“Do you want my gun, being that you’re first in line?”
“Sure.”
I took the gun from her not so much for self-defense as to make sure Lula didn’t panic and accidentally shoot me in the back.
We walked a short distance and the tunnel curved. The single lightbulb disappeared from view and there was only blackness in front of us and behind us.
“I can’t see what I’m walking on,” Lula said. “It feels squishy and I hear water dripping.”
Water was dripping from the top of the tunnel and the dirt underfoot was muddy. I could see men’s footprints in the mud. Salgusta, I thought. Maybe someone else. Hard to tell in the dark. The tunnel came to a T-intersection. I flashed the light in both directions and saw nothing but endless dark tunnel. I went right, following the footprints.
“There’s something dropped on my neck,” Lula said. “I can feel it crawling. It’s one of them big tarantulas. Lord help me, I got them all over me!”
I turned and flashed the light on Lula. “I don’t see anything. I think you’re just getting dripped on.”
“It was on me and then it jumped off.”
I directed the light to the ground and a small rat scurried away.
“Holy hell,” Lula said.
I bit into my lip to keep from screaming and moved forward.
“I bet there’s snakes up ahead,” Lula said. “That’s the way it is with Indiana Jones. First the tarantulas and rats and then the snakes. Where’s the end of this freaking tunnel? I want to see the light. Where the heck is the light?”
“Hang on,” I said. “I’m following footprints.”
“I think we must be coming to the end because I smell something different,” Lula said. “It doesn’t smell like just dirt anymore. It smells like kerosene or gasoline or something.”
I’d noticed the smell when we turned the corner a while back. I didn’t think it was a good sign since we were following a man whose best friend was an acetylene torch.
“What’s those red dots in front of us?” Lula asked.
I flashed the light at the dots. “Rats,” I said.
“Shoot them!”
I wasn’t going to waste bullets on rats. I was saving them for whatever more horrible, more ferocious creatures might be lurking in the dark. Alligators or a slimy mud monster or Lou Salgusta.
I saw a flicker of light far down the tunnel. Another flicker eerily illuminated a smiling face, and WHOOOSH, the face disappeared behind a curtain of fire. Flames licked at the ground in front of a monstrous fireball and raced toward us.
I turned and shoved Lula. “Run!”
We ran blind in the dark, my flashlight beam bouncing around. A swarm of rats were also running for their lives, squealing beside us. I stepped on one and kicked another out of the way. Lula was huffing and puffing in front of me.
“Run faster!” I yelled. “I’ve got a wall of fire behind me.”
We reached the intersection, made the turn, and the fire roared past us. We were bent over, catching our breath and I thought I heard footsteps, far off in one of the tunnels.
“We need to get to the trapdoor,” I said to Lula. “Get moving.”
“What happens when we get to the trapdoor?” Lula asked.
“We open it.”
The dirt was dry underfoot in this part of the tunnel and the single bulb was visible in front of us. We passed under the light and I stared up at the wood door.
“Stand back,” I said to Lula.
I emptied the clip into the door where I thought the latch was located. The door was pocked with rounds, and I could see through a couple of holes I’d drilled in the wood. I climbed the ladder and pushed, but the door didn’t budge. I heard the scuff of shoes and muffled speech. I banged on the door and yelled for help.
The trapdoor was wrenched open and a young guy in a black Mole Hole T-shirt looked down at me. “What the heck?” he said, taking my hand, helping me out.
Lula was right behind. “No kidding, what the heck,” she said. “You gotta fix that door. Bad enough you got a creep-ass tunnel down there, but your door don’t even work when you want to get out. I got ruined Via Spigas, and I gotta take this dress to the cleaners. You know how much they charge to clean a dress? And on top of that, there’s fireballs and rats down there, and I’m pretty sure I got the rat cooties on me.” She tugged her skirt down over her ass and looked at the guy who helped me out. “You’re the bartender, right? I want one of them man-eater burgers with extra fries and a chardonnay.”
“Not a good idea,” I said. “There might be someone following us, and I’m out of bullets.”
“Yeah, but I really need a burger,” Lula said. “I’m about having a heart attack. I need something to calm myself. I need meat and grease and cheese.”
I could identify. My blood pressure was just a couple of notches below stroke level, but a burger wasn’t going to do it for me. I wanted to get out of the Mole Hole. I needed air. I needed distance from the smiling face of Lou Salgusta.
“We can get a burger on the way to the office,” I said. I looked at the bartender. “Thanks for the help. We appreciate it.”
“Yeah, no problem. I wouldn’t have heard the gunshots, but the music shut off between sets.” He looked down at the open trapdoor. “I didn’t know there was a tunnel.”
I turned to go and almost bumped into a woman who was standing behind me. She was my height and about my age. She was exotically pretty, with long brown hair and large almond-shaped eyes. She was dressed in black. Black Louboutin combat boots with signature spikes covering the toes. Black skinny jeans. Black tank top with a black, Loro Piana Traveller jacket. Her lipstick was perfectly outlined just like her eyes.
“Did I hear you say there was a tunnel?” she asked.
“This here is the tunnel from hell,” Lula said.
The woman moved closer and studied the ladder. “What’s down there?”
“Mostly mud and rats,” I said.
“Interesting,” she said. “A tunnel under a strip club. If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll investigate.”
“And fire,” I said. “Did I mention the fire?”
She was already halfway down the ladder.
“Hey!” I yelled at her. “The tunnel is dangerous. You shouldn’t be exploring down there.”
She disappeared from view, her boots echoing on the concrete for a short time, and then there was silence.
“Do you know her?” I asked the bartender.
“Never saw her before,” he said.
“She’s not from Jersey,” Lula said. “She doesn’t talk right. She sounds like Eliza Doolittle. And she’s a crazy lady, but she got good taste in purses. She had a Fendi mini backpack hanging from her shoulder. I always wanted one of them.”
Lula and I were splattered with mud and smelled of gasoline. We left the back room, walked through the dimly lit barroom, and went out the door. We stood blinking in the bright sunlight.
“I need to get out of these clothes before I got spontaneous combustion going on,” Lula said.
CHAPTER TWO
I dropped Lula off at the bail bonds office on Hamilton Avenue. Her car was parked at the curb, and my cousin Vinnie’s Cadillac was parked behind her. Vinnie’s name is on the store front sign. Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. And on some more or less official papers it looks like Vinnie owns the business. Truth is, his father-in-law, Harry the Hammer, owns the business, and he also owns Vinnie.