11 Eleven On Top (22 page)

“What about the reception? Is there a reception?” No.

“Never?”

“Never. She said if they liked Disney World they were going to live there and never return to Jersey.”

“We should get the cake,” I said. “Be a shame to waste the cake.”

“At a time like this, you're thinking of cake? And what's wrong with your new cell phone?” my mother asked. “I tried to call you, and it's not working.”

“It got blown up in Joe's garage.”

“Be sure to give me your new number when you replace your phone,” my mother said. “I'm sorry you didn't get to play the cello for everyone.”

“Yeah, that would have been fun.”

I disconnected and looked across the table at Morelli. “Valerie's going to Disney World.”

“Good for her,” Morelli said. “Guess that leaves the rest of the day open. It'll give you a chance to look up my pants leg again.”

Here's a basic difference between Morelli and me. My first thought was always of cake. His first thought was always of sex. Don't get me wrong. I like sex... a lot. But it's never going to replace cake.

Morelli topped off our coffee. “What did your mother say when you told her about your cell phone?”

“She said I should tell her my new number when I got a new phone.”

“That was it?”

“Pretty much. Guess your garage wasn't big news.”

“Hard to top the Mama Macaroni explosion,” Morelli said.

Last night, Morelli's garage had been cordoned off with crime-scene tape, and men were now carefully moving around inside the tape, gathering evidence, photographing the scene. A couple cop cars and crime-scene vans were parked in the alley. A few neighbors were standing, hands in pockets, watching at the edge of Morelli's yard.

I saw Laski cross the yard and come to the back door. Laski let himself in and put a white bakery bag on the table. “Doughnuts,” he said. “You got coffee?”

Two uniforms followed Laski into the kitchen.

“Was that a bakery bag I saw come in here?” one of them asked.

I started a new pot of coffee going and excused myself. The house was going to be filled with cops today. Morelli wasn't going to need Nurse Stephanie.

I took a shower, pulled my hair back into a half-assed ponytail, and dressed in black jeans, a black T-shirt, and the Pumas. I grabbed the black sweatshirt and the keys to the Buick and returned to the kitchen to give the good news to Morelli.

“I'm going to work,” I told him. “I wasn't able to get through everything yesterday.”

Our eyes held and I guess Morelli decided I was actually going in to work and not going in to boff Ranger. “Are you taking the Buick?”

“Yes.”

“Let Ryan go over the car before you touch it.”

That worked just fine for me. I wasn't in the mood to get exploded.

I had three complete files in front of me. Barroni, Gorman, and Lazar. I had Runion running on the first of the search programs. I had my pad half filled with notes, but so far, nothing had added up to anything resembling a clue.

I knew by the sudden silence that Ranger was in the control room. When the men were alone there was constant low-level chatter. When Ranger appeared there was silence. I rolled back so I could see into the room. Ranger was standing, quietly talking to Tank. He glanced my way and our eyes met. He finished his conversation with Tank, and he crossed the room to speak to me.

His hair was still damp from his shower, and when he entered my cubicle he brought the scent of warm Ranger and Bulgari shower gel with him. He leaned against my desk and looked down at me. “Aren't you supposed to be in a wedding?”

“Valerie took off for Disney World.”

“Alone?”

“With Albert and the three kids. It's almost ten o'clock. Aren't you getting a late start? Have a late night?”

“I worked out this morning. I understand you had an interesting evening. You stopped sending signals abruptly at six-oh-four. We heard the fire and police request go out on the scanner at six-ten. Tank reported to me at six-twelve that there were no injuries. Next time call me, so I don't have to send a man out.”

“Sorry. My phone went with the garage.”

Ranger flipped my top drawer open. I'd left my gun and stun gun and pepper spray in the drawer overnight.

“I forgot to take them,” I said.

“Forget them again, and you don't have a job.”

“That's harsh.”

“Yeah, but you can keep the key to my apartment.”

TWELVE

Ranger took my pad and read through my notes. He looked over at the thick printouts on my desk. “Files on Barroni, Gorman, and Lazar?”

“Yes. I'm running Runion now. I think he fits the profile. If you haven't got anything better to do, you might go over the files for me. Maybe you'll see something I missed.”

