Chapter 11
With so much on her mind, time started to get away from Stephanie this morning. Sitting here staring at the piles of random stuff on the table she tried to remember everything that Mary Lou had said while they were working last night. "This is important to someone, Steph," she said. the more she thought about it, the more she Stephanie worried that she did not have very long to find out who that person is.
Usually, nothing productive happened this early in the morning for her, but the urgency she was starting to feel changed everything. Stephanie knew she had to find some answers. The caffeine had kicked in now, and she was ready to find the clues that she needed. Digging in, Stephanie read through each of the newspaper clippings.
An hour later she put the last paper down and rubbed her eyes. Stephanie was getting frustrated, she had read every word but nothing was jumping out at her and worse, none of it seemed to make any sense either. All those years ago Mr. Phillips had disappeared, no matter what she could or could not remember about that herself, Stephanie felt that there should have been enough in the news coverage to fill in the blanks for her now.
Shaking her head, she tossed the last article onto the pile. It seemed that they had all said the same thing, which essentially was nothing. No one knew what had happened to her teacher. Stephanie sat back in her chair, tapping her fingernail on the table while she thought. After finding so little in the search she had done, it was more than a little unsettling that she was still missing the information that she was looking for.
From over on the couch, a low buzzing sound alerted her to the call that was about to come in. Her cell phone started ringing before she could jump up and rush over to answer it. Grabbing it, she looked at the screen just as she punched the button to answer the call. The caller ID said her mom was calling and Stephanie suddenly questioned if she wanted to be answering at all. What could her mother need this early? Certainly, she couldn't have another lecture for her already. All at once fear pushed that thought from her mind, her mom never called so early.
"Mom?" Stephanie said. "Is everything alright?"
"Stephanie!" Helen blurted. "I just don't know what to do." The words sounded shrill over the phone and made Stephanie cringe a little bit, but what really worried her was the desperate sound of her mother's voice. It only took another second to know that her instincts about that were spot on. "It's your grandmother, she never came home last night!" Oh boy, that got Stephanie's attention.
"What happened?" Stephanie asked, feeling the firm grip of fear clutching at her throat, making it hard to breathe. Too many possibilities raced through her mind. Her grandmother did seem to be able to find the strangest kinds of trouble. Well, most of it was by her own creation, but that did not make it any less serious.
"When did you see her last?" Stephanie closed her eyes. "Did daddy get into a fight with her again?" She pinched the bridge of her nose like she had seen Ranger do countless times, to ease the tension headache building rapidly between her eyes. "Where did anyone see her last night?"
The questions came at a rapid-fire rate and Stephanie did not wait for any of the answers. She was running around now, grabbing her shoes, her purse, her keys. Ready to go out and start looking.
"Don't worry mom," she said. "I'm leaving now, I'll find her."
She hated thinking that her grandmother could be out there somewhere, hurt or unconscious. If you were to believe her father, her actions were not rational or even normal, and he reasoned that Grandma Mazur was already suffering from dementia. It was true, her grandmother was eccentric and fiercely independent and occasionally outlandish and there were times when Stephanie was inclined to buy her dad's theory. Oh, what if she was lost and couldn't find her way home? With renewed worry, Stephanie swallowed hard. She had to hurry.
In her haste, Stephanie was still moving fast as she yanked the front door wide open. Suddenly her momentum was halted. Stephanie was surprised to see her grandmother standing there with her hand raised, ready to knock on the door. Stephanie tried to steady herself, leaving barely a split second for her to take in the neon green dress and impossibly high heels before the smaller woman toppled over right into her arms.
"You took me by surprise," Grandma Mazur said, her voice a bit muffled. Trying to untangle herself from, she twisted awkwardly and somehow landed on her back. Stephanie was now partly on top of her grandmother and, not wanting to squish her, she too tried to get untangled. Their limbs and purses got twisted together complicating things, but they kept trying until things worked their way loose. "You going somewhere?" she asked, looking up innocently at her granddaughter.
