SPOV
Ranger and I were just sitting down to breakfast when his cell rang and he had to take the call. I was starving so I dug into my omelet he had made me. I needed more meat, cheese and something else. I grabbed some salsa out of the fridge. Les came in a few minutes later with his shirt un-tucked, half open with scratches on his chest. I noticed a few hickeys on both sides of his neck and a lazy smile on his lips. He was still wearing his sunglasses inside and had an ice pack on his crotch. I snorted at him. He looked like one of those guys from The Hangover.
"Did you get attacked by a cougar?" He covered his ears in pain.
"Not so loud beautiful. I'm still hung over."
Les sat down in Ranger's chair then started to eat his breakfast, drinking his coffee. He added more cheese and salsa to his meal too, mumbling how he can't eat healthy shit hung over and wanted a pound of bacon instead.
"So how was your night?" I gave him a big smile.
"Awesome. I met this girl who was a model and we danced all night to some music then fooled around in a hotel room... My crotch is killing me from over use. She did this thing with her mouth..."
"Santos!" Ranger whacked him in the back of his head.
Ranger realized Les ate his breakfast so he grabbed him by his shirt pulling him out of the chair, pushing him out of the room while Les laughed. Ranger said something in rapid Spanish then returned to the kitchen to cook.
By the time Ranger sat down for breakfast I had to pee badly all of a sudden. I ran for the bathroom and almost ran Les down. He was dressed in his Rangeman uniform and making fun of me, calling me Speedy Gonzalez. I barely gave him the finger before I shut the door in his face. That's one thing that really sucked about pregnancy, I had to pee all the time now.
Eventually we made our way to the car in route to Rangeman.
"Beautiful I'm getting off work tonight at 7:30. Do you want to do wings, pizza with our movie tonight?"
"Sounds good. I'm craving Hawaiian but also garlic with extra olives... Did you have any other thoughts on my case?"
"Ya. I wanted to tell you last night that I took a girl once to dinner and she was a Pharmaceutical Rep. She traveled to different doctor's all over. Having some kind of route would make it easy for a stalker to find women without being suspicious. Other jobs that allow a person to travel would be a truck driver, auditors, consultants, field service engineers, or a recruiter.
I'd look into doctor's appointments, parties, social events, things like that where he could come in contact with lots of different women to choose from. I doubt he just drove around finding someone but that could be possible too. I'm guessing your suspect had a rough childhood, substance and alcohol abuse in the home or psychological abuse from a parent. Someone who grew up lonely and isolated.
Motive wise I'm not positive. It's about you but I don't know if it's attention seeking, anger or a thrill for him. If you find a suspect I'd expect him to lack remorse or guilt, possibly be mentally ill. You may just resemble someone from his childhood who hurt him and since he can't attack that person, he is attacking you... I knew this Fed once that was hunting a killer.
He told me over beers that when he caught the guy he was completely normal from the outside. He had a family, nice home, member of the community, steady job. The last person you would suspect. I remember he told me a lot about organize, disorganized and mixed killers. Disorganized killers are all impulsive, random weapons and rarely hide the body. I think your suspect is organized. He is methodical, he abducts these women, kills in one place then puts their dead bodies near there homes. He wants them identified.
I don't see any DNA or fingerprints so he fits into the profile of having forensic knowledge and he likes to follow you in the newspaper. I bet he follows his victim's in the paper too maybe even taking pride in his work from their death. A disorganized killer is more likely to be a loner while an organized one has a life, a woman, kids, friends. Organized killers make it easy for the victim's to trust him. Some victim's may have even gone with him willingly at first because he was normal. He could be mixed, a loner but organized in his killing... but that doesn't float with me. He isn't disorganized in anything else and has a distinct pattern he follows. What do you have on the missing victim?"
"Nothing but an approximate time she went missing. It's too many women to be exact."
"I saw in your notes...where you would personally hide a body if you were the killer. It was... adorable. But your a nervous person in general. You would need to know for your own piece of mind. You need to think in terms of the killer and his pattern. He likes to have them found within miles of there homes. I think the most was 10 miles? It would be the same for that missing victim too.
He has a pattern that he has to stick too because he has rules for himself. Not sticking to those rules would drive him mad. And your theory that she was killed and hidden because you were away for many months may just be a coincidence. The girl might have just fought back or tried to escape then died in the process. The only way to test that theory would be staying out of the light again for months but I know you won't do that."
