THIRTEEN
Ten minutes later, with Mary Lou riding shotgun in my Jeep, we stopped outside the bonds office to pick up Lula. Another half hour found us parked outside of Macy's as the three of us strolled into the mall.
"What first?" asked Lula. "Shopping or ass kicking?"
"There will be no ass kicking," I replied sternly, pulling the file on Alexander Li from my purse and showing his photo to Lula and Mary Lou. "Twenty-one years old," I read, "first time offender. Busted for taking a leak in a public park while walking home from the bar one night. Drunk as a skunk when it happened, so he got charged with public intoxication and public indecency. He works at the Chinese restaurant in the food court. His parents own the business."
Lula checked the time on her cell phone. "It's only ten-thirty. The Chinese place doesn't start serving until eleven-thirty, so we might as well do some shopping first, enjoy lunch, then grab our guy."
Mary Lou and I agreed. We shopped until twelve thirty, then headed for the food court. We looked around, taking in our dining choices. I covertly eyed up the Chinese restaurant, but didn't see Alexander Li working the front counter.
"One of you needs to get Chinese for lunch to see if Li is working," I told Lula and Mary Lou. "Everyone knows I work for Vinnie. He might recognize me and split."
"I'll do it," replied Mary Lou. "I'm hungry for some sesame chicken anyway."
Lula and I got in line for pizza and we met Mary Lou at a table as far from the Chinese restaurant as possible.
"He's working the wok in the back," Mary Lou reported.
We ate and formulated a plan. After throwing away our trash, Mary Lou approached the Chinese counter. Lula and I slunk around the outside of the food court until we were standing pressed against the wall next to the Chinese restaurant.
"Excuse me," Mary Lou said to the young man working the register. "May I speak to the chef?"
"Was there a problem with your food?" he asked.
"No, it was really good. I want to give him my compliments."
"I would be happy to pass along the message."
"I'd really like to tell him in person," Mary Lou insisted, leaning on the counter to flash some cleavage and block the customers behind her from ordering.
The kid at the register sighed. "Hey Alex, get up here," he shouted.
A few minutes later I heard a new voice. "How can I help you, ma'am?" The voice sounded bored.
Mary Lou put a hand behind her back, making a thumbs up sign. "I just wanted to tell you how excellent the sesame chicken was," she said as I stepped out from around the corner. I had a good old fashioned pair of metal handcuffs with me today and they were out and ready.
"Alexander Li?" I asked as I leaned against the counter and snapped a bracelet onto Alex's wrist. "I represent Vincent Plum Bail Bonds and you're in violation of your bond. You need to come with me to reschedule your court hearing."
Li's eyes got wide and he reached under the counter with his free hand. I screeched as I suddenly fell forward. He'd hit the release for the little door built into the counter, causing it to swing inward. Li bolted toward the back of the restaurant, my cuffs dangling from his left wrist. I stumbled forward a few steps, managing not to face plant, but it put me several steps behind Li. I ran after him, stepped in some oil from the wok, and skidded across the floor. I grabbed at something, anything, and knocked several containers of pre-cut vegetables off a steel shelf, covering myself in sliced carrots, cabbage, and bamboo shoots.
Li crashed through the emergency exit at the back of the restaurant, setting off the automatic fire alarm. I skidded through the door after him, finding myself in a back hallway of the mall. I chased after him, but the bottoms of my sneakers were still slick with grease and I kept losing my footing. I saw Li push open a door into the mall and then heard a loud ooff followed by silence.
I got through the door and saw Lula sitting on Li.
"Where's Mary Lou?" I asked as I cuffed Li's other hand behind his back. It didn't look like he would try to escape again anytime soon. His eyes were glazed and he barely breathed.
"There's two exits from that back hallway. She took the other one."
I called Mary Lou from my cell phone and told her to meet us at the Jeep. Lula and I helped Li to his feet and walked him back through Macy's. Mary Lou waited for us just inside the exit doors, looking anxious.
"Ummm, I think there might be a slight problem with your car," she said, chewing on her lip.
What now? We stepped outside and into a crowd of gawkers. The Jeep sat exactly where I'd left it. Flames shot out all the windows. Sirens echoed nearby and soon a firetruck chugged into the lot, followed by several police cars.
I pushed my way to the front of the clump of people. "Did you see what happened?" I asked a lady my mother's age.
