Chapter 21 – May the Task Force Be With You

I had a bunch of messages on my phone. Two were from my mother, one from Grandma Mazur and four from Lula asking me to call her. Before I could call her back, Givens told me that the call he answered was from Tim and we were picking him up at Lula's apartment. That explained the messages from Lula, sort of. Usually she would have left just one. Four seemed excessive, even for her.

Lula lived in a closet-sized apartment on Hancock Street, where the buildings were run down but they weren't crack dens. Most of her neighbors worked several minimum wage jobs to make ends meet, unlike her neighbors a few blocks away. Those neighbors dealt drugs, sold their bodies and did all sorts of things that made me queasy to think about.

Givens parked the Town Car and looked up at Lula's four story building. "I'm sure Tim is practicing his sniper skills and blending in with his surroundings."

Considering the fact this was a mostly black neighborhood, that would have been quite a feat. I led Givens inside and we walked up the two flights to Lula's apartment.

She threw open the door before I could knock and she had a guilty look on her face. Tim was sitting at her kitchen table, sipping a mug of coffee. There was something different about him and it took me a full minute to realize what it was. He was wearing a burnt orange polo shirt that was a lot tighter than his usual navy blue or black ones.

Givens mouth quirked. "Nice shirt, Gutterson."

Tim shot him a sarcastic looking smirk. "It's different from my usual color choice but this is Jersey. I could wear neon pink and still blend in."

That much was true.

"It's kinda tight, ain't it?" Givens asked. "Makes you look kinda like a -"

"Don't you criticize him," Lula interrupted, hitting Givens with a glare. "I bought him that shirt. You make fun of that shirt, you're insulting my taste and I know you don't want to insult my taste."

I sucked in air. Lula and Tim! Tim and Lula! It couldn't be! But it was. I knew that look on Lula's face.

"He's a closet badass," Lula whispered to me. "And he's got a body that's even better than Raylan's, 'cept he don't go around wearing no tight pants and showing off his ass to the world. I like subtlety in a man."

Lula didn't like subtlety in anything. I wasn't even sure she knew what it meant. Probably the safest thing to do was pretend it wasn't happening.

Tim cut his eyes to the badge on my belt. "You know that's my badge, right?"

"Stephanie's gonna borrow it for a while," Givens began.

"You mean while she works on the task force instead of me?" Tim cut him off. "Art called and told me all about it."

Givens smiled tightly. "That's right."

"This should be interesting," Tim smirked.

Lula turned to me, eyes narrowed and hands on hips. "Hunh. Guess I ain't good enough to be on the task force. Nice to know where I stand, Miss Fake Marshal."

My left eye started to twitch. "It's Raylan's fault I'm on the task force!"

Givens clamped a hand down on my shoulder before I could say anything about Karen. "You can be on Tim's task force, Lula."

Tim's eyebrows rose and he folded his arms over his chest like he couldn't wait to hear what else Givens had to say.

"I guess I don't mind that," Lula said.

"And what exactly is my task force working on?" Tim wanted to know.

"Someone told Fletcher Nix we were lookin' for him and sicced him on Stephanie," Givens said slowly. "Joyce Barnhardt knows something but she's not talking. You two shadow her and see what she knows."

"Joyce knows how to wreck lives." The words popped out of my mouth before I could stop them.

"She's pure evil," Lula added. "I say we skip the shadowing and beat the answers out of her."

Tim turned to Lula. "How about beating on Raylan for excluding us from the real task force?"

"There's a lot of cops on that task force," I told her.

"I don't do well in large groups," Lula said quickly. "Too much bureaucracy."

The truth was, Lula didn't do well around cops. She avoided them wherever possible because of her former profession as a ho. It was surprising that she liked the marshals. And that she liked Tim enough to - no! Don't think about that, Stephanie.

Givens smiled. "Then it's settled. We'll meet up at the apartment later and compare notes."

Great. My apartment was now Tim's task force headquarters. Maybe I'd stay with Morelli until the marshals were done here. And then I remembered the kiss. Morelli was probably still pissed off about that, the borrowed badge and Nix' attempt on my life. There was more he was probably pissed about but I decided not to dwell on it. Instead, I asked, "What are we doing while they shadow Joyce?"

"We're gonna find Vito's granddaughter."

"Are we going to apply more pressure?"

"It depends. My guess is Vito ain't gonna be too happy with us for talkin' to her," Givens told me.

I was starting to miss the good old days of rolling around in garbage and wrestling naked fugitives.

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We pulled into the GM dealership lot and were immediately greeted by Lenny Buzick. Lenny is my grandmother's friend Louise's grandson and he sold me a couple of used cars from the dealership's used car lot since mine started getting destroyed. He's a few years older than me with the kind of shiny black hair that could only come from dye.