How did I not see that! I smacked my hand to my forehead. "Of course he would follow his pattern and hide a body like the others." Ranger parked the car at Rangeman. I got out of the car and hugged Les.
"Thank you!" I kissed his check and went for the elevator excited to tell Slick his theory.
I heard Les say to Ranger that I liked him more since he didn't get a kiss before work. I stopped short and turned back around. I strutted back up to Ranger and gave him a real kiss with tongue.
I whispered against his lips "Have a great day sweat heart." Ranger had a small smile twitching at his lips but wasn't digging the nickname. I took the elevator while they took the stairs. I found Slick in our temporary War room. He didn't look any different unlike Les.
"Boring night? You don't look different?" He gave me a big smile.
"Nope it was very... stimulating." He didn't mention anything further although I was curious. I gave him a run down of Les's theory then we both started to go through the files of the missing women.
"I need some maps. I want to run through every address and look at different spots within 10 miles that someone could hide a body. It needs to be private with limited cameras."
"Are we still following King? He just left for his shift."
I sighed frustrated. "Yeah I forget. Do we have a third wheel again?"
"Hawk." Great. He likes to rush me when I pee with a personality of a bed bug.
All three of us were wearing normal clothes. I tracked King's gps a few streets over from us. I figured out he was on his way to Rachel's house. King was in charge of Christopher, Ron and Rachel's only son. It made me think of names for the babies.
"What would you name a kid? A boy for instance... I don't want anything too traditional. I always thought my name was a little boring." Slick was thinking.
"You could pick a family name?"
"No."
"Umm I'd name my son either after me or something cool. What will be the babies last name? Plum or Manoso or Plum-Manoso?" I didn't even think of that. I don't feel like a Plum myself right now so I can't imagine naming the babies that too but I wasn't sure Ranger wanted to use his last name for them. We would have to discuss that tonight.
"Let's go with Manoso right now."
"I'd want a son with a strong name. Jax, Axel, Maximus, Harvey, Rocco, Wilder, Maddox, Ranger Jr., Mateo, you can call him Teo for short... it's hard because your both unique in personality and ethnicity which gives you a lot of options to choose from. I couldn't see you using a sissy name though." It's true. I couldn't see us using something like Tank's name Pierre. I wrote them down and asked Hawk his opinion.
"Hunter, Luca, Wolf, Finn, Franco, Diesel or Danger for a middle name. The ladies would like that." I rolled my eyes.
"I don't want a name that will attract the ladies to my children. I'm already planning on beating the girls off with a stick if they look like Ranger... So far Mateo Manoso sounds decent but Luca is cute too. I already know Joe and Diesel are off the list." Ranger would have a cow over both and I didn't want to use a name of someone we knew. I wanted the babies to be their own person. I will have to ask Ranger if he wants to name one of the babies after him. I don't mind Carlos but Ricardo isn't my favorite. And if it's two boys I don't want one to feel unloved because he didn't get part of his father's name.
I noticed Ron get into his car with Christopher and Julie. They were dressed in jeans and t-shirts. King and Mace followed discreetly behind there car. We kept a good distance away and followed their trackers. We drove for an hour until we came to a shopping center.
I put on my baseball hat while Slick and Hawk put on sunglasses. We followed them around to different stores then King picked up on someone watching him. He would occasionally look around but couldn't see us. I was surprised he picked up on us at all since Mace and Scully didn't. It was a plus for my notes.
King followed Rangeman standards and protocol by lunch time I was tired of following him. I noticed Julie was a girly girl. She enjoyed makeup, purses, glitter and the color purple. She also spent a good portion of her day in a book store. After Julie left with a small bag of books I went inside to purchase a gift card for her birthday as well as a Vera Bradley purse and wallet to go with Ranger's gift.
I wrote up my report in the car then told Slick I needed meat loaf for lunch really bad. Since's Tank's date last night I couldn't get it out of my head. But I refused to get any gravy. I have nightmares about gravy thank's to Val.
We placed our order at the restaurant and started sipping our drinks.
"I want to look for the missing victim the rest of the day. I don't need to be out of the building so it's up to you if you want to help or take the day off. I don't mind if you want off." Slick shook his head.
"I'll work till dinner then see how I feel." Hawk just kept his eyes around the restaurant.
