Chapter 25

I dragged myself away from her feeling the loss of her body against mine.
"Babe we have a meeting in ten minutes"

"I don't want to go"
"That's okay, I'll let you know what we decide"
I knew that would have her moving, if nothing else she was far too involved in this to be left out. I heard the shower running and debated joining her but then realized if I did that neither one of us would make the meeting. As she came out of the shower I went in, I didn't need a lot of time but definitely needed to wash away the smell of sex before sitting down in front of the men. We were both dressed in Rangeman uniform and yes we were the last to arrive and it didn't matter that we'd both showered because Steph's face was radiant displaying exactly what we'd been up to. I pulled down a serious face and went to the head of the table giving Santos a hard look after he'd looked at Steph and smiled, no way would I allow him to embarrass her.

"Jay any luck with following materials?

"Not really, there are too many private companies getting into this business. But you need to know, that book you found today, set off the alarms, so I'm having to use an isolation chamber to look at it"
"Alarms for what"
"Radiation, it's only reading at a low level, but I think we need to be cautious"
After the incident we'd had with that dam Russian I'd had sensors deployed in all the main areas, but shit I wasn't expecting a book to carry anything. I sensed Steph move next to me and saw her expression change to a frown.

"Babe?"
"Well it's just that according to the records Harvey died of a nasty form of leukemia, could it have been from radiation?"
I looked toward Bobby who was nodding his head.

"It could be, but there are chemicals out there that are just as deadly mostly it's benzene and vinyl chlorides that are highlighted in the research"

"Hector anything on the streets?"
"Everyone is being very cautious, some talk of jobs for cash but I can't get a line on that"

"Tank did you find out anything on Huntington?"

"No more than Little Girl did, he's real good at covering his tracks"

"Santos, Alfonso Stretch?"

"Not really, according to a search he 's only been in existence for six years and non of the addresses or jobs pan out, he's as much of a ghost as Huntington"

"Tank do we have staff here from the other offices?"
"Due in tomorrow, I'll let you know who we get and how best to use them"

"Okay the trip today brought us a few leads. Jay has a science fiction book he's currently looking at and we managed to get the name of Harvey's last employer, Minerva, Westchester"
"I'll look into that"
I looked up and nodded my head at Ram pleased that he'd volunteered for that job.

"Steph is going to visit Lula tomorrow, Hector can we cover that?"

"Si, visitors have to go through scanners, similar to airport security, but I can set her up with some things that will get through"
"Any chance of someone going in with her?"
"Si, I can go visit someone at the same time"
I felt better with that suggestion from Hector, though security should be tight at the prison I really didn't like the idea of her being in there by herself.

"Meeting then same time tomorrow"

I watched as the men stood up to leave and watched when Jay spoke to Steph, she nodded her head at him as she laughed, then Hector was by her side speaking so quietly she had to lean in toward him. Again she nodded her head as he left and then turned to me.

"I should probably call my parents and see what they're up to, you staying down here?"
"Yeah, I've some work to get caught up on, but I'll try not to be too long"

Unfortunately the paperwork had piled up a bit over the last few days, and I needed to get caught up, the reviews on the employees at all of the offices were now complete so I had to go through each one to evaluate their performance and agree to the targets that had been agreed on. Fortunately for me there didn't seem to be any problems at the moment, that hadn't always been the case and too often I'd had to fly to one of the other offices to put into place procedures that would either result in someone being told to leave or in a minority of cases see a total turn around of their attitude. Trenton was the most stable in terms of employment we had men here who worked effectively and were always keen to improve. By the time I'd gone through Boston and Miami I decided I'd done enough and tidying up the paperwork headed for seven. I realized we'd not eaten much today and I actually felt hungry, I hoped that Steph had decided to eat and not to wait for me. As I went through the door I dropped my keys in the tray and toed off my boots, walking barefoot through to the lounge, Steph was curled up on the couch, a robe pulled tight around her and her damp hair falling past her shoulders, watching TV with a glass of water in her hands. There was an empty plate on the table in front of her so I turned and headed for the kitchen looking inside the fridge and finding a plated dish of salad and tuna. As I turned Steph came in and washed her plate and then got out a bottle of water. Together we walked back into the lounge and as I sat on the couch I began to eat my salad.

