Sorry for the delay, I'll try not to let it go so long in between chapters again! I hope you enjoy this one - I'm trying to keep true to the JE version of Stephanie where she's not entirely sensible all of the time.
Lester was waiting for me when I got off the elevator at Level 5. Ella came after me, explaining that she wanted to get started on the dinner preparations for the break room. The men on the monitors called out to her, thanking her for their lunches and asking what was for dinner that night.
Lester took me into the break room to collect a sandwich, chatted with Ella while I ate, and then took me into an office where Hector was already sitting down.
"I asked Hector to look into your phone and he thinks it's a possibility that you're being tracked through it," Lester began. "And then I looked at our security footage and found this."
He turned his computer monitor around so I could see and flicked through a few images. It was the outside of the building, the time stamp was very early that morning, and the outline of the figure looked like the one who had approached me and claimed to be Junkman.
I was sleeping when that footage was taken, happily oblivious to the world, curled up in Ranger's bed. I was very happy that I hadn't been stubborn and gone home instead. Junkman may have only been prowling around to get the lay of the land, or he might have had something else in mind that he might have carried out had I not been in one of the most secure buildings in Trenton.
"Does he look familiar?" Lester asked.
"Someone approached me yesterday and claimed to be Junkman. He told me was coming for me after he killed the cop on his list. Morelli called me this morning to say that Junkman had killed a police officer. I guess he was looking for me afterwards," I said.
"Fuck," Lester said. I agreed.
"What do we do?" I asked Lester.
"You could turn your phone off. Or you could use this," he said, handing me a packet of potato chips. I opened them and ate one before offering them to Lester and Hector.
"Is this to cheer me up? Isn't all junk food banned from this place?" I asked.
"The foil lining will block the GPS signal," Lester said.
"Really?"
"Yeah. It's a low budget faraday cage."
"How does it work?"
"First we eat the chips. Then we put the phone inside and seal it up. That's if you want to block Junkman, although since he knows you were here, he'll probably assume that you're still here anyway," Lester said.
I ate a few more chips. They seemed to be helping. A coke would have also helped enormously, but I couldn't see something that sugar filled making its way over the Rangeman doorway. An alarm would probably go off.
"Do you need to go into your work today? We could send someone in if you need anything," Lester said.
"No, not today. But I will need to do something tomorrow, we have orders from today that will need to be sent out. Plum Lingerie is known for our speedy delivery, I don't want to let my customers down," I said.
Lester opened his mouth, and then closed it again. I'm guessing it had something to do with the words lingerie, speedy, delivery, and down.
"We'll figure it out. I can always get one of the men and go in and collect whatever you need," Lester said.
"I don't want to take up any more of your resources," I said. "You need to run a business, and I don't want to take away from that."
"Well I am under strict instructions from Ranger to ensure that you stay alive. He's kind of scary when he's angry, so I'm hoping to avoid that. Also thanks to Junkman being a serial killer and targeting a police officer, he's jumped up a few Most Wanted lists and we'll get a hefty reward for bringing him in. So don't worry about that. You're the last person left on Junkman's list, and you can help us catch him," Lester told me.
"So what's the plan?"
"The plan is we wait for Tank to get back from his meeting, then we explain the plan," Lester said. "Tank is out talking to a few of our Slayer contacts to confirm what we think we know."
"You weren't a Slayer, were you?" I asked Hector. He looked insulted.
"Hector's the wrong ethnicity to be a Slayer," Lester explained. "Also that's not a great question to ask anyone."
"Oh, sorry. I guess I have a lot to learn. Lo Siento, Hector," I tried to apologise to him. He winked to me, so I guessed that I was forgiven.
There was a knock on the door and Tank stepped in.
"Report," he said to Lester.
"Stephanie is here and unharmed," Lester said, gesturing to me. "But we've established a positive ID for the suspect seen outside earlier as Junkman. Stephanie identified him. He also approached her yesterday, and we suspect her mobile phone is his way of tracking her."
Hector muttered something in Spanish. Tank nodded but didn't bother to translate for me. I really needed to work on my Spanish.
"So what's the plan?" he asked.
