Wow! You guys are awesome. Thanks for the reviews! This is only a short chapter, sort of a filler. May answer a couple of questions.
"Talk to me." Tank ordered, as he placed his elbows on the desk and rubbed his massive hands over his bald head in frustration.
Lester's POV
We were sitting in Tank's office deciding on the next course of action. Stephanie had managed to avoid all of us and vanish into thin air. The only lead we had at the moment was Jeanne-Ellen Burrows, and she wasn't answering her cell.
Jeanne was here at Rangeman last night when the shit hit the fan, and she has obviously spoken to Stephanie since then if she agreed to help Vinnie with the more difficult skips for a week or so. This was all a bit bizarre as Jeanne-Ellen and Steph had always kept their distance.
The cop was also hiding something but short of beating it out of him we would have to be patient and make some enquiries or wait until he slipped up.
"I know it sucks, but you have to admire her style" I told Tank. "She stripped and left everything in a locked change room in Target. Clothes, shoes, underwear, hell even her jewellery, wallet and bag. She wasn't taking any chances. She doesn't appear to have kept anything except her driver's licence. And in case we didn't get the message, she cut up her credit cards, Bond Enforcement Agent ID, and all other cards, and left them in her bag along with a photo on her phone."
I slid the phone across to Tank and he swiped the screen – revealing the image of Steph's hand flipping the bird.
"She also cut up one of Ranger's Business cards, and one of the cops …. like a 'fuck you' to both of them. I can understand the message regarding Ranger but we're still in the dark about what went down with the cop."
I paused for a moment as we all digested that thought before continuing.
"She obviously didn't walk out of that change room naked, so we assume she bought new clothes. But she must have paid cash. There are no credit card transactions we can trace, and no one at Target remembers her purchasing anything there. We're still checking security footage but we're not hopeful. We have no idea what she bought, or what she is wearing. She has approx. $2,800 in cash on her. Hec has alerts set up at all transit stations and airports, but if she pays cash for a bus or train ticket it will make tracing her movements nearly impossible. And let's face it, with everything else she's done, that is exactly what she will do. She's making sure we can't find her, she even asked Mary-Lou to contact the police to advise she left of her own free will so they can't report her as a missing person. She's gone."
Crap, the more I thought about it the more depressed I was getting. This was not good. We were considering our options when there was a knock on the door, at Tank's instruction to enter the door swung open revealing Jeanne-Ellen Burrows.
Hec stood to leave, no doubt deciding that his time would be better spent reviewing security footage and trying to find any electronic footprints that Stephanie may have left. He nodded to Jeanne-Ellen in passing, closing the door as he left. Jeanne-Ellen didn't speak, she simply made herself comfortable in the vacated seat in front of Tank's desk.
"You know! " Tank asked Jeanne-Ellen with a pointed look, though it was more of a statement than a question.
She nodded in response and withdrew a note from one of her pockets, passing it to Tank, who read it and slammed his hand on the desk before passing it over to me.
Dear Jeanne-Ellen,
Saying thank you for everything you did for me last night seems totally inadequate, but please know that I will forever be grateful. So thank-you, and please forgive me for what I am about to do.
I am leaving Trenton, for good. I will keep my promise, I won't do anything rash or anything to hurt myself, but I have to get away from here. My life here is broken beyond repair.
I'm sorry I didn't take the time to get to know you better, you're a good person. Take care.
Stephanie. X.
"Damn it Jeanne. You knew we were looking for her. Why didn't you tell us she was with you? Why didn't you tell us she was going to do this? You know Ranger is going to be pissed beyond belief." Tank was trying his best to keep his anger in check.
Jeanne-Ellen simply eyed Tank coolly and composed herself before speaking, "First of all, I didn't know she was leaving, I only found this note in the last half hour. Secondly, last night she felt betrayed and needed someone she could trust. When I found her I managed to convince her to let me help her, but only because I promised I wouldn't rat her out. And thirdly, I couldn't give a fuck what Ranger thinks. This whole mess is his making."
The room was quiet as we reflected upon Jeanne-Ellen's words. She was essentially right and we all knew it. If Ranger had not pushed Stephanie back to the cop, none of this would have happened. If he hadn't hidden Sophia from Stephanie she might have stayed and talked instead of running. But this still didn't explain why she came to Rangeman upset. Hopefully Jeanne-Ellen had the answers.
"What was Bomber upset about last night when she came to Rangeman." I asked.
Jeanne looked at me as though weighing her answers and how much to reveal. "As I said, I'm not going to betray Stephanie's trust, so I don't want to discuss what she told me last night. All I can say is that she came to Rangeman to find a friend. But found deceit instead."
I couldn't look at Tank or Jeanne-Ellen. I could see Tank squirming and looking slightly uncomfortable out of the corner off my eye, I just wanted to hurl. Beautiful was one of my best friends and I'd let her down. I was complicit in hiding things from her, even if it was none of her business what Ranger did with another woman. Hell she had the cop. Ranger was not a monk. But the truth of the matter was we all knew how she felt about Ranger. We all knew they had a special connection, and all knew the deceit would have hurt her ten times worse than if he had just been honest and told her he had a companion.
Stephanie knew Ranger's stance on relationships, but because he hid Sophia's existence it looked like the rule only applied to her. And we all knew she still held feelings for him, even after she put a stop to Ranger's flirting and poaching. Yeah I knew all about that, I knew that she told him to step up or step off… and he pushed her back to the cop. She had done everything to accept Ranger's decision and stay friends, and even took Ranger's advice and gave the cop another chance. She'd been making a serious effort to make her relationship with Morelli work.
And there's the problem. We keep coming back to the cop. What did he do?
"Something obviously happened with the cop. But what?" Jeanne-Ellen didn't respond but Tank filled in some of the blanks.
"He was waiting in Little Girl's apartment last night when we were searching for her. Told Ranger they had a 'difference of opinion'. Ranger thought it was just another argument. That they would make up as per their usual MO. He decided he'd caused her enough grief for one night and he should let her work out the argument with the cop first. "
I considered this for a moment. "Well it must have been a hell of a lot more than that if she's vanished without speaking to him as well." We both turned to Jeanne-Ellen looking for answers.
Jeanne simply returned our stares without a flinch. "I have nothing more to add to this at this stage."
"Fuck Jeanne, what sort of response is that" griped Tank.
"It's the response of someone who is deeply concerned over the well-being of Stephanie. She's been through a lot. She's taken the only course of action that she thought possible, and after what she told me last night I'm surprised it didn't come to this a long time ago. The shit she's put up with over the years is incredible. If she contacts me, I'll do whatever I can to help her" and she leaned forward, pinning us with a stare as she made her point, "but I will not betray her trust to help those who hurt her." Her voice was level and firm and left no room for argument.
And on that final note, Jeanne-Ellen stood to leave.
TBC