Chapter 3

On Monday, Ranger drove over to Giovichinni's with Hector and Lester. As he walked his men through the store pointing out the locations for camera installation, a little boy got in their way. Impatient and in a lousy mood, Ranger shot one of his intimidating looks at the boy. Instead of running away in tears, the boy stuck his tongue out at him.

Lester chuckled and made an offhand comment, "What's up, Ranger? Don't tell me you can't even scare the crap out of a little kid. You're gonna lose your badass status if you keep that up. "

The public ribbing didn't sit well with Ranger. Normally, an icy stare would shut Lester up or maybe the threat of a sparring match, but Ranger didn't have the patience for that. Not after the disasters he'd endured yesterday. His right arm shot out, striking Lester in the gut. Irritated at his own lack of control, Ranger stalked out of the market, leaving his men to help Mr. Giovichinni with the security system.

As soon as he stepped off the curb onto the asphalt, pigeons flew up and overhead, and for the first time in his adult life, Ranger ducked trying to avoid a flock of birds. Disgusted with his "flight" response, he strode to his car and beeped it open with his fob. He reached for the door handle, but the door was locked. He knew he had locked the door earlier, but he also knew he'd heard the "open" beep. He tried the fob again, and heard the correct signal, but when he tried the door, it was still locked. The high-pitched sound of cackling came to him from the far end of the market.

Ranger glanced up and caught sight of Bella Morelli ducking back into the alley next to the market. Her laughter continued even as she disappeared from sight. With a shake of his head, Ranger used his key to manually open his car door and then he angrily peeled out of the parking lot.

The day only got worse after that.

On the way back to RangeMan, he took a call for a security alarm reported at a client's storage warehouse. When Ranger arrived, he could hear the alarm piercing the air of the normally quiet industrial park. He quickly scoped out the area and determined whoever had tripped the alarm had already fled. The warehouse had not been broken into.

The building's cameras were digital and the alarm system was wireless, so there were no video tapes to gather, but the system would require a manual reset. It was a simple procedure, but no matter what he tried, Ranger could not get the alarm to turn off. Workers were coming out of neighboring businesses and standing around with their hands over their ears and frowns on their faces. Frustrated with his inability to turn off the ear-splitting alarm, Ranger ripped the casing off the box and with one smooth movement smashed his fist into the controller. The alarm shut off immediately to the relief of everyone within earshot. But now Ranger was left with a disarmed, broken security system and bleeding knuckles.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed Tank. "Send someone over to replace the alarm panel at Murdoch's warehouse."

"Was the alarm a malfunction?" Tank asked. "I'll send Hector over to check it out as soon as he's finished at Giovichinni's."

"It doesn't need checking over. It needs to be replaced," Ranger growled.

"Hector can do wonders with troublesome motherboards," Tank said. "Let him take a look at it first."

Ranger glanced over at the shattered control panel and then down at the pieces that had fallen to the ground. Blood was still slowly dripping from his torn up knuckles. It took effort, but Ranger got a handle on his anger and spoke in a controlled but indisputable voice, "The board requires a total replacement. Take care of it. Now."

There was a pause and then Tank replied, "Done. I'm sending Zero over with a new system." Another pause and then Tank continued in a sarcastic voice, "Do you think you can handle a simple apprehension? Connie just called. She's got a skip that needs picking up."

"Done," Ranger said angrily, musing that Tank needed an attitude adjustment. He disconnected and got into his car. He'd wait until Zero arrived, just in case someone decided to take advantage of the defunct alarm.

While he waited, he thought back to everything that had happened over the last couple of days. They had been miserable ones for him. He wondered if he was coming down with a bug. That might explain a lot, including his clumsiness, his coughing and stuttering, his inability to figure out how to shut off the alarm. Except that he felt fine. No fogginess in his head, no fever, no abdominal issues. No, it wasn't ill health.

The sound of cackling and the image of a little old lady dressed all in black flashed into his mind. Right, he thought. It was Bella's curse. He almost chuckled to himself. The day he believed in the evil eye would be the day he hired Steph's crazy grandma as his martial arts expert. He might as well shoot himself if he started believing in such drivel — voodoo or vordo, all of it's ridiculous, he mused.

