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Once Val had baked choc chip cookies and a batch of brownies, and Mooner and the girls were deep in Frozen, Val and I took a cup of coffee each and sat down to talk.

"I need to stay focused," Val said. "Just keep moving. Stay positive."

"Okay. So what do you think you need to do first?" I asked her.

"I guess I need to find a job, and to enrol the girls in school, and then find my own place. It all just seems so overwhelming. I don't know anything about the schools here. The girls were in a really good school back home."

I thought for a minute. I didn't know anything about schools.

"You could help me with Plum Lingerie to start. I mean, I can't pay much, but it will give you recent work experience. I could call Mary Lou to get advice on schools, I'm sure she knows all about them. And she'd love an excuse to come over and get out of the house."

I gave Mary Lou a call and half an hour later she was sitting at the table with us, the boys added to the lounge room movie watching, chocolate chip cookies in hand. Mary Lou gave Val the run down on the local schools.

"I think I'd like to live in The Burg," said Val. "Even if I do have to live with Mom and Dad for a while. I know it will be crowded, but I would be nice to be somewhere familiar."

"There's a duplex coming up for rent soon!" Mary Lou said excitedly. "The Olsens down the street from me are moving to Florida, and they're planning to rent their house out while they decide whether to move their permanently or not."

"Mary Lou lives two streets over from Mom and Dad," I reminded Val.

"That would be perfect. The girls could go to the local school, then Mom could pick them up if I'm working," Val said excitedly. She got up and started making lunch for everyone. Apparently Val expresses emotions through chirpiness and preparing food.

The four kids and Mooner came up to the table for lunch. I heard the garage door open and close and waited for Dickie to enter in the kitchen. He looked surprised at all the extra people in the house.

"Hi Dickie!" Mary Lou said happily. He switched into charming mode.

"Well hello Mary Lou, Kenny, Mikey. It's good to see you." He sat down and ate lunch with us, then disappeared upstairs, saying something about work. Val, Mary Lou and I sat the table and talked while the kids and Mooner ate snacks and watched TV all afternoon.

There was a knock on the door. Val went to answer it and came back with Joe.

"Hey the whole gang's here. Hello Mary Lou," he said. He inclined his head towards the door when he saw Mooner – time to go, Mooner. Mooner sighed and got up and ambled out the door. "There's no updates on Dougie. I'll call you when I think of another plan," Morelli said, then left.

"Gee, it's five o'clock already! I've got to get home," Mary Lou said. "It was so great to see you, Val. I'll let you know what the Olsens say about renting their place out. We could be neighbours!" She gathered her boys up and left.

Dickie wandered in once it was safely quiet. "Steph, do we have any plans for dinner? I feel like Thai food. There's a new place that opened up near my work, I thought we could try that."

"Sure. Do you want to order first?"

"Nah, I don't have a menu. I'll go there and order and just wait. Do the girls like to eat early? I'll go now," Dickie said, gathered his keys, and left. Val started wiping up the kitchen table, and I checked on the girls. They were looking a bit bored, and asked if we could go for a walk around the neighbourhood. It was still light outside, so I decided some fresh air would do us all good. Val told them to go upstairs and change into their sneakers, and they scurried off.

There was a knock on the door. I opened it, with Val close behind. When I opened it, I saw Eddie DeChooch there. He was dating my Grandma and had seen like a harmless old man, maybe one who used to be in the mob, but was probably all talk no action. That was until he showed up on my doorstep, pushed past me into my house and then waved a gun in my face.

"Where is he? I know he's in here," DeChooch said. Val and I looked at each other, then inched away from him. Angie and Mary Alice were upstairs, but they'd be down any minute now.

"Dickie? He left to go pick up dinner," I said.

"No, not the horse's ass," DeChooch said. Thanks for that one Grandma. "The little fruit, the space cadet."

"Mooner?" Val asked.

"That's the one. The one who is friends with the one who stole from me. I want him."

"He's not here," I said.

"Of course he's here! I saw the cop drop him off earlier, and everyone else left but he didn't," DeChooch said.

"Uh, Morelli already came to pick him up," I told DeChooch. "He picked him up around five o'clock."

"Damn it!" DeChooch said. "I had to take a leak around then and took a break. That always happens to me, bad things happen when I have to take a leak. It's my prostate. It's getting old. It's really getting in the way of businesses."

"So, um, what does Mooner have that you need?"

"Not Mooner! The other one! He stole from me and I need it back," DeChooch said.

"Dougie? I thought you knew where he was. He's disappeared," I said.

"Well, find him. Or you'll be sorry!" DeChooch said.

"Why does everyone think that I can find people all of a sudden?" I asked. "I'm not a private detective, I'm a lingerie designer. I don't go around finding people!" DeChooch turned and waved the gun in my face. Good one, Steph. Make the old mobster angry. That's going to end well. I put my hands up in what I hoped was a soothing manner.

