Chapter 43
RPOV
I'd removed my arm from around Steph as we entered the apartment and watched as she'd gone through to the lounge. Once I'd toed my boots off, I followed her through, expecting her to be sat on the couch waiting for me. The lounge was dark and empty as was the bathroom so entering the bedroom I stood in the entrance to the bedroom seeing her laid out on the bed.
I knew straight away that she was asleep and for the first time in hours felt a calm come over me. It had been a shit day for all concerned and I wanted to absorb the peace and calm that came over me. I knew that Steph would want an account of my days events, but it could wait until tomorrow.
Knowing that Steph was asleep and safe I quickly showered away the dirt from the day. Bobby had said that he would come up after Sophia was settled to check me over. Though other than the cut to my head the abrasions on my arms were fine and the injury from my fall down the stairs seemed to have healed up.
I dressed in shorts and a T-shirt before going through to the kitchen for something to drink. At the sound of the door opening I watched as Bobby came into the apartment, his medic bag in his hand. He followed me through to the lounge where I turned on the light to give him better visibility of the wounds that I'd sustained.
"Let me look at your head, first"
I lowered my head and could feel as Bobby parted my hair, yeah, that area was definitely throbbing now.
"It should have stitches Ranger, but we'll see if we can get away with just gluing it. Don't rub it to give it a chance to heal. Okay arms"
I turned my arms showing the gouges from when I rubbed them against that metal and watched as Bobby held each of my arms to inspect them.
"Not as bad as I first thought, I'll dress that wound on the back of your arm, just try to keep it dry. Okay where's Steph?"
I looked up at Bobby surprised that he wanted to see her as well.
"Was she hurt?"
Because in all of the chaos downstairs I hadn't noticed that she was injured. Yes, I was aware that her jeans were ripped but never saw any blood and she wasn't complaining of anything hurting.
"She took a hell of a tumble when Santos hurled them from that car. He took the brunt of the fall but wasn't sure if she'd been hurt"
I looked to the bedroom door knowing that Steph would be fast asleep and there was no way that I'd wake her up from the deep sleep that she was in.
"She's asleep Bobby. Can it wait until morning? You know she won't appreciate being woken up just for you to check her over"
"I suppose she didn't look too bad when she arrived. Tell her to expect me first thing in the morning"
I walked Bobby to the door before turning back and returning to the bedroom. Lifting my T-shirt over my head and looking at Steph I realized that she was still fully clothed. I carefully unfastened her jeans and slowly pulled them down over hips and to her feet, noticing some new bruises on her hips. There were scrapes on her knees and elbows as well, all of which must have come from her falling from the car. Bobby was right, considering how they'd jumped from a moving car Santos must have taken the brunt of the fall and subsequent rolling. I unfastened her bra and then slipped each strap down her arms until it could be removed and then was pulling the cover over her as I carefully got into the bed next to her.
My arm automatically delved under her pillow and around her shoulders and as had become so natural when we slept together, I felt her move and roll toward me. Her arm rested gently across my chest as a sigh came from her lips. I lay there as I watched her, as my fingers gently stroked her soft skin. Knowing that she was safe tucked up in my arms I almost wished that I could lock the door and never let her leave. I couldn't believe how trouble just seemed to follow her around and how people felt the need to take her away. That had me thinking of Morelli and how he was currently locked up in a cell in the basement. That man had better back off from Steph because the next time he laid a finger on her it would be the last. Okay maybe I wouldn't kill him, not yet, because Steph wouldn't like the idea of that happening to him. One way or another though I'd make sure he got my message very loud and clear.
Morning seemed to come around quickly as I realized what the time was. We'd both slept well which was a relief considering everything that had happened yesterday. My hand automatically went to Steph's head and I started to stroke it down and through her hair. As I touched a particular place in her hair, I felt a slight movement from her as though she was reacting to my touch. As my fingers went to her head again, I was aware of a small bump that had developed, probably from her hitting her head on the ground when she fell from the car.
Then as my fingers went through her hair, I noticed that a small section seemed shorter and almost brittle. It wasn't much and was just below her ear, almost as though it had been singed. Trying to work out how that had happened a daunting thought struck me. That stupid newbie on reception, had the bullet he'd fired gone that close to Steph? That just confirmed my original thoughts of how he'd managed that situation when Steph had come into reception.
He was finished. His reaction to two unarmed women coming through the door was inexcusable. He'd nearly killed Steph with how he'd reacted and had no control over his actions. I had no idea who he was, but I now saw him as a liability, there was no place for someone like him here at Rangeman. I'd need to talk to Tank and make sure that he no longer worked here.