He stopped by Vinnie's to pick up paperwork for a skip that was too dangerous for Stephanie and Lula to handle. He'd prefer to hand the job over to Lester, but since Les was doing him a favor with Mr. Giovichinni, Ranger decided to pick up the skip himself. Connie had the file ready for him when he walked in the door of the bails bond office. She also had a pink bakery box filled with donuts from Tasty Pastry on her desk. Without thinking about it, Ranger plucked a jelly-filled donut out of the box. Connie's eyes got big as he took a bite out of the donut, then she gasped in horror as a huge blob of red jelly dropped onto his tight black t-shirt. Not sure if she should acknowledge the messy incident or not, she slowly handed Ranger a napkin. He grabbed the napkin, then strode out of the office without a word.

On the way to his vehicle, he dumped the last of the donut and the wadded up napkin in the dumpster in the alley. He shook his head in disbelief. What had possessed him to eat a donut? He couldn't remember the last time so much sugar and lard had passed his lips. Maybe Steph's bad habits were wearing off on him.

He quickly looked over the file Connie had prepared for him. The FTA's name was Marcus Dunwoody and he'd been arrested for armed robbery and assault. The bail had been set high, probably assuming the perp would never be able to come up with the $250,000. But somehow he had and now he was missing. Ranger booted up his laptop and ran a quick search on Dunwoody.

The address he found for Dunwoody was in Chambersburg, but a run-by his apartment indicated he hadn't been there since his arrest. Same thing with his parents' and brother's houses. Ranger did a deeper search and ran a financials program. Dunwoody had very little money in the accounts Ranger could find. He was divorced and his ex-wife had remarried. A quick search on her revealed that she had recently withdrawn a considerable sum of money from her retirement and savings accounts. It was worth a trip to check out.

Armed with this new information, Ranger headed out to Hamilton Township. He found the address he was looking for with no problem. The five-story apartment building where Dunwoody's ex and her new husband lived was in an upscale neighborhood.

Ranger climbed the stairs to the third floor and knocked on the ex's door. An attractive, scantily-clad woman in her forties opened the door and before Ranger could introduce himself, he saw Dunwoody sprint out of the living room and run toward the back of the apartment. With a terse "Excuse me, ma'am," Ranger pushed through the door and raced after the fleeing man.

Dunwoody had disappeared into a bedroom and Ranger quickly followed. An open window beckoned and Ranger could hear pounding steps on the metal fire escape. Soon, both men were climbing down the outside steps, but Dunwoody had a lead on Ranger. There was no way Ranger was going to let him get away, especially not with everything else that had been going wrong in his life lately.

Ranger made a snap decision and leapt off the fire escape. A part of him was surprised when he hit his target squarely, given his recent clumsiness. He and Dunwoody hit the ground hard and rolled to the middle of the alleyway. Ranger was quickly able to take the top position and straddled Dunwoody. He reached back for his cuffs at the same time Dunwoody held up a stun gun. The last thing Ranger remembered was a searing pain exploding in his chest. As he collapsed, he uttered, "Oh, fuck."

When he came around, he saw a large dark shape hovering over him. He reached out to grab it and felt it shaking. As his eyes focused, he made out Tank and saw that his second in command was shaking with silent laughter — at his expense. Anger surged through him, but he was still too numb and unable to move.

"Have a nice nap?" Tank said, a shit-eating grin splitting his face.

"Fuck you," Ranger spat out as he tried to sit up.

"Take it easy," Tank said, but he helped Ranger get up. "You're sure having a run of bad luck lately." Ranger only grunted.

It took several halting steps before Ranger could walk on his own, but he shrugged Tank off and shook out the pins and needles in his legs and arms. He made a quick check and was relieved he still had his handgun tucked in his waistband. His cuffs were still there too. He shook his head in disgust. Who would expect Dunwoody to have a stun gun? A handgun, yeah, but not a stun gun. And chances were that Dunwoody was at least ten counties away by now. He couldn't remember the last time he'd not brought in a man he'd gone after. He continued to walk around the alley, shaking off the effects of the electrical shock.

Over the buzzing in his ears, he thought he heard a high-pitched cackle and swung around, looking for its source. He only saw Tank, standing several yards away, hands on his hips and a puzzled look on his face. His comment about bad luck struck a chord with Ranger. He normally didn't believe in luck, but he also had no other explanation for everything that had gone wrong for him in the past few days — ever since Bella Morelli had given him the evil eye. He couldn't-wouldn't-believe in curses.