Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! For those that have Private messages turned off that left Reviews thank you for the reviews! I love reading every one of them so keep them coming.
I want to Thank Margaret Fowler for encouraging this story out of me. When I mentioned it to you 6 – 7 months ago you didn't let it die in my head. You kept pressing for it so here it is finally being written! I hope it is everything you thought it would be.
Standard Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine. They belong to JE I just take them out of the box and play with them a little. I have begged to keep Ranger and Lester for myself but I have yet to get a response…
This is the last update this week. Next week I may need to switch to updating every other day as my work life and home life are getting really busy but we will see how things go if I can stay far enough ahead on the chapters I will continue to update every day! I will make the decision and let you know with Monday's update. There will definitely be a Monday update!
Chapter 11: The more you learn...
LPOV
I made my way to the hospital. I figured I would report either directly to Tank or Ranger whatever he wanted. I had the background check I had run with me and I had been running what I learned at her place and from her neighbor through my head trying to make sense of it all.
Women never made any fucking sense to me so I really wasn't expecting an answer. It was just something about this was eating at me and I couldn't figure out what it was. It was like something that was sitting out just waiting for me to understand it. It felt like once I put the piece together it would feel like one of those duh fucking moments. Something that you should have seen all along and yet managed to over look it and I hated that feeling.
I took my job seriously, I took figuring out the puzzle seriously and I wouldn't relax or take it easy until I figured out this puzzle.
I walked into the hospital about the same time as one of the Trenton Cops walked in. I knew who he was in passing and doing the little work we did for the Trenton Police Department that I was responsible for. Besides that I didn't have any dealings with the man. He wasn't my favorite officer as he seemed to have a fucking beef with us. I was never sure why I only knew that he had one. I hadn't paid it a whole lot of attention; fucking jealous of what he wasn't.
He had tried to fuck up a few of our take downs when we had previously cleared them with the department. I don't think he felt like we belonged and I was pretty sure that none of us really wanted him there as a cop either. For now we just both existed trying to not think about the other's existence too much.
I watched as he slithered up to the receptionist window and I trailed back listening in on what was being said between him and the receptionist. I knew he thought he was laying on the charm fuck I had seen that move more than one time; I played it myself. Turn on the charm to loosen the tongue.
I could usually get the information I wanted out of any woman you just needed to know the right kind of moves and pressure to apply and you could have them singing like a sweet fucking canary. Speaking of fucking well that wasn't off the table if I wanted it I had certainly played that card enough to know exactly how it worked.
"Sweet cheeks, you know who I am?" I heard him ask the girl behind the counter and I wanted to fucking punch him. He was ruining it for all men that knew what the fuck they were doing. His performance wasn't worthy of a punch his performance was worthy of a bitch slap and I half wished she would just slap the fuck out of him for even trying. What the hell? Did no one teach this fucker anything?
I saw her shake her head and part of me wanted to laugh that she didn't know who he was or if she did she wasn't admitting she knew. I could see her eyes and for some stupid ass reasons this fucker was making headways with the bitch. I chalked it up to pure stupidity on the chick's part.
I continued to watch feeling like this had something to do with the woman that Ranger had become fucking obsessed with.
"I am Joe Morelli, I am here because there was an accident earlier today and a patient was brought here by the name of Stephanie Plum. I need to speak to her concerning the accident." He said and I knew I was right. I walked around to the side where I could still hear but remain out of sight for now.
If he knew the girl then he would know who she hit and he would see me and while he is a dumb ass on so many levels he would put me together with Ranger and start asking me a bunch of fucking questions that I had no intention of answering today or ever.
"We don't have any patients here by that name." I heard her say and I smiled. I knew protocol and a part of me was glad that Ranger had them follow protocol even for the woman. I couldn't place it but for some reason I didn't really like Morelli asking questions about her.
I moved on, I knew the girl wasn't privy to the information of who the woman really was so I knew for now he wasn't getting in. He would probably figure it out if he was persistent enough but I also knew he wasn't the sharpest knife. You only needed to hear his pickup lines and know that. I knew not having the vital pieces of information would hold him off for a while but I made a note to tell Tank when I saw him to expect the police sticking their nose in soon.
