I had a message on my phone from Morelli. Well, I wanted a break from packing parcels anyway.
"I need a favour," he opened with. I had a bad feeling about this. Things that Morelli wanted from me never went well and usually left me without any underwear on. However, against my better judgement, I agreed to meet him at a nearby café in twenty minutes. I really wanted away from these parcels. I was so glad that my lingerie was selling so well, but so over sticky labels. This is the sort of things that my mom would love, maybe I should get her to help.
Morelli was already at the café when I arrived, on his phone. "No, I don't need more boxes. No, it's fine, really. I'm good. There's not much to move. Anyway, gotta go. Bye."
"Hey," I said to him as I sat down.
"Hey Steph. Sorry. Just trying to get some things sorted," he said.
"Are you moving?" I asked him.
"I'm moving back into the Burg."
"Are you going home to Mama Morelli?"
"Close. My aunt Rose died, she and my uncle never had children, and I'm the favourite nephew – was the favourite nephew – so I get the house. My sister gets the furniture though so it's going to be a bit empty for a while. I thought I'd give living in a house a go for a while, see how I like it," he said.
I tried to picture Morelli domesticated. I wasn't sure that it would ever happen. I was certain he'd always have a feral streak.
I thought I knew which house it was. Morelli's Aunt Rose didn't live far from my parents, just two streets over. Her house was the middle house in a rowhouses – no windows on the sides but a cute porch. It would probably have a small backyard, a basement for storage and only one bathroom.
"I think you should put an extra bathroom in," I told him. "Put one in the basement. Everyone needs an extra bathroom."
"There's only one of me living there," Morelli said, "so I think I'll be okay."
"You might settle down soon. Find someone you like, settle down, add to the Morelli family with more little Morellis."
Morelli laughed. "Cops don't make for good husbands, cupcake. Look at how much extra whining your cousin does since she married Eddie. I think I'd have to marry someone that I didn't actually like so I wouldn't feel bad about dragging her into the life of a cop wife."
"Try Joyce Barnhardt," I advised him. "She deserves to get her life ruined."
Morelli laughed harder. I ordered a sandwich and he ordered a burger. Then I got curious.
"So what's this favour you need?" I asked him. "Do you need help moving a fridge?"
Morelli smiled. Glad that I amused him.
"How's your husband?" he asked me.
"Dickie? He's good. He got back from Chicago last week so at least I get to see him now, which is nice. Why?" I asked.
"Did you know he's representing Uncle Mo?" Morelli asked. I gasped. I hadn't known that. The Uncle Mo scandal was the best scandal to hit the Burg in decades. The local candy shop owner with bodies of drug dealers in his basement. Grandma kept ringing me to give me updates.
"I had no idea. Dickie doesn't discuss his work with me," I said.
"I need to meet with Dickie to get him to pass on a message to Uncle Mo, but I can't get through to him. Do you think you could get him to meet with me?" Morelli asked. I was a bit annoyed with Dickie for withholding information on the Uncle Mo scandal, so after we'd finished lunch, I took Morelli to meet Dickie.
Dickie had an awesome office, he really did. When I visited, I liked to sit behind his desk and pretend I was in a sitcom where I played a Serious Female Lawyer. I nodded to his assistant and pointed towards the office door, which was slightly ajar. No clients in there at the moment. I stuck my head in and held up a sandwich.
"Surprise!" I said. "I brought you a sandwich for lunch. Oh, and Detective Morelli followed me here. Don't worry though, I'm not going to ask to keep him."
Dickie looked surprised but I knew that Dickie practised expressions in the mirror and also that his office window overlooked the street and he liked to stare out it while he pretended to think. He'd probably seen us coming.
"Detective Morelli," Dickie said, shaking his hand. "It's good to finally meet you."
He's only saying that because he doesn't know about what was written on the toilet wall of the sub shop.
"Thank for seeing me on such short notice," Morelli said, ignoring the fact that it was actually no notice at all, "I'd like to talk to you about a client of yours."
"Of course," said Dickie, gesturing for Morelli to sit down. Then he looked at me. Morelli looked at me. I guess I wasn't needed anymore. I kissed Dickie, waved to Morelli, and then left.
When I was on my way home, Grandma rang with the latest round of gossip and to see if I could call Eddie Gazarra to find any more gossip. I agreed to go to my parents for dinner. I was going to see if my mom wanted to help with packaging up parcels when I had a bunch of orders come in. Also I'd get cake.
I called Eddie before I left for my parent's house, timing the call for when I was fairly sure he'd be on his way home from work. I doubted he'd be able to tell me anything that Grandma didn't already know, but I hadn't seen him for ages and wanted to catch up. Eddie is married to my cousin Shirley and they have four children, all of whom are absolute terrors. Eddie is always on the lookout for a babysitter because no one will babysit for him twice, not even my mother. Eddie and I exchanged stories and decided that Grandma had the best spy network of anyone in the Burg, and agreed to meet up for breakfast the next morning.
I got to my parents just before 6 and was surprised to only see my mom at the door. Usually Grandma would be there with her, standing shoulder to shoulder.
