After much negotiation, we'd finally decided on what to order for lunch, and if we'd go pick it up or get a delivery (Vince and Zero thought that both options presented different risks), when an alert notification came through on both Vince and Zero's phones. It was a different alert sound to what I'd heard before and they both immediately grabbed for their phones.

"Tank got shot, and Dickie's been taken," Vince told me.

"I… what do we do?" I asked. "Can we go to the hospital?"

Vince and Zero looked at each, and then Vince nodded. We all piled into the car and headed for the hospital. I texted Morelli to update him what I knew and to let him know that I'd update him when I got the full story, and he texted back that he would meet me at the hospital. Okay Mr Impatient.

We rushed into the emergency room at Saint Francis. Ranger was in the waiting area.

"What happened?" I asked. Ranger didn't answer. He was in some sort of zone. Bobby was next to him and answered me.

"I went on the call out with Tank. We arrived and Dickie was inside. It is his residence, so we couldn't escort him out. He was looking for something in the office. We offered to have the window repaired that he'd broken to get into the house. He'd just gone outside with Tank when a black BMW pulled up. It was same one used in the attempted kidnapping yesterday. There were two men in the car. The blonde one shot Tank, and they both shoved Dickie into the backseat. Ranger and I ran out when we heard the gunshot and returned fire. Tank was hit in the chest and leg. He was conscious but bleeding a lot so we loaded him into the car and came straight here. We couldn't go after Dickie," Bobby said.

"Don't worry about Dickie. Is Tank okay?" I asked.

"He should be okay but there was a lot of blood," Bobby said.

Morelli arrived and headed for us. Bobby gave him the breakdown of what had happened.

"The blonde-haired guy, Vince shot him yesterday?"

"Yes," Vince said.

"Would he have needed medical treatment?"

"Possibly," Vince told Morelli.

"I'll go check at the desk to see if he came in here last night. If not here, I'll check over at Helen Fuld."

"Good idea," I told Joe.

"You stay here, I'll go do my cop thing." Morelli left and went up to the desk. I knew he wouldn't have any trouble because it was Jean up at the desk and we both knew Jean. She knew Morelli was a cop and even if he wasn't, she'd probably tell him anyway because we were all from the Burg and banded together against outsiders.

"What do you think Dickie was looking for?" Ranger asked me.

"The key to the money? His passport? Whatever he was looking for mustn't be there, there's been too many people through the house already," I said.

"Dickie knew that the house was broken into though," Ranger said.

"Maybe he figured that they'd missed whatever it was. Maybe it was something that would be out in plain sight. I don't know. Why would Petiak still be around if he had the money?" I said.

Morelli returned with his notebook in hand. "Someone matching the description of the blonde guy was in here last night. His full name is Dave Muller. He didn't use insurance and said it was a hunting accident. He paid in cash. Jean was on shift when he came in yesterday, and she copied his address from his driver's license. He lives in the same apartment complex that Smullen and Gorvich kept apartments," Morelli said.

"Give me half an hour," Ranger said. Morelli tore a page out of his notebook and passed it across to Ranger.

Ranger stood up just an aide came to find us. "Pierre is out of surgery and awake. You can see him now," she said. I looked across at Ranger.

"Pierre?" I asked him.

"You'll want to forget that you ever heard that," he told me. We followed the aide into Tank's hospital room. His eyes were open but he looked pretty doped up. He looked across to Ranger.

"We good?" he asked him.

"You're good," Ranger confirmed.

"You got him?" Tank asked.

"Going hunting," Ranger said. They did a male bonding fist bump, then Ranger left. Morelli looked at his watch.

"Can you give me a statement to fill in half an hour or so?" Morelli asked.

"Sure," Tank said, then fell asleep.

"Well, that'll fill in some time," Morelli told me. He waited half an hour, then called in the information.

