Fortunately, Ranger caught up to me before I reached the bus stop. He had already called Tank, and a Rangeman vehicle was there to pick us up in record time.

"I probably should have stayed with the car to explain everything to the police," I sighed climbing into the black SUV.

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure the cops know a Stephanie Plum vehicle when they see one. Look on the bright side: they've probably been through it enough times by now that they probably don't even care how it happened anymore." It was nice to know Ranger was feeling humorous. Too bad I wasn't in a similar mood. I glared at him from the back seat.

My grumpiness only marginally improved by the time we made it back to Rangeman. We were dropped off in the garage, and Ranger decided to pay Ella a quick visit before heading up to the seventh floor. He knocked on her door and waited. I was worried something had happened to her when she didn't answer right away, but eventually her sweet face poked out into the hallway.

"Oh, Ranger!" she cried flinging her arms around him. She was probably the one employee that was allowed such blatant displays of emotional outburst. Unless you counted me, of course. "I'm so glad you're alright!" She eyed me in the hallway and whispered, "Did you tell him?" I nodded.

"That's actually why I stopped by," he said. "Do you mind if I take a quick look around?"

"Of course!" she said waving us both inside. "Just tell me what you're looking for, and I'll look too."

"I wish I knew," Ranger frowned. He asked about the bottle of cayenne, and Ella went and grabbed it from the kitchen.

"For all I know, Louis bought it for me. I've tried calling him to ask about it, but he hasn't gotten back to me yet." She turned her attention to me. "Did you ever hear back about the soup?" Ranger raised an eyebrow my direction.

"Soup?"

"It was made with the contaminated pepper. I didn't have access to your breakfast from this morning. And no, nothing yet, but I can go find out if there's been any updates." I stepped back out into the hallway and dialed Morelli.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey yourself," he answered. "I bet you're calling to tell me the great news that Kloughn came home early, and you're off the hook with your sister, right?" I sighed.

"Not exactly. I was actually calling in a favor. Did you hear back about the soup I left with you earlier?" A pause.

"Yeah, actually," he replied. "Had to pull a few strings and sign my soul over to the devil to get the results back this fast. You should be more careful in the kitchen. It was laced with arsenic." I could feel his voice shifting to a more serious tone.

"That soup was responsible for Ranger's hasty admission to the hospital this morning, wasn't it?"

"It wasn't the soup per se," I answered. "But his breakfast had a similar ingredient. The chef didn't realize the ingredient was poisoned, so we were trying to keep their identity on the down low for now." Silence followed. "Morelli?" I asked. I could tell he was getting upset.

"Stephanie, you aren't withholding evidence from the police, are you?" I considered the accusation.

"Not really… The police took what remained of Ranger's breakfast down to the station this morning. They would have eventually reached the same conclusions. I just needed the results a little faster, that's all."

"Besides the chef, are there any leads on who's responsible?" he asked slipping back into cop mode.

"No. Ranger's apparently got a lot of enemies, so the list of potential suspects is a little on the lengthy side."

"Just as long as you're not getting involved, I don't really care," he said. I didn't know how to respond to that. I wasn't just getting involved. For some reason, I was already involved.

"Stephanie?"

"Yep, don't get involved. Got it."

"You never just agree with me. You're hiding something. How does all of this involve you?" Crap. I'd been caught.

"Can we talk about this later?" I asked getting fidgety.

"No. I want to talk about it now. Otherwise I'll get a call from the station about some catastrophe you've been involved in, and as always, I'll be the last to know. Do you have any idea how humiliating that is?"

"Well I'm sorry your ego can't handle my catastrophes."

I really didn't mean to get all snippy with Morelli, but I was feeling unusually tired and frustrated, and I really hated it when he had a decent point.

"It's not just that," he said growing quiet. "I'm absolutely terrified one of these days I'm going to get the call to head down to the morgue and identify your body. I couldn't do it, Steph. I've seen a lot in my line of work, but I'd completely lose it if yours was the body on the metal table. You're the one thing in my life that can't be replaced, so please, please be careful." And just like that, the call ended.

I felt like I'd been sucker punched in the gut. Normally my sarcastic remarks would have landed us in yet another battle of Jersey tempers, but this time Morelli didn't want the battle. He was worried about me, plain and simple. With all that had been going on, he had good reason to be, didn't he? I stood in the hallway staring at my phone in a daze.

Part of me wanted to call Morelli back and pick a fight so he'd start yelling at me. Just for some normalcy. And the other part of me really wanted to come clean about the last several days. Then I could stop tiptoeing around everything and just get on with life.

For a moment I wondered if I'd gone too far lying about my evening plans to look after Ranger. Probably best to keep that part to myself. Besides, if the visit with Ella didn't bring on any sudden epiphanies, we were still stuck at square one anyway. With any luck, I could wrap everything up here and still have time to head home and spend the evening with Morelli.

