I hope that you are all safe where ever you are in the world. I've appreciated more frequent updates from the fanfic authors that I read, and I will try to do the same here. This story might even get finished in the next couple of weeks! Stephanie might not make some good decisions in order to stick to the established plotline, but after being in lockdown ourselves for a few weeks, I think we can forgive her for wanting to get out of Rangeman and have a sense of her normal life again.
Lester was standing guard outside the holding cell door until Morelli got there, and I thought about keeping him company, but I decided that I didn't want to be that close to Dickie.
I was glad that he wasn't toasted alive with a flame thrower but he was still a cheating scumbag. Oh yeah, one who had told a complete psychopath that I had the key to $40 million when I had no idea where it was. Maybe Hector did have a point.
I was done with the day. It wasn't even that late. I was just ready for it to be over. I let Hector know that I was headed off to my apartment, and then headed upstairs to Level Four.
I took a long, hot shower. I was hungry, I was tired, and I was angry. I came out of the bathroom wrapped only in a towel. I was plotting revenge that included ants in Dickie's underwear. I could smell food and thought that maybe Hector was cooking again and the smell was wafting under the door. I looked up and yelped. Ranger was waiting in my living room.
"Sorry, you didn't answer the door so I let myself in," he said.
"I was in the shower," I told him, holding my towel tighter. His eyes darkened. I shut the bedroom door hastily and got dressed.
"Vince said that you hadn't got lunch yet. Ella whipped us all up something," Ranger said, pointing into the kitchen area. The food smelt so good that I decided not to lecture him on respecting boundaries and instead got out cutlery. We ate sitting on the couch.
"You okay, babe?"
"Besides my husband selling me out and a psychopath being after me? Sure."
"You're safe here."
"I know I'm safe here, Ranger, but I can't stay here forever."
"It won't be forever. We'll find Petiak."
I didn't know what to say to that, so I didn't say anything. Ranger looked like he was going to say more, but then his phone rang.
"Yo. On it. Be there in two," he said, and hung up. "Can you meet me on five in half an hour?" he asked me.
Half an hour later I was in Ranger's office with Lester, Bobby, and to my surprise Morelli was there too.
"Hey Steph," he said.
"Morelli agreed to come in and pick up Dickie," Ranger said.
"But first, it's time for a plan. Let's go over what we know," Lester said. "We now know that Petiak is the last member of the firm left. Smullen and Gorvich were killed via flame thrower. Dickie is downstairs, soon to be in protective custody once Detective Morelli takes him off our hands. What else do we know?"
"Petiak is after the key to the 40 million dollars, and Dickie told him that Stephanie has the key," Bobby offered. Ranger tensed. Let's move on from that one quickly while Dickie was still downstairs, I decided.
"Dave was one of the ones who kidnapped Dickie, even though Vince shot him the day before and he needed medical treatment," I said.
"Probably means that Petiak has limited help left, and he knows from Dickie that he told the cops. He'll be getting more desperate to find the money and leave," Bobby said.
"The police didn't find anything useful in Dave's apartment," Morelli said. "You'd already recovered Dickie, and there was nothing that gave us a clue as to where Petiak might be. It didn't look like they were planning on coming back."
There was a knock on the door and we all looked up. It was Zip.
"Excuse me, sir, but I want to be involved with the plan," he said. Ranger nodded and Zip came and stood next to the window. Ranger introduced Morelli to Zip as Ziggy's brother.
"We need to draw Petiak out into the open," Lester said, and looked over at me.
"Ah, am I the bait in this scenario?" I asked.
"No," Ranger told him.
"It's our best-," Lester began, but Ranger cut him off from speaking.
"That's unacceptable. No," Ranger told him. I wanted to protest that I could do anything that they could do and that Ranger shouldn't speak for me but they were military trained and Petiak was wielding a flame thrower so I decided to stay quiet on this one.
"Then how?" Lester asked.
"We find the key, then get word to Petiak. We set up a meet. Let Morelli know. Do the swap, then the police can handle it from there," Ranger said.
"They'll want proof that we have the key," said Zip.
"Once we find it we can text them a photo," Lester said. "We have Petiak's phone number."
"How do we find the key?" I asked.
"Dickie knows what it is and went to your house looking for it. We wait until the drugs wear off, and then ask Dickie," Ranger said.
"How long until we can question him?" Morelli asked Bobby.
"It'll be another five hours or so until he's making complete sense, but you can give it a go now if you want," Bobby said.
Morelli and Ranger did some sort of head nod thing, then both stood up.
"You want to come too?" Ranger asked me.
When we got downstairs, I saw Hal standing outside the holding cell. There was more head nodding and I made a note to decipher their code at some point. It would save me a lot of time if I was able to head nod instead of talking. I finger waved at Hal instead.
Hal opened the door, and Ranger and Morelli walked inside. I followed them. Dickie stirred, then opened his eyes and saw us.
"Joe! My brother! You've come to see me."
"Hi Dickie. I need you to focus on something for me, okay?" Joe asked him.
"Okay, buddy!"
"Where is the key?" Joe asked.
"Key?"
"The key that Petiak wants."
"Joe. Petiak wants that key, Joe. But I need it. It's the key to all the money."
Joe pinched the bridge of his nose. He was looking like he wanted to give Dickie a smack around the head. Morellis aren't known for their patience, and Joe's looked like his was running out.
"Yes. Petiak kidnapped you, and now he is after Stephanie. He wants the key. Why did you tell him that Stephanie knows where it is?"
"Because Stephanie stole the key," Dickie said. He started giggling.
"I never had the key," I said.
"I hid it," Dickie said. "I hid it in something really ugly that I knew that no one in their right mind would ever ever steal. But you stole it, Stephanie. You're the reason why all this happened."
"Me?"
"If you hadn't stolen the key, I would been able to take the money and run. Joyce and I had a plan. But the only way to access the money without the key is in person, and I couldn't find my passport or the key."
"Dickie! Where is the key?!" I yelled at him.
"You took it," he told me again. I wondered if slapping him would help.
Bobby waved us out of the room.
"This isn't going to work. You'll have to try again when the drugs wear off. Joe, are you going to take him into safe custody?" Bobby asked.
"Yeah, but not in my basement this time. The department found some money in the budget for an actual safehouse. I'll be in touch when we get some information out of him."
"We'll move him to your car for you," Ranger offered, and he and Lester went in and got Dickie up and moving. He started singing as he went past me. I think it was the Pina Colada song.
"Do you have any idea what this key is?" Morelli asked me.
"No. I didn't steal anything. I only took my clothes from the house, and my work stuff. I don't think the key was my Ghostbusters DVD."
"Think about it, and let me know if you come up with anything."
"I will, Joe. Thanks," I told him, as he leaned in to hug me goodbye.
"Family dinner tonight," Morelli reminded me.
"Ugh. Do you think I have enough of an excuse not to show up?"
"You've already missed the last few. You might get banned from dessert forever."
"Morelli, don't Berg guilt me! You're supposed to be on my side."
"Sorry. Force of habit. Val misses you. The girls miss you. They just want to see what you're okay," Morelli said.
"Okay. I'll try to make it. I'm guessing I'll have to bring someone with me though."
"Don't bring Vince or your mother will never let him leave," Morelli said.
"More like my father. He always wanted me to marry an Italian," I said.
"Well, look how not marrying an Italian turned out," Morelli said. Then he looked at me. "Too soon?" he asked.
"Yeah, too soon. But I'll see what I can do for dinner."