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they knew it had a hole in it. So probably they couldn't get the head in the jar. Less of course they smashed it with the shovel. I bet you give it a couple good whacks and it'd crumble up pretty good. "
    My mother clapped her napkin to her mouth.
    "You okay?" Grandma asked my mother. "You having another one of them hot flashes?" Grandma leaned in my direction and whispered, "It's the change. "
    "It's not the change, " my mother said.
    "Do they know who shot Ramos?" I asked Grandma.
    "Esther didn't say anything about that. "
    By one o'clock I was full of chicken salad and my mother's rice pudding. I trotted out of the house to the Civic and spotted Mitchell and Habib half a block down the street. Mitchell gave me a friendly wave when I looked his way. I got into the car without returning the wave and drove back to Moon Man.
    I knocked on the door and Moon looked out at me, just as confused as he had been before. "Oh, yeah, " he finally said. And then he did a stoner laugh, giggling and chuffing.
    "Empty your pockets, " I told him.
    He turned his pants pockets inside out, and a bong dropped onto the front stoop. I picked it up and threw it into the house.
    "Anything else?" I asked. "Any acid? Any weed?"
    "No, dude. How about you?"
    I shook my head. His brain probably looked like those clumps of dead coral you buy in the pet store to put in aquariums.
    He squinted past me to the Civic. "Is that your car?"
    "Yes. "
    He closed his eyes and put his hands out. "No energy, " he said. "I don't feel any energy. This car is all wrong for you. " He opened his eyes and ambled across the sidewalk, pulling up his sagging pants. "What's your sign?"
    "Libra. "

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    "True, " I said, "but this is all I could afford. Get in. "
    "I have a friend who could get you a suitable car. He's like . . . A car dealer. "
    "I'll keep it in mind. "
    Mooner folded himself into the front seat and hauled out his sunglasses. "Better, dude, " he said from behind the shades. "Much better. "
    THE TRENTON COP shop shares a building with the court. It's a blocky redbrick, no-frills structure that gets the job donea product of the slam-bam-thank-you-ma'am school of municipal architecture.
    I parked in the lot and shepherded Moon inside. Technically, I couldn't bond him out myself, since I'm an enforcement agent and not a bonding agent. So I got the paperwork started and called Vinnie to come down and complete the process.
    "Vinnie's on his way, " I told Moon, settling him onto the bench by the docket lieutenant. "I have some other business in the building, so I'm going to leave you here alone for a couple minutes. "
    "Hey, that's cool, dude. Don't worry about me. The Mooner will be fine. "
    "Don't move from this spot!"
    "No problemo. "
    I went upstairs to Violent Crimes and found Brian Simon at his desk. He'd only been promoted out of uniform a couple months earlier and still didn't have the hang of dressing himself. He was wearing a yellow-and-tan-plaid sports coat, navy suit slacks with brown penny loafers and red socks, and a tie wide enough to be a lobster bib.
    "Don't they have some kind of dress code here?" I asked. "You keep dressing like this and we're going to make you go live in Connecticut. "
    "Maybe you should come over tomorrow morning and help me pick out my clothes. "
    "Jeez, " I said. "Touchy. Maybe this isn't a good time. "
    "Good as any, " he said. "What's on your mind?"
    "Carol Zabo. "
    "That woman's a nut! She smashed right into me. And then she left the scene. "
    "She was nervous. "
    "You aren't going to lay one of those PMS excuses on me, are you?"

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    Simon rolled his eyes. "Oh, crap. "
    "You see, Carol was coming out of the Frederick's of Hollywood store, and she was flustered because she'd just gotten some sexy panties. "
    "Is this going to be embarrassing?"
    "Do you get embarrassed easily?"
    "What's the point to all this, anyway?"
    "I was hoping you'd drop the charges. "
    "No way!"
    I sat down in the chair by his