"Is that enough for you?"
"Yes, why?"
"It just doesn't seem enough to keep you going"
"I'll fill up with a smoothie if I need to. How are your parents?"
"Good, Mum seems so much more relaxed and Dad actually talked to me on the phone"
"Have you told them anything about what's going on?"
"Hell no, I mean the way my Mum's attitude toward me has changed I don't want to spoil it, it's like she's been replaced by an alien and I'm all for keeping the status quo"

"Your Grandma?"
"Don't know what she's up to, she hardly talks to them and when she hinted to Dad she might move there for good he said he was all for that"
"Any other conversations?"
"How'd you know?"

"You have that lost look in your eyes"
"Yeah well Connie called, she knows about Lula but not any details, I'm sure she was just calling to see if I had any information but I feigned ignorance, then she told me that they were struggling with skips, Barnyard's been brought in by Vinnie, but she's no good. Maybe I need to start earning a living and get myself down to the Bonds Office"
"How about we do what we talked about?"

"A partner and shadow?"
"Yes"
"I can't let you do that, hell that's crazy, three men with me? It's gonna cost you a fortune and you'll be down staff"
I could see her point, from a business perspective she was right, but maybe if she located the skips and two men brought them in so the money came into Rangeman that might make more sense.

"What if you found them and two of the men brought them in and the money came to Rangeman?"
"How would that help me to pay my bills?"
"You'd be employed full time at Rangeman"
"What, I'd have to stay inside all of the time?"
"No, of course not"
"That's not what it sounded like to me"
I could see the anger slowly rise inside of her, shit she was mad at the suggestion and mad at me, but how else could we resolve this without putting her at risk?

"Steph, what would you suggest then?"
That threw her, I suppose she'd spent most of her life fighting against what people tried to make her do that her automatic reaction was to just keep doing what she was doing without thinking about it. I could almost hear the thoughts swirling through her head and twice she opened her mouth to say something and immediately closed it. I lent back on the couch waiting for an answer watching her carefully.

"I don't have an answer and you know it, but no way am I going to be confined to this building sitting at a computer all day long"
With that she got up and stomped her way into the bedroom, shit how did I put this right, I mean I couldn't come up with an answer either. I walked to the door and saw her laid on the bed, her head at the foot of the bed and a pillow over her face, but the way she was pressing the pillow to her face gave me the clue that she wasn't thinking and that she was upset. I dropped to my knees at her head and slowly teased her fingers from a death grip on the pillow and moved it away, tears were running down the side of her face into her hair, so using my thumbs I wiped them away and then held them against her cheeks.
"I'm sorry babe"
"No you're right, I'm stupid"
"No you're not"
"Yes I am, I can't even do my job properly without having someone with me"
"Babe you got it wrong, I only want you to be safe"

"Because I can't keep myself safe?"
"No because there's someone out there who wants to hurt you"

I felt that we were going round in circles and it wasn't about what I'd suggested it was all about her insecurities, it was as if I had undermined her ability to do her job, and that was what everyone around her was always doing. Morelli through his shouting and derogatory remarks, her mother trying to get her married and into a safe job, the police officers making bets on the next disaster she had and she thought I was doing the same.

"Babe you have the highest capture rate in the state, higher than Rangeman and we use teams, don't ever think that you're not good at your job"

Her hands came over mine and she looked up into my eyes.
"How is it you always know what to say to me"
"Because I love you Querida"
"I love you too, I'm sorry, I just feel so useless"
"Babe you have done more than anyone else on the team and tomorrow you may find out more"

"Hell, I'm not looking forward to that"
"You don't have to go if you don't want to"
"No, I said I'd go and I will"

"I'm going to get a shower"

When I came back into the bedroom Steph was already under the covers as I slipped in beside her she turned into me an arm over my chest and a leg between mine, I pushed an arm under her shoulder and the other on her hips and pulled her to my side and that's how we fell asleep, together.