Chapter 28

SPOV

I could tell that Ranger was getting annoyed though I wasn't sure if it was because Les was making him wait for more information or it was because Ranger genuinely couldn't remember who this man was. I looked at Les as he was watching Ranger and could tell that he was genuinely surprised that Ranger had no idea who this Alfred McCann was or how he knew him. I was about to shout at Les myself to get on and tell us when he decided for his own sake to start explaining.

"Okay. It was when we were part of the Rangers. I know we had some shit jobs given to us and the men who were in our teams constantly changed, but there were some men who were with us that just couldn't hack it. It was when we were down in Colombia and we were given the assignment to take out that scumbag Cordoba"

"Where everything nearly went wrong?"

I was actually surprised that I was sat here listening to information regarding jobs that Ranger had been on. Okay, this was when he was still in the Rangers and not in the wind doing things that I couldn't even guess about.

"Yeah. McCann, well he went under the nickname Flintstone"

I saw the way that Ranger looked at Les, obviously remembering this man, so why did Ranger look confused?

"He fucked up, a lot. Missed the guard patrol when he was on duty and nearly got us found"

Yeah, Ranger remembered him now, but to be honest what he was saying was confusing me as well and had me slightly annoyed. How was it that men like McCann who had been bad at their job was now in a job that wielded power?

"Yes. Then instead of taking out a guard he shot Cordoba's daughter and took a bullet"

Hell, and I thought that I was bad at getting into scrapes and creating mayhem. I watched Ranger again as he thought something through and was glad about how he had responded to McCann's behavior at the time.

"I remember recording everything into the report and recommended that he was no longer put out in the field because he was incompetent"

"What the hell is he up to, is this job that he has Denby on legitimate?"

Les turned to Hector then, so I assumed that Hector had maybe done some digging on McCann.

"When he got back stateside, he spent some time in the hospital and then transferred to intelligence, behind a desk"

Okay, that sounded a bit odd. I mean if he was as bad at his job as Les and Ranger had said then how did he manage to get transferred to somewhere like that?

"His father pulled some strings"

Tank said to me as though knowing that I was asking myself that question. But it still had me puzzled as to why this man McCann would have a grudge against Ranger, it just didn't make sense. I felt Ranger's hand on my thigh, so I looked over to him not knowing what he was thinking.

"Babe, maybe you could have a look into McCann's background just in case he's hiding some skeletons"

"You don't trust him, do you?"

I asked Ranger, because I certainly didn't, and watched as he gave a very small shake of his head in my direction. It was then that I remembered what I'd found in the car at the garage. It took some finding because I was looking for an envelope with photos inside and was worried to death in case that sleazy salesman decided to come find me.

I'd looked through the glove compartment, under the seats and was sat just looking around when I looked at the central consul with a gear stick in the middle and I'd just wrapped my hand around the knob at the top and moved it, as though to change gear. That's when I noticed that the nob seemed a bit loose so started to twist it. It came off easily enough and out dropped a small piece of plastic, a memory card that might fit in a camera.

I brought the card out of my jeans pocket and held it in my hand for Ranger to see.

"Is that what you found Babe?"

"Yes, I think it's a memory card from a camera"

"Estefania"

I looked over to Hector to see him holding his hand out to me, so I passed the card over to him. His fingers were working at speed across the keys of a laptop and it didn't seem to take long before he sat back looking at the screen. In some ways I was feeling nervous about what was there, that there might be something that I'd never even thought about versus the worry that Charlie may not have focused on finding us actual evidence. I watched as a large screen on the wall came to life and a series of thumbnail images appeared on the screen. They were too small to make out so waited as Hector started with the first image bringing it to the full size of the screen. I have to say that I was disappointed as Hector moved through the photos, all of them being ones that I already had copies of. There were some of the buildings that we already knew about, the apartments above the restaurant and a large apartment block, that I presumed was where the girl that Jenny had met worked out of. I didn't recognize a few of the others but it seemed that Ranger did.

"That one is where the judge is living and the factory is Orbinto, a company that supposedly deals with electronics"

I looked more closely at that one and stood up to get closer to the screen.

"What are you seeing Estefania?"

I was intent on looking at one of the doors, where the front entrance must have been, but not at what was inside. The door was angled just beyond a small porch area and made of glass. As I came to the screen, I just used my fingers as I had done at Ranger's office enabling me to expand the image that I was seeing. The larger it became the fuzzier it got, but there was no doubt in my mind at who I was seeing.