"Junkman probably knows where Stephanie's work is. She isn't going in today, and has told Mary Lou to take the day off also. We're going to set something up at the workplace using Stephanie's phone as the bait. We can send men in posing as workers in other businesses nearby. Rangeman already has the security for the complex so we have access to the cameras. We'll make it look like Stephanie has gone into work alone and is a very tempting target."
"How will you do that?" Tank asked.
"We've got a contractor who looks vaguely like Stephanie," Lester said. Hector snorted.
"Jeanne Ellen does not look vaguely like Stephanie," Tank said.
"Well she's the best that we've got on short notice," Lester said.
"It might not be enough to tempt Junkman into the trap," Tank said.
"Well we have his only prize so he'll be tempted sooner or later," Lester countered.
I decided to step in.
"What can I do in this plan?" I asked.
"You stay here, nice and safe," Tank said.
"Ella and Stephanie know each other, as it turns out, so Ella has offered her guest bedroom to Stephanie," Lester said.
"That's it?" I asked.
"Yes," Tank said.
"For real?"
"Yes," Lester said. Hector snorted again.
"So you Rangemen go out and risk your lives to capture Junkman and I – what? Sit around here and eat bonbons?"
"Ella's flan, but otherwise, yes," Lester said.
"No way. What if your men were injured? I'd never forgive myself," I argued. "If I was go to into my office, show Junkman that I was there, flit around, set a good trap?"
"He would just wait for you to leave," Lester said.
"Well I'll get pizza delivered and make it clear that I'm not leaving," I said. "I'm not your prisoner, and you can't keep me here, and I need to go into work tomorrow. I'm going to do just that, so work your trap around that!"
I wanted to flounce out, but I had no where to flounce to, so I got up and went to the breakroom, and rummaged around in the cupboards. There had to be sugar hidden in here somewhere. I could hear humming coming from a room off the breakroom, and found Ella in the kitchen, preparing dinner for the men on shift. She opened a container and offered me a cookie, and I helped her cut up vegetables until Tank appeared.
"Ranger would not be happy, but we have a new plan," Tank said. I nodded. I didn't know why Ranger wouldn't be happy but figured he would tell me himself when he got back. For now, we were sticking with the plan. The sooner this was over with, the better. I had a business to run and a beach vacation to plan. Maybe Disney World? I followed Tank back to the office as he started to outline the plan, trying to pay attention. It took over an hour. I might not have paid attention for the whole thing but I think I at least got the outlines of it, or the general idea. We agreed to meet tomorrow morning at 0800 hours to go over final details. There were enough details in that briefing, I thought, but whatever. At least I wouldn't be sitting there doing nothing.
Lester escorted me up to the sixth floor. He knocked on the door. "Get prepared," he told me. "Ella will have made something special in your honour."
I could smell something delicious as soon as the door was opened. The man who had opened the door introduced himself as Ella's husband, Luis, and welcomed me inside. Lester followed me in.
"This looks amazing, Ella," I said, looking at the table.
"You've made a feast, Ella. Surely this is too much for three people?" Lester asked, looking hopefully at the table.
Ella's apartment was stylishly decorated like the rest of RangeMan, but it was a different layout to Ranger's, and felt far more like a home. There were warm colours and throw cushions on the couch that looked like they got used. Ella showed me around – there were two bedrooms, both with an ensuite, and a powder room. "This is your room for now, feel free to put anything that you have away. Dinner will be ready soon," Ella said, showing me to her guest room.
There were pyjamas on the end of the bed; and jeans, a shirt and pullover in the cupboard waiting for me. They were all black, which I took to be Ella's way of helping me to fit in with RangeMan. Even the underwear was black. I picked up the pyjamas and went into the bathroom. The shower was just as nice as Ranger's shower but the shower gel Ella had put in there was fruity scented. I wondered if she'd bought it for me, since I couldn't imagine her sons using it when they were home from college. I had no idea when Ella got time to do all this shopping.
I put my bag down on a small desk in the corner of the room, plugged in my laptop and sent Dickie a quick text to let him know that I was fine and suggesting Disney World for our beach vacation. I washed my face and joined the others out in the open plan living area.
"Two more minutes," Ella told me, handing over a glass of wine.
Soon we were sitting down and eating a delicious meal. I might be in hiding because a serial killer was after me, but I had friends, good food, a safe place to hide, and a plan in place.
I held up my wine glass and made a toast.
"To my friends at Rangeman!"