Chapter 30

I followed Ranger out of the apartment and past the doors for the elevator until I was stood watching him opening a door. I had never in all the years that I'd been here noticed this door before. I was feeling a bit nervous at what might be inside and told myself that it wouldn't be much because there was very little of any value in my apartment anyway. That Ranger pulled out four boxes and placed them on the floor before closing and locking the door had me curious and seeing as it had been Les who had retrieved these a little bit worried. I carried one of the boxes back into the apartment while Ranger made two trips for the other three.

I was sat on the floor trying to build up the courage to open the one in front of me. These boxes contained relics that I had left behind, a life that I had turned my back on. Did I really want to open these boxes and look inside? The decision was made for me as Ranger sat down on the other side of the box and pulled the flaps open to reveal the contents. I could see the start of a smile on his face so dared to look inside.

"DVDs? He saved Ghostbusters?"

"Every single one of them"

No wonder the box had been so heavy. I ran my fingers over the top cases and even lifted a couple of them out, memories of watching them coming back to me. Okay, so maybe that hadn't been as bad as I thought it would be. I closed the flaps on that box and turned to the next one not sure what to expect.

"I think that I like that box the best"

I raised my eyebrows as he said that and was very cautious as I opened one of the flaps. I had no idea what would be inside that would have Ranger saying that. Black lace came into view, and I immediately slammed the flap down.

"He didn't?"

I could feel my face heating up at the idea of Les going through my clothes, especially my underwear.

"I have to say that had I not been away when he did that then he would have been on the mats for a month"

Okay, I'd leave that box for when I was alone and then sort through what I would keep. The next box brought tears to my eyes as I looked at the varied contents. Yeah, these would have been things that I would have kept, things that had no value other than being sentimental.

"Les removed some of the photos and has them some place else"

I lifted an old padded envelope out next and lifted out the photos from the top. As I quickly scanned through some of them I instantly knew which ones were missing. There were no photos of my parents or sister but lots of ones with my nieces, my grandma, my friends and the Merry Men. I quickly placed them back inside the envelope when I remembered that I'd had a few of Ranger and some mementos hidden inside that I knew he would never understand. I would need to look through these alone as well because I didn't want him to know that I'd kept them. A wooden box contained jewelry with my most expensive things in the bottom tray. The only item that I had worn was the pendent around my neck and that had been my grandma's. I'd found it in her room at my parents so had immediately put it on not caring if my mother felt that she wanted to have it.

The last box was a bit of a mystery because I didn't think that there was anything else from my apartment that I would want. How wrong I was. Tears came to my eyes as I looked down onto my cookie jar.

"Shall I put that on the kitchen counter?"

I couldn't reply because I was too wrapped up in the memories of that jar.

"My gun?"

I suddenly asked wondering if it was still in there. Yeah, I'd kept my gun in my cookie jar.

"Locked up in my safe Babe"

I smiled as I watched Ranger place my cookie jar on his kitchen counter not really sure if it suited being here. It made me realize that at some stage I would have to leave here, decide where I wanted to go and what I could do to support myself.

"You ready to eat?"

I'd been so lost in thought I hadn't noticed that Ranger had removed anything from the stove but was glad of the distraction. That interlude of looking through the boxes had been more emotionally draining than I realized. Over a meal of a chicken and rice dish I filled Ranger in on what I'd found out and realized that it wasn't much really until he started to ask me how the information on all of the men connected.

"I need a board so that I can get a visual from a time line, that way I may be able to see whether or not there are any commonalities"

I wasn't sure if that would be possible if I continued to work upstairs here in Ranger's apartment so was waiting for what his answer would be.

"Maybe it's time for you to work down on five. There's a conference room at the end of the hallway that we rarely use, it has a wall full of boards so would suit your purpose"

I wasn't surprised with his suggestion and actually felt okay about it. I'd been here in the building for a few days now so maybe seeing the men was something that was due.

"Okay, I'll take everything down there in the morning. Is there a computer there and a printer?"

I got a nod for an answer, and I could have sworn that he looked pleased, so maybe I'd made the right decision after all.

