AU of Top Secret 21, contains canon plot points and some dialogue.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Since Poletti's family hated him I figured it would be a smart next step to run him through some of Rangeman's heavy duty search programs. The ones I used to have on my laptop were good, but Ranger's were better. Ranger's programs could tell me how many parking tickets he'd had in his life and the date of his last prostate exam. I was just getting into the car to drive home to Rangeman when my phone rang. I got an instant sharp pain behind my eye when I saw the name. Randy Briggs. The three-foot-tall-pain-in-the-ass. "What do you want?"
"Boy, how's that for a greeting. Didn't your mother ever teach you phone manners?"
"She taught me not to associate with people who drive me nuts."
"How come you're not at your apartment?"
"Because it's lunchtime on a Monday. I'm working."
"How, aren't you half a planet by now?"
"I'm hanging up."
"No jeez wait, I'm sorry I take it back. I'm sure you're resplendent with glowing radiance. Please."
"How do you know I'm not at my apartment?"
"Because I'm standing at your door and you're not answering. Could you please just come home already, I need to talk to you."
Cripes. Randy Briggs was like a bad penny. No matter how hard you tried to get rid of him he always turned back up. I was only around the corner, so I told him not to touch anything and turned toward my apartment building, trying not to press a finger to my eye. Randy was sitting on my doormat with a duffle bag when we showed up. "This better be good."
"Boy, it's like you're not even happy to see me. It's because I'm short, right? You hate me because I'm short."
"I don't care that you're short. I like lots of things that are short. Little dogs and daffodils. I hate you because you're mean as a snake. Would it kill you to be nice?"
He turned cagey. "Why do you say that? Did you hear something?"
"About what?"
"About killing. Like that someone wants to kill me."
"So far as I know, everyone who meets you wants to kill you."
"I'm serious. Did you hear about a contract?"
"On you?"
"Yeah. I'm in trouble. Look, could we go inside? Please?"
I indulged in a heavy sigh so that he would know he was a trial and unlocked my apartment door. Pushed it open for him. Ramon moved forward too to check that the place was Stephanie approved and Briggs went still like he hadn't noticed him. Ramon did a quick sweep and we all moved into the kitchen.
I hadn't been in my apartment since Dillon finished renovating. It looked nice. Aside from the lack of furniture you couldn't tell there'd been a fire at all. I'd lost everything but my bedroom set when Ranger's old Army buddy sent a homemade rocket through my apartment window. I'd been living with Ranger ever since and hadn't put much thought into replacing any of it. In fact, I hadn't really thought about the apartment much at all. Huh. Weird.
Randy was just shy of alarm. "I'd ask if you were robbed, but I remember your stuff, it wasn't that nice."
"You wanted to come in. You're in."
"I could use a drink. You got any Vodka? Or some Pinot Noir?"
I gestured to my pregnant belly. "Do I look like I'd have Vodka?"
"You don't look like you've got anything. Look at this kitchen, it's empty. There's nothing in your fridge but a box of baking soda."
"I don't really live here anymore. I'm living with Ranger."
"I guess that makes sense, with the impending rug rat. Well, since you don't even have a beer, I'll just get right to it. I suppose you want to know about the contract."
"No."
"How could you not want to know?"
"Easy. Not my business."
"Yeah, but we're friends."
"I don't think so."
"Boy, that's harsh. After all we've been through together. Next thing you know you're not even gonna offer me a place to stay in my hour of need."
"I don't even like you."
"But I'm desperate! My apartment got blown up and I need to stay with somebody who has a gun. In fact it's kind of perfect that you're living with Ranger. He probably has a lot of guns."
"On no. No, no, no, no. Don't even think about it. You don't want me to bring you home to Ranger. Ranger would shoot you himself."
"I won't be any trouble. Look at me. I'm little. You won't even know I'm there."
"I'm starting to think you have a death wish."