I made my way to the lobby where I knew Tank was sitting. I sat down beside him turning a little to face him. Looking at him I started with the easiest part of the conversation we were about to have. "The police are circling it won't be long before they know she is here and they will be demanding to talk to her." I told him. He raised his eye brow in question.
"Walking in just now Joe Morelli came in trying to get information on a Stephanie Plum. Thankfully the receptionist didn't know about the name change because had she, she would have been signing everything she knew for his attention." I told Tank and he understood where I was going with this. He just nodded his understanding.
Now on to the harder part of the conversation, I handed him the background check for him to review first. He took it from me opening it and began to read what I had discovered. Every now and then he would glance up at me and I would just nod. I didn't know what he was questioning, what he was looking at or why he would chose to look at me but everything in there was accurate.
When he had finished reading it I spoke up. "I went by her place. Man there is almost nothing there if it wasn't for a couple of boxes of personal stuff, an air mattress, a closet with the barest of clothing half of which are in this bag, and a kitchen table and chairs you wouldn't think anyone lived in the house. Her bank account is accurate that is how much money is there and there appears to be no more money anywhere else. Her neighbor told me she told her that she was moving across country and wanted to sell everything to keep from having to move it. Yet you said you found want ads circled where she had been looking for a job here. I am not sure what to make of it." I added. I watched Tank's eyes as he took in what I was saying he too was trying to place the pieces together to make sense of it.
He spoke up "We did find the want ads in the car with her they had been circled and a few of the circles had an x through them while one or two had a check mark. If she was moving why was she looking for a job?" he said and I couldn't help but think Bingo fucking question of the day but I refrained from saying that out loud. Instead I just shook my head back and forth and raised my shoulders. None of it makes any sense to me and I had been trying to put the pieces together since I spoke to the neighbor.
"Her house has no food other than a box of saltine crackers. Her power has been shut off along with her cable and cell phone. Her Visa card is frozen due to missed payments as well as her Macy's card. Her car payment hasn't been paid in several months and I suspect it was up for repo, not that she is going to have to worry about that now unless she didn't have insurance on it." I told him and he just listened to me.
"You found no other food than crackers?" He asked me and I shook my head no.
"That's all the food she had in the house." I told him confirming his question. She had sold everything except for bare necessities and that table and chairs.
"Man I don't know how but I am questioning if she singled Ranger out somehow. That she somehow set him up to hit her thinking she could set him up for maybe a lawsuit, or get compensation or something from him." I vocalized to Tank but I could see him having a more difficult time seeing the logic in my reasoning.
It was an intuitive leap but Tank wasn't a dumb man and I knew he was capable of making that leap I just didn't understand why he wasn't making it already. It wasn't that difficult to see the advantages it would bring her to accidently have Ranger hit her.
People had orchestrated much higher level cons for a whole lot less potential payout. It made perfectly logical sense to me as a possibility but I don't think Tank was buying it.
"Do you want me filling Ranger in on all of this or do you want to tell him?" I questioned him wanting to get this shit over with and be on to my way back to Rangeman where I could focus on real work and not some life of a Trenton girl that I could have given a shit less about.
"Man he is waiting to learn more about her so I think you should go back and see if you can get in to talk to him and tell him what you have learned." Tank said and I had to say I wasn't surprised. Fuck. If I wasn't seeing things, I saw the flash of him laughing his ass off at telling me to go back and fill in the boss; fucker was all I had to say. Of course I kept that to myself.
I was hoping Tank would just send me back to Rangeman and he would do the dirty work of telling Rangeman but no I had to do it. Great, just fucking great this was going to end up one big colossal fuck up I could feel it and I hadn't even gotten to the room yet.
I Turned the corner and saw Vince and Ram standing guard and I couldn't help but think waste more fucking money. Of course I also knew Ranger was in the room and I knew he wasn't focused on the things he should be focused on right now so part of me was glad they were here for him just as much as they were there for her. She didn't need fucking body guards. But I wouldn't say anything as they were also watching his back and until he got his head back on straight they needed to watch his back.
I bumped fists with Ram and nodded to Vince as I knocked on the door. I opened the door and there stood Ranger between me and the girl in the bed as if I were someone that was walking in to harm her. I had no plans to hurt her even though I had no real plans to help her either.
