First step, quiz the rest of my housemates. I started with Lugenia, who I knew had been dating a Columbian boy until very recently. She seemed the most obvious candidate for having Hispanic gangsters blow out the kitchen window.

Finding her was the challenge. Kanesha headed to check the community center. I went out into Northwest after calling her phone.

Voice mail, and she’d never even updated the message from the default, which made it very likely she wasn’t even bothering to check it and never had. I was amazed it wasn’t full.

But I had some thoughts as to where to look. Loki, of course, had vanished. Taking with him more of the cayenne brownies than I had planned. So, I headed through northwest, looking at hairdressers.

Lugenia was very proud of her hair and I’d noticed her roots going through. She was going to have to get it relaxed again soon and that might be where she was. Kanesha thought she was silly spending all of her money on that.

I was kind of on Kanesha’s side. I wouldn’t spend that much on my hair. But…

…and I found her. She was sitting in the waiting area of one of the salons. I got stared at when I stepped inside – the salon specialized in the needs of black girls and I was pretty close to as white as you can get. “Lugenia.”

“What…what are you doing here?” The emphasis on the you was clear and understandable.

“We need to talk.” I dropped into the seat next to her. “About your ex.”

“What about him?”

“Bunch of guys threw a rock through the kitchen window and tried to shoot a friend of mine. I think they might have been friends of his.”

“Oh, hell. I didn’t take him seriously. Maybe I should call the cops.”

“Meaning he threatened something like this.”

“He threatened the usual if I can’t have you nobody can crap. That’s why we split. He was an asshole.”

Abusive, then. “The cops would give you a restraining order. He’d ignore it. I know somebody who can help with this.”

It made me a vigilante, but I didn’t care.

“Help how?”

“Scare him so much he won’t stop running until he hits the Beltway, if then.”

From the look on Lugenia’s face, the possibility definitely appealed to her.