"Well, what about here, can I stay here? Please, please, please. I don't want to die. Jimmy Poletti is trying to kill me."
That got my attention. "Jimmy Poletti?"
"Yeah, he looks nice on television but he's a nasty bugger."
"Why does he want to kill you?"
"I did his bookkeeping. I know all his secrets. The money laundering, the payoffs, the offshore accounts."
"He obviously hired you because he knew you were a slime bucket, so why does he suddenly think you're a threat?"
"When he got arrested, the cops were climbing all over everything. We managed to get rid of the paperwork, but I'm left swinging in the wind."
"He's worried you'd rat him out?"
"Yeah."
"Would you?"
"Hell yes."
"Have you gone to the police?"
"No. I'm sort of implicated in the cooked books. At first, my choice was to die or try a plea deal, but then I thought of you and your gang of Merry Men."
"They're Ranger's Merry Men. I just borrow them sometimes."
"Still. If you and your buddy here can bring Poletti in, he'll get locked up for a hundred years and he won't kill me. And I won't have to talk to the police."
"Okay, I'll buy that. But why do you want to stay here?"
"No one else will let me in."
"I'd buy that too."
"You gotta help me. I'm a dead man without you. You know what's left of my apartment? It's in that duffle bag in the hall. Good thing I was in the basement doing laundry when he rocketed the firebomb though my living room window. The guy's nuts!"
Nuts indeed. And he wanted Randy Briggs. And now I had Randy Briggs. All I had to do was dangle him as bait and let Poletti come to me.
Randy got cagey again. "What? You've got that look. The scary look that means you're thinking."
"I might be willing to let you stay if you help me find Poletti."
"Anything. I can tell you all kinds of things about him. I know where he owns property, and I know some of his mob friends."
"Would his mob friends hide him?"
"Depends on if they thought they'd be able to get their hands on his money. He has a load of money stashed away."
"Do you know where the money is stashed?"
"Who, me? No."
"You do! That's why he wants to kill you."
"It's not like I have access to it. I just might know where he keeps it."
Oh boy. "What else?"
"That's it, I swear."
I pulled up the map on my phone and showed it to Briggs. "Where are his properties?"
"There's the three dealerships. You know about them. Then there's a parking garage where he keeps his inventory. It's by the government buildings. He rents part of it out. It's at the corner of State Street and Norton. So far as I know there aren't any offices in it. It's just parking. He has the house in West Trenton. I'm sure you've already been there and met his soulmate." Briggs gave an involuntary shudder. "She scared the crap out of me. They had a house at the shore, but it floated out to sea. He owns a slum on Stark Street that operates as a rooming house. And he owns houses in North Trenton that he rents out."
I marked all the locations on my map with little pins. Easy peasy. "And his friends?"
"He doesn't exactly have friends. He has associates. They all played poker together, and they hung out in the back room of the dealership on Route 41. It was like a social club. Bernie Scootch, Ron Siglowski, Buster Poletti, who's a cousin, Silvio Pepper, and Tommy Ritt. I'm told two of them have disappeared. Bernie Scootch and Ron Siglowski. They could be with Jimmy or they could be dead."
"Do you think Jimmy's cleaning house?"
Briggs shrugged. "He tried to get me while I was crossing the street yesterday. Tried to run me over, but I got out of the way in time. He took a shot at me and missed. And then this morning someone sent a firebomb through my window."
"Are you sure it was Jimmy?"
"It was Jimmy yesterday. I got a good look at him. I guess I don't know about this morning since I was in the basement, but he's got rocket launchers and flamethrowers. He has a place in the Pine Barrens where he goes with the guys to shoot and blow stuff up. I don't know where exactly. I was never invited."
"Shocker. What was he driving yesterday?"
"The Mustang. I rode in it once. It's all tricked out. Black and silver. Real sweet ride."
"So where do you think I should start looking for Jimmy?"
