Given the reaction of Ranger and Morelli to my visit with Alexander Ramos, I decided not to mention the activities of my day to Dickie. My interaction with Ramos had left me a bit jittery and apparently that made me channel a Burg housewife, because I had dinner waiting on the table when Dickie got home.

He got in a little after seven, looking a bit surprised to see me.

"I thought you'd be at your parents," he said.

"No, I had a long day, so I cancelled," I told him.

"Great!" he said, not sounding convinced. I wondered if there was a football game on television that he looking forward to watching alone.

"Is there a game on?" I asked him.

"No. No, it's fine. I've just got to go get changed, then I'll be back down. Dinner looks great," he told me, and disappeared upstairs.

When he reappeared a few minutes later we ate dinner together, and then moved to the couch to watch TV. I texted Mary Lou about her day. She said that Kenny convinced Mikey to eat dog food. On the bright side, at least one of her kids was an adventurous eater.

The next few weeks passed quietly for me. I heard from Mary Lou who heard it from our school friend Rita who heard it from Connie at the Bonds office that Ranger was no longer a suspect in the Ramos murder, mostly because Homer Ramos was found alive.

Grandma passed her license and spent the next five days constantly driving around. She also received enough tickets in those five days to lose her license.

She then decided that driving wasn't really worth it and the red corvette also conveniently disappeared. I suspected that Dougie might have had a hand in that.

I visited Mom and Grandma soon after the corvette disappeared. My mother had stopped constantly ironing, which was a good sign.

"I might have a date," said Grandma. "Exept I might not. I'm seeing Eddie DeChooch, but he's on the run from the law, so I'm not sure if our date is still on. It's fun dating an outlaw. It keeps you on your toes."

"Eddie DeChooch? What did he do?"

"Got caught smuggling cigarettes. Everyone does it. Anyway, it's that no good Joyce Barnhardt after him, and everyone knows she can't catch anyone," Grandma said. That was true. Joyce didn't manage to catch Ranger when he was FTA either.

"He's pretty safe if Joyce is after him, but Vinnie will send Ranger after him eventually," I said.

"That's true," Grandma said, "but the ladies at the beauty parlour will let me now when that happens."

I updated Mom and Grandma where my latest product line was up to, although I think of it of our latest line, since Grandma had so much input into it. I was hoping that Plum Vintage would be as much of a success as Plum Blossoms was, although all my profits went back into the business, something that Dickie grumbled about.

There was a knock on the door. My mother went to see who it was, and my Grandma brightened up. "Unexpected company!" she said to me. "That's always a treat."

I heard the door open, and then there was silence.

"Walter Dunphy?" I heard my mother ask. Mooner? I got up and headed for the door.

"Mrs Plum! It's totally awesome to see you!"

It was Mooner. Dressed in a purple spandex body suit with a silver M on the front.

"Mooner, what are you wearing?" I asked him.

"Do you like it? It's my SuperSuit. Dougie and I found a box of them in his attic. You can have one," he said.

"Why don't you come inside?" my mother said, pulling him inside and shutting the door. She took Mooner through to the kitchen and sat him down at the table with a coffee and plate of cookies. Then she looked at me and inclined her head towards the living room. I left Grandma talking to Mooner and followed her out.

"What is he wearing?" she asked me.

"I dunno. A SuperSuit? And before you ask, no, I don't know why."

"Do you think he's okay? Should we call his parents? I think he might be… you know, on drugs."

"Mom, he's been on drugs for most of the past twenty years. I think his parents know by now."

My mother didn't look convinced. I hoped that she wasn't thinking of having an intervention with Mooner. I could see her maternal instincts kicking in. Mine had trouble when Mooner around too. Something in me just wanted to look after him.

"We'd better not leave him alone with Grandma too long," I reminded Mom, and we went back into the kitchen. Mooner was eating cookies and looking thoughtful.

"So, any reason for the visit?" I asked Mooner.

"I was looking for you, Steph. I remembered your address from high school, and your granny here mentioned that you often visit and have lunch so I was hoping you'd be here. The Dougster has gone missing, and I thought you might be able to find him."

So much in that one speech.

"I'm not here all the time. I have my own life," I began with. Right. That'll convince him. "And what happened to Dougie?"

"I don't know. He just disappeared. I hope it wasn't aliens, or we'll never find him."

"I'm not really up on finding people. I'm a lingerie designer," I said.

