Disclaimer: I am not Janet Evanovich and I am not making money off this story. I own the OCs and the plot.

As the credits rolled for The Return of the Jedi, we cleaned up my living room, dumped it all in the kitchen and we ran to our separate bathrooms. Our celebration date was at 8 and we were cutting it damn close. I got beautiful in record time and pulled one of those famous little black dresses on and grabbed a slinky pair of black heels that would bring me darn close to Andy's height. Andy looked me over at the elevators and chuckled.

"Don't you worry about a thing, honey, you look fabulous." I kissed his cheek and we jumped into the elevator.

For a Friday night, Maggio's was horribly empty. We walked in and Connie and Lula waved us over to the table. Mr. Maggio or, as he admonished us immediately to call him, Papa Maggio quickly took our orders and mixed our drinks. We chatted for a bit about this and that. I told them about my lack of case.

"Honestly, I'm just not sure where to go with this. I don't have any evidence, I don't have Carla and all I have is her word that Darth Vader kidnapped her."

"Someone did break into your apartment." Andy pointed out.

"Yeah, and blew up your Jeep. That always means something." Lula quipped.

Gee, thanks for reminding me.

"Don't forget Donna Marino. Someone almost killed her. I asked around for you, and I heard that she hasn't even regained consciousness yet." Connie supplied. We all looked up as Papa Maggio put our mouthwatering food in front of us. We dug in and didn't speak for a while. Well, this food was terrific, why spoil it with chatter?

After dessert and splitting the check, Andy and I made our way back to the apartment building. Andy frowned in the dark. He had been holding something back through most of dinner.

"What is it?" He turned his head and shrugged.

"Just, something that I thought was strange."

"Oh?"

"The same people have come to each mishap." He looked at me and saw that I was waiting for more details.

"Your break in, the car blowing up, Donna Marino's break in. The same people were at the scenes of each."

"Ranger and Joe weren't." I pointed out.

"I mean, the same cops…"

He broke off, thinking then flashed a smile my way. "Forget it, it's stupid."

I was about to tell him that it wasn't stupid when we pulled into the lot and I saw Ranger's car. He was standing outside of it and he was all business. Andy parked next to him. Yet another guy with good parking lot karma. Yeesh.

Watching Ranger as I got out, I knew it was serious. He looked me up and down and his eyes darkened. A step closer brought his body to nearly touching mine. He nuzzled my neck and whispered, "Looking good, babe." Then, in a lower tone, "Can we trust him?" I swallowed and thought about it. Then, I gave a small nod that Ranger felt more than saw. He pulled back and I looked over for Andy. He was still standing on the other side of the car. When he saw my look, he gave me one of his own, like damn. He walked around the car to lean against the door next to me and we looked at Ranger.

"Karl Moore hasn't been seen since Monday. For him that doesn't seem to be unusual. His neighbor started smelling something nasty coming from inside and called the police. Moore is dead and his place was ransacked."

"Oh, boy."

"Who were the detectives on the scene?"

"Brookline and her partner Mathews and a homicide named Donahue."

Andy and I glanced at each other. Hunh.

"And the smell was Moore?"

"No, rotten food. Everything in the fridge and freezer was tossed on the floor."

"Thanks for letting me know," I said with a frown, thinking about the case. This meant something right? Suddenly I remembered something Carla had said. Her captors had interrogated her about Karl's business. "Could you look into what Karl did for a living for me?" He nodded and gave me a quick kiss.

"Got to go, babe."

"Not staying tonight?" He flashed me a beautiful grin.

"Not tonight. I have some things to take care of."

"Be careful, Batman." He shook his head with that smile and got in his Porsche Turbo and rumbled into the night. I looked on in the sky in search of the Batlight and followed Andy in.