"So, eventful day?" Lester asked.

I filled him in on all that had happened.

"That was an eventful day," he said. "Tank makes us fill out paperwork when we shoot someone. Vince will be doing a lot of paperwork right now."

"What about you? How was your day?" I asked him.

"It was a late night. The apartment building is a write off," Lester said.

"What happened to the family you helped escape?" I asked him.

"They're in our safe house on third street. The lease is running out soon, so we weren't going to use it for much longer anyway. Isabella said that they're new to Trenton and they don't have any family here," Lester said.

"Isabella is the mom?" I asked.

"Yeah. Sofia is the toddler, and Lucia is the baby. I helped Ella get them settled in this morning," Lester told me.

"Are they all okay?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I dropped over a few supplies."

"Sofia seemed pretty happy in your arms," I said. Lester laughed.

"I have so many nieces and nephews, I'm practised at toddler wrangling. You just need the right hold and they nod right off," he said.

"I'm going to get you round next time I'm babysitting for Mary Lou," I told him. He laughed.

Once we had finished off the baked treats, I went down to my apartment and decided to think about everything that I'd learned that day. I went into my thinking position.

A knock on the door woke me up two hours later. I really needed to get a different thinking position. One that meant more thinking and less napping.

I opened the door to find Hector there. Ah the fourth occupant of the floor.

"Hola Hector," I said.

"Hello Estefania," he said.

I was nearly out of Spanish now so I was relieved when Lester popped up behind him.

"Hector has made dinner and is worried that you haven't eaten. He's like a mother hen," Lester said.

Hector turned to glare at him. I really needed to get a hang of the Rangeman rank of scariness. Hector seemed like he should be at the top, but Ranger has previously declared that he is scarier than Hector, and Lester doesn't seem to mind provoking him at every opportunity.

I followed Hector into his apartment. It was tidy and minimalist, like Ranger's apartment, but with a few personal touches that Ranger's apartment was lacking. There was a few framed photos of who I assumed were family members, books on a shelf, and spices around the stove top.

Hector had two bowls of food out for us.

"Looks like you have leftovers," Lester said, looking into the kitchen. Hector said something to him. "Hector, Stephanie can't understand you. It's rude to speak in a language that your guest can't understand," Lester said.

"I'm not feeding you dinner," Hector told him. His English was slightly accented, but not much.

"Uh oh, your secret is out," Lester teased him. Hector rolled his eyes.

"I grew up in Newark, why does everyone assume that I can't speak English?" he asked.

"Uh… because you don't?" I said.

"Don't and can't are two separate things," Hector informed me.

"He has a point," Lester said.

"Get out," Hector said to him. Lester must have picked up on something because he winked at me and then left, without food. Hector shook his head at me and turned on the TV.

"Tell no one what you see in here tonight," he told me, then turned on to what I recognised as a popular telenovela. We watched it in silence. Hector didn't have dessert but the dinner that he had made was pretty amazing. I really needed to learn how to cook.

When the show was over, Hector turned off the television and opened the door. Lester immediately stuck his head in.

"You ready?" he asked Hector. Hector nodded. I followed them into Lester's room where his TV was turned on with his play station screen showing some sort of shooting army game ready.

"Really? This is what you spend your free time doing?" I asked them.

"What?" Lester asked.

"You were in the actual army and you're playing a game pretending you're in the army?"

"Hector wasn't in the army. And shooting things is what we're good at," Lester said, settling in. Bobby was there too, already settled in. I was ready to shrug and join them when there was a light knock on the door. I looked up to see Ranger.

"Have you eaten?" he asked me.

"Yeah, Hector made dinner," I told him.

"Do you want to talk about today?" he asked.

"Yeah, let's go to my place," I said, and we walked across the hall to the apartment that I was using. "Want a drink?" I asked him.

"I'll get it," he said, going to the cabinet and getting out two wineglasses. I pulled the rest of the bottle of wine that I'd started on the night before out. "So Tank says you had an eventful day," Ranger told me.

"Yes. That would be understating it. My dirty cheating husband is alive and well and holed up in my sister's basement. I went to my happy place and was nearly kidnapped by someone who claims that I know something that his boss wants to know. I'm pretty sure that I don't anything. I ate so much cake that I thought I was going to throw up. And then I ate even more food. I think I'm done for the day," I told Ranger.

"Anything else?"

"Oh yeah. Morellie said that they think that the second body from last night is Gorvich. Which means that it's Petiak behind all this, but the police have no idea where he is. So Dickie might be in protective custody for no reason because the police don't have anyone for him to testify against."

"Did Dickie or Morelli say anything about the money?" Ranger asked.

"No, neither of them said anything. But Dickie did ask me if I was sleeping with you," I told him. Ranger raised his eyebrows.

"Any reason why?"

"I was cold, so Vince loaned me his Rangeman jacket to wear."

"Ah the literal branding of your woman," Ranger said. A corner of his mouth was turned up.

"I'm glad this is so amusing to you," I told him. We sat on the couch together. Don't drink too much and get too comfortable, Stephanie, I reminded myself.

"We'll work on it tomorrow," Ranger told me. He finished his glass of wine and left. A part of me was disappointed. Another part of me was relieved.

I needed to get a hold of myself. I'd eaten so much sugar today that I felt like passing out and I still wanted to jump on Ranger. Maybe it was just his smell. Maybe it was that I had a high libido and being around so much testosterone all day wasn't helping me.

My husband wasn't faithful, so why was I worried? I had a whole building full of men and very few of them appeared to be partnered up. Shouldn't I just pick one and have some fun? I sighed. I liked all the Rangemen and wasn't sure that using any of them as a re-bound was a good idea.

