Chapter 26

I shouted at Xander to get the hell out of there, pleased when he got into the driver's seat and started the car without any questions or hesitation. Because as far as I was concerned getting Cassie away from here was far more important than me having to face Joe Morelli. I made sure that he saw me hoping that he was so surprised and shocked that all thought of Cassie left him. I stood my ground relieved as I heard the car with Cassie in began to drive away but aware of how fast my heart was beating. This was my worst nightmare and I knew that I had to stand my ground. The feeling of fear morphed as I stood there watching that face that I'd come to hate. How could a man who professed to love me scare me so much? My back straightened and a determination came over me. I was not going to let this man scare me anymore not after what he had done. As Joe got out of his car, I sensed that someone was stood next to me and was surprised when I turned to see Mooner stood just behind me. I wasn't sure why Mooner was there, but a second look and I could see that he was annoyed. Was he annoyed because of Cassie or because of me?

"So you managed to crawl back. I knew that you would. You come to your senses, Cupcake, and realize that I'm the only one who'll have you?"

It was weird being stood in the middle of the street with Joe talking at me with his usual attitude. I'd dreaded this ever happening knowing how much he had hurt me and that he could do it again. As I said it was weird because I saw him for who he was. A small minded, egotistical bully. Maybe he had the looks and the body, but I didn't see any of that, all I felt was total contempt for the man.

I think I surprised him, and probably Mooner, when I turned around and walked back into Mooner's house, closing the door behind Mooner as he followed me in. I wasn't sure if Joe was here because he'd found out that Cassie was here or because he knew that I was here.

"Walter, not a word to that man outside"

"The cop, but?"

I didn't want Mooner involved in this at all but by walking back into his house I'd surely done that. Shit, had I done it again, put someone else in danger? I was surprised that Mooner hadn't said anything else so turned to him to try and explain to him that he needed to be quiet about Cassie. Stood beside a smiling Mooner was Ranger.

I know that I was biting my lip because I was worried what Ranger was going to say or do. He'd probably be mad at me for confronting Joe and not just getting in the car with Xander and driving away. I knew why I'd done it, I'd done it so that Xander could get Cassie away. Besides we didn't know if Joe was here because of me and if that was the case then mission accomplished, he still wouldn't know anything about Cassie.

Ranger never said a word instead he nodded his head at Mooner and walked over to me, taking me by my hand and heading toward the front door. I wasn't sure what the hell Ranger was up to because I was sure that Joe would be waiting outside. As we stepped out of the door, I saw Joe leant against the car that he'd arrived in. He pushed away from it and started to walk towards us, a smile on his face. What the hell, why was he smiling, what did he expect to happen?

"Manoso. Thanks for bringing her out to me. I'll take her off your hands now"

For a moment I panicked thinking that Ranger was going to just hand me over to Joe. I mentally slapped myself because it was Ranger who had questioned what Joe was up to. I felt Ranger squeeze my hand and instantly knew that he wouldn't allow Joe anywhere near me.

"I don't think so Morelli. You had your chance, and you blew it. I think I'll keep her"

Watching those two men face each other brought back memories of Hawaii when Joe had turned up at our little beach chalet unexpectedly. They'd ended up fighting which to be honest had frightened me because at the time having those two men fighting over me confused the hell out of me. This wasn't the same, it was more a battle of will and Joe was backing down. Why would he do that?

"You'll get bored of her and knowing her she'll get you or one of your men hurt or killed. I'll see you soon Cupcake"

We all watched as a black SUV pulled up alongside us and I was soon getting into the back seat with Ranger next to me. Glancing back, I saw Joe watching us as we drove away and that was when I had a horrible feeling at what Joe might do next.

"He's going to hurt one of your men and say it was because of me"

Wasn't that what Joe had implied, had constantly shouted at me? That I'd get someone hurt or killed because of my irrational behavior and job. Wasn't that what had happened to grandma?

"He can try but it won't work. Babe, you got that girl out and put yourself at risk

I had to do it because no way that I was letting Joe know that she was Jethro's sister and from the little that she'd said to me she knew a lot more.