She nodded. "I was waiting for my husband to bring the car around, and a maroon car pulled into the aisle and stopped. At first, I figured it's just someone waiting for a spot to open up, but then I saw the driver's door open and someone threw something under that Jeep. A second later there were flames everywhere."
"Did you see the driver?"
"No, all the windows were tinted real dark."
"Do you recall the make or model? Maybe some of the license plate?"
She paused and I saw her glance at Li, still handcuffed in front of me.
"Are you an undercover cop? Wow. I never met an undercover cop before. I'm sorry, but I'm not a car person. If my husband had been with me he could tell you everything about the car, but all I remember is that it was a maroon four door sedan with tinted windows. It had Jersey plates, but I don't remember the numbers. Honestly, once the Jeep started burning, I couldn't pull my eyes away."
"Thank you anyway," I told her, not bothering to correct her assumption about me being an undercover cop.
I heard my cell ringing in my purse, so I handed off Li to Lula and dug out my phone. Ranger's name showed on the screen.
"Hi," I said as I answered it.
"The GPS on the Jeep just disappeared from our screens. Last location was the Quaker Bridge Mall. I don't suppose it's coincidence that a call went out about the same time for a vehicle fire?"
"Someone in a maroon four door sedan with tinted windows tossed something under the Jeep and it caught fire."
"Are you hurt?"
"No. We were all inside the mall when it happened."
"We?"
"Lula and Mary Lou. They were helping me pick up an FTA who works in the food court."
"How'd that go."
"I'm covered in raw stir fry veggies but I got my guy."
"Babe." I heard someone talking in the background. "Tank wants to know if the car just burned or if it exploded?"
"It only burned. Might be something to do with the tank being on empty. Otherwise, there might have been an explosion."
I heard Ranger relay my information and Tank utter a disappointed, "damn."
"He's disappointed I didn't blow up another car?" I asked.
"He's disappointed he lost the betting pool. He had his money on an explosion."
My eye twitched. "Your men have a betting pool on how I'm going to destroy my vehicles? I thought it was only on when I'd destroy it."
"When got too predictable, so they switched to how. I'll send someone over with a new set of wheels for you. I have some info on Fortecelli, can you come over later?"
"Sure. I'll stop by after I drop off the FTA and get my check from Connie."
Ranger disconnected. The firefighters had the Jeep mostly extinguished already. The police were standing by in a tight clump, mostly just there as a formality. I spotted Eddie Garazza among them and decided I ought to walk over and fess up to the car being mine.
Eddie grinned the second he saw me walking toward him.
"It's yours, isn't it?"
"Technically, it's Ranger's, but it was on loan to me." I told him what the woman in the crowd told me and pointed her out so that he could get an official statement.
As I walked away, I saw Eddie grab his radio, no doubt letting Morelli know about my latest vehicular disaster.
We were still waiting for Ranger's lift when Morelli pulled up. He parked in the fire lane in front of Macy's and got out, briefly surveying the Jeep's carcass before walking over to me. I had Li sitting on the curb, still handcuffed and now in leg shackles to ensure he didn't run again. Morelli looked down at Li and then over at me. He plucked some stray bamboo shoots from my hair. I'd managed to pick most of the vegetables off the rest of me.
"Do I want to know?"
"About the bamboo shoots or the Jeep?"
He glanced down at Li again and smiled. "I've got a pretty good guess about the bamboo shoots. What happened to the Jeep?"
I told him about the maroon sedan.
"And you expect me to believe this was just a random act?"
I shrugged. "It might be. I mean, these things happen, right?"
"Not to you," Morelli replied pointedly. "Call me if you want my help. And try not to get barbequed."
He turned and left just as two black Rangeman SUVs pulled into the fire lane behind him. Tank got out of the first SUV, walked over, and handed me the keys.
"Sorry you lost the betting pool," I told him.
"No biggie," he replied with a shrug. "There's always next time."
To someone else, it might have felt like a jab. To me, he spoke just the honest truth.
"Need help loading him in?" Tank asked, nodding toward Li.
"Please."
Li gave no struggle as Tank literally picked him up and plunked him into the backseat of the SUV, securing his leg shackles to the metal loops in the floor. Lula, Mary Lou, and I all piled in and delivered Li to the police station. I drove Mary Lou home and Lula back to the bonds office. I used the bathroom mirror in the bonds office to pick the rest of the vegetables out of my hair. Connie cut me a check and I cashed it on my way downtown to see Ranger.