Ranger slouched in the chair next to me and started with Barroni.

I finished Runion a little after noon. I printed him out and pushed back from my station. Ranger looked over at me. He was on the third file.

“How long are you staying?” Ranger asked.

“As long as it takes. I'm going to the kitchen for a sandwich.”

“Bring something back for me. I want to keep reading.”

“Something?”

“Anything.”

“You don't mean that. You have all these rules about eating. No fat. No sugar. No white bread.”

“Babe, I don't keep things in my kitchen that I don't eat.”

“You want tuna?”

“No. I don't want tuna.”

“You see!”

Ranger put the file aside and stood. He crooked an arm around my neck, kissed the top of my head, and dragged me off to the kitchen. We got chicken salad on wheat, bottles of water, and a couple apples and oranges.

“No chips,” I said. “Where are the chips?”

“I have chips upstairs in my apartment,” Ranger said.

“Are you trying to lure me to your apartment with chips?”

Ranger smiled.

“Okay, tell me the truth. Do you really have chips?”

“There are some things a woman should find out for herself,” Ranger said.

I thought that was as far as I wanted to go under the present circumstances. Going upstairs with Ranger, chips or no chips, was a complication I didn't think I could manage right now. So I returned his smile and carted my food back to the cubicle.

I was almost done rereading Runion when it hit me. The one possible thing that would tie the four men to each other. I looked over at Ranger and saw that he was watching me. Ranger had seen it, too. He was a step ahead of me.

“I haven't read Runion yet,” Ranger said. “Tell me he was in the army.”

“He was in the army.”

“Thirty-six years ago he was stationed at Fort Dix.” Bingo.

“A lot of people pass through Fort Dix,” Ranger said. “But it feels good.”

I agreed. It felt good. “I'm tired of sitting,” I told him. “I think we need a field trip.”

"Babe, you're not going to make me go to the mall, are your

“I was thinking more along the lines of doing some B and E on Anthony's house.”

“I thought you were out of the B and E business.”

“Here's the thing, someone keeps blowing up my cars, and it's getting old.”

Ranger's cell rang. He answered it and passed it over to me. “It's Morelli,” he said.

“I see you're working very closely with the boss,” Morelli said.

“Don't start.”

“I heard from the crime lab. The bomb was inside the garage, next to a wall, halfway to the rear. It was manually detonated.”

“Like the Mama Macaroni bomb.”

“Exactly. They found another interesting piece of equipment. Did you know you were being tracked?”

“Yes.”

“And last but not least, your mother called and said she was having meatballs and wedding cake for dinner.”

“I'll pick you up at six.”

“It's amazing what you'll do for a piece of cake,” Morelli said.

I gave the phone back to Ranger. “He could have killed me, but he didn't.”

“Morelli?”

“The bomber. The bomb was detonated manually, like the bomb that killed Mama Macaroni.”

“So this guy is still taking risks to play with you.”

“I guess I can sort of understand his motivation. If he thinks I ruined his life, his face, maybe he wants to torment me.”

"The notes felt real. The sniping felt real. The first car bomb made sense to me. They were all consistent with increasing harassment and intimidation.

After the Mama Macaroni bombing he loses me."

“What's your theory?”

“I don't have a theory. I just think it feels off.”

“Do you think there's a copy cat?”

“Possible, but you'd think the crime lab would have noticed differences in the bomb construction.” Ranger slid the files into my file cabinet. "Let's roll.

If we're going to break into Anthony's house we want to do it before the store closes and he comes home."

I grabbed my jean jacket and got halfway out of my cubby when I was yanked back by my ponytail.

“What did you forget?” Ranger asked.

“My orange?”

“Your gun.”

I blew out a sigh, took the gun out of my desk drawer, and then didn't know what to do with it. If I carry a gun, I almost always carry it in my purse, but guess what, no purse. My purse was a cinder in what was left of Morelli's SUV.

Ranger took the gun, pulled me flat against him, and slid the gun under the waistband of my jeans, so that it was nestled at the small of my back.

“This is uncomfortable,” I said. “It's going to give me a bruise.”

