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MY UNCLE PIP died and left me his lucky bottle I suppose I’m fortunate, because he left ot this bottle now, and I don’t exactly knohat to do with it It’s not like I have a mantel My name is Stephanie Plue of Trenton, New Jersey I share the apartment with my hamster, Rex, and he doesn’t knohat to do with the bottle, either The lucky bottle is the size and shape of a beer bottle The glass is red, and it looks hand blown It’s not entirely ugly, especially if you like beer, but it’s also not exotically pretty And so far, it hasn’t been very lucky I have the bottle sitting on e and the brown bear cookie jar that holds h June, and Lula was ina pity pick up because my hunk-of-junk car was dead and I needed a ride to work

“Hunh,” Lula said “What’s that red bottle on your counter?”

“It’s my lucky bottle”

“Oh yeah, what’s so lucky about it? It don’t look too lucky to ot a fancy glass stopper in it”

“It’s my inheritance from Uncle Pip”

“I reht? Had a big carbuncle on his forehead He was the one wandered out of the senior co that thunderstorm, pissed on a downed electric wire, and electrocuted himself”

“Yep That was Uncle Pip”

I’ for my cousin Vinnie, and Lula is the office file clerk, wheel her plussize body into a size 8 poison green spandex ether for Lula Lula’s skin is ine red, and her attitude is pure Jersey

I’m a couple inches taller than Lula, and where her body is overly voluptuous, irl-cut stretchy T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers My skin is nowhere near chocolate, th, naturally curly hair is plain ol’ brown and often pulled back into a ponytail,to find my attitude

I hung my purse on my shoulder and pushed Lula to the door “We need to o, and she sounded frantic”

“What’s with that?” Lula said “Last time Connie was frantic was never”

Connie Rosolli is the bail bonds office arian Connie is Italian through and through Connie is a couple years older than I am, has more hair than I do and a consistently better ically placed in front of Vinnie’s door, the better to slon stiffed bookies, process servers, hookers with obviously active herpes, and a streaenerates with quick-rich schemes hatched while under the influence of who-knohat

I live ten minutes from the office on a day without traffic This wasn’t one of those days, and it took Lula twenty et her red Firebird down Hamilton Avenue Vinnie’s bail bonds business is located on Hamilton, just up from the hospital and between a dry cleaner and a used-book store There’s a front roolass s, an inner office where Vinnie hides, a row of file cabinets, and behind the file cabinets is storage for everything froe until so slob comes up to trial

Lula parked at the curb, and we pushed through the door into the front room Lula plunked herself down on the brown fake-leather couch that was positioned against the wall, and I settled into an orange plastic chair in front of Connie’s desk The door to Vinnie’s office was open, but there was no Vinnie

“What’s up?” I asked Connie

“Mickey Gritch snatched Vinnie Last night, he caught Vinnie in a co position, pants down on Stark Street, on the corner of Stark and Thirteenth And froed Vinnie at gunpoint into the back of a Cadillac Escalade and took off”

“I know that corner,” Lula said “That’s Maureen Brown’s corner Maureen and ood a ’ho as me, but she wasn’t no skank ’ho, either”

Lula worked Stark Street prior to her job as file clerk She had a rocky beginning, but she’s getting herself together, and I suspect soovernor of New Jersey

“Anyway, I guess Vinnie had a run of bad luck at the track, and now he owes Mickey 786,000,” Connie said

“Whoa,” Lula said “That’s a lot of money”

“Soht be negotiable”

Mickey Gritch has been Vinnie’s bookie for as long as I can remember, and this isn’t the first ti this much