Mary Lou and I had spent the last week moving into our new work space. Plum Lingerie was finally making enough money to justify a warehouse space. It also fulfilled Mary Lou's requirements of an office area, and a small area at the front that we could use as a retail space if we decided to.

The building was also RangeMan monitored, although it came that way. It was actually Ranger who rang me to give me a tip off there was a perfect space coming up for rent in the area. I rushed over to see it, and Hector was there installing the monitoring system and let me have a peek inside before the renting agent got there. It was halfway between my house and Mary Lou's, just officially outside of The Burg. My mother was scandalised that we were considering opening up an underwear shop where her friends might see, and Grandma Mazur was thrilled that she'd be able to take her non-computer-literate friends in to see the Plum Vintage range.

Mary Lou and I had fallen into a routine, and it was my turn to go buy snacks. There was a convenience store nearby that we'd been visiting, and I was on my way to making friends with the owner. It probably helped that I can't resist an unhealthy snack and had cleaned out his stock of Tastycakes over the past few days. Moving all those boxes made me hungry.

When I approached convenience store entrance, I could see a man dressed in a mechanic's jump suit and wearing a devil mask run from the store. He picked up a bottle that was next to the motorbike parked on the footpath nearby, lit a rag stuffed into the top, and run back to the store entrance to throw it into the store. He turned back, ran into me and we both bounced off each other and fell on to the ground. Victor, the store manager, came running out with the bottle in hand and threw it at the man in the devil's mask. It hit him hard in the head, and he also knocked his head to the ground. I saw him pull up his mask for a second, check the back of his head where he'd been hit, probably for blood, then pull his mask back on, jump on his motorbike and take off. I was still on the ground. Victor pulled me up and hauled me inside the store just before the bottle exploded.

"That's the fourth attempted robbery this month," Victor said. "I just couldn't take it any more."

I was sitting down in front of the store with Victor, each of us with a twinkie in each hand, when the cops started arriving.

Robin Russell was one of the first cops on the scene. We'd gone to school together, but she was a year behind me, so we didn't know each other well. I was happy to see a familiar face though. She started talking and writing down my statement on what had happened. When she heard that I'd gotten a glimpse of the Red Devil's face she got excited, and that's when I started to get worried.

It turned out that no one had seen the Red Devil's face before. Possibly because no one had been so stupid so as to trip him over on his way from a robbery before. Victor hadn't been at the right angle to see his face, and had only seen the back of his head.

An unmarked cop car drove up to the scene, and Morelli got out.

"Steph, are you okay? I heard your name over the radio," he said.

"Nothing worse than a bruise where I fell over," I told him.

"We'll let you know if we need anything further," Robin said, as she walked over to Victor.

"What's that about?" Morelli asked.

"I saw the Red Devil's face. I didn't recognise him but I'm sure I could pick him up out of a line up," I said. It had been a quick but clear view that I had of his face.

A black porsche drove past the scene and slowed. It was an expensive car and stood out amongst the run down cars from the Trenton police force. There weren't many flashy cars like that in the Burg, and they belonged to drug dealers, and to Ranger. Given the number of police around, it was safe to assume that it was Ranger. He wound down his window, exchanged a head nod with Morelli, and then drove off again without getting out of his car.

"That was weird," I told Morelli.

"His team would have heard over the police scanner what had happened. He might have driven past to see what was going on."

"He'd usually get out and say hello though."

"I'm half happy that he seems to be watching over you, and half wondering what the hell is going on. I like Ranger but he's a mercenary, his address is a vacant block and I'm pretty sure he hates your husband," Morelli said.

"His address is a vacant block?" I asked.

"That's what you're worrying over out of that list?"

"Well, I already knew that he was a mercenary, and my Grandpa Mazur hated Dickie, but I'm not sure how anyone would live at a vacant block."

"He doesn't live there, Steph, but the address on his license in a vacant block. Big Dog checked it out."

"What's the address?" I asked curiously.

"It was on Haywood."

"Uh, Morelli, you realise that Ranger's new purpose built office building is on Haywood, right?"

"What?"

"The RangeMan building is on Haywood. It looked new to me, so I'm guessing a few years ago it was a vacant block, probably while Ranger was getting planning permission for the development."