When he saw me he stepped back and let me walk into the room. I looked over at her and I had to admit if she had planned on setting Ranger up on some con then she certainly got the short end but then again if she was doing part of me couldn't but feel that she got exactly what she deserved.
Part of me wanted to feel sorry for her seeing the tubes, seeing the machines hooked up to her but I couldn't shake what I had been ingrained in me about women. I knew how conniving they could be I had been stepped on and betrayed once and it nearly cost me my life.
The room was dark she was still out I wasn't sure if she was just sleeping, or if it was from the surgery she had been through, or if it was that she hadn't woken up since the accident. I looked back at Ranger and I could see the exhaustion pulling on him. He hadn't been able to rest any from the mission. He hadn't been able to adjust to civilian life before he had been thrown into this hospital room. At least in here it limited him to civilian access so there were only a small number of people that were endangering themselves being around him.
I would have wondered about the safety of the woman but he was busting everyone's balls trying to protect her and learn all he could about her so I figured she was safe from him. Fuck right now she was probably the safest woman on the planet. I would wager to bet she was safer than the President.
The president may have secret service protection but none of them were as dangerous or as deadly as Ranger.
"Man what's up?" I asked him thinking I would ease into the conversation I wanted to have with him. I wanted to see if I could figure out what was going on in his fucked up head. I saw the team of doctors and nurses along with Bobby working on the woman and I tried to ignore them and talk low enough for them not to hear me.
Ranger isn't into the question as he just raises an eyebrow at me. I can tell by the look in his eyes he has no intention of answering my question or mixing words with me. I decide to surrender I know when I will lose and right now isn't the time to fuck with him. Not in a room full of people.
"Man I did the background check. Not much her parents live in Trenton, she worked at E.E. Martin until six months ago when the place was shut down due to fraudulent business practices. It doesn't look like she has had a job since. She has worked through her savings I would say it is safe to say she is penniless with six dollars and ninety cents in her checking account. I didn't even find any savings account, 401Ks I would be safe to say if she had them they are all closed at this point. She is maxed out on her Visa and hasn't paid the bill in several months. They have actually suspended card activity because she is so far in the rears on payments. The same is true for her Macy's card although she isn't maxed out on it." I paused and took a breath before continuing to the worst part.
He never commented only stared at me his eyes dark hard and shining. I wasn't sure what was going through his mind. His face was totally blank and even I couldn't read him; which was rare.
"Her cable, her cell phone, and her electric have all been cut off for lack of payment. I suspect her car was in jeopardy of being repossessed due to lack of payment, but I think you took care of that." I added to lighten the mood but seeing Ranger face I don't think it worked.
"I went to her house, she rents. Man the house is empty except for a couple of boxes of personal crap like pictures, trinkets nothing of value, but a couple of toys that might be interesting and fun to ask her about." I wagged my eye brows at him for him to catch on to the meaning.
"Santos" he practically growled at me stepping closer to me with his fists balled up his body tense and pure hatred rolling off him in waves and I found myself putting my hands up in surrender mode. Fucker has got to loosen up.
"Damn Man chill. The woman is unconscious in the bed. Anyway the only furniture she has in the apartment is a table and chairs in the kitchen and an air mattress, if you can call that furniture, in her bedroom. Her closet is bare bones most of her clothing is in the bag." I motioned to the bag in my hand. "She is using makeup that you can tell had been purchased at some point in the past and then wasn't used for whatever reason, her refrigerator is empty, her cabinets are except for one box of saltine crackers. Looking at her, for what little I can see, I would bet she has been living off of them for longer than any human should have to." I added.
I couldn't see her well but what little I could see of her lying there she looked half starved. With the brace on and the tubes coming out of her it was hard to really see but seeing the hip bones jutting out from her body is more than a tale tell sign of starvation. We had all seen it before some more personally than others. We knew what starvation looked like.
They were working on casting her left lower leg so I assumed she must have broken one or both of the bones of her leg. Her arm was already in a cast. She had gotten seriously messed up.
I cleared my throat as I neared the most difficult part of the conversation. But I felt like he needed to hear this part and he needed to hear my thoughts. "Man while I was at her house her neighbor met me on the porch as I was leaving. I told her about her accident and being in the hospital. I also asked her about the woman she didn't know a whole lot about her. Didn't know her family or friends but she did say that she had a sale and sold all of her things saying she was moving across country and didn't want to pack everything. That she would buy what she needed when she got where she was going." I told him.
