Read 14bis Plum Spooky for Free Online Page B

if I couldn‘t zip them.
    “One of us has to get Carl,” I said.
    Diesel hauled himself out of the chair. “I guess that would be me.”
    He ambled off, and moments later, he called from upstairs. “Got a problem here.”
    I found Diesel standing in the doorway to an empty bathroom.
    “Where‘s Carl?” I asked.
    “Don‘t know,” Diesel said, “but the window is open. It was closed and locked when I put Carl in here.”
    I went to the window and looked out. No Carl.
    “I used to escape through this window all the time when I was in high school,” I said. “What are we going to do?”
    “We‘re going to check out Scanlon‘s apartment.”
    “What about Carl?”
    “Easy come, easy go,” Diesel said.
    “Maybe you can sniff him out. Look for his ectoplasm or something. Follow his sensory imprint.”
    “Sorry. I don‘t do monkeys.”
    “Well, that‘s just peachy. That‘s fine.” I threw my hands into the air and stomped off to the stairs. “Don‘t help. Who needs you anyway? I‘ll look for him myself.”
    Diesel followed after me. “I didn‘t say I wouldn‘t help. I just said I didn‘t think I could tune in to monkey ectoplasm.”
    I stopped at the front door and yelled that I was leaving. “Thanks for dinner,” I said.
    My mother came to the door with a bag of leftovers. “Here‘s for lunch.”
    My grandmother was with her. “Where‘s Carl?”
    “He went on ahead,” I told her. “We‘re going to catch up with him later.”
    We slowly drove around the block but didn‘t see Carl.
    We parked and walked a four-block grid, including alleyways. No Carl.
    “Are you getting anything?” I asked Diesel.
    “Yeah, I‘m getting tired of walking around looking for a wiseass monkey.”
    “I feel responsible. Susan trusted me to take care of Carl until she came home.”
    “Honey, Susan‘s never coming home. She just dumped her monkey on you.”
    “You don‘t know that for sure.”
    “True. I was putting myself in Susan‘s place.” He draped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me into him. “Here‘s my deal. If you snoop around Scanlon‘s apartment with me, I‘ll come back and look for Carl in the morning.”
    “Deal.”
    Connie had listed Scanlon‘s address as 2206 Niley Circle in Hamilton Township. I was familiar with Niley Circle. It was part of a large town house condo complex off Klockner Boulevard. I found the complex and parked in the lot. Diesel and I got out and studied the cluster of narrow town houses in front of us. Easy to find Scanlon‘s, since the door was sealed with yellow crime-scene tape.
    Diesel ripped the tape off and opened the door.
    “How did you do that?” I asked him. “How did you just turn the knob and open the door?”
    “I don‘t know. It‘s a gift. I can flush a toilet without touching the little lever, too.”
    “Really?”
    Diesel grinned down at me. “You are so gullible.”
    I narrowed my eyes at him. “You‘re scum.”
    “It‘s okay,” Diesel said, planting a kiss on the top of my head. “It‘s cute.”
    We were standing in a small foyer in the dark. This was a two-story town house, so presumably, there were stairs somewhere, plus furniture and a kitchen and all the things one ordinarily finds in a home. Unfortunately, I couldn‘t see any of them because it was pitch black. I felt Diesel leave my side, and I could hear him moving around the room.
    “Can you see where you‘re going?” I asked him.
    “Yep. Can‘t you?”
    I blew out a sigh. “No.”
    “Maybe you need to eat more carrots or blueberries or something.”
    I took a couple steps forward and fell over a large unseen object. Diesel crossed the room, picked me up, and set me on my feet.
    “Stand here, and don‘t move, and let me look around,” Diesel said.
    I listened to him search the condo for what seemed like forever and a day. My eyes adjusted to the absence of light enough to see a few large shapes but never enough to make out detail. From time to time, I‘d