"Where's Grandma?" I asked mom, giving her a hug. My mom sighed. A long suffering sigh, like a woman who has to bear a burden.
"Go into the lounge room," she said.
My father was in his usual chair in the lounge room, ignoring everyone and in his mental happy place. Grandma was also in there, with her latest catch next to her.
"Stephanie! Meet Fred! We met down at the senior citizens centre. He's a real honey," Grandma Mazur said.
"Hello, it's nice to meet you," I said to Fred, then ducked into the kitchen where I found my mother pouring a glass of wine.
"Where did this one come from?" I asked my mother.
"Who knows. Your grandmother is man crazy."
"Hey mom? I could use some help with my business. Nothing exciting, but I need help with packaging up orders. Would you be interested in helping me when it's busy?"
"Oh Steph! I'd love to. Do you need help now? I could come tomorrow. And I'll bring lunch."
"No, don't do that. I'll take you out for lunch," I told her.
"Great! Now we've just got to get through this dinner. I think Fred wants to move in with us. Don't tell your father," my mom said, pouring herself more wine. It seemed like she'd had quite a day already.
Dinner was a disaster, but that's to be expected when Grandma brings home a new boyfriend. At least I got leftovers and cake out of it, and would see my mom the next day for a parcel packaging session.
Dickie was already home when I arrived home. I went looking for him and found him just getting out of the shower.
"Hey Steph," he greeted me. "I thought you'd be home later."
"No, it was another Plum Disaster night," I told him, "but there's leftovers if you want some. Meatloaf, mashed potato, and cake."
"That sounds great," he said, starting to walk downstairs. I let him walk in front of me and admired the view. The man did look great in a towel.
"How hungry are you?" I asked him. He turned around halfway down the stairs.
"I'm open to other suggestions," Dickie said. He winked at me. I was still a bit annoyed at him for not sharing any Uncle Mo gossip with me, but on the other hand, my hormones were telling me to take advantage of the towel situation. I think the hormones were going to win.
Eddie and I met up for our breakfast date at a diner that is rumoured to have the best donuts. I am doubtful over this claim because everyone knows that the Tasty Pastry has the best donuts, but I was willing to sacrifice my waistline in order to do a proper comparison. I got there first and ordered, making sure that I got enough that we could have a proper sample size. It was for science, after all.
Eddie was late, so I started without him. I was two donuts down by the time he showed up. Eddie and I had been friends since grade school and I adored him. He was a naturally cheerful person, and not even becoming a cop had managed to cure him of that.
He looked tired, and gulped down a coffee and ate a donut while I updated him on my latest business news, and Grandma Mazur's latest round of dating.
"I have some gossip for you," Eddie said.
"What?" I asked, stealing the last doughnut from the plate.
"Joyce Barnhardt blackmailed your cousin Vinnie into letting her be a bounty hunter. She's strutting around wearing black like she's catwoman."
I laughed. I didn't want to think about the bribery that it would have taken to get Vinnie to agree to that.
"Why do you think Joyce did that? Does she think she's batman?"
"I think she's between husbands and bored. Or maybe she's decided that Vinnie's bounty hunter Ranger is going to be husband number four and it's a way to get closer to him," Eddie said. I loved my catch-up sessions with Eddie, he liked to gossip as much as I did.
"Ranger? Does he dress all in black and have a ponytail?" I asked, remembering the man of mystery that I'd seen at Stiva's one night. Morelli had said he was Vinnie's bounty hunter.
"That's the one. From the way that Joyce is dressing, I think he's next on her radar. Of course she's yet to actually capture anyone, so she'll have to do better if she's hoping to impress him that way. That man is amazing when it comes to capturing FTAs," Eddie said. I think that Eddie had a man-crush. "The guy is good, even Morelli thinks so."
"Does Morelli know him well?" I asked Eddie, thinking of when they were both at the funeral parlour. They didn't seem too friendly then.
"I think they work together sometimes. Morelli goes under cover a lot and I don't know what he's doing then. Us normal cops don't get to know everything," Eddie said, shrugging. Edddie was happy being a normal cop. Eddie liked patrolling and finding out the neighbourhood gossip.
My mother arrived promptly at 9am and we got to work. She packed orders and double checked the ones I'd done the day before while I updated the website and sent out shipping notifications. We made a good team.
We took a break for lunch and walked down to the deli. It was strange to talk, just the two of us. I was so used to Grandma being there now. We bought sandwiches for lunch and I added on a cookie for each of us. I told her that Joe Morelli was moving back into the Burg.
"Oh, I'd heard that he'd inherited the house. I'm glad that he is going to keep it," my mother said. "Joseph needs to settle down. He's done so well in the police force." The unspoken part of that was that Joe had done awesomely for a Morelli man. Most were bums who cheated on their wives, or worse. Joe was a shining star among Morelli men.
At the end of the day we'd rearranged the boxes so they all fit in the dining room. This unearthed the motorbikes in the garage and my mother stared at them with pursed lips but chose not to say anything. Phew, progress. A lecture spared. I missed my bike. If the weather was good, I needed to go riding soon. I made a note to see if Dickie wanted to go riding on the weekend.