"Well now we know that it isn't just Denby who's communicating with McCann"

In the reflection from the door was Garner stood talking to a man that I didn't recognize but now knew who it was. I internally swore at what the photo confirmed but it didn't give us any new information. I walked back to my seat keeping my eye on the screen as Hector went on to the next photo and came to a standstill. As the next photo came onto the screen, I'm sure I took in a breath and I was aware of Ranger's arm coming around my waist. It was a clear image of Joe almost facing the camera but stood in front of him was a blonde woman, with wavy hair. Although there was no clear shot of her face, I was pretty sure that it must have been Terry Gilman.

I was so over him that to be honest she was welcome to him, not that I hadn't had my suspicions of them being together. As Ranger pulled me down to his knee, I was sure he was thinking that maybe I was upset with what we were seeing. It was quite the opposite, I was actually more curious as to why Charlie had taken the photo.

"Why would Charlie have taken that photo?"

Okay I must have said that out loud because I heard an immediate answer.

"Maybe because of who she is. She's Vito's right hand person"

I looked to Les as he said that glad that he was saying out loud exactly what I was thinking myself. No one had anything else to say, so at a nod from Ranger Hector moved through the photos. There were a lot of images showing men and women on the street obviously moving drugs around, probably what Mylo's mother had been doing. At some of the faces Hector would confirm if he knew of them on the streets and the guys could recognize where they'd been taken. It was the last photos that held our attention, probably the last photos that Charlie had taken.

It looked to have been at an airport, though I had no idea which, and had McCann waiting in what appeared to be the arrivals area. The photos must have been taken from outside of the terminal, looking through the sliding glass doors. There were three photos of the same scene but with different people in the background. If McCann was waiting for someone then Charlie never caught an image of the exact moment when that happened, and I was left looking for other clues that might give us some idea of who he was meeting. I felt Ranger hold my hips and push me to my feet before he walked closer to the screen.

"Hector can you clean up this area?"

He asked as he used his hands to zoom into a newspaper that one of the exiting passengers was carrying. He returned the image to its original size, looking closer for anything else.

"I think that's JFK"

Came from Les.

"We need the date, time and terminal so that we can determine which flight he met and then maybe we can backtrack and find the flight manifest"

"I'll run the faces through a recognition program"

Maybe the person that he was meeting was one of the bosses that Walter had referred to though it did make me wonder what role Walter had in this group. I mean at that meeting it was obvious now that there were people missing or was that intentional? The bosses always keeping themselves apart from the others, well except for Denby. Maybe McCann felt that he needed to keep a tighter rein on Denby, hadn't Tank said that he didn't have much of a backbone, so maybe McCann felt the same way. That had me remembering something that I'd read on the board of the conference room.

"Do you think it was McCann who was having that conversation with Manning, you know, the one that Jayce and Tali recorded"

"What makes you say that Babe?"

I went through what I had been thinking but really needed a copy of that screen that I'd put together to help to explain my idea.

"This morning, when I put the faces together"

I stopped talking as the image on the screen suddenly changed and the actual work that I'd done that morning at Ranger's house appeared in its place. I waited as the guys looked at it, trying to work out if I needed to add to it or change it.

"So the group there on the left?"

Of course it was Les asking the question and I fell for how he was involving me by asking me to explain what I thought.

"Respectable men who are sick to death of the violence in Trenton and want to see the mob bosses being stopped"

"Go on Babe"

I looked at Ranger as he said that suddenly becoming very uncertain of what I'd put together but seeing how serious he was gave me the confidence to continue.

"The middle group are the fixers, they provide a means of accomplishing it. Jackson provides the drugs, Denby was laundering the money through Anansi and Garner the weapons and muscle. I think these men think that if they can put the mob out of business then all will be right with the world. What they don't know is that these fixers answer to those two or three people at the top, one of which is McCann. Those top people have two objectives. First to take over all business in Trenton and second to bring Rangeman down"

I waited as the silence continued after I'd spoken becoming very nervous as to what they were thinking. It was Tank who broke the silence as he looked directly at me.

"Steph. I don't know what to say. I just never saw this, hell girl, how you've worked that out"

"Is fucking brilliant Beautiful. But also fucking frightening"

I knew that I was feeling a little embarrassed and was looking down at the floor as Tank and Les said that because there was also the worry that I was totally wrong with how I was seeing things. I watched as the guys walked closer to the screen, each of them talking about the faces in front of them. As I turned toward Ranger, I was surprised to see him talking on his phone and the fact that he suddenly looked at me had me thinking that what he was hearing wasn't good news for me. I was actually surprised when he held his hand over the phone and spoke loudly enough to get the attentions of the others.

