Chapter 29
RPOV
I drove one of the Cayennes with Ash out to the house where Buckley had lived. It was out of town in the suburbs, a small detached place, and it was obvious which one it had been. I parked in front of the place getting out waiting on the sidewalk for Ash to join me. We just stood and looked at the lot where the house sat on.
"Shit it's a hell of a mess"
I had to agree with that, and I wasn't even talking about beyond the front yard. There were computer parts everywhere, old hard drives and an assortment of cables plus parts that I had no idea what they were.
"You know most of this stuff looks like it's been here for a while Ranger, hell there are weeds growing out of that hard drive"
"Should we start inside?"
"What's left of it"
The place had obviously been made from a lot of timber but most of the damage seemed to be at the back of the house. Windows were blown out but the roof looked to be holding its own so we walked through what would have been the door into a small corridor. There was a lot of damage from water and smoke and signs of where the fire department had tried to contain the fire allowing us to see a small lounge area with the remnants of a couch in what looked to have been a fairly tidy room.
"Through here Ranger"
I followed the sound of Ash's voice through a gap in the wall and came into what I presume had been the back room. The ceilings and part of the roof had collapsed here and there was a hell of lot of black and charcoaled remains. There looked to be have been wide windows in here judging from the hole in the back wall, maybe this was where Steph had ended up getting pushed through the glass of the window.
"Hell Ranger I'm not sure we could identify half the stuff in here, a lot of the machines are just a melted conglomerate, it must have been a hot fire to do this much damage"
"Any idea on where it started"
"The worst damage is over here near to the wall, maybe where something was running and got too hot, but I can't see Buckley been that stupid"
"What do you mean?"
"He was a genius; he wouldn't set something up knowing it would overheat"
"Steph said she saw smoke coming from one of the computers before he pushed her against the workbench and window"
"That doesn't make sense, a computer wouldn't burst into flames. Computers are designed with heat dispersion and ventilation in mind, so they don't overheat. If too much heat builds up, the computer may become unstable, suddenly shut down, or even suffer component damage. Maybe an external wiring fault but I don't think Buckley would make that mistake, hell he would ensure the computers were running cool"
"So you think someone had already been here and started the fire?"
"Maybe Buckley started the fire?"
"No Steph said that Buckley thought someone had stolen his microchip when they burnt his house down"
I stepped through to the outside and looked back at the house surprised when I heard glass breaking under my feet, hell Steph must have really hurt herself when she fell out here. I squatted down to look at the things littered on the floor below my feet, noting some of the glass even had traces of blood of them. As I moved the glass around I noticed a darker piece and picked up a small black component.
"Ash, what's this?"
"I don't know, where was it?"
"Down here with all the pieces of glass"
"Are there any more of them?"
"Not that I can see"
"I'll put it somewhere safe and check it over when we get back"
I watched as he took out his wallet and opened a small section, placing the chip inside, yeah that's how small it was, maybe less than 40mm by 30mm, to be honest I was surprised I'd even seen it. Something like that would easily be missed even if someone knew what they were looking for.
"Okay Ranger, Pinos next"
I shook my head because I had hoped he'd forgotten about that, how he ate what he ate amazed me, especially as he seemed to be able to stay in shape. Maybe he was like Steph and had a high metabolic rate, and then thinking of her I realized I wanted to take her back her favorite food.
It didn't take us long to get to Pinos and I followed Ash into the place. It was busy so as Ash stood by the counter, I hung back watching the people that were here. A lot of police were in, probably it was the end of their shift, and then I inwardly groaned when the door opened, and Morelli walked in. Shit I thought he'd moved to New York. He stopped at a few of the tables and had short conversations but even to me it was obvious he was heading my way. I was willing Ash to hurry up so that we could get out of here.
"Ranger, not usual for you to be getting takeout?"
I didn't answer, sure it was his way of trying to get me to talk.
"You seen Stephanie around?"
"Not recently"
Which was the truth, after all it had been a few hours since I'd seen her.
"I checked by her apartment and it's in a hell of mess, she in trouble again?"
"Not really, she worked out a skip had a genuine grudge against a company, and they weren't too pleased about it"
"Shit, when will she stop trying to be nice with them, that's how she ends up in trouble"
"I thought you'd moved to New York?"