I felt movement coming from Steph as she seemed to stretch and looked down to see her eyes opening. I loved how she looked in the morning, her wild curls framing her face and those sleepy blue eyes as they looked up at me.
"Hey"
I leant forward and kissed her forehead while tucking a stray curl of hair behind her ear. Judging by the look on her face she was thinking through something. Her expressions were so open and readable.
"What's burning Babe?"
"You didn't tell me what happened yesterday did you, because if you did, then I can't remember"
"No, you fell asleep"
"Are you going to tell me then?"
"I came to in the back of a van, escaped and beat the shit out of two men. Then came back here to try to find out where you were"
"I know you're missing stuff out"
I was but only because I didn't want her to worry, I debated internally with what to say and in the end knew that she had to know everything.
"The two men, one was Randall and the other was Andrews"
"Where are they now?"
"Randall is downstairs scared shitless, and Andrews is dead"
I watched as Steph took that in, almost worried in case she saw me as the one who had killed him. She probably knew that I was capable of that and had done it in the past. Would that change how she saw me?
"Did you get any information from him first?"
I almost laughed at her matter fact answer and concluded that she wasn't worried if it had been me that sent him to his fate.
"No. He took a cyanide capsule"
Steph's eyes opened wider as I revealed that piece of information, though I wasn't sure if she was surprised that I hadn't been responsible for his death or how it had happened.
"Shit. I thought that only happened in films"
I smiled at the naivety of her comment but had to admit that it had been a long time since I'd come across it. Nowadays men who were captured tended to withstand interrogation techniques and there were also tighter laws on what could be done to someone. Personally, I would rather die resisting torture than bite down on a tablet.
That had me going back through in my mind what Steph had told me about her adventures yesterday.
"Babe, you think Morelli was only there because he wanted to get his hands on you, don't you?"
"Yes. But I think he also took it as an opportunity to see what we knew"
"What cases is he supposed to be working on?"
"A cold case. I think it's the one that Jerry and Barnes were investigating before they got sidetracked with the fraud"
"Or Barnes made sure that they were sidetracked"
"Doesn't make sense, if he was already involved then he'd have tried to stop the fraud investigation"
"Not if the FBI were brought in"
We were both deep in thought going over what we'd both discussed when I was sure that there was a sound coming from the hallway of the apartment. I moved away from Steph and walked through to the lounge, finding Bobby sat on the couch.
"I haven't told her you wanted to see her yet"
"That's okay, I'll just go in and get this out of the way"
I almost said "Good luck with that" but Bobby had already walked away from me. The sound of Steph shouting "I'm fine Bobby" brought a smile to my lips as I thought how annoyed she would be.
A few minutes later Bobby reappeared almost shaking his head.
"She's fine. I have to go check on the two men down in the cells"
That reminded me that I had to call and speak to the Chief and persuade him that he needed to come here as soon as possible. Noticing that Steph was now in the shower I made two calls, pleased and surprised at the response that I got. I dressed quickly and was in the kitchen making some scrambled eggs when Steph came through. I felt her against my back and as her arms came around me, pleased that she now felt comfortable to do that. Steph had a weird sense of showing her emotions and very rarely instigated contact.
"How's your head this morning?"
Was asked as her lips settled onto the back of my neck.
"Fine. Bobby saw to it last night"
"So, what's happening this morning?"
"I need a conversation with Tank about that man in reception"
"Yeah he was rather unyielding especially as we weren't a threat. Who is he?"
"No idea, which is why I need to talk to Tank"
"Then what?"
"There's a meeting at 1100hrs. with the Chief and Isaac Newland and probably Morelli"
"Can I be there?"
I was almost sure that the way that her mouth was moving across to my shoulder was done with more intent to get the answer that she wanted. I thought through any problems that having Steph there might present and decided that she could be there on one condition.
"Only if you listen or prompt for an answer. We need to know what those two are up to and what they think they know"
"Who is this Isaac Newland?"
"FBI Babe"
I felt as Steph removed her lips from where they were caressing me, feeling the loss of her touch.
"Oh shit, Sophia won't like the idea of that"
"That's why we need to talk to him first before trying to work out exactly what Sophia may have seen or heard"
I felt her nod her head against my back, waiting for the next question and was surprised when it didn't come.
"I'm going to try and work out who that kid was that was murdered"
"How will you do that?"
