18 Explosive Eighteen Read Free Page A

the airport. What the heck did you do in Hawaii? And where’s the ring now?”
    I made an effort not to grimace. “It’s complicated.”
    “Yeah,” Lula said. “That’s what you said last night.
    You just kept saying it was complicated .” Connie examined my left hand. “Did you get married while you were in Hawaii?”
    “Not exactly.”
    “How could you not exactly get married?” Lula wanted to know. “Either you get married or you don’t get married.”
    I flapped my arms around and squinched my eyes shut. “I don’t want to talk about it, okay? It’s complicated !”
    “S’cuse me,” Lula said. “I was just sayin’. You don’t want to talk about it? Fine. Don’t talk about it. Just
    ’cause we’re best friends don’t mean nothin’. We’re like sisters, but hey, don’t bother me if you don’t want to tel me something.”
    “Good,” I said, “because I don’t want to talk about it.”
    “Hunh,” Lula said.
    Vinnie yel ed at Connie from inside the bus. “The phone’s ringing. Get the friggin’ phone!”
    “ You get the phone,” Connie yel ed back.
    “I don’t do phones,” Vinnie said.
    Connie made an Italian hand gesture at the bus.
    “Idiot.”
    “I suppose we should do something,” Lula said after Connie left to get the phone. “What else have you got there?”
    I shuffled through my stack of skips. “Two armed robberies.”
    “Pass on them. They always shoot at us.”
    “Domestic violence.”
    “Too depressing,” Lula said. “What else you got?”
    “A purse snatcher and credit card fraud.”
    “I’m liking credit card fraud. They never have a lot of fight in them. They’re always just sneaky little weasels. They just sit in the house al day shopping on the Internet. What’s this moron’s name?”
    “Lahonka Goudge.”
    “Lahonka Goudge? What kind of name is that?
    That gotta be wrong. That’s a terrible name.”
    “It’s what it says here. She lives in public housing.” Forty minutes later, we were in Lula’s car, motoring through the projects and searching for Lahonka’s apartment. It was midmorning and the streets were quiet. Kids were in school and day care, hookers were sleeping, and the drug dealers were congregating in parks and playgrounds.
    “There it is,” I said to Lula. “She’s in 3145A. It’s the ground-floor apartment with the kids’ toys in the yard.”
    Lula parked, and we walked to the door, picking our way around bikes, dol s, soccer bal s, and big plastic trucks. I raised my hand to knock, the door opened, and a woman looked out at us. She was my height, shaped like a pear, dressed in tan spandex pants and a poison-green tank top. Her hair was standing straight out from her head like it had been spray-starched and ironed, and she had huge hoop earrings hanging from her earlobes.
    “What do you want?” the woman said. “And I don’t need any. Do I look like I need something? I don’t think so. And don’t touch none of my kids’ shit or I’l turn the dog out on you.”
    And she slammed the door shut.
    “She got a personality like a Lahonka,” Lula said.
    “She even looks like a Lahonka.”
    I banged on the door, and the door got yanked open.
    “What?” the woman said. “I already told you I don’t want nothin’. I got a business goin’ here. I’m a workin’ woman, and I’m not buying any cookies, moisturizer, laundry soap, or jewelry. Maybe if you had some quality weed, but you don’t smel like weed pushers.”
    She tried to slam the door shut again, but I had my foot in it. “Lahonka Goudge?” I asked.
    “Yeah, so what?”
    “Bond enforcement. You missed a court date and we need to reschedule you.”
    “I don’t think so,” she said. “You got the wrong Lahonka. And anyways, even if I was the right Lahonka, I wouldn’t be going with you, on account of I got stuff to do. I got a pack of kids who need new sneakers, and you’re cutting into my prime earning time. I got eBay auctions goin’ on, and I’m