I'd expected dreams that night after everything that had happened, especially opening those boxes from my past life but they didn't come. For the first time that I could remember any dreams that I had revolved around my grandma from when she was alive. Times when we laughed together or cried, times when she comforted me and even those moments when she drove me insane.

I sighed as sleep fell away and the realization of a new day dawned on me. Today I would be going down to five so after showering I found a Rangeman uniform in the closet and added a thin black sweater. I was a little surprised that it seemed big on me but then again, I hadn't been the healthiest eater before I left. As I checked myself out in the mirror, I supposed that I had lost weight. My hair was slightly longer but the style wasn't too bad and the redness on my cheek and neck had faded. I looked down at my hands having forgotten about wearing gloves for a few days and decided what the hell. If people didn't like the look of them then they didn't need to look. They were definitely wounds from a battle that I'd fought and now I was determined to win the war. Yeah, I felt good this morning.

Walking through to the kitchen I was surprised to see Ranger sat at the breakfast bar with two bowls set out already. I knew that he was trying to regain some of his routines so assumed that he'd already been to the gym. That was somewhere that I really needed to get back to. I sat down and inspected the contents of the bowl deciding that the granola yoghurt and fresh blueberries would taste as good as they looked.

"You seem different this morning, Babe"

I shrugged my shoulders at the comment but wasn't going to respond. Maybe I did feel different, but I was going to be taking one day at a time without jinxing it.

"What are you up to this morning?"

Feeling the need to change the direction of conversation away from me.

"A couple of visits this morning to check on properties and how the installations are going and then I'm here in the office. How about lunch?"

"Sure"

Not really sure what I was agreeing to but assuming that it might be here on seven. Finishing my breakfast and placing the bowl into the dishwasher I went through to the office and collected together all of the papers that I'd been working through. There was a lot and maybe I would have to make more notes for the board that I was envisioning in my head. Well, it was now or never as I collected my phone and started for the door. I had to admit that even I noticed how my pace slowed down as I walked toward it and my hand hesitated as it reached out to the handle. I took a deep breath before opening the door and stepping out, then gave a small yelp as I saw someone stood by the elevator.

"At last, I was gonna break down the door and drag you out"

I smiled at Les wondering why he was up here.

"Ranger asked me to make sure that you got set up in the conference room. You ready?"

My answer was to hit the button for the elevator and then step inside when the doors slid open.

"I was hoping that you'd work in my office, I have a great notice board and I could help you pin things up, I could even pin you to it come to think about it"

I knew that Les was just trying to make me feel comfortable but then I realized that I owed him for him retrieving my things from my apartment.

"Les, thanks for saving some things from my apartment"

"No problem, Beautiful"

"Maybe we can catch up and watch a film"

I looked sideways to see Les grinning, so quickly added a suggestion that I knew he would hate.

"We can watch Ghostbusters?"

I think Les was glad to be saved by the elevator doors opening and to be honest he had taken my mind off the thought of coming down to five. It felt so familiar to what I remembered, the low hum of machines and the quiet of voices talking. As men that I recognized walked past they stopped and spoke, something that I was dreading happening for fear of what they might say.

"Wifey, good to see you back"

"Steph, you need anything then give me a shout"

I looked back as Manny and Binkie walked away and then came face to face with Hal.

"Sure is good to see you back Steph"

I remembered that Hal was working on bringing in FTAs so was in touch with Lula. She was one person that I needed to know about.

"Is Lula doing okay?"

"Yeah, she is. She knows that you're around. She heard it from the streets, so I told her that you were safe"

Interesting that Hal hadn't said exactly where I was, but she would know that if he'd said that I was safe then I would be here.

"Hal, let her know that I'm thinking of her but at the moment I can't risk meeting with her"

"Will do Steph"

I was smiling as Les led me down the hallway and opened a door. Stepping into the room I was seeing a small conference room that would be ideal for me to work in. One wall was covered in boards ideal for pinning up information. There was a desk with a computer screen set on it and what to me looked like a comfortable chair. Instead of a large central table there was a low table with chairs set around it, that I assumed would be ideal for a small meeting.