We were just finishing lunch when I had to go to the bathroom again. I took my time checking my messages but I didn't see anything new except from Royce who said the Doll's Eye's didn't come from the flower shop in Trenton. I was washing my hands when I heard my phone ring with Joe's ring tone. I decided to answer.
"Yo."
"Hey Steph. Do you have a few minutes to talk? I need a friend right now." He sounded weird I couldn't place it. Sad but not.
"Sure Joe what's up?"
"Ella isn't pregnant. I found out last night."
"Well that's good I think?"
"Yeah but at the same time I kinda wanted a baby too. I was researching things getting a little excited but I didn't want to marry Ella at all. I didn't realize how much I wanted a child until I found out Ella wasn't pregnant. I actually felt a little disappointed." I was at a loss what to say. He wanted a baby just not with Ella.
"You should date Joe. Find a woman you can stand long enough to have that family you want."
"I just feel like everything I wanted with you, your now having with Manoso... I wanted a baby with you. With your eyes and nose but hopefully my hair." He said it in a joking way but I could hear the sadness in his voice. I was also hoping the babies would have Ranger's hair too.
"Are you and them doing ok? I worry about you a lot. I don't see you to know if you are." I sighed.
"We're fine Joe. I think you need to take time and space from me for a while. It's not good for you to be like this. Thinking the way you are... If you want a woman to have a baby with then you need to grow up too. Stop the one night stand crap and actually date a woman without sleeping with her till your in a committed relationship."
"Cops don't make good husband's Steph." I rolled my eyes again.
"You were willing to marry me and have a baby with me while you were a cop. I know that's just an excuse now. She's out their Joe, you need to cut the crap and stop screwing anything that walks including Terri. Otherwise you may get a woman pregnant by mistake and be stuck with her for the rest of your life... I want to be your friend Joe but thinking about me so much isn't helping you move on. You shouldn't wait for me because it will never happen. Friendship only. And if you can't handle that then we should stop talking for a while."
"I hate this Steph."
"I know Joe. I'm sorry your hurting but I'm not sorry for what happened. I'm happy and I want you to find someone that makes you happy too... Have you asked Robbin out yet? She really likes you."
"I don't want to date at work."
"Ok well St. Francis has a bunch of single nurses. Try picking up a woman somewhere other then a bar. Your looking for quality now not quantity. " I heard him sigh. I rolled my eyes.
"Have your mother fix you up Joe if your that busy. I have to go. Maybe we can do lunch at Pino's or something in a few weeks." I heard the knocking on the bathroom door. We said our goodbye's. I checked myself in the mirror one last time then met Hawk outside the door. We were all walking back to our car when I noticed Reid Grey down the street with a small bag of food.
"Son of a bitch." I changed directions and started walking briskly after him. I grabbed my stun gun out of my bag as I followed him.
"This could be a trap again Steph." Both Hawk and Slick had their hands on there guns looking around at there surroundings, checking windows again for a sniper.
I increased my pace. Reid was almost to an alley when I stunned him from behind. Reid dropped like a sack of potatoes. Slick spoke up.
"It's too open here to question him. Let's take him back to a private room then we can release him later." Slick started dragging Reid's body into the alley and told Hawk to go get the car. Slick slapped some cuffs on him then checked him for weapons. Slick removed a gun and knife then his wallet, cell phone and keys.
Hawk parked the BMW in front of the alley so Slick could place him in the back seat, shackled to the floor. Slick then covered Reid's eye's with my scarf.
"I want to see inside his car before we take him back to Rangeman." Slick and Hawk had a silent conversation. Hawk stayed in the car to guard Reid. I walked around while Slick protected me with his body checking for Jeanne Ellen. I kept clicking the car alarm eventually finding it. It looked like one of my old pos cars.
I pulled on some gloves and started to search inside the vehicle after Slick checked it over looking for trip wires and explosives. It was disgusting and smelled of cigarettes. We searched every inch but all that was inside was trash and take out menus with a bag full of clothes. I locked the car back up.
Slick told me to sit in the front seat of the BMW, he didn't want me next to Reid in case he woke up bumping into my stomach. Any time Reid woke up, Slick would stun him again.
"Ranger is going to want to chat with him after your done regarding Jeanne Ellen." I just nodded while Slick passed me Reid's phone and wallet.
"Condoms, several credit cards not in his name, some cards for gambling, business cards for different bars and some girl's phone numbers. Twenty in cash." I removed the SIM card from his phone and copied it to view on my computer.