"Yeah, I'm home for a few days. Look Ranger is she staying with you?"
"Man these meatball subs smell amazing, that woman certainly knows her food"
I turned as Ash joined me watching Morelli as he saw the two take out boxes and then as he looked Ash up and down. I could see he was starting to get annoyed, why the hell would that comment from Ash push him to the wrong conclusion? Then it dawned on me, he had jumped to the conclusion that the sub was for Steph. As I looked at Ash he was being quiet and suddenly alert, not that anyone who didn't know him would detect it and as I walked past Morelli toward the car Ash followed. I had just fobbed the car open when I saw Morelli grab hold of Ash by his arm. I lent on the car watching the scene unfold in front of me.
"What the fuck's wrong with you?"
"If you think you can pick up his rejects and play with them, you're sadly mistaken"
"Rejects, what the hell are you talking about?"
"Stephanie, that's who I'm talking about"
"Who the fuck are you?"
"Her boyfriend"
"Oh, I remember, you're the prick who's a cop"
I grimaced as Ash said that, though it did make me wonder just how much he knew about Morelli, obviously enough to wind him up. I could see Morelli getting angry now, his face was turning red and his fists were clenching, anytime soon Morelli would regret facing off Ash.
"I'm her fiancé"
"Oh yeah, the prick who's always shouting at her and blaming her for things happening to her"
I saw Morelli's fist fly out, so I was sure Ash had as well. Ash ducked and turned bringing his fist up into Morelli's back just where his kidneys were. Morelli tried again, yeah, he may have been a boxer in his past but he didn't stand a chance as Ash swept his legs from under him causing Morelli to land on his back. Ash was on him straight away.
"You stay away from Steph, she's too good for you"
"You her latest thug, Manoso got tired of her and passed her on?"
The loud crack was the sound of Ash's fist as it broke Morelli's nose.
"Stay away from her, she's too good for the likes of you"
I turned and got into the car as Ash got into the passenger seat, starting the engine and pulling out into the traffic.
"You feel better for that?"
"Yeah, much better. He deserved a beating the same as you got"
"Steph never told me what he'd done"
"Yeah well I think I was the shoulder to cry on yesterday, hell Ranger she's been on an emotional roller coaster"
"Morelli?"
"Him, her mother, who ever Lula is and her best friend and let's not forget about you. Hell, even her hamster died on her and that's without being kidnapped twice and shot at"
Put as bluntly as that I felt absolutely devastated at my part in the whole thing, shit if I hadn't jumped to conclusions and berated her maybe none of those things would have happened to her.
"Ranger, it wasn't all your fault you know, as long you acknowledge some responsibility
but if you hurt again, I'll pick her up and put you down man"
"I won't and if I do, I'll hold you to what you've just said"
"I like her, she's different. Maybe I'll get to know her better"
I saw him smile as I looked across at him, hell how had she managed to get him under her spell so quickly, usually he was an arrogant bastard in some ways he was similar to Santos. No ties to a woman, just use them for a one night stand to scratch the itch. That he implied he wanted to get to know Steph better irritated me. I didn't want him to be anywhere near her in that context and it annoyed me. Why I had no idea, I mean we were good friends who trusted each other and worked well together, so where the hell had that anger come from? Something to think about later.
We were almost back to Rangeman, stopped at a light waiting for it to change when from my rear view mirror I saw a large Hummer barreling down the road toward us, too fast to slow down so as the light changed I moved across to the inside lane, but it made the same maneuver as me and from across the road I saw a similar vehicle.
"We've got trouble Ash"
I saw him remove a gun from his holster as I tried to avoid the oncoming car but the push from behind us made that difficult to do. As I turned the wheel both hummers hit the car, one at the front and one at the back and suddenly we were spinning. As the vehicle came to a standstill we were trapped inside the car, the dam hummers had their noses against the front doors.
Before I knew what was happening, I could see the gas canister hit the foot well and soon, regardless of a broken window, we were both coughing and breathing in the fowl stench of the gas. It didn't take long for the gas to do its work and as my head began to get dizzy all I could think about was Steph and all I could hear were the loud sounds of multiple alarms going off.