"Listen up. I'm putting my phone on speaker. It's Eddie"

Ranger pulled me to his side and held his phone out in front of him as the men gathered around us.

"I needed to let you know what happened with Morelli. It was the deputy chief who ended up dealing with him, the chief was taken really ill and will be away from work for a few weeks"

"What does that mean for Morelli?"

Yeah, I was keen to know that as well. I didn't know who the deputy chief was and to be honest, I was disappointed that Chief Morgan hadn't been the one to decide what would happen to Joe. I'd the known the chief for years and was certain he would be fair in dealing with Joe.

"Dietzen, the deputy chief, well he decided to go easy on Morelli. Word is he took on board what Morelli said more than he did the evidence from the video. Was almost sympathetic to the dilemma that Morelli was in, a fiancé who was putting herself and others in danger doing a job that she had no skills for. Dietzen didn't even look up Steph's capture record"

I know I was internally sagging as I listened to what Eddie was saying. How could this man Dietzen support what Morelli had done?

"It probably didn't help that Steph's on bail for aggravated assault"

"Get to the point Eddie"

I was almost grateful that Ranger was stopping Eddie from saying anymore. It was like hearing the things that my mother and Joe had repeatably said to me over and over again, making me feel so worthless. I wasn't even sure that I was interested in what Eddie said anymore, maybe it was me that was delusional, maybe Joe had been right all along, and he only did those things to shake me into realizing it.

"Babe"

I felt myself being pulled down on to Ranger's knee and as he gently pushed some wayward curls of my hair behind my ear. Hands on either side of my face didn't give me any option other than to look at him.

"Only listen to me Babe and hear what I say about you. You have a heart that can be fierce and sensitive, a mind that can be intuitive and devious and a personality that can be feisty and loving"

I raised my eyebrows as he told me that, well lectured me really and as I opened my mouth to say something to refute what he had just said his lips came down on mine, hard and passionate. I couldn't resist the way he nibbled at my lip so opened my mouth to taste him. I was out of breath and my body was humming when all too soon he pulled away from me, a whisper in my ear that had me blushing.

"I forgot to add that you're beautiful and sexy. Babe, Morelli is very good at getting people around to his way of thinking. Dietzen doesn't know you so will have been swayed by what Morelli said. He's a master manipulator, but he'll get what's coming to him"

I'm sure that my eyes went wide as I heard that because the last thing that I wanted was for Ranger to get into any kind of trouble because of me.

"You can't, I mean don't. The last thing I want is for you to get into any trouble"

I heard a small laugh from Ranger and he almost smiled at me making me wonder what the hell I had said that he thought was so funny.

"As much as I would love to beat the shit out of him, the plans I have for him are far more subtle but much worse for him"

I felt my brow furrow worrying what the hell he was talking about and if he was going to enlighten me on what he was planning. I felt his lips of my forehead and as he whispered to me, I felt that vice like hold on my heart begin to loosen.

"Everything is in hand, Babe, I promise"

As I leant back to look into his eyes I could see the sincerity there but also noticed that Tank, Les and Hector were at the far end of the room talking quietly.

"Let's get back to what we do best, plan what we do next and as Charlie said about you, you never baulked your responsibilities if it means bringing down any bad guys involved. You are the perfect person who can help to solve the mystery"

"You read Charlie's writings?"

Was all I could think to ask trying very hard to ignore what he had said to me.

"Of course. I needed to figure out where you were when you disappeared so started with what he'd written before looking at the photos"

I suppose like me Ranger would have hoped to find more information from Charlie, but I suppose Charlie had never set out to try and solve anything just help Katy and his son.

We were soon all sat back around the table, as Ranger had said to plan out our next moves. I listened to what was suggested not feeling confident enough amongst them to say anything.

"All of signage and boxes have been removed so we need to maintain surveillance on those buildings"

"The buildings or the people, we can't cover them both"

"I can set up some surveillance cameras on the buildings"

"How about trackers on their cars"

I watched as Ranger nodded his head at what was being suggested, me personally, I wanted to do something a bit more reactive.

"They won't have their merchandise, so they'll be panicking on how to get their plan back up and running"

It made me wonder how they would do that, how they could replace what had been destroyed in the museum, and what they thought had happened to destroy it. I couldn't imagine who would have started that fire, surely not one of the men at that meeting, but then I hadn't been aware of anyone else there. Did that other person even know that I was there and if they did would they think that I was dead? Maybe I had a common enemy with them, then again it could have been one of the mob bosses doing, but would they destroy everything instead of just stealing it?