"Stephanie Plum. What can I show you today?" Lenny asked.

Givens flashed his identification. "I was hoping for a word with the repair manager."

Lenny pointed towards a large white building at the back of the lot. "The service department is that way." He eyed me with obvious disappointment. "Sure you're not in the market? I've got a Jeep with your name on it."

"It's early in the day," I told him. "I might be in the market later."

That earned me a smile from both men.

We made our way across the lot and when we walked into the service department, there was Dion DiLorenzo. He had a huge bandage over his huge nose and he glared at Givens as we walked in. Dion had a group of four friends with him, each one bigger than the next.

"Marshal," Dion said, his gaze cutting to me. "And Fake-Marshal Plum. We already gave our statement to the Trenton PD."

Givens raised an eyebrow. "We? I wasn't aware you had any involvement with this dealership, Dion."

"Guess you shoulda been doing your homework instead of boning Morelli's slutty girlfriend," Dion shrugged. "Not that I blame you. She looks like a really juicy Plum, the kind that tastes sweet and runs down your chin."

Dion's gang guffawed on cue and leered at me.

My eyes narrowed and I took a step forward, only to be yanked back by the collar of my shirt by Givens. His eyes were narrowed too and he was starting to look feral. I decided to head things off. "We're looking for Vito's granddaughter."

"Maybe you wanna look for her in my pants," Dion shot back.

Givens exhaled and it was a sound that held a lot of warning if you knew him. Dion and his crew didn't. I was pretty sure things were about to get really ugly. "The lady asked you a question."

"The lady ain't a cop."

"I am," Givens said, showing teeth.

"You got a warrant?" Dion was smirking now. "Otherwise, kiss my ass and get off the property. Juicy Plum over there can kiss this." He met my eyes and grabbed his crotch.

Yuck!

Givens exhaled again. "You know how many wise guys mouthed off like that to me over the years? Hundreds, I'd say and that's a low figure. Those that aren't in jail are six feet under. Put there by me."

"You threatening me?" Dion wanted to know.

"I'm tellin' you how it is."

I swallowed hard. Probably Morelli applied pressure just like Givens was doing. Probably, I was over-reacting. The only reason I never saw Ranger do this was because Ranger didn't have to apply pressure. Ranger was pressure.

"Let me tell you how it is." Dion got into Givens' face. "You're on the premises illegally and you're being recorded. You take a swing at me again and I won't hit back. I'll sue and I'll find every shitkicker you ever manhandled and make it a class action lawsuit. By the time I'm done with you, you'll be lucky to get a shitty bounty hunter gig like Juicy Plum over there. Now get the hell out before I file a complaint."

Givens snorted. "The Marshals love gettin' complaints from the bent-nose - 'scuse me - the broke-nose community. Lets us know we're doin' our jobs."

Neither one was backing down and I knew this wasn't going to end without fists flying. I hoped Givens wasn't planning on applying pressure anywhere else today because I wasn't sure my nerves could handle it.

"Job? All I see you doing is harassing local business people and their families. Is there a point you're trying to make, Raylan?" Dion put a mocking emphasis on Givens' name.

Givens smiled at him but there was no humor in it. It was the kind of smile a predator had before it ripped the head off of its prey. "I believe I made my point earlier today but I can make it again if you need clarification."

The next series of events happened so quickly that I didn't even realize they were happening until it was over and Dion was clutching his freshly re-broken and bleeding nose. Givens had his gun drawn before Dion's bodyguards could react. In the next heartbeat, their weapons were on the floor and their hands were in the air.

"Apologize to the lady," Givens ordered.

Dion made sounds that might have been an apology. Then again, maybe not.

Givens gripped my arm with his left hand and thrust me through the door ahead of him. He was silent until we were back inside his Town Car and pulling into traffic. "That went well."

Unh. Mental head slap. "We almost got killed."

"We did? When?"

"We could have been killed," I said.

Givens snorted. "By them? Are you kiddin'?"

"They had guns!" My left eye started to twitch.

"So did I," he reminded me. "And look what we learned."

I slumped in my seat. "We learned Vito owns the dealership."

"That's right. That'll give Karen's team something to research for their case. I'm sure there's a lot of dummy corporations to sift through to get to Vito." He glanced over at me. "We can assume the Oxy was bein' moved through the dealership and that Bravo might have been skimming the supply. We can also assume Nix is or was workin' for Vito. Now what we have to do is prove it and shut Vito down."

It sounded so easy when he said it but if it was so easy, why was there a task force? And why were my hands still shaking?