"Big Dog is never going to make detective," Morelli said.

"Probably for the best. I'm pretty sure I can remember Big Dog eating glue in grade school."

"Most of the Trenton police force ate glue," Morelli said. "Speaking of eating, are you going to your parents' house for dinner tonight?"

"I'll be there. Dickie too," I told him.

"I'm on shift and can't make it, but Val and the girls will be there. I've got to go, Steph, stay safe," he said and gave me a quick kiss on the head as he headed towards his car. I watched him go and wondered if it was wrong to admire how his backside looked in his jeans now that he was my brother-in-law.

I got into my car and drove back to the warehouse. Mary Lou had already heard through the Burg grapevine what had happened and was waiting for me. I also realised that I'd left without any snacks.

I drove home to shower and change before dinner, and to my surprise Dickie was already home.

"Jesus, Steph, are you okay? Joe called me to let me know what happened. What were you thinking?" he said.

"It was just wrong place, wrong time. He literally ran into me and I was knocked over," I told Dickie.

"Joe said that you saw the Red Devil's face."

"Just for a moment, but yeah. He took his mask off when the bottle hit the back of his head. That wasn't me, by the way, it was the store manager," I said hastily. It did sound like something that I would do.

My mother and grandmother were standing at the door when we pulled up outside. We could hear the noise from the house as soon as we opened the door – Mary Alice neighing, baby Bella crying and Valerie singing loudly over the top of it all. Val insisted that Bella loved singing and it was the only way to get her to stop crying. I walked into the house and headed in to find my nieces, and Dickie retreated into the living room to watch TV in the relative quiet with my dad. Mary Alice was doing laps around the dining table, Angie was getting plates ready in the kitchen, and Bella was looking like she'd just had enough of her family. I said hello to Val and she passed over Bella to me and headed for the bathroom. Bella had inherited both of her parents Italian genetics, and was absolutely gorgeous.

"Hi Bella, it's Aunt Steph," I told her. She examined me for a second, then decided to keep crying. "Our family is a bit nutty, so I totally see your point. But they have their good sides too. And since you're named after her, your Great-Grandma Bella probably won't curse you at any point," I said. Valerie returned and took Bella off me.

"She's a bit unsettled, it's called a Wonder Week," Val said. There didn't seem to be anything wonderful about it. Perhaps they were trying to put a positive spin on it when they named them?

We'd just sat down for dinner when my phone rang. It was Morelli.

"Steph, they picked up someone in an alley way with a backpack that matches the description of the one that the Red Devil carries. Can you come down and see if you can pick him up out of a line up?" Morelli asked.

"Yeah, I guess. Do you need me at the station now?"

"Yes, sorry, I know it's dinner time."

Dickie and I were kind of glad to have an excuse to leave the noisy Plum household, although I was sad to be missing out on food. The line up was a bust though, none of the people lined up were the Red Devil. Morelli said that the guy they had in the line up had said he'd found the backpack in an alleyway and it wasn't his.

I managed to talk Dickie into stopping at McDonalds on the way home, my stomach was growling so loud it sounded like there was a wild animal on the loose. We stopped in the carpark to eat, and I was so happy to have food. My fries were amazing. Dickie was telling me a work story about his law firm partner who was in South America when I caught sight of someone walking across the carpark. He was loaded down with food bags and I was admiring his ability to carry so much food at once when I realised that he looked familiar.

"Dickie! That's the Red Devil!" I yelled in excitement, and put my fries down and opened my door.

"Steph! What are you doing? Stay in the car!" Dickie said.

"But he'll drive away! We need to stop him," I said. Dickie picked up his phone and called Joe, reporting that I'd seen the Red Devil in the McDonalds carpark and telling him the license plate of the car that he was in. The car started up and started driving away.

"We're going to lose him!" I told Dickie. If I was the one in the driver's seat, we'd be gone already.

"Yes we are. You need to leave this up to the police. If I buy you dessert, will that take your mind off this?"

"How much dessert are we talking? Doughnuts?"

"I'll stop for Ben and Jerry's on the way home," Dickie said.

"Deal!" I told him.