"If all he wanted to do was hide I'd say the Pine Barrens, but since he seems intent to kill me he's probably still local. Maybe the slum on Stark, or an RV in the parking garage."
"Okay. Let's go then."
"What do you mean let's go? I thought you said I could stay here."
I might have been willing to let him sleep there since I wasn't really using the place, but I didn't like the idea of leaving him to his own devices. That seemed a lot like letting a feral dog have free run of your apartment without making sure it was housebroken. "You can stay at the office while we go look for Poletti. I'll drop you off when I pick up Lula."
ooo
Connie refused to keep Briggs, so I was stuck taking him with me. Lucky for me the fancy Mercedes Benz that Ranger gave me wasn't just bulletproof and armor plated, it had tinted privacy windows. Nobody would be able to see Briggs from the outside. I took State Street to the parking garage Jimmy owned and idled at the entrance. There was a lot of police activity on the second level. I got myself a ticket and parked in a spot on the ground floor. "Stay here," I said to Briggs and Lula. "I'll go investigate and report back."
I took the stairs with my Ramon shaped shadow and walked to the back of the garage. Cop cars were parked at angles, blocking the scene, but I could see the yellow police tape was already up. I also spotted Joe Morelli. That wasn't a good sign. Joe mostly worked homicides. Which meant the focus of the police activity wasn't likely to still be breathing.
Joe was in a pale blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, his Glock clipped to his belt over his jeans and running shoes. Hands on hips as he stared down at the guy sprawled out on the pavement. I ducked the crime scene tape and stood next to him. "Eew. He has a hole in the back of his head the size of a potato. What was he shot with, a canon?"
"That's the exit wound. Whoever killed him flipped him over. Half his brain is splattered on the silver Honda over there."
"I think I'm gonna be sick."
Morelli grinned and looked me over. "You're such a cupcake."
"Who is he?"
"Tommy Ritt."
"Oh boy. He's one of Jimmy Poletti's poker buddies."
"And you're after Poletti?" he said, cutting his eyes to the parameter. "What giant man beast do you have with you today?"
"Ramon."
"He's not as big as Hal."
No. Ramon was 5'9" and built like a running back. Hal was built like a stegosaurus. "Not a lot of people are as big as Hal. Poletti owns this property. I was hoping to find him holed up in a Winnebago."
"Sorry, I haven't seen a Winnebago." He turned his attention to me. "Mike Kelly said he saw you with Ranger last night. Some big deal takedown."
"You're not gonna ask about the And too, are you?"
"The what?"
"Nevermind. Ranger had me acting as the lookout when he took down Emilio Gardi. It all happened according to plan and no shots were fired."
"And that doesn't strike you as odd that Ranger's asking his pregnant girlfriend on a job this close to third trimester?"
"All I did was sit at the bar and drink a soda," I said, staring at him. "That's the first time you've called me his girlfriend."
Morelli made a nonverbal signal to one of the officers and ducked under the police tape. Held it for me so I could do the same and walked with me toward the stairwell. "The offer still stands if you wanted to run away with me. If living with him is anything like it was when you were living with me you're probably just shy of throwing stuff at his head by now. But I'm also practical enough to admit the facts, and whether I like it or not you and him have been a thing for half a year now. Without doing the on again off again we used to do. It keeps going this way, I'm gonna have to face that Ranger was right and I'm not ever getting you back."
That made me sad in a way. But I was pretty sure it was more for Joe than it was because of him. Of the two men in my life, Joe had always been the more fragile. He deserved to be happy. Happier, at least, than he'd ever been with me. "You shouldn't want me back anyway. I used to drive you crazy. I had an impossible job that gave you heartburn, and you'd have little heart attacks when I'd carried a gun."
"Yeah, but you were also fun to hang out with. We liked all the same things. And then there was the wild gorilla sex."
"You mostly miss the part about the gorilla sex."
"It's more than that. But yeah, I definitely miss that part too."