"Hector's got some guys who'll keep an eye on Mooner"

I raised my eyebrows at that because I wasn't too sure if Mooner would appreciate that.

"How was Joe there?"

Because as far as I was aware Tank was supposed to be keeping an eye on where he was.

"Morelli was at a crime scene. He slipped out through another door, the car he turned up in belonged to another detective, so Tank was unaware that he'd left the scene. We think that someone saw you going in to Mooner's and called him"

At least Joe was at Mooner's looking for me which meant that hopefully he had no idea about Cassie or who she was. It also meant that everyone in town would know that I was back. No way did I want to be talking to my family because there was no excuse for how they'd treated me. The only time that I would even be in the same room as them would be in a court room for Joe's trial.

I had no idea where Xander had taken Cassie but was hoping to have a serious conversation with her. I looked around the garage as we dropped down the ramp disappointed not to see the car that we'd been driving. I was just hoping that wherever Cassie was that she didn't feel scared. Les, who'd been driving the car, and Binkie disappeared into the stairwell while Ranger guided me to the elevator with a hand at my back. I was about to explode at not knowing where Cassie was when I noticed that we'd stopped on level 6. A knock on Ella's door and we were soon being shown inside their apartment. Knowing that Ranger never did anything unless there was a very good reason had me holding my silence, especially when I saw the large suitcase stood in the hallway that I'd dragged out of Mooner's.

"She's just freshening up, she'll be out in a minute"

Came from Ella as she set down some glasses and a plate of cookies on the table between two couches. As I sat down, I realized that I'd never been inside Ella's apartment and wasn't disappointed with how she'd decorated it. Whilst I could see a similar style to that of Ranger's apartment with the modern feel, Ella's use of color in the soft furnishings gave it a more feminine feel with personal touches scattered around the room. Photos and ornaments adorned the shelves with flowers strategically placed.

"There you are. I bet you feel so much better now. Come and sit down and have a drink and a cookie"

I looked to where I presumed Cassie had emerged from, totally shocked at the young girl coming toward us. Gone was the girl that I'd seen at Mooner's and instead I was looking at young girl with shoulder length blonde hair, wearing denim jeans and a pale blue sweatshirt.

"Wow, you look so different"

Just came from me at seeing her. I was almost regretting blurting that out hoping that I hadn't embarrassed her, but her smile told me that maybe she was pleased with how she'd presented herself at Mooner's.

"Walter got me all this stuff that he thought that I might like, and we agreed that if anyone came to the house then I'd try to conceal who I was"

"You did a brilliant job Cassie, but I much prefer your look now"

Ella winked at me as she said that to Cassie making me wonder exactly what Ella had thought of the girl who had walked in before. Cassie came and sat down next to me, helping herself to a cookie and drink so I decided that it was time to have a conversation with her. From her stiff posture I could tell that she felt ill at ease, who wouldn't? Being here in this building must have been quite daunting for her.

"Cassie. I know we spoke at Walter's before you came here but I want you to know that everyone here is going to make sure that you're safe and won't have to worry. My name is Steph and this is Ranger. We think we know why you were hiding out with Walter but would really like you to tell us your story"

I'd kept my voice quiet and had maintained eye contact with Cassie but as I asked her to talk us through what she knew I took her hand in mine to try and give the contact that implied that what she said would be important. I watched as she looked past me to Ranger and then across to Ella's smiling face before she took a deep breath and started to talk.

"I didn't know that I had a brother. Then the woman who'd always looked after me told me about him. She said that he was going to look after me because she couldn't. I suppose she must have talked to Jethro because he came and picked me up and took me to where he lived. I think that we were both a bit shocked with what had happened"

I squeezed her hand to let her know that I understand how strange that situation must have been, for both of them.

"Jethro was nice to me doing everything to make me feel wanted. He even made me continue to go to school. I didn't think about where anything was coming from, you know like food and clothes. Jethro liked to bring me all sorts of things"

Jethro had taken on being a brother very seriously and he did as best as he could. Stealing though was bound to end badly for him but I don't think that he really saw that.