"The good old-fashioned way"
"Babe?"
I may have tensed at that suggestion because her old fashioned way usually entailed her knocking on doors. There was no way I would cope with her leaving the building today.
"Don't worry, I'm not leaving the building. I have someone I want to call"
After eating our breakfast, I left Steph in my office and went in search of Tank. He was sat at his desk going through paperwork and didn't look happy about it. It made me remember the idea that I'd had with regard to delegation of work.
"I was seriously considering revamping how each of the offices ran. Making someone in charge of each one and them having autonomy to manage that area"
"Makes sense to me. You do tend to micro-manage when delegation sounds more feasible"
"How would you feel if we started that here in Trenton?"
"What me manage this office?"
"No, you're core team. I was looking at each of the core team overlooking an area, you know do reviews and set targets for each office"
I watched as Tank raised his head, as though he was thinking through what I'd said.
"How about each core member oversaw an office"
"That could work. There are four core team members though"
"Bobby could oversee all medical issues or better yet you can step away and actually be a CEO and look at strategy development"
"So appoint a manger here?"
Watching Tank as he went quiet I could almost hear the wheels going around in his head.
"Yeah, hell I know just the person"
"Go on"
Because I wasn't too sure that I could identify any of the men who would be competent enough for the job.
"Ram. He knows how the place runs, he's helped me out often enough"
"Then maybe if you take on Trenton, you'd be here to integrate him into the job"
"That would work. I think the other offices are more organized than us, they already have department heads while here it's almost unofficial as to who leads on a particular area"
I nodded as I thought through that and had to concede that he was right in what he'd said. Each office had specific areas that they were strong at. Whilst we all covered security of buildings, Boston led on event details and Miami led more on bodyguarding. Here at Trenton we had more business through FTAs and contracts through alphabet agencies. It brought back the conversation that I'd had with Leo and the idea of similar work being done here.
Back in the moment I looked back to Tank and nodded my head.
"I'll start to put together a plan and how that would look"
"Okay, so why are you here, I know it wasn't to talk about that"
"The man on reception"
Yeah, Tank was probably way ahead of me on that one judging by the look on his face.
"Gone. He was a contractor, but I've removed him from our books. Shit Ranger he nearly shot Steph"
"I know, I found singed hair where he missed her"
"Does she know?"
"I don't think so. So this drone, what do we know about it?"
I watched as Tank sat back in his chair and knew from the slump of his shoulders that he had no new ideas.
"Not a lot. It looked to be military from the photos that the SUV sent before it exploded but you know that with the right contacts and money anyone can get their hands on one of those"
"They'd need a base to operate from"
"Yes, but those drones have a long range"
"Okay, anything else from the farm?"
"No, it was clean. Maybe Steph can find a link as to why they used it"
"She's doing some work on that kid who was murdered"
I could see that Tank had no idea of who I was talking about and knew there were probably aspects of this case we were working on that had people on the fringes.
"Which kid?"
"Steph thinks it's the one Jerry and Barnes were investigating when they got sidetracked onto the fraud"
"Okay. Hector sent in a report, it should be with you. Have you read it?"
"Not yet"
"He thinks the house where that Beth woman was is empty. No movement at all"
"So they've packed up and found another location"
"Looks that way. Cassie has kept her word, stayed on site at the hospital and not made any contact with anyone"
"Talk to Santos. Let him be the one to tell her that but that there's still danger out there"
"Will do. That meeting?"
"1100hrs"
As Tank acknowledged that I messaged Bobby with regards to Sophia. The reply told me that he'd spent some time with her this morning making sure that she was feeling okay. I shook my head at that wondering just how much Bobby had done in terms of her well being and how much was down to attraction. A second message was to Santos to have Morelli suitably presentable at our meeting this morning.
One of the things that I hadn't told Steph about yet was that we'd identified that farm as where she and Shane had been held. That needed to be done before someone else mentioned it, so I left Tank's office and returned to mine.
I could tell from how Steph turned and greeted me with her smile that she'd found out something already. I walked to where she was sat and leant against her desk.
"You look ready to burst, what did you find out?"
"That young kid, he was apparently very skilled and clever on computers. His name was Ares on screen, the God of Battles, and Charlie to his friends. He had major hacking skills and was a whiz at writing programs. Zook reckons he'd hacked into the computers that were being used by someone who was running scams. It seems he came across a name, Apollo, and was curious"
"Strange that that name was being used back then as well"
"Maybe they had programs or something so they were already linked into that name"
"Zook?"
