula and Cindy were with Cantell. Cindy had four unopened bags of doodles. Lula had cuffs and a stun gun. They promised to call me if a problem developed.

I would have stayed with Cantell to see how things turned out but I was feeling grungy. I needed a shower. And I needed to put distance between me and the Cheez Doodles. Ten more minutes with Cantell and I would have wrestled her for the remaining bags.

I drove past Ranger's building, but there was too much activity to chance a run for the elevator. So, what are the alternative shower and lunch possibilities? Morelli's house was one alternative. I had a key to the house, and I still had some clothes there. Convenient but not smart, I thought. Not a good time to return. Too many unresolved issues. And Junkman could be watching the house.

Better to go to my parents' house. It was easier to sneak in through the back, and I could feel relatively confident that I wasn't seen.

Eleven

It was close to noon when I cruised into the Burg. Sallys bus was parked in front of my parents' house, and my father's car was missing from the driveway. Probably there was a big wedding discussion going on, and my father was hiding out at the Elks Lodge.

On first pass I didn't see any Slayers with boom boxes or automatic weapons. Of course, if someone was skinny enough he could be crouched behind Mrs Ciak's hydrangea bush. I thought better safe than sorry, and I did my Saturday night routine, driving halfway around the block to park. I had the sweatshirt on again with the hood up. I locked the Lincoln, and once again, I cut through the Krezwickis' yard.

I didn't want my mother to do another freak-out, so I took the sweatshirt off before I opened the back door.

Sally, Valerie with the baby, my mother, and Grandma Mazur were at the kitchen table.

'You're hiding from someone, aren't you?' my mother said to me.

'That's why you keep sneaking in the back.'

'She's hiding from them gang members who want to kill her,' Grandma said. 'Does anyone want that last piece of cake?'

That's ridiculous,' my mother said. 'We don't have gangs in Trenton.'

'Wake up and smell the coffee,' Grandma said. 'We got Bloods and Craps and Latin Queens. And that's just to name a few.'