"Randy Briggs showed up on my doorstep this morning," I said.
"At Rangeman?"
"No, my apartment. He claims Poletti tried to run him down with his Mustang and took a shot at him. And then someone shot a firebomb into his apartment."
"I heard about the apartment. I didn't know it belonged to Briggs. What's his connection to Poletti?"
"He was Poletti's accountant."
"Ow. Not a healthy job choice. Did Briggs stop by to tell you he was on his way to Argentina?"
"Something like that. I don't suppose you have any idea where I might find Poletti?"
"Not at the moment, but I'll let you know if something turns up. We'll be looking for him too. He's a person of interest in this shooting."
"He's driving a tricked-out black and silver Mustang. And he's probably packing a rocket launcher."
"I'll keep an eye out for that. I am a little surprised that you still have the apartment. Why are you paying for an apartment you're not using?"
"Ranger's paying for it."
That surprised him even more. "Since when?"
"Since we found out I was pregnant? He insisted. He said the relationship stuff on the table was all my choice, but financial support was non-negotiable."
"Huh. So how hard is he pressuring you to give it up, since he's paying for an empty nest?"
"Actually, he hasn't said a word." Which was another thing I hadn't really thought about until now. "It's just as well. Briggs is staying there for a day or two."
"You hate Briggs."
"I don't hate him. I just find him enormously annoying. Poletti exploded his apartment. He needed a place to stay. I happened to have an empty apartment."
I could tell by the smile Morelli's cop brain was very good at addition. "You're using Briggs as bait to get Poletti."
"I'd rather think of my generosity as a charitable act."
"Well, if he gets annoying enough that you're feeling less charitable I'm sure I could find something to arrest him on. Or you could let Ranger shoot him. I'm sure he'd love the opportunity to shoot someone."
"Ha ha."
A cop on the other side of the garage yelled for Morelli. Morelli kissed the top of my head and left me to walk up on my own. Ramon wasn't far behind me. He'd hung back to give us some space, but now that Morelli was gone he took the spot at my back again. "I'm not sure I could be that friendly with my ex."
"Morelli's a good guy, and a good cop."
"No doubt. I'm just saying, you're a better person than me."
We took the stairs to the ground level and walked back to my Mercedes.
The slums Poletti owned on the lower end of Stark Street lived up to their reputation. Covered in gang graffiti and drugged out stoop sitters. Likely hosted ten times as many rats as it did people. Ramon insisted on going in alone. Normally I might take umbrage to being cut out of the action, but I'd gotten pretty used to this as a part of procedure. Ranger's guys really only let me go sketchy places if they were in a team. That way one could stay with me and the other could handle danger. Plus, Ramon going alone meant I could stay and guard the car and I didn't have to take any stairs. Seemed like a win win.
I distributed snacks out of the glove compartment and Lula, Briggs and I sat there watching the building while we munched on cookies and cheesy crackers. Several shady individuals eyed the Mercedes as they passed by, but that was it. Cars this nice on this part of Stark were almost always owned by bigtime drug dealers. Not the kind of people you messed with. We'd been waiting about twenty minutes when a shotgun blast went off in the building. I was just starting to worry when I saw Ramon skipping down the front steps. He slid into the passenger seat and started buckling. "No sign of Poletti."
"What about the shotgun blast?"
"Misunderstanding. Tatted up guy thought I worked for a dealer named Jiggy. I politely planted his face on the ground and explained my position."
"Jeez. Maybe we should have called you some backup."
"Naw. Wasn't a thing. He was even nice enough to tell me who else lived on his floor, which apparently includes about forty Guatemalans and a pack of feral Chihuahuas."
Lula snorted. "Feral Chihuahuas? Oh yeah, that sounds terrifying."
Ramon flashed her an ominous look. "The man said they were nasty. That they'd eat you alive."
I rolled my eyes at him and he grinned.