"That kid, remember that ended up with me and Morelli while his mother sorted out her life. There was a question at one time whether or not he was Morelli's son"
I remembered that time, though I wasn't around much to know all of the details.
"What else?"
"Zook still has Charlie's laptop. He hasn't used it because he can't figure out the password, so I thought maybe Hector might find something on it"
"Good call Babe. Send Hector the address and details and he can talk to Zook about it"
I could tell that by the way she was still smiling that there was more to come.
"Zook remembers a couple of men who called at Charlie's house, Zook was there at the time. I sent some photos by Watts app to see if he recognized anyone. One was Barnes, which surprised Zook when I said he was a police officer. He wasn't sure about the other one and would try to put together a composite and send it to me"
"It was a long time ago Babe, people can change their appearance and kids have a way of forgetting"
I took hold of Steph's hand and led her to the couch. I could feel her tensing up so was aware that she knew that I might be telling her something that wasn't very pleasant.
"Babe, that farm. The men think it was where you were kept"
"Where Shane was murdered?"
Ever the one to be in denial, I should have expected for Steph to try and wipe away the ordeal that she had suffered through. I wasn't going to mention anything that would have her reliving any of those memories.
"Yes. There's no evidence as such but it's the same as you described"
I watched as she closed her eyes and focused on her breathing and then after a couple of minutes, she looked up at me, dare I say looking quite calm.
"Okay, thanks for telling me"
"Are you okay with that information?"
"Yes. As long as I never have to go back there again"
I would make sure of that and I knew that Hector had surveillance on it.
"I wonder what leads Joe picked up?"
It always amazed me how Steph's mind would suddenly shift to something else.
"Time to find out Babe"
I'd arranged to use a room downstairs for our meeting. It was devoid of any information and was set out with water and pads and pens for those who wanted to use them. As I led Steph into the room, Bobby and Santos followed me with Morelli in between them. I hadn't seen or spoken to him while he'd been here and was surprised at the black eye that he had. I almost smiled as I remembered that it was Steph who had given it to him.
I led Steph to the far end of the table while Santos had Morelli sat at the other end. I was glad though that where he was sat wasn't opposite Steph. I wasn't in the mood for him to stare at her, hoping to intimidate her. Tank brought the Chief and Isaac Newland inside and everyone took a seat. It was interesting that Isaac Newland acknowledged Morelli as though he knew him. Once people were settled in their seats I took that as my queue to start the meeting.
"I'd like to thank everyone for coming here. Maybe some introductions are needed"
As I said each name, I used my hand to indicate who they were.
"Chief of Police, Eric Watson, FBI Isaac Newland. Rangemen core team members, Tank Brown and Santos. Joseph Morelli, detective Trenton PD. This is Stephanie Plum"
"Why's she here?"
"Detective, this isn't your meeting"
I was pleased as Chief Watson responded to Morelli's outburst, maybe Morelli was now getting worried because of what he'd done to Steph and I certainly wasn't going to explain to him her presence. Maybe having Steph here would throw him off balance.
"Gentlemen, I called you all here because I feel that each of us is following up on different aspects of the same case and because of certain things that have happened"
As I said that I looked around at the men, pleased that I had their attention.
"A group planned and executed for Steph to be kidnapped. For reasons that we're not sure about this group thinks that Steph knew something and as a consequence they hurt her badly"
I took Steph's hand in mine as I spoke, sure that she hadn't considered that her story would be shared.
"My men were able to find her, and we managed to rescue her. To do that we had to shoot her captor to save her life"
"The man Jari, I heard about that. Didn't homeland say they thought he was working on his own?"
"They did, Isaac, but Steph was aware of at least two other people being involved at the time"
"Can she identify them?"
I gave Morelli a look that had him shutting up and continued with what I was saying. It seemed Morelli was still looking for ways to close cases by using Steph and the leads that she had.
"We have been looking for those people and our enquiries took us to the club Devils Delight"
It was interesting that Morelli looked up as I said that name, making me wonder exactly why he'd been so interested in the place. Interested enough for him to accost Sophia and then use the rouse of protecting her by locking her up in a safe house.
"Isaac?"
"I don't know how you know Manoso, but yes, I've been tasked to investigate a scam that they're doing to defraud some of their clients"
That seemed to match with what Kendall had told me but I was interested in what Morelli had to say.
"Morelli?"