When we arrived at Rangeman, Slick asked me to turn off the camera's in every room we had to enter including the elevator. Slick carried Reid to the sub floor and shackled his hands and feet. Hawk stood outside as a guard.
I sat at the table pulling up information from his phone. I started running numbers into the database to find Jeanne Ellen's phone number. I also looked at his pictures on his phone. Most were dirty and held no interest for me. Reid started coming around. I placed my computer off to the side only keeping a pen and my legal pad.
I looked at Slick "You don't have to sit in. I can do this alone."
He shook his head."Your here, I'm here. I've already alerted the boss."
I removed my jacket and placed my stuff in the far corner of the room. I still had on my shoulder holster, hoping my gun would scare Reid enough to talk. I removed the scarf slowly. I would have to wash it a few times to make it clean again. Reid looked shocked to see me. I sat back into my chair across from him and picked up my pen.
"Your a shitty man Reid. What you did to your ex wife was bad... what you did to me will be painful for you unless you answer my questions honestly." I turned my head slightly to Slick. "My associate doesn't take kindly to liars and I will twist your balls clean off if you piss me off." I smiled at him.
"Now. Do you know if anyone was bothering Winnie other then yourself? Any new admirers? Anyone she dated that looked like this man?" I noticed he recognized the photo by a slight widening of his eyes.
"What do I get if I help you? My time doesn't come cheap." He seemed smug. I stood up and put my pen in my pony tail. I started walking around him in a circle slowly, my arms crossed.
"I enjoy TV a lot... lots of different shows but lately at night "The Office."
"Do you like The Office Reid?" He nodded.
"I love the boss Micheal Scott, he makes the office fun and exciting with his actions. I think most office jobs are boring but I would work for Micheal Scott without a second thought." I stopped walking in circles in front of my chair then tilted my head to the side.
"How do you know this man in the picture and before you ask me what you get out of this, I will tell you what you won't get. I won't turn you into the police for the multiple stolen credit cards in your wallet and I won't tell the police I think your involved in Winnie's murder. I won't tell them your protecting her killer." I could tell he was surprised I looked in his wallet but scared I threatened police involvement.
"I don't even know the guy! I just saw him in a car once or twice near her building when I parked like a month before she went missing. I didn't kill anyone! I was just asking her for some money that day but she wouldn't give me a cent."
I leaned forward on the table towards him. "What-kind-of car-Reid?"
"I don't know... it was a blue sedan."
"Old, new, make, model, license plate state?"
"I think it was a Honda maybe a Civic. I don't know." I grabbed my laptop and started looking for images of a blue Honda Civic's.
"Tell me when you see a picture that matches?" I saw him swallow rough.
"I think the one on the right side two down."
"2012 Blue Honda Civic. What else? What was he wearing? Anything unusual about the car?"
"I don't know. I saw he was wearing a baseball hat that's all. That's the reason I noticed him."
"Where was his car parked exactly?"
"Down the street near the bakery. I looked for Winnie their first." Damn. I looked around for cameras there two days ago and there was none.
"Did Winnie have a big secret no one new about?" He averted his eyes like he was about to lie then said "no."
"Your lying."
"Prove it. Your a bitch just like her. When I get out of here I'm going to the cops to arrest your ass!" I sighed.
"Reid. Let me explain the law to you. You need proof and your record is nasty. No one will believe your word against mine... My favorite characters on The Office are Jim and Dwight." I took a seat back in my chair and closed my laptop. "I like how they have this long standing prank war but end up as friends in the end. If you ever cared about Winnie you would tell me her secret... I'm looking to get her justice, just like Dwight and Jim did against Packard when they sent him to Florida... What you tell me stays with me. You have my word." I notice him relax again when I talked about the tv show.
Reid looked into my eyes for several minutes. "I had debts while we were married. I used her information once or twice and she got into some bad debt because of me... Winnie did some erotic modeling. Nothing of her face but her body to dig herself out. No one knew but her I guess. I discovered it when I went through her things when she went missing. I found invoices with cash inside envelopes. It seems she was still doing it on occasion to pay bills."
"Name of that company?" I started taking notes.
"Erotic Passion in Miami."
"Did you see anything else in her apartment? Love notes? Anything suspicious?" He said no. Something was bothering me. I went into my bag and grabbed Winnie's file. No mention of invoices found.
"Reid where did you find these invoices? Nothing came up when the police searched the apartment?"