We tried Poletti's rental properties in North Trenton next. Briggs thought since they were bought through an investment company Poletti might not even know about them, let alone be there, but the no-stone-unturned philosophy was about all I had to go on at the moment so we did a quick drive-by. When we yielded nothing I figured we should call it a day and took Lula back to the bonds office.
"So, what's for dinner," Briggs asked me.
"I was going to go home for dinner. I can drop you off at the apartment on my way."
"But there isn't any food at the apartment."
"So go food shopping."
"My money and credit cards got blown up."
"That sounds like a personal problem."
"Boy, that's cold."
It was also a stretch. Briggs might not be my favorite person, but I wasn't heartless. "Tell you what. You tell me what our next move is and maybe I'll drive through someplace for you."
"Or you could take me to the market and pick up a steak and a nice bottle of wine."
"Don't push it."
"Fine. I guess we could check out the poker players. Of course, one's dead and two are missing, but last I heard Buster was still around."
"The cousin?"
"Yeah. He was tight with Jimmy. He was the guy Jimmy trusted to go to Mexico to solve labor issues."
"You mean with the cars?"
"I don't know, I didn't ask questions. I just tapped in Buster's travel expenses. Hotels and planes and stuff. I came to the dealership on Broad twice a week and cooked the books. It didn't seem like such a big deal. Everyone hates the IRS, right?"
"Do you know where Buster lives?"
"Downtown Trenton. I don't know exactly where. His wife kicked him out of the house and took out a restraining order, so now he lives in an apartment over a pizza place. I think he owns the building."
That sounded like a decent lead. Might even get pizza out of it. I looked at the time. Too late to call Connie, but I figured Ranger might be back from his security walkthrough. I hit him on speed dial. "Babe," he said in greeting.
"Are you home? I need an address."
"Not yet. We started late because somebody screwed up with Tank's security clearance. Call Gibbons at the control desk. He'll be able to get what you need. How's the Poletti hunt going? I hear his friends are dropping dead."
"How'd you hear that? I didn't see Ramon make any reports."
"Control caught it on the police scanner. Be careful. Men who make a living stripping the humanity away from people for profit don't hold to many moral lines. That includes shooting at a pregnant lady."
"I'll be careful. Everything still set for Gardi's flight?"
"Yep. Just three more hours and he's out of our hair."
I said goodbye and got another Babe in return. The Ranger version of I love you. Still gave me warm fuzzies.
I called Gibbons and got an address on the third block of Stark.
We slowed when we approached the pizza place. It was crowded. A group of guys standing out front smoking whatever, looking like they were either hard or trying to look hard.
"This pizza place is a dump," Briggs said, "but it's full of people."
"My guess is it's either really good, or it's super cheap and comes with a side of weed."
Briggs pressed his nose to the glass. "I swear I can smell it! Oh man, would I love a piece of pizza! We should check it out. You want to talk to Buster anyway, right?"
Right. But now that Briggs was drooling I also really wanted a slice of pizza. Usually when it came to food, the pregnant lady got what the pregnant lady wanted. I parked across the street from Buster's building. Briggs, Ramon and I got out and fit ourselves into the crowd lined up at the counter. There weren't any tables or anything. Strictly to go. But it did smell incredible. The perfect balance of greasy and cheesy. Real Jersey pizza.
Five minutes later we were leaning against the Mercedes while we ate, watching Buster's building. The pizza place took up the entire first floor, with the exception of a door on the end. Probably led to the apartment on the second floor. I'd been watching the apartment windows carefully. None of the shades were drawn, and I hadn't seen any signs of life. I finished my pizza and wiped my hands. "I'm thinking we should just knock on his door."
"Suppose no one answer?" Briggs said.
"I'll call his phone."
"What if he doesn't answer his phone?"
"Then I'll write him a letter. Jeez, are we doing this or not?"
