Lassiter

43 Going Biblical

“Sorry, Uncle Jake. I should have gotten a license plate.”

“No problem, Kip. Your description was great. I’ve seen the guy.”

“Really?” The boy’s spirits were picking up.

“The tattoos nailed it.”

We sat at the kitchen table, Kip sipping a mango shake. His mood had roller-coastered ever since he had pedaled home in record time. Hyper-excitement, then a spiral downward, and now he was rallying. The boy didn’t realize just how shell-shocked he was at nearly being kidnapped. For her part, Granny was baking maple bacon brittle, her salty-sweet antidote to any childhood ailment.

“I kicked the poop out of the guy,” Kip said.

“He underestimated you. Happens to me in court sometimes.” I tousled the boy’s hair and said, “Proud of you, kiddo.”

“I wasn’t scared, Uncle Jake.”

Right.

“It’s okay to be scared, as long as you still do the right thing.”

“Are you gonna whomp the guy?” Kip asked.

That had been my first inclination. But Nestor was Perlow’s bodyguard and would have been following his boss’s orders. Raising lots of questions. Did Perlow intend to snatch Kip or just show me he could get to someone I loved? Did Ziegler know what was going on? What about Castiel? Was there a larger game plan?

Something else had just become apparent. It must have been Nestor in the Hummer, following Ziegler to Lighthouse Point. Meaning there was a rift between Perlow and Ziegler. But why? And, more important, how could I take advantage of it?

Too many questions needed answering before I punched anyone out.

Perlow didn’t have a listed phone number, so I asked Kip to use his computer skills to find out where the old hood lived. Two minutes later, my nephew showed me an aerial shot of a 1930s Spanish-style house just off Andalusia in Coral Gables. A ficus hedge shielded an alley behind the place. It would be a good way to get onto the porch undetected.

“I’m gonna go talk to Nestor and the guy he works for,” I told Kip.

“Talk, Uncle Jake?”

“Yeah. But if either of them gives me any shit, I’ll go biblical on their asses.”

Kip looked at me, waiting for an explanation.

“I’ll bring the walls down on their heads like Samson at the Temple of Dagon.”