Disclaimer: Just for fun and these characters aren't mine.
Thank Jackie for editing! :o)
I know the chapters are a little short, but I'm trying to get them out quickly. Thanks for reading and reviewing!
808 at 10
Chapter 9
Before I even opened my eyes, I could feel that someone was close to me, looking at me. When I finally peeked out, I quickly jerked my head back. Paul Jr. had been staring at me, about 2 inches from my face!
"Hi, Uncle Joe!" He said. I gave him a little smile and rubbed my face. Sleeping on a couch sucks! My day probably wasn't going to get much better considering I had to go to the station to discuss my ex-lover's husband's murder. And then there was Stephanie. I wondered where she was. Was she missing me, too?
I got myself cleaned up and dressed and went down to the kitchen. My sister-in-law, Maria, was feeding the three boys breakfast. She smiled when she saw me.
"Good morning, Joe! Sorry if Little Paulie bothered you." She said, giving him a hard look.
"Good morning." I replied, "And Paulie didn't bother me." Actually, the little guy had scared the shit out of me, but that probably had more to do with my life than anything he did. I sat down and had some coffee and made small talk with my brother's wife. Paul came down a few minutes later, dressed for work and looking hung over and pissed off.
"Coffee?" Maria offered after kissing him.
"No time." He muttered. She didn't seem surprised to see him hung over and I realized it probably wasn't a rare thing. It was hard to look around at Paul's seemingly happy home knowing that his secret was going to bring it all crashing down. I guessed that he was feeling the same way.
"I have to go, too." I said quickly. Suddenly I just wanted to get out of there. God knows, I have enough problems of my own. "Thanks for letting me crash." I walked out the door behind my brother.
"You okay?" I asked and he shook his head. Things were definitely NOT okay in his world. "I have to get to the station, but we can get together later." It sure seemed like he could use the support of his family right now and whatever his faults, he'd always been there for me.
"Yeah, later." He muttered and he headed off to work while I headed off to the police station to answer more questions.
I parked in my normal spot and headed into the station. There were lots of stares and whispering, but that's nothing new to me. Weird shit happens to me.
"Morelli!" Carl Costanza shouted, waving hello.
"Costanza. How's it going?" I asked.
"I live to serve." He said with a smirk, as Big Dog came up beside him and nodded in my direction. "I hear you found a dead body in your house…again!"
"Yeah," I replied, "I came in to answer some questions about it."
"You didn't kill him, did you?" Carl teased.
I gave him a tight smile and headed back to Bell's desk. Carl was just joking, but I was sure there were plenty of cops who believed me capable of just about anything. My reputation was pretty bad and there were always those who wouldn't ever let me live down my wild past or my family name.
I met up with Tom Bell and Rod Barley and we all walked to Interrogation Room 2 to get down to business. Rod brought in coffee for everyone and a tape recorder. My union representative joined us with an attorney – just in case. All of this was pretty standard, but I couldn't help but get a bad sense of deja' vu. When I'd been charged with murdering Ziggy Kulesza, it had started just like this.
We got thru the preliminary information and then I gave my statement. I went thru the story from the time I received the subpoena to finding John DeFranco's body on my kitchen floor.
"The ballistics came back already." Tom Bell said, "And it was your gun that was used to kill DeFranco."
"As I told you last night," I said, "The last time I saw my gun was when DeFranco disarmed me. It wasn't in the kitchen when Vy paged me. I have no idea what happened with it." He nodded.
Rod asked, "When did you leave Violet?'
"I got to the hotel around 10 and left about half an hour later." I responded.
"Is that the last time you saw her?" He asked. What was he getting at?
"Yes." I answered.
"Did you engage in sexual activity with Mrs. DeFranco at the hotel?" Tom Bell asked.
"No." I answered.
"Did you engage in sexual activity with Ms. Plum yesterday at your home?" He asked.
"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked. I couldn't figure out where he was going with this.
"Please just answer the questions, Morelli." Rod snapped at me.
"No, I did not have sex yesterday with anyone." I answered.
"What was your argument with Ms. Plum about?" He asked.
I paused for a moment. As if this shit wasn't painful enough, now I had to endure an interrogation about my personal nightmare. God definitely hates me!
"Ms. Plum is seeing another man as well as me and we were arguing about that." There now, that wasn't so bad.
"Have you seen or spoken to Ms. Plum since she left your home yesterday?"
"No." Why all the questions about Stephanie? I wondered. "Okay, what's going on?" I asked.
Tom and Rod exchanged another glance. Tom finally spoke, "We can't reach Violet, Joe and nobody knows where she's gone. You appear to be the last person to see her." I was stunned. "And Stephanie hasn't been seen since she left your house after the argument." He continued.
"Have you talked to her parents? Manoso?" I asked, suddenly feeling frantic. Stephanie was missing?
"Of course we did, Joe. Her parents are the ones who started looking for her and Manoso was their first call this morning." Bell answered and I grimaced a little. I was so confused. Where had Violet gone? And where was Stephanie?
