Chapter 2
I stood together with Lula outside the house of Margot McPhelliman. It was a pretty house. Not exactly the house of my dreams, but it was definitely something I could have settled down with. It was painted dark red with yellow details around the windows. It wasn't too big, but not small either.
The house looked pretty empty from my stand of view, but I could be wrong. It wasn't the first time someone was hiding inside when we came to drag them away.
People seem to be a bit less stupid that I sometimes wanted them to be. At least when it comes to FTA's.
"You think we should ring the doorbell?" Lula asked.
"I guess that that would be a good idea". I lifted my finger and pushed the button hard.
It was a loud ring, but no sign of anybody inside. I looked at Lula before I pushed the button once again.
"It's not like I'm an expert or something, but I would say that there isn't anybody home". Lula might not be the best body hunter, but I think she was right about this one.
"You're probably right. We can be back later, I guess Margot is at work now anyway and that's why she's not here." I wasn't quite up to breaking into the house today. And since I'm not so good at B&E it was probably a better choice to wait until later.
"Yeah, we should probably get some lunch before we continues."
Lula looked really hungry, so I decided that it was a charity-lunch. No need to feel bad about charity, right?
We took off and went to buy some lunch at McDonalds that we could take back to the office where Connie was waiting.
After the lunch I waved goodbye to Lula and Connie and walked to my car. It was still to early to visit Margot's house again, so I decided to take a look at the other files.
The first one was a single-mother that had four children. According to her file Anna DeBree now lived with her parents. She had to jobs, and apparently an ass of an ex-husband. He had left her after fourteen years of marriage. Anna had lost her grip when he told her, and she had done some minor vandalism to his car and house.
I dialled the first number that was listed in the papers.
"Hello" a tiny voice answered. If I had to guess I would bet on that it was Anna's six years old daughter.
"Hi, is your mommy home?" I asked in a tone I thought was nice and friendly.
"My mother is not home, she is at work." The girl putt some extra pressure on mother, I guess she's not to found of calling her mother mommy.
"Well, thanks anyway."
"It is thank you, not thanks. And you are welcome." Wow, this little girl sure was polite.
After a closer look into Anna's file I found that she had moved to the states at the age of thirteen with her parents. Seem like her British accent had infected her daughter too.
It only took me 30 seconds to locate where Anna probably was working right now. She took dayshifts at a grocery store just some blocks away from her house. On evenings and nights she worked at someplace called 24-7 Food. I had never heard about it before, so I had no idea what that would be.
"Well, it's time to act" I said to myself, turning my car towards the grocery store. The rent on my apartment wasn't paying itself, so I would have to bring in some FTA soon, or else I would have to move back in with my parents.
Of course I could move in with Morelli, the cop I have been on and off with almost as long as I can remember back in time. At least for some years now.
Joseph Morelli was my mother's greatest fear when I was a child and teenager, with good reason. Morelli was all trouble and he also took my virginity when I was sixteen. In more present time, my mother has changed her mind about him and is almost begging me to marry him. Who saw that coming?
I ended up that moving in with Morelli without an apartment on hold would be an unwise thing to do considering our experience on living together. It usually just last a few weeks, sometimes only a couple of days before I returned home.
It wasn't that I didn't like living with Morelli, or that I didn't love him. It was just that we would drive each other crazy and start yelling and have another big fight.
There were also some benefits living with Morelli. To be honest with you, the man is incredible hot. Every woman in New Jersey wanted to bee with him. He had a long reputation of his capability in the bed. And as inside information, everything you have heard is correct.
I parked outside the store and took another look at the picture of Anna DeBree before I went inside.
Once inside, I found out that I didn't had to worry about not finding Anna. She was the only soul in the shop except from a man that looked like he was one-hundred years old and belonged more on a grave yard rather than a grocery store.
Since I was feeling a bit thirsty I grabbed a bottle of mineral water before I went to Anna to pay.
She put up her very best smile when she saw that I was going to buy something.
"Hello" she greeted me with a clear, British accent.
"Hello, I'm Stephanie Plum. I'm working for Vincent Plum, and you skipped your court date. I'm here to help you reschedule." I answered, me too wearing my best smile.
I saw that she instantly froze, not like she was afraid, but more like she just forgot.
"I am so sorry, it is really busy with four children and two different jobs. I totally forgot about it. Let me just call Shirley first, she is on the next shift." I watched Anna with amusement in my face. I had never had an FTA that was so cooperative.
A minute later she was back, dressed and with her purse, ready to go.
"Shirley will be her within two minutes, she lives on the second floor."
She was right, exactly two minutes later a little, blond woman arrived and Anna took off with me. I called Connie and let her know we were on our way so that she could meet us on the police station. I really didn't want Anna to wait fore to long.
We parked outside the station and walked out half an hour later. The clock was now almost four and I thought it would be time to try Margot again.
Please R&R! TBC...
