Another call came in from Flash. “We‘re on the Turn-pike going south. I can‘t imagine how fast he‘s going, but if I go any faster, my fenders will fall off.”

“You can go home,” Diesel said. “Appreciate the effort. I‘m a couple miles behind you. I‘ll take the Turnpike and ride for a while to see if I pick up on him.”

“To infinity and beyond,” Flash said.

We stayed at it for another twenty minutes before Diesel gave up and turned around.

“Wulf could be going to Atlantic City or any point in between,” Diesel said. “There are some goofball Unmentionables in the Pine Barrens, but I can‘t see Wulf getting cozy with any of them. We have two people working together in the scientific community, and one of them is dead and the other missing. I‘d like to know if either of them had property in south Jersey.”

“I don‘t remember seeing anything about property in south Jersey in either file.”

“Did Connie run Munch and Scanlon through all the programs?”

“No. Some of those investigations take days.”

“Then let‘s go to the bonds office and see if anything else came in.”

“The bonds office is closed.”

“We‘ll open it.”

“I hate this idea. You‘ll trip the alarm, and we‘ll get arrested, and I‘ll get fired.”

“To begin with, I won‘t trip the alarm. And even if I did trip it, the bonds office is armed with Rangeman security. Ranger isn‘t going to send you to jail.”

True, Ranger wouldn‘t send me to jail, but Ranger wouldn‘t be happy to find me engaged in breaking and entering with Diesel. And I suspected a face-off between Diesel and Ranger would be ugly.

“Okay, but it‘ll be boring,” I said. “We could wait and ask Connie in the morning, and we could go back to my apartment and watch tele vision with the monkey.”

“No,” Diesel said.

“That‘s it? No? What about my vote?”

“This is why I‘m not married,” Diesel said. “Women make everything so friggin‘ complicated. And stop rolling your eyes at me.”

“You‘re staring straight ahead at the road. How do you know I‘m rolling my eyes?”

Diesel did a full-on smile. “I don‘t have to look at you to know when you‘re rolling your eyes. You roll your eyes every time I act like a jerk.”

EIGHT

IT WAS A dark, moonless night, and we were lost in shadow when Diesel parked the Escalade in the small lot behind the bail bonds office.

“I‘ll wait here,” I told him. “This could take some time. You‘ll be more comfortable inside.”

“Are you going to be a jerk again and make me come in?”

“No. Are you going to drive off without me?”

I hadn‘t intended to, but it wasn‘t a bad idea now that he‘d planted the seed.

“Well?” he asked.

“I‘m trying to decide.”

He pulled the key out of the ignition and pocketed it. “Lock yourself in and lean on the horn if someone tries to steal you.”

I watched him go to the back door and open it as if it hadn‘t been locked. He just put his hand to the doorknob and opened the door. No alarm sounded. The door closed behind Diesel, and I settled in. An hour ticked by, and the police didn‘t show. No Rangeman goons arrived in SWAT gear. I reclined my seat and closed my eyes.

I WAS SUFFOCATING. I was struggling to come out of a deep sleep, and I was desperate for air. I forced my eyes open and saw the problem. I was in bed, and Diesel had his arm draped across my chest again. Diesel was a big guy with a lot of muscle, and his arm weighed a ton. I thought back to the night before and vaguely remembered falling asleep in the car, and next thing, Diesel was shuffling me into my building and into the elevator. After that, it was fuzzy. I checked around and discovered I was wearing pan -ties and Diesel‘s T-shirt. That was it. Diesel was wearing less.

I squirmed around, trying to slide away from Diesel, but he tightened his grip and drew me closer.

“Hey,” I said. “Hey!”

He half opened his eyes and looked at me. “What?”

“You‘ve got me in a death grip. I can‘t breathe. And what‘s with my clothes? I‘m wearing your T-shirt.”

“Yeah, I didn‘t know what to put on you. You looked uncomfortable sleeping in your jeans and sweater and stuff.”

“Did you undress me?”

His eyes slid closed.

“Wake up,” I yelled at him.

“Now what?” he said.

“I don‘t remember a lot about last night. We didn‘t… I mean, you didn‘t…”

“Honey, being intimate with me is not a forgettable experience.”

“I guess that‘s good to know.”

“Yeah, file it for future reference. What time is it?”

“It‘s almost eight o‘clock.”

Diesel sighed and rolled away from me. “I hate mornings. They start so early.”

I left the bed and gathered my clothes up from the floor. “Did you get anything useful last night at the bonds office?”

“I printed out a copy of Munch‘s doctoral thesis, but didn‘t get a chance to read it. I‘m hoping it‘ll tell me something about the theft at the research center. I‘d like to know why he took the magnetometer. Nothing else local turned up on Munch. It‘s like he has no life. Scanlon shows some promise. His sister, Roberta Scanlon, has a house in north Philadelphia. He had a second sister, Gail, but she‘s like smoke. Eugene Scanlon was also heavily in debt. He defaulted on a car loan and had two credit cards in collection. His research isn‘t published, but he was Munch‘s project supervisor, so they had to be working in similar areas.”

I carted my clothes into the bathroom and locked the door, not that it would make a difference. I took a shower, gave my hair a two-minute blast with the dryer, and got dressed. Diesel was sleeping when I came out. I took a moment to study him, thinking he was heart-stoppingly handsome in a rugged, outdoorsy kind of way. His initial appearance was beach bum, but I‘d come to decide that was a façade. Diesel was driven by his job. The job itself was open for discussion. If he was to be believed, he was a kind of paranormal bounty hunter. I thought it was just as possible he was a contract killer or a career nutcase.

I went to the kitchen and fed Rex and Carl and got coffee brewing. I dropped a bagel into the toaster and took a tub of cream cheese out of my fridge. Diesel might not be much of a cook, but he sure as heck knew how to stock a kitchen.

I heard the shower running in the bathroom, and minutes later, Diesel strolled in looking for coffee. He poured himself a mug and ate half my bagel.

“I want to take the morning to wade through Munch‘s thesis,” Diesel said. “When I‘m done with the thesis, I thought we could visit Roberta Scanlon.”

Carl came into the kitchen and handed me his empty cereal box. He jumped onto the counter, got a mug out of the cupboard, and helped himself to coffee.

“This apartment smells like a monkey,” Diesel said. Carl gave him the finger and went back to the tele -vision.

“I‘m out of here,” I said to Diesel. “I‘m taking another shot at Gordo Bollo today. This time, I‘m ready. I‘ve got a stun gun, pepper spray, and cuffs.”

“Kick ass,” Diesel said. “If you aren‘t home by noon, I‘ll have you teleported back here.”

I must have looked horrified because he burst out laughing.

“I‘m falling in love,” Diesel said. “You‘re the only one on this earth who believes everything I say.”

I tried really hard not to roll my eyes, but I couldn‘t help myself and rolled them anyway. I grabbed my bag and flounced out of the apartment. It wasn‘t so much that I believed what Diesel said. It was more that I was terrified it might be true.

LULA WAS FILING when I swung into the office.

“What are you doing?” I asked her.

“I‘m filing. What does it look like I‘m doing? It‘s my job, you know.”

“You never file.”

“Your ass,” Lula said.

“I‘m paying a visit to Greenblat Produce this morning,” I said. “Anyone need fruit?”