Stifling a laugh at the audacity of that contrived expression, Stephanie just shook her head as she helped her grandmother into a standing position. As gently as she could, Stephanie led her over to the couch, supporting her as she wobbled on those heels. There was something familiar about this outfit, but not from her grandmother's regular bold style. Lula. Yep, Stephanie was pretty sure her friend had been at work again. A make-over at best, a night of partying at worst. She rolled her eyes and sat down. There was a story here, but Stephanie was not sure if she wanted to hear it.
"Mom called," Stephanie said, an explanation that needed no more words. And now it was Grandma Mazur's turn to give a grand eye roll of her own. "Grandma, what happened?" Stephanie asked. "Where have you been all night?" Hesitatingly she asked, "Lula?"
Edna Mazur had the decency to look a bit chagrined, but at the same time held her head high in defiance. Her son in law thought she was crazy, her own daughter wanted her to stop having any kind of fun, and the world as a whole did not understand that she was not ready to act like she had one foot already in the grave. No sir! She was an adult and a grown woman who wanted to have a good time.
"You know, I like your friend Lula," Grandma said. "She has some very specific ideas about how to catch a hottie and reel him in." A sly smile crept onto her wrinkled, fuchsia stained lips and she winked at Stephanie.
No, Stephanie thought, she did not want to know any of this and really did not want to hear the stories about just how they had been going about doing any of that. But something had happened to make her grandmother show up here instead of going home. She would have to find out about that.
. .
With Lenny gone and the kids at school, Mary Lou had some time to think. A cup of coffee in hand, she sat at the kitchen table staring out of the window. Sunlight streamed in, it was going to be another hot day. But Mary Lou was not seeing the brilliant light, was not thinking about the uncomfortable heat. She had an idea. Actually, she had several ideas. That was usually the way her brain worked, throwing out as many possibilities as it could because who knew which one, if any, would work. Working through it all was her only focus, Stephanie needed an answer and Mary Lou knew she could not rest until the mystery was solved.
Her own experience with a mystery package was guiding her decisions this morning. She remembered clearly her anticipation when she pulled everything out of the box on the day it had arrived. There had been so many unusual things to discover, so many hidden clues. She had been thrilled and curious and ready to uncover the mystery.
What she had seen on Stephanie's table had brought another set of reactions. Not the same excitement that she had experienced before, this time the whole thing had an urgent undertone to it. Mary Lou was convinced that whoever had sent the package had probably done so as a last resort. It was just possible that they desperately needed help and were relying on Stephanie to be able to figure out how to do that.
Even to Mary Lou, it seemed obvious why Stephanie had been chosen. Her friend was known in the burg, heck, everyone in Trenton and all of the surrounding cities knew about the bounty hunter who always got her man. Her fame, or infamy as the case may be, was talked about all the time. Who better to solve a mystery than the one woman who never gave up.
Mary Lou sat quietly, thinking hard. Her hands were resting on the table as she continued to work things out in her mind. Usually, she would be fidgeting, constantly in motion with her nervous energy. Lenny sometimes found it endearing how Mary Lou would tangle her fingers together, or tap her fingernails on any surface nearby, or even the way she would twist a strand of hair around her finger as she was thinking.
This morning, however, Mary Lou was motionless. In her mind she had examined each of her ideas, some she had been able to eliminate, but one, in particular, had now taken center stage. She knew what she had to do next, and it kind of scared her. Correction, it really scared her. A lot.
While she would have had no problem going to the Trenton Times office and asking to see their archives, or hunting down her old English teacher to ask him some of the very specific questions that she had, Mary Lou had set all of that aside. What she needed to do now was go to the same source that Stephanie had depended on so often. Ranger.
The easy thing would be to suggest to Stephanie that she go and talk to Ranger. They both knew that he was back in town, but after their talk last night, Mary Lou was very aware that the situation between Stephanie and Ranger was tenuous at best right now. How would her friend feel having to face the man she loved after he had behaved so strangely?