A few minutes later, Ranger joined me in the hallway.

"Any news on the soup?" he asked. I nodded.

"Want to guess the poison?" I asked. I bet Ranger would get it in two.

"Arsenic?" he asked.

"Bingo," I confirmed. Got it in one. It made me wonder if this wasn't his first encounter with poison.

Ranger was particularly quiet walking back to the elevator, obviously deep in thought. We dropped the bottle of pepper off on the fifth floor with Tank. Had it been any other working environment, there probably would have been a round of applause for the boss that survived a near-death experience. I guess brushes with death weren't exactly uncommon around here.

Eventually Ranger and I made it up to the seventh floor. It was strange to think that less than twenty-four hours ago Ranger had been sprawled out in his bathroom, poisoned and on death's doorstep. It probably wouldn't have crossed my mind save for the fact that crime scene tape was still strung across his doorway. Ranger tore it all down with a swipe of his hand and unlocked the door. I wondered if he felt as unsettled as I did walking back through that doorway.

"We have the mystery packages, the visit to Morelli's, and the cayenne incident. We don't have prints, we don't have a face, and I have too many possible suspects to even have a decent starting point." His eyes were intense and starting to grow dark. "We must be missing something."

"Don't forget my car," I added. Then it occurred to me that I hadn't told him yet about the dead flowers in the back yard. "And there's something else. It's kind of why I came over here this morning." Ranger stared at me waiting for me to continue.

"There was a vase of dead flowers in my back yard this morning. They smelled like your shower gel."

Ranger shook his head in disgust then paused for a moment. "How did the flowers tip you off about me?"

"I called you to come take a look and the line picked up, but no one answered. I was already freaked out about the flowers, so I kept the call going and decided to drive over here hoping that it was just a bad connection. When I was just moments from the Rangeman garage a voice came on the line asking 'Does the cop know?' It was the same voice that I heard in Morelli's house. I'm assuming the cop is Morelli, but I have no idea what he's supposed to know about?"

Ranger shifted his weight; he was still in thinking mode. "You haven't told him about any of this, have you?" I shook my head.

"I haven't told him anything. Why?" I could feel my voice go up an octave. Panic was starting to set in again. What if someone was back at the house waiting for Morelli?

"When did you last talk with him?" Ranger asked. I grabbed my phone from my pocket. "Just a few minutes ago when we were down with Ella. He was at home." My hands were starting to shake as I redialed his number. It rang four times before I heard the line pick up.

"Cupcake?" Morelli answered.

"Hi," I said breathing a sigh of relief.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I wanted to let you know that I'll be home in a little while. I think my sister's got things under control here." Ranger raised an eyebrow my direction and mouthed "Sister?"

"Perfect! I'll order in some dinner. Looking forward to it." Honestly, I was too.

After I ended the call, I turned my attention back to Ranger. "Looks like you're probably all set here. But I can stick around for a while if you still need me," I added hastily. "We can work on the case a little more." Ranger shook his head.

"You didn't tell Morelli about coming over here, did you?" I shook my head.

"He doesn't like it when we work together. I can't imagine he'd be overly thrilled about me coming over to stay the night. He doesn't trust you."

Ranger smiled. "Smart man." He paused. "What if I asked you to stay?" The look in his eyes had changed to something that I was oddly unfamiliar with. It wasn't his usual seductive look that he often used to get me to stay. In fact, if I didn't know any better, it almost looked sad. But Ranger didn't do sad. He barely did anything emotionally related.

Whatever it was, it made me really want to stay. I felt like I needed to make him feel better. Maybe this whole poisoning ordeal was harder to cope with than he thought. I knew from experience that having a brush with death like that could make you do things out of the norm.

I walked over to him to put my hand on his shoulder, but he caught it midair and pulled me into him. His lips were inches from mine for several moments, but once again, no kiss. He just stood there staring at me. "You're really something, babe," he said quietly. He turned away and leaned on the kitchen counter.

The comment seemed unwarranted. I knew for a fact that I probably resembled a mop that got shoved in an electrical socket. Thanks to Ella, I'd had a shower, but my hair and makeup were a mess, and I'm pretty sure I still smelled a little funky from the dumpster. I wasn't sure how to take the "really something" comment.

Of course, I always assumed Ranger thought I was unique and even a little interesting sometimes considering he continued to find reasons for us to work together. But how he really felt about me remained tied up in those emotions that he never shared. It was all a little frustrating.

"I'll call if I find any new leads," he said breaking my train of jumbled thoughts. He glanced back my direction. "Be careful." I took that as my sign to leave, so I walked back to the elevator.