"I'm working a case, I'm not going to start discussing it here"
"Detective, that's the whole reason that we're here. I want to hear everything from you"
Morelli squared his shoulders at being dressed down, as though by saying what he had made his point to Chief Watson and didn't agree with what he'd been told to do.
"I'm investigating a cold case, one the Chief wants resolved"
Morelli looked at Chief Watson as though the job he'd been given was below him.
"I spoke to one of the victim's friends and discovered that the boy, Charlie, had some man who kept visiting him. I looked back at the case notes and then showed the lad some of the photos from that, unfortunately he didn't recognize anyone. I had one name without a clear photo, so I spoke to a contact at the FBI and he came up with some surveillance photos of the man that had been archived. The man was Alan Andrews"
"Have you found him Detective?"
"Not yet Chief, but my contact told me to talk with Newland here, that he was sure that name had cropped up in one of his recent reports"
"Andrew is using another id, Rylands. I came across him at the club"
At least now we had corroborating evidence to tie Andrews to the name Rylands.
"Any idea what he's up to Isaac?"
"I assumed he was part of the fraud operation. But I told the Detective here what I knew and heard he was looking around"
"Detective?"
"I spoke with some of the girls and one of them felt spooked by something at the club"
I couldn't believe how the lies just slipped from Morelli's tongue. I knew from Sophia that Morelli had basically bullied her into looking around the place and then when he thought she knew something whisked her away to safety, in other words so he'd have sole access to the information rather than Isaac and could be seen to solve the FBI case as well. Looking at Isaac I was beginning to think that maybe he was on to what Morelli was up to and was pleased when it was him who wanted to continue the conversation.
"Where is Sophia Morelli?"
"No idea, she's disappeared"
"You told her she was in danger and offered to find somewhere safe for her"
"I did"
"So where is she?"
"Why don't you ask her"
That statement was ended with Morelli pointing a finger directly at Steph. I felt I needed to interrupt what was quickly becoming a shouting match between the two men and didn't want Morelli dragging what had happened to Steph into the conversation. The time for that to happen wasn't yet. I thought that maybe this was the opportune time to continue with our side of the story.
"Gentlemen. If you've finished. I'll pick up on where I left off. Steph had two FTAs before she went missing. Shane Cooper who turned up murdered, one of your cases Morelli?"
I waited until I saw him nod his head at me before I continued.
"The second one was a woman called Sophia Singsong who worked at Devils Delight. I understand from your conversation that both of you know of her"
I was looking directly at Morelli at this point, but it seemed he didn't want to enlighten us as to why he knew her.
"When we tried to find her, she'd disappeared, and we were attacked outside her apartment. That had our attention looking at that club and we weren't encouraged by what we found. The men who were indicted for fraud, several years ago, look to be co-owners of the club. Add to that, one of the officers involved in the original fraud case sought Steph out and told her of the concerns that he had. He was very worried because his daughter has disappeared thinking that maybe it was someone from that case"
"Did he report her as missing?"
"I don't think he could because she was abroad at the time. Yesterday two of these co-owners was responsible for me being grabbed from Pinos. Unfortunately for them they didn't think that I'd be so annoyed as to be able to escape and beat the shit out of them. Keith Randall and your Alan Andrews were brought here. How did they know that I'd be at Pinos Morelli, how did you know?"
I was staring at Morelli daring for him to lie to me. I knew what Steph had said and thought and knew that the only person outside of Rangeman who knew we were going there was her father. He wouldn't have told Morelli, but her damn mother would have.
Morelli was trying very hard to look bewildered at what I'd asked, but I could see the sweat forming on his forehead, yeah, he was worried now.
"Should I bring Mrs. Plum here and ask her? Because you know that I will"
"No. Okay she told me. She knows that Steph is supposed to be with me so she tells me what she can"
"The question Morelli, that you need to answer is who else did you tell"
"I didn't, there was no one else there"
"You check your place for bugs Morelli?"
Morelli's head swung around to face Santos as though what he was suggesting was ridiculous.
"Who the hell would bug my house?"
"Maybe the woman you're seeing"
I listened as Santos carefully used his words to undermine Morelli. To be honest I had no idea that Morelli was seeing anyone, other than Terry Gilman. Did Santos know for certain, or was he baiting him?
"Why did you follow Steph out to a farm in the middle of nowhere, knock her out and then imprison her in a house?"
"I needed to make sure that she was safe"
That had the Chief's attention and he was quick to turn his stare onto Morelli. Interesting that Chief Watson was keen to focus on that.
