Nine

Lula and I were in a neighborhood that looked a lot like parts of the Burg. The homes were modest redbrick row houses, their front stoops set into sidewalk. Cars were parked on both sides, narrowing the street to barely two lanes. It was early afternoon and not much was happening. We drove past Pancek's mother's house, looking for the Civic. We did a four-block grid but came up empty.

By late afternoon we'd talked to Pancek's mother, two former neighbors, his former girlfriend, and his best buddy from high school. No one was giving Pancek up, and we hadn't run across his car.

'We're all out of Tastykakes,' Lula said. It's either time to go home or time to go shopping.'

'Time to go home,' I said.

Pancek's best buddy was married, and I couldn't see the wife putting up with Pancek. The girlfriend thought Pancek should rot in hell. That was a direct quote. His neighbors barely knew him.

That left his mother. I had a feeling Mrs Pancek knew more than she was telling us, but from todays performance it was obvious she wasn't ready to rat on her son.

We'd run down all our leads, and there wasn't anything left to do short of staking out the mother's house. I was all in favor of a job well done, but Pancek wasn't worth a stakeout. A stakeout was a major bummer.

Morelli called on my cell phone. He didn't waste time with hello or how are you. Morelli got right to the heart of it. 'Where are you?'

I'm in Newark, looking for a slap.'

'I don't suppose you'd consider staying there. Maybe getting a room.'

'What's up?'

'We have a dead guy here. Gunned down on the street, and then had his nuts surgically removed.'

'Gang member?'

'Big time. Cut. Had a J freshly carved into his forehead.'

'Would that be J for Junkman?'

'That would be my guess,' Morelli said. 'Are you scared yet?'

'I'm always scared.'

'Good. I'm drinking Pepto-Bismol by the case. I hate this. Every time my pager goes off I get an eye twitch, terrified that someone found your body.'

'At least we don't have to worry about me getting my nuts surgically removed.'

There was a moment of silence. That's sick,' Morelli finally said.

'I was shooting for levity.'

'You failed.' And he disconnected.

I told Lula about the killing, and we went in search of the turnpike.

These gang guys are crazy,' Lula said. 'It's like they're alien invaders, or something. Like they don't know how to live on planet Earth. Hell, they're not even hot aliens. Not that it would matter, but if they were hot looking they'd at least be interesting, you see what I'm saying?'

I wasn't seeing what she was saying. I was taking slow, even breaths, and I was working at controlling my heart rate.

I dropped Lula off at the office, and I drove to Ranger's building. I could see someone in the lobby, talking to the guard at the desk. A car pulled out of the garage, and the gate slid back into place. Too much activity, I thought. Too early for me to sneak inside.

I parked halfway down the block, and I watched the people coining and going. I called Connie, gave her the Haywood Street address, and asked her to check on the building.

'That's Ranger's building,' Connie said.

'You know about it?'

The RangeMan offices are there. Ranger moved his business into that building about a year ago.'

'I didn't know.'

'Well, it's not like it's the Bat Cave,' Connie said. 'It's an office building.'

So what was with the top-floor apartment? It was filled with Ranger's clothes. Clearly he lived there at least part-time. I was disappointed, and I was relieved. I was disappointed because I hadn't discovered some big secret place. And I was relieved because maybe I hadn't invaded Ranger's private space. The relief was unwarranted, of course. His clothes were there. His shower gel, his deodorant, his razor were there. It might not be the Bat Cave, but it was Ranger's private space.

'Anything else?' Connie wanted to know.

'Nope,' I said. 'That was it. See you tomorrow.'

By seven o'clock the building looked just about empty. The fifth and sixth floors were lit, but the lobby door appeared locked, and garage traffic seemed to have stopped. I locked the Lincoln, walked the short distance to the garage, and let myself into Rangers apartment.

I dropped my keys into the dish on the sideboard and went to the kitchen to say hello to Rex. I had a beer and a peanut butter sandwich, and I moved to the den to take another crack at the television. After ten minutes of pushing buttons on the remote I had the picture up but no sound. I went to school with a guy who owned an appliance store. I called him at the store, and he gave me a remote lesson. Hooray, now I could watch and hear television.

Home sweet home.

I'd set the alarm on the bedside clock, so I could get out earlier in the morning. It was Saturday, but I suspected the security industry didn't slow for weekends, and I didn't want to take a chance on getting kicked out of the one place I felt safe.

I borrowed a black hooded sweatshirt from Ranger's closet. The sweatshirt was miles big, but it was the best I could do by way of disguise. I pulled the hood up, rode the elevator down, and I reached the Lincoln without a problem. Connie wouldn't be in the office for a couple hours, so I crossed the river into Pennsylvania and headed for Yardley. Yardley was just a short distance from Trenton, but it was light years from Slayerland. Junkman would not be patrolling Yardley looking for Stephanie Plum.

I parked in a public lot, locked my doors, and powered my seat back. It was 7:30 a.m., and Yardley was sleeping in.

I called Morelli at nine o'clock. 'What are you doing?' I asked.

'Bob and I are at the car wash. Then we're going to Petco to get some dog food. It's a pretty exciting morning.'

'I can hear that. Anything new going on?'

'Nothing you want to know about. I hope you're some place far away.'

'Far enough. Ill be on my cell phone if you have breaking news. And don't forget, my mothers expecting us to show up for dinner tonight.'

'You're going to have to pay up, Cupcake. I don't do dinner without reimbursement.'

'I'll run a tab for you.' And I disconnected.

Truth is, I missed Morelli. He was sexy and smart and his house felt homey. His house didn't have the aphrodisiac shower gel, but it had Bob. I really missed Bob. Go figure that one. Okay, so I had to carry his poop in a plastic bag back to the house. It didn't seem like such a big deal anymore.

I left the lot and cruised through town. I turned onto Hamilton, drove past the office, and parked on a side street. Then I entered the office through the back door.

Connie looked up from her computer when I walked in. 'Using the back door again?'

'I'm trying to decrease my visibility.'

'Good call.'

Vinnie rarely came in on a Saturday, and Lula was always late. I poured myself a cup of coffee, and took a seat across from Connie.

'Any new shootings, firebombings, rumors of my imminent death?'

'Nothing new.' Connie slid the mouse across the mouse pad and clicked. 'I've got three new skips. I'm printing out the search results for you now. The original paperwork is somewhere in the mess of unfiled documents stacked on the cabinets.'

Oh boy. Lula hadn't filed anything in so long there were more files on top of the cabinets than there were in the drawers.

'We have to go through those stacks,' Connie said, coming out of her chair. 'And we might as well file them while we search. We're looking for Anton Ward, Shoshanna Brown, and Jamil Rodriguez.'

An hour later, we had the documentation for all three skips, and we'd filed more than half of the outstanding cases.

The front door crashed open, and Lula marched in. 'What's going on here?' she asked. 'I miss anything?'