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.They appeared to be records of payoffs and monies collected for weaponry Tux's name was mentioned often.That had to be Deb's Tux.The dates, all of them late August and early September, had been circled.Curiouser and curiouser.What had Sleaze stumbled into? He hated guns.Was this what he had snitched about? Then what was the other guy in the picture doing? And what about the dope?She snuck a look at the car seat with its terrible cargo.The best thing to do would be to just get rid of it.Flush it quick before she had a chance to think.But then again.That much shit was worth thousands of dollars.Was it smart to just throw it away? Was it smart to do anything else?She could use that money to pay for Sleaze's funeral.Surely that was only justice.What was left could help defer the cost of a babysitter while she was at work.The beauty of dope money was that it would be cash.Cash that wouldn't be figured into the financial report for her probation officer.Maybe this was God's way of helping.He did have a pretty weird sense of humor sometimes.She stacked all the paperwork back together, stuffed it back into the plastic as best she could, and stuck it under her seat.She drove home carefully stopping twice as long as necessary at four-way stop signs.When she got home, she lifted the car seat out of her car using only her fingertips, handling the thing like it might turn around and bite her.Her phone was ringing when she got to her front door.She answered it out of breath, holding the car seat at arm's length."Yeah?" She noticed her voice had taken on a suspicious tone."Will you accept a collect call from Lisa?" the operator asked."Sure, why not?" She set the carrier on the floor."Hey" Lisa said."You coming over tonight?""Yeah, I wanted to clean up first.""I was thinking," Lisa said, "when you were over at Sleaze's place, did you see Asia's car seat?""I did.""Do you have it? 'Cuz I was thinking we should have it here, in case we need it."Munch closed her eyes and shook her head.Lisa knew a lot more than she was saying."Yeah, I'll bring it over tonight," Munch said.She heard traffic noises."Where are you calling from?""The liquor store.""Who's watching the kids?""They're okay by themselves for a little while."Munch wondered how she'd arrived at that conclusion.Lisa obviously believed in the hasn't-killed-them-yet parenting method."I won't keep you, then.You go on home and I'll see you in about an hour."After they hung up, Munch ran her bath.All she could think about were the drugs in her house, singing their siren promises.Was she happily sober?Jesus, where had that thought come from? Where was her gratitude? Thank you, God, for not making it heroin that Sleaze was smuggling, was the only prayer she could come up with.She rushed through her bath and dressed quickly Still barefoot, she grabbed the car seat cushion and took it into the kitchen.Until she could decide the best way to handle this situation, she needed to hide the dope.Too bad she couldn't figure out a way to hide it from herself while she was at it.She picked up the flour canister and then set it back down.Too obvious.She opened the refrigerator and considered pouring the milk out of the carton, but nixed that idea as well.You could always tell when they had been opened.A message kept flashing in her brain: Should she sample the merchandise?Maybe she could hide it in the trash cans out in the alley Pickup wasn't until Monday No, that wasn't good, either.What if someone went through the trash? Kids, even, looking for recyclables.She rummaged through her kitchen drawer until she located a ball of twine.Unwinding six feet of it, she fashioned a noose with a slip knot.She unzipped the car seat, lassoed the bag, and pulled the twine tight around the center of it.The last thing she did was wipe the bag clean of any possible fingerprints.She walked outside to the storm drain, lowered the dope down the gutter, and tied the other end of the string to the grating.If the string broke, there were going to be some busy rats tonight.* * *On her way to Inglewood, billboards along the freeway invited her to fly to Hawaii.She thought about the thousands of dollars that would be hers for the taking—just a few phone calls to the right people.The battle raging between her ears gave her a headache.At Culver Boulevard, four bikers on Harleys thundered past her single file, filling the car with the roar of their engines.They pulled in front, and she saw that they were wearing Hell's Angels colors.Why did the sight of them still thrill her? For the briefest instant, she wished she had Harley-Davidson wings on her back window instead of her rainbow-colored EASY DOES IT.She got off at La Tijera and caught the red light at the top of the off-ramp.While she idled there, the sheriff 's bus groaned to a stop next to her.She stared so hard that the driver waved to her [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]