Ranger reached around and removed the gun. And before I realized what he was doing, he had the gun tucked into the front of my jeans at my hipbone. “Is this better?”

“No, but I can't imagine where you'll put it next, so let's just leave it where it is and forget about it.”

We rode the elevator to the garage, and Ranger confiscated one of the black Explorers normally set aside for his crew. “Less memorable than a Porsche,” he said. “In case we set off an alarm.”

We got into the Explorer, and I couldn't sit with the gun rammed into my pants. “I can't do this,” I said to Ranger. “This dumb gun is too big. It's poking me.”

Ranger closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the wheel. “I can't believe I hired you.”

“Hey, it's not my fault. You picked out a bad gun.”

“Okay,” he said, swiveling to face me. "Where's it poking your

“It's poking me in my... you know.”

“No. I don't know.”

“My pubic area.”

“Your pubic area?”

I could tell he was struggling with some sort of emotion. Either he was trying hard not to laugh or else he was trying hard not to choke me.

“Give me the gun,” Ranger said.

I extracted the gun from my pants and handed it over.

Ranger held the gun in the palm of his hand and smiled. “It's warm,” he said. He put the gun in the glove compartment and plugged the key into the ignition.

“Am I fired?”

“No. Any woman who can heat up a gun like that is worth keeping around.”

In twenty minutes we were parked across the street and two houses down from Anthony. Ranger cut the engine and dialed Anthony's home number. No answer.

“Try the door,” he said to me. “If someone opens it tell them you're selling Girl Scout cookies and keep them talking until I call you. I'm going in through the back. I'm parking one street over.”

I swung out of the Explorer and watched Ranger drive away. I waited a couple minutes and then I crossed the street, marched up to Anthony's front door, and rang the bell. Nothing. I rang again and listened. I didn't hear any activity inside. No television. No footsteps. No dog barking. I was about to ring a third time when the door opened, and Ranger motioned me in. I followed him to the second floor, and we methodically worked our way through all three levels.

“I don't see any evidence of a second person living here,” Ranger said when we reached the basement.

“This is a real bummer,” I said. “No books on how to build a bomb. No sniper rifles. No dirty underwear with ”Spiro“ embroidered on it.”

We were in the kitchen and only the garage remained. We knew there was something in the garage because Anthony never parked his fancy new Vette in the garage.

Ranger drew his gun and opened the door that led to the garage, and we both looked in at wall-to-wall boxes. Never-been-opened cartons containing toaster ovens, ceiling fans, nails, duct tape, grout guns, electric screwdrivers.

“I think the little jerk is stealing from his brothers,” I said to Ranger.

“I think you're right. There'd be larger quantities of single items if he was hijacking trucks or legally storing inventory. This looks like he randomly fills his trunk every night when he leaves.”

We backed out and closed the garage door.

Ranger looked at his watch. “We have a little time. Let's see what he's got on his computer.”

Anthony had a small office on the first floor. Cherry built-ins lined the walls, but Anthony hadn't yet filled them with books or objets d'art. The cherry desk was large and masculine. The cushy desk chair was black leather. The desktop held a phone, a computer and keyboard, and small printer.

Ranger sat in the chair and turned the computer on. A strip of icons appeared on the screen. Ranger hit one of the icons and Anthonys e-mail program opened.

Ranger scrolled through new mail and sent mail and deleted mail. Not much there. Anthony didn't do a lot of emailing. Ranger opened Anthony's address book.

No Spiro listed. Ranger closed the program and tried another icon.

“Let's see what he surfs,” Ranger said. He went to the bookmarked sites. They were all porn.

Ranger closed the program and returned his attention to the icon strip. He hit iPhoto and worked his way through the photo library. There were a couple pictures of Anthonys Vette. A couple pictures of the front of his town house. And three photos from the Macaroni funeral. The quality wasn't great since they were downloaded from his phone, but the subject matter was clear. He'd been taking pictures of Carol Zambelli's hooters. Zambelli had just purchased the set, and couldn't get her coat closed at graveside.

Ranger shut the computer down. “Time to get out of here.”

We left through the back door and followed a bike path through common ground to the street. Ranger remoted the SUV open, we buckled ourselves in, and Ranger hung a U-turn and headed back to the office.