Briggs didn't make any further protests. I made sure I had my pepper spray and my stun gun and started for the building, Ramon a couple steps behind me. We crossed the street and I reached for the bell when I heard someone thundering down the stairs. The door yanked open and a guy bowled into me. Tipping me off balance. Ramon caught me against his chest, arms round my middle to protect me. The guy looked at me and Ramon, then he looked down at Briggs and his face flushed.
"You son of a bitch," Briggs yelled at him. "You blew up my apartment. What the fuck is the matter with you?"
"Jimmy Poletti?" I said.
Poletti looked at me again, clearly confused by the belly, but after a second look at Ramon his brain caught up with him and he took off. Ramon set me on my feet and made sure I was steady before he took off after him. Fast as a running back and twice as determined. Poletti took his lead down Stark and into an alley, the rattle of scattered trash cans rumbling in his path. A door slammed and Ramon swore. Running my way again. Poletti popped out of a door on the other side of the building a second later and went for a car. It wasn't the Mustang. It was a silver sedan. There was no way I could grab him, so I pulled out my phone hoping to catch the license plate. He pulled away too fast for me to get a decent shot. Ramon hit the street the same time as Poletti, just in time to see him drive away. The tail lights were gone so fast there wasn't a point in pursuit.
Ramon wasn't breathing hard when he came to my side again, but I could tell he wanted to.
"Now what?" Briggs wanted to know.
"I think we should go upstairs and look around," I said.
"Is that legal?"
"It is if I have reason to believe my skip is up there."
Briggs cut me a dubious look. "Do you?"
"Not even a little bit."
We went inside anyway. Ramon and his gun in the lead. I announced myself at the top of the stairs, but no one answered back. It was eerily silent. Ramon led the way into the apartment. It was pretty nice, and obviously lived in. Food in the refrigerator, dishes in the sink.
Ramon called out to me and we moved to the bedroom. Found a guy stretched out on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. Oh boy. "Is it Buster?" I asked Briggs.
"No. It's Bernie Scootch. He doesn't look good. Is he okay?"
Bernie was definitely not okay, if the pool of blood was any indication. Then there was the fact his chest had a bunch of bullet holes in it. I had to take a step back just so my pizza would stay on the inside. "I'm pretty sure he's dead."
"Oh jeez," Briggs said. "That's bad. That sucks."
I dialed 911 and gave the dispatcher the address and the big picture. Then I called Morelli. Five minutes later, Bernie Scootch had better company and I was outside with Morelli telling him what I knew, like that Bernie Scootch had been shot… a lot. He went up and had a look. Came back a couple minutes later. "You're right. He's been shot a lot. I know I'm gonna be sorry asking, but you didn't shoot him, did you?"
"Of course not. I'm not carrying a gun."
"And what about your man in black?"
"He didn't do it either. And before you ask, Briggs' gun burned up with his apartment."
"What about Buster?"
"I didn't see Buster, and I also haven't seen the murder weapon. It wasn't near the body, and Poletti didn't have it on him."
"You're sure he wasn't carrying?"
"He was wearing a shirt tucked into slacks and there was no gun. Plus he didn't try to shoot Briggs."
"Missed opportunities."
Morelli promised to pass the information on to Bryan Kreider, who would be primary on Scootch's case, and then he let me go. I crossed the street to where Briggs was waiting with Ramon by the Mercedes. Briggs was on edge. "Did you hear them?"
"Who?"
"The dogs," he whispered to me. "The Chihuahua pack. I heard them yipping. Like tiny coyotes. And at the end of the block I saw a tiny shadow with glowing red eyes. It was eerie. It gave me goosebumps."
I rolled my eyes and looked to Ramon. He was fighting a smile. He thought he was hilarious.
A phone buzzed among us. Not mine. Ramon checked his. Then the smile dropped off his face, replaced by a whole lot of Oh shit. He looked up at me and my heart stopped. "It's a company wide alert. Rangeman just went Code Black."