"I worked out that he was taking things, I mean there were new clothes and makeup with bags, some of them I was sure were almost brand new. I never said anything though. Then a few months ago Jethro didn't come home one night, and he was upset when he did. That was when he told me that he'd been arrested for stealing"

That in itself had obviously upset Cassie, maybe she realized that some of the things that he'd stolen were for her.

"He told me that it would be okay, he'd maybe get community service but something happened because he was suddenly annoyed all of the time. He took me to meet Walter and said that if anything happened to him, then I had to go to Walter. I was frightened that he might get sent to prison but he said that wasn't it. He said that a man had offered him a lot of money and then threatened him"

I suppose offering money to Jethro would be a way of persuading him to do something serious. It would be obvious to anyone that Jethro had needed the money, but did Joe know why Jethro had resorted to stealing in the first place?

"He came home one morning and shouted at me to pack a bag. He said he couldn't do what the man had told him to do but he was so worried that something bad was going to happen. So I went to Walter's that night on my own. I didn't hear from Jethro again"

Her voice was so broken as she told us that and tears were running down her cheek. That poor kid had been through so much and it seemed so unfair. Neither of them deserved to have been treated that way, not to be some puppet in a dangerous game. Now Jethro was dead, and Cassie had no one to look after her. My heart went out to her as I pulled her into my arms. After giving her some time to calm down I knew that we needed to ask if she knew anything about the man who had threatened Jethro or what he was supposed to do.

"Cassie. Do you have any idea who that man was?"

I very much doubted that Jethro would have let her meet him or even told her who he was, but I had to ask.

"Not really. I mean I never saw him, but I was there once when he phoned Jethro. Jethro didn't know that I was just outside the room and I. I heard what Jethro said"

I wasn't sure if what Cassie had heard from Jethro would help us to identify who the man had been, and it certainly couldn't be used as evidence. Cassie was too young to be put through that.

"What did you hear sweetheart?"

I waited as Cassie tipped her head to the side as though she was trying to replay that moment through her mind.

"Jethro said. "You expect me to do that?" Then, "That wasn't what we agreed" Jethro said that he didn't see how it could happen, that he wouldn't know where it would be. There was a long silence then and I thought that maybe the call had finished but Jethro was getting annoyed. He said "You bastard Morelli"

I didn't know how to feel when Cassie said Joe's name. Part of me felt betrayed knowing how much pain and anguish I'd been through and for what? Just so that Joe could manipulate me and control me? I was closing my eyes as the thought of what had happened to grandma came to me but what Cassie said next confused me.

"He didn't do it, that was why he sent me to Walter's that morning. Jethro said that he was gonna leave town and find someplace new for us and then come get me"

I needed time to process what Cassie had said and what it meant. As I rocked her to me, I looked over to Ranger because I was sure that Cassie had told us everything that she knew. I had no idea what would happen to her now, staying here at Rangeman wasn't ideal, not for a twelve year old girl. Besides if Joe knew that I was here he might have eyes on the building, and I didn't want anyone to know of Cassie's whereabouts.

"Cassie. A family that I know would love for you to stay with them. They lost their little girl last year in an accident so miss having someone that they can look after. How about you and this couple try it out? They live a long way from Trenton and would make you go to school but they're good people"

I raised my eyebrows at Ranger wondering how he had managed to organize that so quickly and who this couple was. Knowing that this could be an ideal opportunity for Cassie I turned to her and smiled because what I said next would be important.

"Cassie, staying with Walter wasn't good for you, was it?"

I watched as she shook her head.

"I know that you're scared with what will happen to you now, but these people are offering you somewhere that could be good for you. You can get to know them, and they can get to know you but if you don't like it then we'll find somewhere else for you, I promise"

I hated how she must have been feeling, having no one that she could go to, not knowing anyone that would want her. That poor kid had already had her life turned upside down, twice, she deserved a break.

"What if they don't like me?"

"Cassie, they'll love you. I'll come visit you there when you get settled"

I looked across to Ella after she had said that because from what she'd said it sounded as though she knew this couple. I didn't think there was anything more anyone could say so was silent as Cassie sat there, her hands playing with the hem of her top.