He looked at me I could see questions and I knew I didn't have answers for all of them. I only hoped that he would ask me questions that I could answer. "Did the neighbor say if she said where she was going?" He asked me and I shook my head no.
"No she didn't say, she just said she had told her across country." I answered
"But earlier I was told she had the classified ads with help wanted ads circled as if she was job hunting." He stated and I nodded.
"Yeah that is what I didn't get if she is moving why is she looking for a job? I couldn't make sense of it. Why would you sell everything you own because you are moving and then be searching for a job? I think she set you up. I think she saw you coming and deliberately put herself directly in your path. She probably saw your car and thought money." I told him but as I was speaking I saw his eyes turning colder and I knew I wasn't getting through to him. He didn't like what I was saying and he was about to show me just how much he didn't like it; fuck. I knew this was going to end badly.
"Santos, I am going to forget you just said that." He said his voice deep and darker than it had been the entire time I had been in the room. I nodded thinking the whole time fine fucker forget it. I had warned him let her take his ass to the fucking cleaners.
"I want you to find out if she did fill out applications at the placed circled on the ads." He said and I nodded. I should have seen that coming and already had someone doing it but honestly I thought he would pack up and ship out after I told him my thoughts. Guess I was wrong we were destined to jump through more fucking hoops.
"Is that all?" I asked before leaving.
"I told you I want to learn more see what you can find out about her. From where she went today to who her friends are, she has to have some friends in this world find them. I can't help her if I don't know anything about her." He said and I nodded. Damn he was still going to do this.
"You do realize that we still have Rangeman to run? We have clients to meet, properties to watch. We still have a fucking job that needs to get done." I told him trying to remind him of Rangeman needing some attention that he had clients that needed his attention instead of this woman lying unconscious in the hospital bed.
"Santos I haven't forgotten about Rangeman. Rangeman will be fine it has you, and Tank you both can handle Rangeman and my requests. Delegate if necessary. You should be able to do both, if not then you are fucking off." He said questioning me with his damn quirked eyebrow but the look in his face had me to the point that I was swallowing hard and nodding that I could handle it.
It was all I could do to hold my pissed off state within and not yell out at him to get his fucking head on straight. But since I liked my head attached to my body I decided to keep my mouth shut. I briefly wondered if he realized the irony of him questioning me if I was fucking off while he sits in a fucking hospital room staring at a woman lying unconscious in the bed. The fucker needs to get laid.
I turned and walked to the door. I was pissed but right now wasn't the time to voice it I would wait until we were in the room alone. I opened the door and walked through probably a little more forceful than I really intended but I never looked back when the door crashed into the wall. I just continued to make my way out of the hospital. I was pretty sure Ranger would be calling my ass to the mats for that one; shit.
I got in the SUV pulled the copy of her background to see if I could find anything to go on to find any friends. I noticed her emergency contact for her doctor office and for when she was at EE Martin was a woman. Mary Lou Stankovic it seemed she lived in the area close to the woman's childhood home.
I briefly wondered what Mary Lou was to Stephanie? Were they partners, each other's significant others? Since she wasn't married why hadn't she listed her parent's as her emergency contact?
When I looked closer at her E.E. Martin employment records I saw where her life insurance policy beneficiary was listed as Mary Alice and Angie Breeden. I needed to do a little more research to see who these people were and what they meant to Stephanie, the Woman.
I debated going to see her parent's but I didn't think Ranger wanted to have to deal with parent's right now although it would have been fun to watch him wiggle like a worm in having to deal with them. He hated to deal with his own parent's and he loved them. Something just told me to hold back talking to them; I couldn't explain it.
Instead I decided to play it safer than normal and decided to run to Rangeman to do a little further investigating into the people in the woman's life.
I needed to stay removed, I didn't want to get caught up in who this woman was so the more I reminded myself to not use her name the better off I was. I pulled into Rangeman hoping I would find what I was looking for and be able to wrap this up quickly so I could get back to the important work.
The important work of Rangeman we had properties to protect, contracts to work on, and most importantly we had skips that needed to be hunted down and picked up. Personally that was my favorite part of my job.
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