If anyone is worried whether or not this will be finished, don't worry! I'm committed to finishing it up to the end of the events of book thirteen.

Dickie wasn't home when I woke up. I was half relieved, half disappointed. I wouldn't have minded another screaming match to get it all out of my system, but I guess he'd decided to stay away until I'd calmed down.

The joke was on him, I was planning on staying angry.

I thought about packing up all his stuff, but did I really want to stay in this house? Dickie wanted this overly large house, not me. I didn't need all this space. Maybe I should pack up my stuff and go. But was that giving in? Why did I need to leave? This was my house!

An hour later when the sun rose, I'd drunk three cups of coffee and wasn't any closer to making a decision.

I showered, dressed, put on three layers of mascara and set off for work.

Mary Lou showed up early, with coffee, doughnuts and cake. I guess word had got around.

"How bad is it?" she asked me.

"What you've heard is probably close enough to the truth," I told her.

"You found Dickie boinking Joyce on a conference table, attacked the both of them, threatened Dickie, destroyed his office, and set fire to all his clothes."

"Close. I saw a photo of Dickie and Joyce, only threatened and attacked Dickie, and it was only two suits that I set fire too, then the smoke started bothering my eyes."

Mary Lou hugged me. "Oh Steph. I'm sorry."

"Me too. I'm not sure where to go from here."

"Do you think you could forgive him?"

"No. He confessed that Joyce wasn't the only one he's cheated on me with, and he seemed surprised that I didn't know. I have no idea how long it's been going on. Probably since we were first married."

"That bastard."

Mary Lou opened the doughnut box and handed it to me. "You may need them all," she told me.

"Thanks Mare. You're the best friend ever," I told her.

"Is that Morelli?" she asked, looking out the window. A police car pulled up to the office. I rolled my eyes.

"Probably. Val probably sent him over," I began, but stopped talking as Robin Russell and Marty Gobel got out of the car and walked up to the office door. I opened it to let them in.

"Stephanie Plum?" Marty asked.

"We went to the school together, Marty. You know who I am. Hi Robin. What can I help you with?"

Robin Russell cleared her throat delicately. "Dickie is missing. His, uh, girlfriend reported him missing this morning and there are signs of a disturbance at his office," she said.

"His girlfriend?" I yelled.

"Do you know where your husband is?" Marty asked me.

"No! I haven't seen him since…"

"Since you were witnessed in an argument at his office, during which you threatened him?"

"Whose side are you on, Marty?" I asked him.

"I'm not on anyone's side."

"Could have fooled me."

"So you haven't seen Dickie since, uh, yesterday?" Robin asked.

"Since I was at his office, yes. He didn't come home last night. That's not unusual for Dickie though, so I didn't worry. I thought that he'd show up sometime today. What happened at his office?"

"We're not sure. They don't have security cameras. The cleaners showed up early this morning and found broken glass in the law firm office, evidence of bullets being fired, and blood on the floor – not much, but enough that we're worried. It looks like someone was dragged out of there. And with Dickie missing, well, we're worried."

I could feel myself pale. Dickie was a rat bastard, but I was still worried about him. What had he got himself into?

"Do you know anything that could help us with finding out what happened, Stephanie?" Robin asked.

"No. Dickie didn't talk about his work much. He said it had to do with client confidentiality. I left him there yesterday afternoon after we had – had an argument. He tried calling me but I ignored his calls. I figured that he'd show up today, he usually did after we'd had a fight."

"Did you fight often?"

"No. Usually we argued over him being away too much or working too much. Sometimes it felt like I never saw him. I'm sorry, I don't know what could have happened."

I pulled out my phone and tried calling Dickie but he didn't answer. Then I played my voice mail messages, but it was mostly just Dickie sighing and asking me to call him. I promised to let Robin and Marty know if I heard anything from Dickie at all.

"Were you alone last night?" Marty asked.

"Yes. I was alone at my house."

"So no witnesses to that?"

"What? No. No, wait. I have video surveillance monitoring on my alarm system. It would have been on because the alarm was set all night."

"So is that through?"

"RangeMan."

"They'd have the footage?"

"I didn't kill my husband, Marty," I snapped at him. Robin rolled her eyes.

"We'll let keep you updated, Steph," she told me. "Call me if you have any questions."

They left and Mary Lou looked at me.

"So what the hell happened to Dickie?" she asked. I shrugged. "Want me to get on the phone?" she asked, and I nodded. Mary Lou was going to tap into the Burg network to find out what happened, and I decided to do my own networks.

I called Valerie, but she hadn't heard anything. Morelli didn't know anything either that I hadn't just gotten from Robin and Marty, but he promised to keep me updated.

Mary Lou was still on the phone, and she did an overexaggerated shrug, palms up. She hadn't found out anything either. Dickie's office was outside the Burg, and he hadn't grown up there, but usually something this good involving one of their members would have gotten more information than this by now. All we knew was that Dickie was missing, and Joyce was kicking up a stink about it. Which was unusual in itself. Usually Joyce went for rich, single men who she could easily marry without a pre-nup, stayed married for a few years, and then divorce them and take half their money. Dickie was married, and although we were well off by Burg standards, not well off enough to draw Joyce usually. Was she in love with him?

Argh. I hated Joyce so much. She hated me too. She was managing to horn herself into the role of worried partner, and me into the role of potential killer. I'd done nothing wrong, but Joyce had managed to wreck my life anyway.

Joyce was a poison.

I decided to stop by RangeMan and find out what Ranger knew. He was doing some sort of surveillance in Dickie's office building. Would he have the answer to what had happened?

Hal was on front desk duty, and he let Ranger knew that I was on my way up to the fifth floor, and buzzed me through. The control room had changed slightly since the last time I was up there – more office space, a bigger lunch room, and the gym had disappeared on to a lower floor.

Ranger waved me into his office where he was looking at a mound of paperwork.

"Hi Steph. Is everything okay?"

"Dickie is missing," I told him.

"Oh? That so?"

"Did you make my husband disappear?"

"No."

"Did Hector?"

"Hector was on shift all night. We have the recordings to prove it."

I knew that wasn't true and that wasn't what I'd asked anyway, but I let that one slide.

"Ramos?"

"I don't think Ramos would bother himself with Dickie. He'd find it highly amusing and probably send you flowers to win you over if he knew."

"Then where the hell is he?"

"I don't know. I wasn't asked to put surveillance on Dickie, only audio recording on his business partners. And they've slipped away."

"Are you going to tell me what's going on? Why were you bugging the office?" I asked Ranger.

"It's a long story. I need to get this paperwork to my accountant. Go upstairs to my apartment, take a nap, I'll be up in a few hours. I'll tell you the whole story then."

"Pinky swear?"

"No. But I'll have Ella bring you up some food," he said, passing his key fob across.

"Just as good," I said. I took the fob and headed to his apartment upstairs.