"Detective, have I heard right? That you forcibly took Miss Plum?"
"She needed protecting"
"Shit, what else Manoso, because I can see that there's more to come"
"Sophia was at the house where Morelli took Steph"
I saw Isaac looking at Steph as though he was seeing her for the first time so I gave him a look that clearly said she was mine. Isaac looked away quickly and stared at Morelli instead.
"I take it the two women got away?"
Morelli didn't like the fact that everyone in the room was smiling at him, obviously assuming the bruised face was from one of them.
"Detective, I'm not sure what to say. I gave you two cases to work and you're no further on with either of them, but you think you can undermine an FBI case by kidnapping some woman. Hell, even I know that Miss Plum wants nothing to do with you. Frank made that very clear to me"
I found it an interesting piece of information that Frank knew Chief Watson so well, maybe it was Frank's influence that had Chief Watson willing to meet with me today. Maybe that was what Frank had meant when he said that he had contacts that would help. I sat back as Chief Watson looked at Morelli, wondering what he would decide to do.
"Who could have planted bugs in your house and listened in to you talking to Mrs. Plum? Who's the woman that sneaks in there at night"
I almost smiled at the change of direction the Chief had taken with Morelli, which made me believe that Frank had said more to him than I first thought. Had Frank seen a woman at Morelli's house and made it known? It also showed that the man wasn't the Chief of police because he was stupid. He was looking now for ways to finish Morelli.
"A woman I met, but she's got nothing to do with this"
"I don't think you've got any idea who's involved in this. Name of the woman Morelli"
"Beth Routledge. She a psychologist"
"And another co-owner of Devils Delight"
I added. It was like hammering the last nail in the casket for Morelli and from how he slouched in his chair he knew it. For a good cop he'd made a series of stupid and selfish mistakes that could very well cost him his career.
"Detective Morelli, if I'm understanding this correctly then you are responsible for removing a woman from her home without authorization with the intention of gleaning information from her that had nothing to do with the case you were working but could very well have undermined an FBI investigation. Then you had a relationship with a person of interest to the FBI case and enabled her to access information that put lives in danger. You kidnapped Miss Plum and you have no leads on the death of Shane Cooper or Charlie. I'm putting you on suspension and asking internal affairs to investigate"
That wasn't something that I had been expecting at the start of this meeting. It seemed as though Chief Watson had seen it as part of his agenda though. I watched as Morelli stood up and removed his gun and badge. As he walked around the table, he slammed them down on the table in front of the Chief. I nodded at Tank who was already on his feet and knew that Tank would ensure that Morelli was escorted from the premises. I turned to Steph as her hand tightened on mine, her eyes were wide with what had just happened. I could only hope that she didn't feel in any way responsible for his demise.
As the door shut the atmosphere in the room seemed to lighten and I took the opportunity to message Ella. Whenever we had a meeting like this Ella was always ready to provide refreshments. A minute later the door opened, and Ella brought in some coffee and pastries.
"Gentlemen, Steph. I think we need a ten minute break before we resume"
It would also give me some time to make sure that Steph was okay with what had happened. I saw that she hadn't moved from her seat so poured her a coffee and took a plate with some pastries over for her.
"Babe"
"Sorry, I was trying to get my head around what just happened"
"I didn't know that the Chief would do that, though to be honest when he gave the reasons"
"He was right"
I was surprised at her finishing my sentence as she had, maybe I didn't need to be worried about how she would feel.
"My Dad, well he told me that he wasn't going to let Morelli use people anymore, that he'd seen him do it with me. I had to really think about that and in the end, I could see what he meant"
"I must admit I was annoyed for what he'd done to you in the past and at the time never realized what he was doing. The Chief was right though Babe"
"Do you think he'll do something stupid?"
"Morelli?"
"Yes, after all, his career is finished now, what does he have to lose?"
I didn't know the answer to that but knew that it was something I needed to act on.
"Leave it with me"
"Ranger?"
"Yes Babe"
"Don't kill him"
I almost laughed at what she'd said but knew that I couldn't do that, yeah I wanted to and could arrange for his body never to be found. Knowing that would devastate Steph I was going for something slightly less permanent.
"No. Surveillance"
I left Steph and walked over to Santos who at the moment was talking to Isaac and nodded to him to get his attention. Once we were stood away from Isaac, I gave him my instructions.
"I want to know where Morelli is every minute of the day"
"Do you think he'll do something?"
"I don't know, but I don't want to take the risk"
"I'll sort it"