"Okay, I don't have a lot of options, do I?"

I leant toward her and gently kissed the top of her head so relieved that at least she would give it a try. It had to be better than staying here in Trenton, maybe it would give her a chance to flourish even.

"Ella will take you there in the morning Cassie"

I was pretty sure that Ranger would have a plan in place to ensure that wherever they were going that they would be safe with no possibility of anyone following them or finding Cassie. That no one official was involved in this fostering I wondered how Cassie's arrival would be accounted for but had no doubt that between Hector and Xander they'd find a way to cover that up.

I hugged Cassie before leaving her with Ella and with Ranger made for the stairs to get up to his apartment. It felt good to be moving and I felt comfortable with the exercise appreciating that my hip and ribs were finally healing. As I entered the apartment, I went to the fridge to collect a couple of bottles of water before sitting down on the couch. A lot had happened today, and I needed to sort through in my mind what I'd learnt and then how I felt about it. I was pleased when Ranger sat down next to me because I needed someone to talk through my thoughts with but there were also some questions that he could answer.

"If Jethro didn't throw that molotov cocktail then who did?"

My immediate thought was that it had been Joe. That had a shiver go down my spine, did he know that grandma was in the car? Did he kill her? I watched as Ranger sat back on the couch being obvious that he was thinking through what I'd said.

"Joe needed people to believe that it had been Jethro who started the fire because then he could continue with his plan of demoralizing you"

Which meant that Joe had always intended to get rid of Jethro. He must have been planning it since Jethro had been arrested. Maybe there was something else that would tie Joe to Jethro.

"Someone else started the fire, didn't they?"

I thought through what I'd said and what I knew of Joe and something very obvious came to me.

"Joe wouldn't know where my car would be. He'd have given Jethro my address where I parked it. There wasn't another tracker on the car was there?"

I couldn't remember Ranger saying that they'd found one when he'd told me that he'd had the car looked over. Then again there could have been numerous trackers on it put there by Ranger. I stopped looking for them and removing them because I knew they didn't watch where I was 24/7. They only pulled up the location of any of my trackers if I was in trouble. Could Joe have put one on my car so that he'd know where I was?

"No. Only the one. There were very few places where one would stay because the bodywork was that rusted"

Which meant that we were back to the beginning and needing to know why my grandma had driven to where she had. Joe had taken full advantage of her dying and was now feeling pretty confident that he'd solved the fire by blaming Jethro and killed him in the line of duty. I had no doubt that he'd turned up at Mooner's looking for me which meant that he'd continue to harass me if he could.

"I need to find something that will prove that he tried to threaten Jethro and that he killed him"

Because that was the only way that Joe could be stopped. The gun from the evidence locker was part of that evidence but we couldn't prove that it had been Joe that had removed it. Cassie had heard Jethro talking to Joe but again we couldn't prove what their conversation was about. Basically, we had nothing concrete and that was beginning to piss me off. I felt Ranger pulling me back against the couch and as his arm encircled my shoulder.

"We'll get him, don't we have this ace researcher on our side?"

I used my elbow against his ribs but probably hurt myself more than him. I didn't have as much confidence in myself as Ranger seemed to have but I'd make sure that I didn't leave a stone unturned.

"The people taking Cassie, who are they?"

"They're Ella's nephew and wife. She'll be okay with them"

Knowing that Ella was related to those people made me feel easier with where Cassie was going. I just hoped that things worked out for them all. I wasn't going to ask anything about them because I knew that I had to distance myself from Cassie now.

I felt restless and being sat on the couch with Ranger felt too comfortable. I wanted to do something so with a sigh pushed myself off the couch and walked into Ranger's office. The paperwork from the search that I'd done on Jethro was still on the desk and I was pretty sure that there were no links to Joe in those. So how had Joe decided on Jethro as the fall guy? He hadn't arrested Jethro and the age gap seemed too big for them to have known each other socially, hell, Joe was ten years older than Jethro. It was definitely not through family, nor did they live or work in the same area of town. Jethro's mother would have been too old for Joe to be interested in her when she worked the streets. But what about Natasha Leroy?

