Sorry about the shorter chapter. I'm having computer troubles and wanted to do an update so I didn't keep everyone waiting for too long.

It was Ella day. That's what Mondays were known as in my house. Luckily Ella was capable of handling anything so I knew my extra house guests wouldn't put her out. She might even be excited by the extra people to make cookies for.

Val borrowed my car to take the girls to enrol in their new school, and I decided to ride my bike over to Dickie's office to ask him what to do about Val's money situation. Stupid Steve. I got lucky and Dickie was at his desk, in between appointments, and no arms dealers in sight. Last time I was here was when I'd seen Ranger, and I half expected him to be there again.

Dickie wasn't receptive to my asking him to help Val out with her divorce.

"I'm a corporate lawyer, Steph, not a divorce lawyer. Val needs someone who specialises in that area."

"Then who do you know who is a divorce lawyer?" I asked Dickie. "You know, the sooner we get Val access to money, the sooner she can move out of our house. Or do you want Mary Alice to turn it into a barn?" He sighed, then thought about it, opened his desk draw and flicked through a few business cards.

"Try David. I went to law school with him. That's his area. He's pretty good," Dickie said. I thought that Val needed better than pretty good, but I took the card, thanked him and headed home.

I rang David, who I'd met a few times before when I'd gone along to events with Dickie. He asked me for an outline of Val's story.

"To be honest, I don't have room for another case at the moment," David said, "but I do have a colleague who would be perfect. She lives for this sort of stuff. Her first husband cheated on her and tried to hide their money. Her name is Rebecca. Give her a call."

A few phone calls and name dropping later, and Val had an emergency appointment later that afternoon.

I felt productive, and had just settled down into my office to get my work for the day done when my phone rang again. I checked who was calling. Morelli.

"Hello?"

"Is Mooner with you?"

"No, why?"

"I went home for lunch and he wasn't there. The front door was unlocked, but Bob was still inside, so I'm hoping he just wandered off. I thought he might have headed to your house for more brownies. Let me know if he shows up, okay?" Joe asked. I agreed and crossed my fingers that Mooner just had the munchies after his binge yesterday.

Val and I showed up at the appointment early and were ushered through right on time. Rebecca was enthusiastic about the case. The biggest issue was money – Val didn't have any. I agreed to cover the start of it with the last of my redundancy money in the hopes that it would get Val access to her share of her bank accounts.

"Don't worry, I've seen cases like this before," Rebecca said. "These guys think they're really smart, and that the money is hidden away. It rarely is. I'll let you know how my team goes."

Val and I walked downstairs and got into the car. We had just enough time for Val to drop me off at home before she had to head out to pick the girls up from school.

"Do you think they'll be able to track down our money?" Val asked.

"Hopefully. I'd hate to think that Steve would get away with what he's done. He makes men look bad," I said to Val.

"He definitely does. I think I'm off men forever. I may never date again," Val said.

"Well, never say never, but you don't have to think about that now. Just concentrate on getting your life back on track here and the girls," I said.

"I just miss having a man around," Val said, ignoring me. "I mean Steve was out a lot, but he was home sometimes. I miss being able to say that I have a husband."

"Well you're not divorced yet, technically you still have a husband, he's just a really shitty one." Val looked a bit brighter like that. Better to have a cheating husband than no husband at all, went The Burg logic.

"I'd better go pick up the girls. Then we're going to stop by to see Mom and Grandma, I think we'll stay for dinner," Val said. She pulled over outside my house, and I waved goodbye. My phone rang as I was letting myself in the front door.

"Hello?"

"It's Ranger. Vinnie handed DeChooch over to me. I heard you saw him yesterday," he said.

Ranger. I had trouble concentrating, listening to his voice was distracting me from what he was actually saying. How did women concentrate with him around? Maybe that's how he was such a good bounty hunter, he just mesmerised people into doing whatever he wanted.

"Stephanie? Are you there?" he asked.

"Oh, sorry. Must have been a bad connection," I lied.

"I heard you saw DeChooch yesterday. I need a bring him in quickly before this gets out of hand. Do you think he could get him to your house again?" Ranger asked.

"Maybe. I don't really have a way to get hold of them through. Except – oh. He's dating my Grandma."

"He's dating your Grandma?"

"Yeah. So I guess I could call Grandma and ask her to call him?"

"Whatever works. Let me know how you go," he said, and hung up. No goodbyes there.

I rang my parent's house. Luckily my grandmother answered so I didn't have to make up a reason to my mother why I wanted to talk to Grandma.

"Um, Grandma, could you pass on a message to Eddie DeChooch for me?"

"Why do you want to talk to old Choochy?"

"I have something of his," I blurted out. "A friend of mine had it and he passed it on to me. I want to make sure it gets back to Eddie DeChooch, but I also want to swap it for something because I think he has something of mine."

"Well that sounds mysterious enough. I'll pass it on to him," Grandma said.

Now I just had to wait, I guess. Maybe when Ranger captured DeChooch we'd be able to find out what had happened to Dougie. I wondered if Mooner had shown back up at Morelli's house yet. Probably he'd show up at his house once he'd scored whatever he'd gone looking for.

I put the phone down and went upstairs to my office. All my family drama had left me behind in my work and I had lot of work to get done to make sure that I was up to date on my orders. I'd just sat down at my desk when Ella appeared in the doorway, looking nervous and even a bit flustered.

"Ella, is everything all right?" I asked her.

"Oh Stephanie, I have to tell you something. I feel awful. I've been offered a full time position as a housekeeper. It's just – it's live in, and full time, so I won't be able to work for you anymore. I am so sorry," she said. Oh no! I was happy for Ella, I really was, but I was going to miss her. And the super clean house.

"Oh Ella. I will miss you, but I completely understand. You've been saying you needed more work. It sounds like it's the job you've been waiting for," I said, trying to sound positive. No more Ella cookies.

"It's nearly perfect," Ella said. "It's live in, and there's a handyman position for Louis, and there's cooking involved too and lots of people to look after. I've missed having a bustling household since my boys went to college."

I was sad to be losing Ella. I had a fantasy that Plum Lingerie would be so successful that I'd be able to hire Ella full time. That was still a long way off though, so it wasn't like I could ask her not to take the job she was offered.

I'd packaged up my recent orders and was ready to go to the post office when I remembered that I didn't have a car. Even the nearest post box seemed too far away. I was contemplating my options when my phone rang. Morelli.

"Did you find Mooner?" I asked him.

"No. But when I got home from work, one of my neighbours was waiting for me. She saw Mooner get into a car."

"Benny and Ziggy again?"

"Not this time. "One of my neighbours watches everything through her curtains all day. She saw a strange car and wrote down its license plate. Now that it's actually been useful once, she's never going to get away from the window," said Morelli.

"Did you run the license plate?"

"Not yet, I'm headed into work to do it now. I'm thinking that whoever took Dougie now has Mooner," Morelli said.

Uh oh. That didn't sound good.