This thinking, or overthinking, which was also her tendency to do, had to end and Mary Lou suddenly stood, knocking her chair over in the process. Her determination to save Stephanie any more pain had taken over, it was time to make a call.
Mary Lou hurried to the living room where she had dropped her purse last night. She snatched up it and dug through it to find her phone. Where was the blasted thing? Frustrated, she dumped the contents on the couch to more easily locate the evasive phone. She did not care about the mess, did not even acknowledge it as she sat down with the phone now in her hand.
Though her determination was to follow through on her intention to help Stephanie, Mary Lou was nervous. Still scared to call the intimidating man that she had mostly seen from afar. She had met him once, an experience she would never forget as long as she lived, and the memory came back to her as clear as it had ever been.
Stephanie had told her about Ranger enough for her to know that he did not take any shit from anyone and that he could probably kill you with one look. Whether or not Mary Lou had believed it at the time was not the point. The day she had met the man she had seen it for herself. No, there was no way she could ever forget seeing Ranger in action for the first time.
One of the first times that Stephanie's job had landed her in the emergency room Mary Lou had arrived in time to see Ranger and Morelli in a standoff of sorts. Morelli, on his end, ranted like he always did. Yelling and wildly flinging his arms, he had very nearly punched Ranger in his anger and frustration. On his part, however, Ranger stood his ground with a deadly silence. The intensity of his glare had seemed powerful enough to bore a hole right through his target.
With a shudder, Mary Lou remembered being able to actually feel the anger that radiated away from the man who had been trying to protect her friend. One thing was certain, with her crazy life, Stephanie needed someone to watch out for her and Mary Lou was glad that Ranger was that person.
As much as she had enjoyed seeing Joe Morelli wilt under Ranger's savage looks and make a hasty retreat, Mary Lou had vowed to herself that night to never, ever make Ranger mad at her. She was quite sure that she would not be able to handle it.
Those memories fresh in her mind made her hands shake. "Get a grip,'' she said under her breath, lifting the phone. Mary Lou was shocked to see that the screen showed three missed calls. Last night. Her forehead wrinkled in confusion, missing the call would have been easy, the ringer had been turned off. It's just that she was usually so good about checking her phone for messages that worried her. How could she have missed this? There was a message now, from the same number of the missed calls.
It was not a number that she recognized, but someone had been trying hard to find her. Getting through the prompts of her voice mailbox, Mary Lou was completely unprepared for what she heard next. She knew who it was instantly. There was no mistaking that voice. Ranger. He was calling her. Needing her help.
Any hesitation she may have been feeling to make this call to Ranger evaporated immediately. Mary Lou just wished that she had seen this message earlier. She had been agonizing all morning over how to help Stephanie and once she had determined that she needed to talk to Ranger, her only concern was wondering if he would want to help her. Now a new worry gripped her. If he needed her help, what did that mean? She had hoped that Ranger would have access to the information that she was looking for, but she did not know what she could offer him.
Only one way to find out. Steeling herself with a deep breath, Mary Lou decided she had better find out. Connecting the call, she had to swallow hard to control the nerves that stirred restlessly in her gut. She listened to the first ring, and then the second and just before she was ready to hang up after the third ring, that voice came on. "Yo."
Mary Lou froze. She did not know why Ranger seemed to intimidate her so much, after all, this was the man who Stephanie had fallen in love with, but Mary Lou had never met anyone like Ranger before and she had to admit, he was not like most men.
Finally, she forced a few words out of her mouth. "You said you need to talk to me," she said. Her face burned with embarrassment, she sounded like an idiot. "I mean, this is Mary Lou, Stephanie's friend." Not much better, she silently admitted. Fortunately, Ranger spoke before she could do anything else to further embarrass herself.
"Mary Lou," he said. "Thank you for returning my call."