"No offense guys," I said, "But has anyone looked into the FTAs Steph has been going after? She gets kidnapped by one of them practically every other day. She's like a professional victim." I was babbling and I knew it, but I was worried about what mess Steph had gotten into. What the hell was going on?
"We're looking into it." Rod said, coldly.
"Wait a second," I said, "You can't think I did anything to Stephanie."
"Well, you were fighting with her yesterday loudly enough for your neighbors to hear and you've been having some…control issues lately." Rod replied.
"Control issues?" I asked, but I could feel a control issue coming on just then, as my anger grew at the accusation.
"You were involved in a violent assault with the other man Ms. Plum has been seeing just a few days ago." He said. My head was spinning.
I got up from my chair and said, "Look, I've told you everything I know, but I have to get out of here. I need to find Stephanie. And I have to figure out what happened to Violet."
"Sit down, Joe." Rod said.
"No! Unless you're going to charge me with something, I have to get out of here and figure out what the hell is going on." I shouted.
The detectives looked grim and Tom said, "Look Joe, you're a person of interest in a murder right now…really our only suspect and two separate women you were involved with have disappeared. We're not going to just let you walk out of here."
"Besides that, you're suspended and shouldn't be investigating anything right now." Rod added. I was really started to hate that guy.
"Are you prepared to charge me with something?" I asked.
"You said Violet was beat up, right?" Rod asked.
"Yes, she said John beat her up." I answered. "So?"
Rod nodded and gave me a cold look. "Well," he said, "John doesn't have any marks on his hands or any prior history of violence. YOU however, do have a history as well as marks indicating you hit someone recently. We could hold you on her assault or maybe we can convince Manoso to press charges."
"You bastard!" I yelled at him. "You know damn well that any marks on my hands are from my fight with Manoso! You also know that he put his hands on me first so he's not going to press any charges." I was really pissed. There was no way in hell I was going to sit in a jail cell for things I didn't do while Stephanie was missing and someone was trying to pin a murder on me! "Not to mention," I continued, "That I have NEVER hit a woman in my life."
Bell and Barley walked out of the room to discuss their options and I excused myself for a bathroom break. As soon as I was clear of the interrogation room, I headed out the side door and hopped into my car. I knew Manoso wasn't going to try to press charges and they couldn't get me on Violet's assault without some evidence and they couldn't even find her, but I wasn't about to risk being locked up right now.
I was worried sick about Stephanie. Unfortunately, my best lead to finding her was calling the last guy in the world I wanted to deal with right now. But shit, what choice did I have?
"Morelli." Manoso answered right away with a growl.
"Where is Stephanie?" I asked, cutting right to the chase.
"I could ask you the same thing." He replied and I wished just then that he was standing in front of me so I could hit him again!
"Listen Manoso," I said, trying to keep from yelling at him, "I know that you're a control freak and that you track her every move. Now you can tell me what you know or I can smash into your office at Rangeman, guns blazing and then I fucking guarantee you'll tell me what you know!" I'm bluffing again. Shit, right now I don't even have a gun!
"Pino's one hour." He said.
"No." I answered. I couldn't be out in public and risk being hauled back to the cop shop. But where could we meet? My house is still a crime scene. "Someplace private."
"Rangeman." He answered and disconnected. Fuck.
I turned the corner and headed towards Rangeman headquarters, when suddenly a blue and white did a quick u-turn, flashed on its lights and siren and came up behind me. Shit! Had they put out an APB on me? I put my foot to the floor and pulled away from them. I took a quick turn down an alley and lost them on the next block. This was MY neighborhood and they would have a tough time catching me here. I drove as fast as the van would go to Rangeman and wasn't all that surprised when the gate opened as soon as I approached.
Out of the frying pan, into the fire. I thought.
I parked off to the side, got into the elevator and headed up. The doors opened and there stood Ranger. He didn't have his bandages anymore, but his nose and eyes were green and yellow with faded bruises. He had stitches along the right side of his eyebrow. I knew that I looked bad, but he looked worse. I tried not to smile about it, but a little one came on my face anyway.
"Morelli." He greeted me.
"Manoso." I replied.
"How are your ribs?" He still looked like he'd like to kill me. Can't say I blamed him since I still wanted to beat the crap out of him. He motioned for me to follow him and turned to walk towards his office.
"Better. How's your head?" I asked, giving it right back to him.
"Fine." He was good at one-word responses.
The smart ass in me snuck out then, "Yeah, probably not much to damage up there anyway." Manoso turned quickly and got in my face. Suddenly there were several Rangeman thugs around us and the air was thick with tension. I realized that I was unarmed, out numbered and in the lion's den. It probably hadn't been smart to poke him. Besides, I needed to focus on the goal – finding Stephanie. And clearing my name.
Manoso's largest thug, Tank spoke up then, "Let's take this to the office." Manoso seemed to calm a little at that and he turned back and led me into a room.
Does Ranger know where to find Stephanie? Can he be trusted? And where is Violet? More coming soon!