"Maybe we could confront one those men who were at the museum, I mean they must be worrying about what happened and what to do next"

Okay I hadn't meant to say that out loud and only realized that I had done when all talk stopped, and the men were looking at me.

"Not a bad idea Beautiful. The question is who?"

"Babe, who do you think would break first?"

I hadn't expected what I'd said to be taken seriously, I mean I was just thinking out loud. My eyes went to the screen and the photos of the men on there.

"Someone in the first group. Not the judge, I think he's too invested in this. He's lost his son and his wife and moved here to Trenton. I don't think that he would see that he has anything else to lose"

"I agree. The doctor would probably just pack his bags and head back abroad, that's where he sees as his safe place"

I nodded my head at Tank as he said that. We had no idea who was involved from the newspaper so that only left Walter Lewis.

"Lewis has the most to lose"

I turned to Ranger as he said that, not sure exactly what he was thinking of doing.

"I'm going to arrange a meeting with him. Or should I say gatecrash where he'll be. Hector can you get me his schedule, a time when he'll be out of the office but not with a lot of people"

"His home?"

"No, somewhere public, a restaurant maybe. Somewhere that I can take him to one side"

I almost let out a breath of relief as I realized that Ranger wasn't going to drag him off the street and maybe torture him to death, that maybe words were going to be his weapon of choice for Lewis.

"If that doesn't work then maybe I'll fall back to that plan Babe"

I couldn't help smiling as he said that hoping that he was actually joking with me, then again maybe not. As the men started to discuss what each man would be doing and plan out rotas for surveillance I knew that I would be looking into finding out as much about the man McCann as I could. We knew that he was involved but weren't too sure why, that Rangeman was being drawn into this was a definite but the reason why was still illusive. I felt that if the only time that Ranger had come across McCann was on that one mission so long ago then maybe there was more to find there. I have to admit that the detail that was being scrutinized became a low murmur in my ears and even as I started to lean against Ranger, I knew that I was feeling tired.

RPOV

I was surprised that Steph had stayed awake as long as she had. Brown assured me that it would be normal for her to be tired after the dose of drugs that she'd inhaled. Once we were confident of what each of us would be doing the following morning, I used my fob for the elevator and carried Steph's sleeping form up to my apartment. The only way to access the room that we'd been in was with a fob that also deactivated the cameras. No one in the building other than Tank, Santos, Brown and Hector would know where she was. As I placed her on the bed, I removed the jeans and her top and bra, pulling one of my T-shirts down over her body and then the covers were over her. I watched for a few minutes as she slept but knew that I had work to catch up on so begrudgingly left her to go down to my office on five.

I felt that we had a plan that would take us forward instead of constantly trying to catch up with what was going on, it didn't rid me of the feeling that we'd missed something though. As I entered the fifth floor, I felt my phone vibrate so immediately opened the message flashing on the screen, interested in why Ramos would be contacting me.

"It seems we owe you our gratitude"

In some ways I had pushed Ramos and his cronies to the back of my mind, but it seemed that he was still monitoring the goings on in Trenton, no surprise there. Was he referring to the destruction of the contraband at the museum? Maybe, but I wasn't going to enlighten him that we had nothing to do with it. Let him think what he wanted as long as it kept him away from Steph.

I spent time clearing my email box and put a dent in the pile of paperwork accumulating. Fortunately, having spent a lot of time before Steph disappeared meant that most of the papers only required a quick look through and signing. There were several enquiries from prospective clients so I sent the usual formatted letter informing them that a representative would be in touch and placed them in a pile for Tank. A quick look at our current position in bringing in FTAs showed that Binkie and Junior were on top of that with no extremely high bonds currently to deal with. I printed off some photos that I needed for my meeting with Lewis, just as proof of what we knew.

With the papers for Tank in my hand I closed down my computer and left my office turning towards Tank's office. The floor seemed quiet which was good and any men I saw looked to be calm. Maybe I was wrong in thinking that they didn't know that Steph was safely here, hell who was I kidding, they'd see it in my face and how I was behaving that she was safe. I was surprised to see Tank sat in his office busy working so walked in and sat in the chair in front of his desk. He sat back and eyed me as I placed the papers in his in tray.

"Some enquiries"

I said as explanation.

"Okay, I'll send the appropriate letter out. Any that look suspect?"

I was expecting that from Tank after the problems that we'd already had but also knew that we had to maintain the business.