"She had a floorboard that was loose. I knew she hid things in there from when we were married."
"So you took them and the cash inside? Was there anything else in that hiding spot?"
"No. If it wasn't worth anything to pawn I left it for the land lord to chuck." Classy guy.
"Is there anything else I should know about Winnie?" He just shook his head. I believed him.
"Good...Now we're going to talk about you setting me up a few nights ago." He looked pale and kept his eyes down.
"Tell me about Jeanne Ellen Burrows Reid."
RPOV
Les and I worked in my office most of the day until Tank called to alert me he was in the process of securing the land across from the house Babe had purchased. He was also in talks with the two neighbors about selling there homes to him. Tank had made an offer way above asking to move them out faster. I didn't care I just wanted it done. Tank needed me to contact Anderson to approve the money transfer for when the purchase went through. I was very pleased.
Tank told me he was interested in the house to the left and would purchase it myself. I liked that we could lock down the area and set up gates and fences for not just our safety but for the babies to run around outside without fear of a threat.
Tank told me how Babe requested he design most of the plans for our home but he also included Caesar. Once the full perimeter and security system was up and running I wanted each of my men to try and break in to see any weakness we may have over looked. I would give a bonus to any of them that found one. When it came to my family I wasn't going to spare any expense. I even wanted several back up generator's for any loss of power and have emergency supplies in the third home to survive for months without leaving if necessary. As Babe would say you never know when the zombies will attack but I was more concerned about a threat from my past.
I was a little surprised Tank wanted to purchase the other house next door since he seemed to love his Rangeman rental. I didn't realize he was getting serious with a woman. I just thought last night was a first date? When I questioned his move he told me he wanted to settle down one day but for right now he needed more space for him and his cats. I could tell he was in a good mood from last night but as promised I didn't question further although I needed to look into this woman. If Tank was serious about her and planned to live with her eventually then I needed to know who would be around my family in the safety of this compound I was building.
I asked Tank if he was making any adjustments to his new home and he told me he planned to use our military contractor that worked on Rangeman to overhaul it completely. He mentioned reinforcing all three houses for blast impacts and using military grad building supplies for the gates and fencing. The security measures would cost more then the properties but I didn't care. I needed to know that if anything happened to me one day Babe would be protected.
I thought for a while about Tank being my neighbor and it grew on me. He would watch not just my back but Babe's as well. Tank felt it would be several months before we could move in but our house would be the first to make the changes then Tank's. The last house which will be used as a security and monitoring station would need the most work. Tank told me he was planning on hiring some temporary contract workers in the coming months to watch the monitors while the men we trusted watched the crew work on the compound. I would never use that word with Babe though. She doesn't like feeling trapped. I told Tank I would approve the money with Anderson after we got off the phone.
After lunch I saw a text from Slick that told me he was in a private room with Babe downstairs. I pulled up the monitors and over rode her fob so only I could view the room. Santos looked over my shoulder.
"Is your woman going to kick him around? She's pregnant. I don't think that's a good idea." I gave him a brief look like he was an idiot. I grabbed my keys making my way down to the sub floor. Babe was in the integration room so Santos and I watched from behind the one way mirror.
Slick positioned himself close by as her muscle but also her protection. I didn't want to interrupt the situation. Babe was building her confidence right now and needed to practice her skills. Santos and I both sat in our chairs watching the show.
"She's good Cuz. She hasn't had the need to hit him yet... The Office though?"
I felt a lot of pride watching her. She took what I taught her and made it her own. I smirked "Steph wanted to learn non physical interrogation techniques. She feels uncomfortable hitting someone tied up from her own experience. She is trying to get him to relax but also maintain communication... last time she choose Shark Week." Santos started chuckling and shaking his head.
"Physical's faster... she's an adorable spitfire. That little head tilt was cute." I glared at him. I felt my possessiveness come out. I didn't like men noticing Babe's quirks not even Santos.
"Does she have a sister?"
"Her sister's a pregnant Meg Ryan look alike with a bunch of kids." Santos crinkled his face in disgust.
When we heard Babe asked about Jeanne Ellen we both learned forward to read Reid's movements, looking for deception. I'd let Babe question him for a while then I would ask my own. I was undecided of his fate. The last time Steph kidnapped someone I returned him to the system knowing he couldn't harm her in the future. I still had to figure out if Reid was a threat to my woman.