I decided to go to bed before I threw myself at whoever walked past my door first. With the luck that I was having lately, it would probably be Hector and then I'd be running for my life.

The next day I was up bright and early after a sleepless night. I had nothing new to offer our investigation, other than it was most likely Petiak who was behind Ziggy's death, and if it was one of the other partners, they were probably dead already by gruesome means and there was no revenge to be had.

I checked in with the fifth floor, to let Tank know that I was planning to spend the full day at Plum Lingerie. Tank wasn't in his office yet so I headed to the break room for muffins and coffee.

I spent some time chatting with Hal and Cal who were coming off the night shift. They invited me to go to the gym with them and I declined, unless it was just so that I could admire them working out. They laughed like I was joking. I wasn't.

Tank got into his office at 8am. I'd had three cups of coffee by then and was feeling a bit wired. Ranger appeared as I was telling Tank my plans for the day.

"I need to catch up on my work. I've been letting Dickie distract me too much," I said.

"All we're doing now is waiting for Petiak to surface," Ranger said. "We'll keep you informed when something happens."

"Can I borrow a car?" I asked.

"I'd like you to take Vince and Zero with you today. I think it was Petiak's men who tried to kidnap you yesterday. They probably won't try again now they know you have protection, but I'd feel better if you have back-up with you."

That seemed reasonable, and I wasn't really keen on getting kidnapped and set on fire, so I agreed. I hoped that we found Petiak soon so I could get back to normal. That thought also reminded me that I had no normal anymore. My normal life was over. I made a note to start off my work day by contacting Val's divorce lawyer. She got Val a good settlement when it seems like it was impossible to locate Steve in the first place and I was confident that she could do the same for me. After all, I knew where Dickie was – holed up in Morelli's basement.

We skipped the doughnuts this morning. Maybe hitting the bakery so often wasn't that good for me.

I decided to get caught up on my office work yet. Ranger's words might have been light in the office, and although he'd requested that I take Vince and Zero with me, Vince and Zero were taking their protection duties very seriously. In the past they'd stuck close to me, but helped out with packing boxes and moving things around for me. Today they were focused – Vince out the front, and Zero with a view out the back. There were Rangeman monitored cameras around and I suspected a few other Rangemen hidden in the complex, but that didn't make them anymore relaxed.

I was just starting to think that we needed to break for lunch when my phone rang. Morelli. I figured that he was calling to apologise for hiding Dickie in his basement and not letting me know not to worry.

"He's gone," Morelli said, before I could even say hello.

"What?"

"Dickie. He's gone."

"Where'd he go?"

"I don't know. I was upstairs with Val and the girls. Val wouldn't let him come upstairs. When I came back down, he was gone. The television was still on. I don't know how he got out. The back door was unlocked, maybe he snuck out. I've been driving around the neighbourhood looking for him and I can't find him."

"Do you think he was kidnapped?"

"I don't know. There aren't any signs of a struggle. I didn't hear anything."

"Maybe he went for a walk."

"For a walk? With a flame throwing serial killer after him?"

"What about Dickie at this point makes you think that he makes good decisions, Morelli?" I asked him.

"Good point."

"In fact, speaking of bad decisions, maybe he went to find Joyce for a nooner."

"Joyce. That's a good idea. Is she still following you?"

"She's been having a harder time since we removed all the trackers, but she's usually checking Plum Lingerie for me." I walked towards the front window and looked out. "Yep, she's out there."

"Any sign of Dickie?" Morelli asked.

"Hang on," I told him. "Who's in the car with Joyce?" I asked Vince.

"Smullen's girlfriend."

"Rita? Really? Huh." I said. "It's just Rita," I told Morelli.

"Well keep an eye out for Dickie. Let me know if you see him," he said.

"He probably just went after the money," I told Morelli.

"What money?"

"You know, the forty million dollars."

"What forty million dollars?" Morelli asked.

"You don't know? Dickie stole forty million dollars from the firm's bank account. It's why they went after him. It's why Joyce, and now apparently Rita are looking for him. Dickie has forty million dollars," I said.

"He didn't tell me. He didn't mention that fact at any point. Dickie had better hope that I don't find him because I'm going to kill him. This changes everything," Morelli said.

"You're probably going to have to get in line for that one," I told him.

"How do you know about the money?" Morelli asked.

"I found a note at Joyce's house when Mary Lou and I were there. It had Dickie's social security number on it so I took it. It turned out to be the code for a bank account that forty million dollars was just moved out of. And then I got hold of the firm's financial statements and-"

"Okay stop, I think I don't want to know the rest," Morelli told me. "I've called in that Dickie is missing. I'm waiting at home with Val and the girls in case he reappears. Let me know if you hear anything."

"Will do," I said. Morelli hung up before I could tell him about what happened in the bakery yesterday. I shrugged. The Burg gossip line had probably already filled him in. If not, it was severely lacking these days.

My phone rang again as soon as I'd hung up the phone.

"I'm looking at a monitor and not believing what I'm seeing," Ranger said. "Dickie Orr is breaking into your house. I guess he forgot his keys. Isn't he supposed to be under guard with Morelli?"

"Morelli just called and told me that Dickie had disappeared," I told him.

"Well looks like we found him. Tank's on the way. Stay away from the area until I give you the all clear, okay?" Ranger said. As if. I jumped up to leave, and then looked at Vince. He was reading a notification on his phone.

"It says to stay here until we get the all clear," Vince said. I rolled my eyes.

"Fine. Can we at least order lunch?" I asked.