"No. One's a jewelry store, a larger company wanting to expand. A high-end fashion store and a private residence"

I watched as Tank moved some papers over his desk and handed me an envelope, addressed to the management of Rangeman.

"Hector called and said that Lewis is going to be at that tomorrow. Just so happens that we got an invite as well"

Inside the envelope was a thick embossed card, an invitation to attend a buffet lunch being organized by the Commerce and Industry Association. The event boasted a presentation on Resilient Business Strategies at 1200hrs. followed by a buffet at 1300hrs. that would enable networking and discussions between members. I wasn't interested in the presentation, but the time afterwards would be an ideal opportunity to get to Lewis. I used my phone to email the necessary response, that I would be attending and noted that the invitation was for two members of the company to attend.

"Are you going to attend?"

I looked up at Tank and nodded my head as I considered who the +1 should be.

"I'll organize backup then"

After acknowledging what Tank had suggested I decided it was time to go upstairs and check up on Steph, Brown may have said that her being tired was an after effect of the drugs, but I wanted to make sure that she was okay. As I took the stairs up to seven, I was thinking that I already knew who would go with me.

I was pleased to see that Steph was up when I reached the apartment. It seemed that we were having company for dinner seeing as Brown and Mylo were there and helping to set plates and cutlery onto the dining table. As I came into the kitchen area Steph looked up at me and smiled. She was a little pale but the bruise on her face was fading and the hint of dark circles from the day had paled.

"Hi. It seems we have company for dinner. Bobby has been with Mylo visiting Charlie at the hospital and wanted to update us"

I knew that Brown had taken on looking after Mylo for his afternoon visits and felt a bit guilty for not getting an update on Charlie's progress, though I was sure had there been any change to Charlie's condition then I would have been informed. Ella must have known that there would be four of us eating and had prepared enough for all of us. Once we had finished eating Brown insisted that Steph and Mylo relax while we cleared the table allowing Brown to talk to me in private.

"Steph seems a lot better, I checked her vitals when I came up and they are good"

At least some good news, so what else was Brown going to say to me?

"I'm taking Mylo each afternoon to visit his father, the doctors all agree that it might help with any progress he might make"

"Has there not been any improvements?"

"No. Physically he's stronger and the weakness displayed down his left side seems to be more coordinated but there's concern with regard to his cognitive impairment. He isn't speaking or really acknowledging people yet, so we have no idea on whether or not he'll make a full or even partial recovery from the damage to his brain"

I knew that I was disappointed with that news, I suppose the fact that Charlie had come out of his coma had me thinking that he'd be able to identify who had shot him. Steph would be devastated with the news, as she was banking on Charlie to get the charges against her withdrawn. Having finished with sorting the kitchen I turned and watched Steph with Mylo on the couch, curious as to what they were so focussed on.

"How's it going with the psychologist and Mylo?"

I asked out of the blue expecting Brown to have had some feedback.

"He's had two sessions. Jacobs is sure that there's no physical reason that Mylo doesn't talk just that he's never been encouraged to. He can make the sounds so they're focusing on making and saying sounds accurately. Once he's mastered forming and linking the sounds together then he'll be away. He's a very bright kid"

From what I'd already seen of the boy I had no doubt of that but was wondering what future Mylo would have if Charlie never improved sufficiently to look after him. It was something that maybe needed sorting out soon, yes, Mylo had fit in well here spending his time between Ella, Steph and Brown but it wasn't sustainable. He needed structure, education and family. It was a shame that Charlie's parents hadn't volunteered to be that support but judging from what the father had said I wasn't going to push that.

As I moved toward the lounge area, I could hear sounds being made and went behind the couch to see exactly where it was coming from. Steph was holding a pad in front of them which was where the sound was coming from. Mylo was repeating the sound that the app, Articulation Station, was saying and then Steph was finding an object that started with that letter. From the way Mylo was concentrating I was pretty sure that he would be talking clearly very soon.

"Rnger"

Was what Mylo said as he turned to look at me, yeah that kid would be talking very soon.

"That's good Mylo, now try this "Bobby"

"Bee"

I almost smiled but refrained when I saw Brown walking our way.

"It's okay, that's what Mylo calls me. We need to go now Mylo, you have an early appointment in the morning"

I wasn't sure whether to be disappointed or not when Mylo took the pad from Steph and then gave her a long hug. I raised my hand for him to high five me and discovered that he also knew the next move in the sequence. Once they'd left, I joined Steph on the couch, pulling her into me and kissing her head.

"How would you like to go out for lunch tomorrow?"