"I've been waiting to confirm the description with the main witness, Pierre Sherman, but I was unable to take a statement, so I'm calling it in without his statement," Morelli said. Morelli offered to drive me back to Rangeman.

"I'll get a ride back with Vince and Zero, you go home to the girls," I told him.

"Can we talk?" he asked me. I looked over at Tank. He was fast asleep.

"I think Bobby wants to come in here," I said. We moved out of the room to let Bobby and Vince in, and Morelli took us into a vacant room next door we wouldn't be overheard.

"Let's run through all this one more time," Morelli said. "Dickie has forty million dollars stashed somewhere which seemingly everyone except for the Trenton police department was aware of, and everyone is also looking for it. Dickie finds out that someone has broken into the house and you're not living there at the moment. He leaves the safe house-"

"Your basement," I interrupted.

"My basement, and goes straight to the house and starts searching. He thinks something is there but doesn't seem to know where. He seems confident though that it would still be there since Petiak is still looking for it," Morelli said.

"I don't know what it would be though. I've haven't brought anything new into the house since Dickie left, and he didn't have anything with him when Ranger got there."

"If it was small he could have slipped it into a pocket before they got there," Morelli said. I sighed. We were no closer to anything than we were the day before. My phone rang and I answered it on speaker, expecting it to be Ranger calling in with an update.

"Stephanie?" a voice said. "I've been trying to hold of you."

"Who is this?" I asked, but the voice sounded slightly familiar and I was sure that I knew who it was.

"You've been uncooperative, Stephanie," he said.

"Petiak?" I asked.

"You have something that I need, Stephanie. You have the key."

"What key?"

"The key to forty million dollars, Stephanie."

"Oh that key."

"Listen closely, Stephanie. If you give me the key, I'll allow you to live. If you don't, your death will be horrific. You've already seen some of my work. I'll save the best for you, Stephanie. The next victim will be your husband. He's already served his purpose and is no longer required. I do enjoy tidying up lose ends."

Dickie. Petiak had him. My eyes cut across to Morelli. I was angry with Dickie but I didn't want him to die horrifically.

"How am I supposed to get the key to you?" I asked.

"It would be very good of you to bring it to me in person," Petiak said.

"We both know that's not going to happen," I said.

"Are you afraid of me, Stephanie?"

"Yes."

"I always thought you were intelligent. More than your husband. You should be afraid. You haven't even seen my best work yet."

"So, the key?" I prompted.

"I'll let you know," he said, and hung up. I looked over at Morelli. He had his serious cop face on.

"That guy is a genuine psychopath," he said.

"Is that why he said my name so many times? That was creepy."

"That was creepy? He also threatened to kill you horrifically if you forgot that part," Morelli said.

"I've been having a bad week," I told him.

"You should be upset. You should be shaking and crying right now. But you held yourself together. Not only that you kept him talking."

"I was trying to get information out of him," I said. Morelli pulled me into his arms and held me tightly.

"You did a great job, Steph. I'm proud of you. I'm just worried for you. I don't want you involved with this. I deal with this world all the time, and it's not a good place to be," Morelli told me.

"He thinks I have the key," I said.

"But you don't have it. We don't even know what it looks like," Morelli said. "Why would he think that you have the key?"

"Dickie."

"That's my best guess too. That rat bastard," Morelli said.

"Maybe they tortured him," I said, feeling sick.

"They'd better have," Morelli said. Morelli wanted to get home to Val and the girls and reminded me that we were all due for dinner at my parents that night. I decided not to go on account of my husband being kidnapped and a psychopathic killer being potentially after me.

Zero was put on guard outside Tank's room until someone on the night shift was sent to relieve him, and Vince, Bobby and I drove back to Rangeman together.

Lester met us in the garage.

"Bobby, you're needed in the cells," he called out. Bobby nodded and headed off towards the door next to the elevator.

"What happened? Did you find Dave?" I asked.

"No. We went to Dave's apartment but he was gone. We found Dickie though."