"You're good at finding people. You totally found your Grandma when she was buying her car," Mooner said.

"That's because she called me and told me where she was," I said.

"Oh. Bummer."

"I could call Morelli," I offered. "He's a detective, so he's actually good at finding people." Mooner looked a little conflicted at that one. Mooner and Dougie didn't always have the best relationship with the police.

I called Morelli and broke the news that Dougie was missing. He suggested Dougie was on a bender. I reminded him it was Dougie, not Mooner. He sighed heavily. "I'm due my lunch break anyway, I'll meet you at Dougie's house in 10 to have a look around," he said.

I bundled Mooner into my car since he was a bit vague on how he'd arrived in the first place, said goodbye to Mom and Grandma, and left.

Morelli and Bob were waiting for us outside Dougie's house.

"Bob needed to be let out of the house or he eats things," Morelli said, by way of explanation. Mooner pushed open the front door.

"Stay here with Bob," Morelli told him. The two of us looked around the house. It was fairly normal downstairs. Upstairs was three bedrooms and a bathroom, the Burg staple of housing. Two bedrooms looked normal, the messiest obviously belonging to Dougie.

The third was filled with boxes from floor to ceiling. It looked kind of like my garage when my stock first came in, but less organised and with more crammed in there.

"Shit!" Morelli said, looking at the boxes. "Mooner, get up here!"

Mooner and Bob came bounding up the stairs.

"What is all this?" Morelli asked him.

"Oh that. The Dougster was working with someone. I dunno who. This is the other guy's stuff."

"Dougie is out on Bond for the possession of stolen property," Morelli reminded Mooner. "He can't get caught with stuff like this in his house." Mooner looked confused. "Make it disappear!" Morelli told him. Mooner concentrated. I think he was trying to beam it out using his mind.

"I'm going to check our databases, see if anyone matching Dougie's description has been found," Morelli told me. "But besides that, I don't know what to do. Mooner could report it, but he'll need to get rid of this stuff first. But either Dougie has wandered off, or his disappearance has something to do with all this stuff in here."

Our eyes met. The mob still operated in Trenton. I hoped that Dougie hadn't gotten mixed up in that.

Morelli said he'd keep me updated, then left with Bob. That was a serious side to Morelli that I hadn't seen before. He and I tended to bring out each other's immature sides, like we were back in high school again. I hadn't really seen Morelli's cop side before, although I had heard that he was a good cop. Even Ranger had said so.

I went back upstairs to check on Mooner. He'd opened one box.

"I don't know if I can smoke all these cigarettes," he told me.

"What?"'

"All these cigarettes. I don't know if I can make them disappear. That's a lot of smoking. It's not good for you."

"You smoke every day," I reminded him.

"Not tobacco. That stuff's not good for you," Mooner said.

I looked at the boxes. Then I remembered where I'd heard talk of cigarettes earlier today. Morelli wasn't going to be happy. I debated whether to call him now or later, then decided there was no point in putting it off. I said goodbye to Mooner, got in my car, and called Morelli on my way home.

"Hello?"

"Hey. So, Mooner opened up those boxes."

"And?"

"Aaaaannnd they're all filled with cigarettes."

"Cigarettes?"

"Yes. And my Grandma mentioned earlier that she's dating Eddie DeChooch except he's an FTA because he ran out on his Bond which he got after being arrested for-"

"Smuggling cigarettes," Morelli finished.

"Oh. You already knew," I said, disappointed.

"I'm a cop, I know everything."

"Carl and Big Dog don't know everything," I countered with.

"I'm a good cop, I know everything," Morelli said. Morelli also lived for work and had no life, although I decided not to remind him of that.

I pulled into my garage. What a day. I'd missed lunch, so I headed for the fridge and grabbed a random assortment of snack foods, then sprawled on the couch. I was worried about Dougie. And also a little about Mooner being left unsupervised. Maybe my biological clock was starting to tick. Was I feeling clucky? I rang Mary Lou to check. She asked me how I felt about babies. I felt that they were noisy and smelly. Mary Lou said that it wasn't my biological clock then.

I decided to take a nap, and woke up in time to be a good wife and prepare dinner for my husband. Dickie was working on a big case again, but I was hopeful he would at least be home for dinner. I was preparing dinner, aka heating up food I'd lovingly purchased from the deli, when my phone rang. Morelli.

"We have a problem," he told me.