Hard Eight by Janet Evanovich Read Free Book Online Page A

off.
    “Holy crap,” Lula said. “What was that? I’m totally creeped out. Eddie Abruzzi has eyes like Ramirez. And Ramirez had no soul. I thought I put all that behind me, but I looked into those eyes just now and everything went black. It was like being with Ramirez all over again. I’m telling you, I’m freaked. I got the sweats. I’m hyperventilating is what I’m doing. I need a burger. No, wait a minute, I just had a burger. I need something else. I need . . . I need . . . I need to go shopping. I need shoes.”
    Kloughn’s eyes brightened. “So Ramirez and Abruzzi are bad guys, right? And Ramirez is dead, right? What was he, a professional killer?”
    “He was a professional boxer.”
    “Holy cow.
That
Ramirez. I remember reading about him in the paper. Holy cow, you’re the one who killed Benito Ramirez.”
    “I didn’t kill him,” I said. “He was on my fire escape, trying to break in, and someone else shot him.”
    “Yeah, she almost never shoots anyone,” Lula said. “And I don’t care anyway. I’m getting out of here. I need mall air. I could breathe better if I had mall air.”
    I took Kloughn back to the Laundromat and dropped Lula at the office. Lula roared off in her red Trans Am, and I went in to visit with Connie.
    “You know that guy you picked up yesterday,” Connie said to me, “Martin Paulson? He’s back on the street. There was something wrong with his original arrest, and the case has been dismissed.”
    “He should be locked up just for living.”
    “Apparently, when he was released his first words as a freed man were some unflattering references to you.”
    “Great.” I slouched onto the couch. “Did you know Eddie Abruzzi owned Benito Ramirez? We ran into him at Evelyn’s house. And speaking of Evelyn’s house, she has a broken window that we need to repair. It’s in the back.”
    “It was a kid with a baseball, right?” Connie said. “And after you saw him break the window, he ran away, and you don’t know who he is. Wait, even better, you
never
saw him. You got there and the window was broken.”
    “On the nose. So, what do you know about Abruzzi?”
    Connie punched the name into her computer. In less than a minute, information started coming in. Home address, previous address, work history, wives, children, arrest history. She printed it out and handed it over to me. “We can find out his toothpaste brand and the size of his right nut, but it’ll take a little longer.”
    “Tempting, but I don’t think I need to know his nut size just yet.”
    “I bet they’re big.”
    I clapped my hands over my ears. “I’m not listening!” I looked sideways at Connie. “What else do you know about him?”
    “I don’t know much. Just that he owns a bunch of real estate in the Burg and downtown. I’ve heard he’s not a nice guy, but I don’t know any details. A while back he was arrested on a minor racketeering charge. The charge was dropped due to lack of
live
witnesses. Why do you want to know about Abruzzi?” Connie asked.
    “Morbid curiosity.”
    “I got two skips in today. Laura Minello got picked upfor shoplifting a couple weeks ago and was a no-show for her court appearance yesterday.”
    “What did she shoplift?”
    “A brand-new BMW. Red. Took it right off the lot in broad daylight.”
    “Test drive?”
    “Yeah, only she didn’t tell anyone she was taking it, and she tested it for four days before they caught her.”
    “You’ve got to respect a woman with that kind of initiative.”
    Connie passed me two files. “The second failure to appear is Andy Bender. “He’s a repeat for domestic violence. I think you might have picked him up on a previous charge. He’s probably home, drunk as a skunk, without a clue if it’s Monday or Friday.”
    I flipped through Bender’s file. Connie was right. I’d tangled with him before. He was a scrawny wasteoid of a man. And he was a nasty drunk.
    “This is the guy who came after me with a chain