"Dickie? Where is he?" I asked.

"Holding cells."

"Lester, where is he?" I asked. Lester sighed and nodded towards the door that Bobby had gone through. We started walking. I hadn't been in this area of Rangeman before, but I'd heard what was on the other side of the higher car park level.

"IT server room," Lester said, as we walked past. "Shooting range. Hector's troll room," he said, pushing open the door as we walked past.

"Hola," Hector called out. The room was dimly lit and full of IT equipment.

"And the holding cells," Lester said as we reached the end of the hallway. Ranger was standing outside one of the rooms.

"We prefer to think of them as private rooms," Ranger said. I looked through the window into the room. Dickie was inside. Bobby was in there with him, checking him over. "It's one way glass. They can't see us."

"Is Dickie okay?" I asked. Ranger nodded.

"He's got a broken nose. Apparently he needed some encouragement to talk. I gave him an ice pack, and Bobby will see if he needs anything else. It didn't look like a bad break to me."

"Anything else wrong with him?"

"They gave him something to keep him quiet. Probably once he started talking he wouldn't stop. We couldn't get much information out of him so we don't know what he told them and won't know until that wears off. We can keep him here until he comes around but we can't hold him against his will. I'll let Morelli know we have him and he can pick him up when he's ready," Ranger said.

"I got a call from Petiak. Dickie told him that I have the key," I told Ranger. His eyes darkened and turned feral. He looks angrier than I'd ever seen him before. I stepped forward in front of Ranger in case he was thinking of adding to Dickie's problems. But I was wrong about where the real danger would come from.

"Stop!" there was a yell from behind us and Ranger looked up and stepped in front of the door. Lester had yelled to warn us. I turned around. Hector was right behind me, holding a knife.

"Hector, he's our guest. Put it down," Ranger calmly said. Hector said something quickly. My basic level of Spanish had no hope of understanding. Hector gestured for Ranger to move out of the way. Ranger calmly spoke back to Hector but shook his head firmly. Hector yelled at Ranger and waved the knife. Ranger shook his head again. Hector sighed, put the knife away so quickly that I didn't see where he kept it, then walked back to his IT room.

"Do you want to go in and see Dickie?" Ranger asked me.

"Not particularly. What was that?"

"Hector overheard that Dickie sold you out," Lester said. "He wasn't very happy about that."

"I'm not happy about it either, but Dickie was tortured," I said.

"Yeah that's not actually torture," Lester said. "They punched him in the face a few times. It only looks like slight encouragement to me."

"Dickie's a scumbag but I'd prefer that Hector not kill him," I said.

"Did you hear that Hector?" Lester yelled. "Stephanie says you can't kill Dickie." Hector yelled something back. "Hector says that he'll kill whoever he wants to," Lester told me. Well that was comforting.

"Tell Hector that Dickie isn't worth going to jail over," I told Lester. Both Lester and Ranger looked amused at that. I guess Hector doesn't leave any evidence behind.

Bobby came out of the holding cell.

"He's got an ice pack. He's pretty out of it. I'd say there's at least eight hours before he's making sense," he told us. "What'd I miss? You're all looking serious?"

"Dickie told Petiak that Stephanie has the key that he's after," Lester said.

"Ah," Bobby said.

"And then Hector wanted to slice Dickie up with a knife," Lester added.

"Ah."

"Then Stephanie said that Hector can't kill Dickie, and Hector said that he'll kill whoever he wants to," Lester said.

"And then I said that Dickie wasn't worth going to jail over, and Lester and Ranger smirked like they know of ways to hide the body and all the evidence," I said.

"Yeah that sounds about right," Bobby said.

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"Lester and Ranger do like to smirk," Bobby said.

"I'm going to call Morelli and tell him to come up and pick up his guest. I think it's safer if he's out of the way of temptation," Ranger said. He walked off down the corridor. I guess even Ranger can't get cell reception underground.