"Just find him, or it won't end well," DeChooch said, and grumpily walked away. I guess he needed to pee again. I took a deep breath and turned to look at Val. She whimpered. Welcome back to Jersey, Val.

I pulled out my phone and called Morelli.

"DeChooch was here and he pulled a gun on me," I said.

"Are you okay?" Morelli asked instantly. He sounded worried.

"We're all okay. Just a bit shaken up. He wanted Mooner. I said he wasn't here. I think I told him that you had him. I'm sorry," I said. Maybe I shouldn't have told DeChooch where Mooner was because I wanted him out of the house and away from the girls.

"Don't worry about it, DeChooch is scared of my Grandma, he won't come here. And anyway, Mooner is driving me insane. He keeps humming and we're trying to watch the game. If DeChooch showed up now, I'd probably hand him over," Morelli told me.

"You don't mean that, do you?" I asked. I was a bit worried about Mooner this was getting serious.

"I'm honestly not sure," Morelli said. "Hey, Steph, don't worry about DeChooch, okay? I'm going to call Vinnie and get him to hand it over to Ranger. This is getting out of hand now."

I felt relieved that Ranger was going to get involved. I still wasn't entirely sure what his skillset was because being a good looking man of mystery, but I was certain that DeChooch wouldn't intimidate him.

I was still thinking about the man of mystery when Dickie returned with Thai food, and my thoughts changed.

The next morning, Val and the girls wanted to visit my parents. I dropped them off and decided to go and see Morelli and Mooner. I pulled up outside Morelli's house to see him come out the front door and head towards his truck. He looked mad. I felt a bit nervous. I could push and push Morelli, and get nothing more than an annoyed smirk. I wasn't sure how far you'd have to push him to get this reaction. He saw me and inclined his head towards his truck. I got out of my car and went to join him.

"Mooner's gone missing. I was actually worried about him. Luckily my neighbour saw him get into a car and recognised the drivers, they're friends of DeChooch's. My grandmother knows where their social club is and I bet they've taken him there because otherwise they'd have to explain it to their wives."

We drove a few blocks over and pulled up outside a brick building. Older model American cars were parked outside, my father would approve. Morelli strode up to the front door, bristling with anger. I guess being a cop and knowing you could legally carry gave you extra confidence. He banged on the door.

"Tell Ziggy and Benny that I don't appreciate them having kidnapped my houseguest," Morelli said. The guy who answered looked like he'd stepped out of as mob movie. He nodded, closed the door and then opened it again a minute later.

"Benny says that it doesn't want to talk to you."

"Tell him it's Joe Morelli."

"He's still not going to want to talk to you. Cops don't scare us especially not ones that we remember from when they were peeing in diapers."

"If he doesn't return my guest within two minutes, I'm going to set his car on fire," Morelli said, gesturing to a dark sedan nearby. I was watching with fascination. I'd never seen Morelli this close to losing his temper. Even when I ran him over with the Buick, he looked slightly amused, like he'd been waiting for that to happen. Morelli was angry. He pulled a lighter out of his pocket.

"Benny says if you do that, he's going to have to kill you, and also he's going to tell your Grandma on you," said the guy at the door.

"I'm her favourite grandchild, and you came into my street and kidnapped a guest from my house. My Grandma is going to put THE EYE on you and that's going to be the least of your worries," Morelli yelled up at the house. He walked over to his truck, pulled a rag out of the back, and then walked over to Benny's car. I wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen next but I was sure that Morelli was angry enough to blow up an old man's car.

The door to the social club was opened again and Mooner was pushed outside.

"Dude," he said to us.

"This isn't the good old days!" Morelli yelled at the house. "You can't go around kidnapping people."

We put Mooner into the truck between us and he got the giggles and giggled all the way home. Looks like all Joe's hard work of Mooner rehab had been wasted. We got home and I put Mooner inside on the couch with Bob. Joe was still outside when I went back out.

"Shit!" Morelli said, and kicked his truck.

"It's okay, Joe, Mooner's all right. It's okay," I reminded him. He sighed.

"I hate getting angry. It reminds me of my father. I just… those old guys believe that they're above the law. And mostly they get ignored because they're harmless, but they're actually helping Eddie DeChooch. He's running around shooting people, and threatening people, and they're hiding something, I know it."

"You'll work it out, Joe. You're a good cop."

"Vinnie hasn't handed DeChooch over to Ranger yet. He says he can't do the paperwork until Monday. And Ranger refuses to work with Joyce. Be careful, okay?"

"If he doesn't like Joyce, I like Ranger even more. Even if he is a tattle-tale," I told Morelli.

"I'm pretty sure he'd kill you if he heard you calling him that," Morelli said.

Hmmm. Note to self – no calling Ranger a tattle-tale. Even if he totally was.