Natasha was younger than Coleen and had a couple of arrests to her name but there was no way that I could tie her in to Joe. And what if I could, what would that prove, that he was a cheating low life who used prostitutes? As I sat back down, I eventually acknowledged to myself that maybe Joe using Jethro had been purely down to him being one of my FTAs and a guy who had been down on his luck. I wasn't too sure how Joe would know that but then again very little was a secret inside the police station, it wouldn't take much to find out who Vinnie had bailed out.

I felt despondent that I had no new ideas to follow up on and that there probably wouldn't be. That meant that Joe would always be there in the background, taunting and ridiculing me. I wasn't sure I'd be able to cope with that. I tidied away the papers before walking through into the living area. Not seeing Ranger, I assumed that he'd gone down to five to work so settled on the couch and turned on the TV. I mindlessly flicked through the channels not finding anything that interested me or could hold my attention. I was glad of the interruption of the door opening and Ella coming into the apartment.

"I'll put your meal in the oven and then you can eat it when you're ready"

I'd got to my feet by the time that Ella was ready to leave, keen to know how Cassie was doing. Maybe I should have gone and kept her company, but I'd been distracted with the things that she'd said and the idea of trying to find a connection between her brother and Joe.

"Has Cassie been okay, Ella?"

"Oh yes dear. She's a very quiet child, and so polite. We spent the afternoon playing card games and she's watching TV now. I think that she's looking forward to some time away from here"

I nodded my head because I knew just how she felt. Our conversation came to an end as Ranger came in through the door and his action of kissing me on my forehead seemed to give Ella the time to disappear. I was a little confused with Ranger's action so busied myself in retrieving the pot that Ella had just placed in the oven and set it onto the breakfast bar. Ranger brought over the plates and cutlery, so we were soon sat quietly eating. The Jeweled Rice Pilaf tasted just as amazing as when I'd made it with Jenson.

"I spoke with that FBI agent this afternoon, Miles. After reading the report from Ram on the gun he had it looked at again, in house. He's alerted Internal Affairs of the findings so they're conducting an investigation as to how Crocker had the gun in his possession"

"Joe?"

Would that investigation also look at Joe and how he'd shot Jethro?

"It'll include everything that had anything to do with Crocker, from the report that Joe wrote about the fire to how he died. So yes, they'll be looking very closely at Morelli"

Okay, I could work with that.

"Will this, Miles, will he let us know what they find out?"

I watched as Ranger nodded his head and placed his fork down on his empty plate. Maybe, just maybe something would be unearthed that would open up some new evidence against Joe. I suppose it would be a question of waiting now.

"What about Joe, will he still be allowed to work?"

"At the moment but on restrictive duties. Until they can tie him to anything directly then he'll be one of a few police officers being looked at"

I took in a deep breath as I absorbed what I'd heard. There was nothing that could be done about Joe at the moment, so I had to keep control of my emotions and focus on what had happened to my grandma.

"What happened to Xander?"

Wondering if he'd decided to go back to his original job with Gregory.

"We did an exchange of cars for Cassie and Xander continued driving. He's going to a safe house for the night with a team keeping watch to make sure that he wasn't followed"

I could follow why Ranger was being cautious because it wasn't just Cassie who could be at risk now, Ella's family would need to be kept incognito as well.

"Would I be able to go to the cemetery"

I know that question just seemed to pop into my head, but I'd never been given the chance to say goodbye to my grandma properly. I know that I was at the cemetery for her funeral, but I'd never been left on my own. Joe had kept a constant grip of my arm and my mother had never left my side. It hadn't helped that I'd been totally stricken with grief and guilt that I'd never had a chance to just, I don't know, sit with her and talk to her. I felt Ranger's hand over mine and looked up to his face wondering how he would reply. I mean I would understand if he felt that it wasn't worth the risk.

"I'll make it happen"

I felt so relieved with what he'd said that I leant toward him and kissed him on the cheek as I whispered "Thank you"

After clearing away from our dinner Ranger went back downstairs to catch up with his work while I decided that a soak in the tub was calling my name.