"There are pens, papers and everything in the desk drawer and the printer is on the table over in the corner. I'm next door, so if you need anything just ask"

As Les walked out, I was wondering how to organize my papers and not having a table to lay them out on I used the floor. Finding some tape, I divided the board into sections thinking that I would set up the information both by person and by year. That took some figuring out and I was constantly referring to the papers. Then I started the arduous task of pinning the information into the relevant sections. Names went across the top and years were vertical so as I looked at my progress, I was starting to see the connections. The last piece of paper that I added was a printout of the message from grandma.

The years surrounding 1999 became so full that it drew your eye to it. Kenny Laborni had died, Jenson left New York City, Trevor started to close down offices and change the type of clients that he worked with. What surprised me was that it was when Matthew Burns had murdered Jimmy Salowski. Then Chiconi had died a couple of years later. What the hell had happened during that time or was I seeing something that was just coincidental? I might have thought that, but I was also looking at that photo of Trevor wearing that damn tie pin, the first sighting that I'd seen of it.

Stepping to the side I looked at the timeline of Chiconi's friends. I'd added their times in prison along with when they had died. The only time when all four of them had been able to be together had been during the 80s, when they were in their 60's. Was that important? Were they too old to have been involved in anything that would cause so much disruption?

I cleared my mind and walked over to read grandma's message that had been left on my phone and had just started to read it when I heard the door opening.

"That's impressive and visually very effective. What happened here in this time frame?"

I felt Ranger stood close behind me and felt as he pulled me back so that I was leant against him.

"I don't know"

"I spoke with Greg just now. He's gone through every case that Jenson had worked on while you were there. Jenson is at a loss"

I wasn't surprised at hearing that, but it had me looking at the board once more to where Jenson's name appeared.

"Something happened 30 years ago that involved these men. Maybe someone thinks that Jenson knew something and told me about it"

So why involve me and not Jenson? Then it occurred to me, the other task that Jenson had asked me to look at. He'd had a storeroom full of old files and cases that he'd wanted scanning and transferred into an electronic format to be saved.

"Did you tell me that Anya and Robert were helping Jenson at the office?"

I heard a "Yes" from behind me as I tried to remember if I'd seen anything of importance but to be honest, I hadn't read any of the files just gone through the motion of scanning and saving them. Once scanned Jenson had said to shred the papers.

"Oh shit"

"Babe, what is it?"

I was wracking my brains with what I'd done with those files. Most of them I'd transferred to Jenson's computer but on that last week I'd used a memory stick and copied them over. My intention was to label them by name and date on a spreadsheet and then set up links from that spreadsheet to the files.

"Jenson asked me to scan and copy some old files of his. Most of them were on the computer in the office but I remember doing some that last week and then I saved all of them to a pen drive so that I could start organizing them"

I was turned so that I was facing Ranger, his hands on my shoulders, I suppose trying to work out what I meant.

"If all of the files are on that computer then why the concern?"

"Because I did some on that last day and just added them to the pen drive without saving them to the computer"

I felt so guilty for doing that as though I'd somehow betrayed Jenson's trust in me. I had to put that right and get those files to Jenson but the problem that I was having was trying to remember what I'd done with that pen drive. I could remember using it on that last Friday morning when I'd been in the office because I was caught up with work that needed to be done so had used the time for scanning. Then that feeling had overtaken me, I suppose my spidey senses, and I just had to get away, so I'd emailed Xander. I hadn't been sure that Xander would even turn up, so I dropped everything in my rucksack.

"My rucksack. I need to find it"

I knew that I had it on the bus to Chicago and I must have had at that house by the lake because I'd used those papers of my initial searches. Had I taken it on the plane when we flew here to Trenton?

"When did you last have it?"

I looked at Ranger as he asked me that but was still trying to remember if I'd had it when we arrived here at Rangeman.

"Chicago. The house by the lake. But I can't remember if I had it on the plane"

Ranger's response was to take my hand and lead me from the room toward the elevator and then head to seven. I felt so anxious as we went into the bedroom, and he opened all of the doors of the closet.

"You look in here"

Ranger left me as I knelt down and began to move shoes and boxes in the hope of finding it. I just couldn't remember the last time that I'd seen it and certainly couldn't remember putting it away when I was here.

"Babe"

I turned to see Ranger stood in the doorway holding up my rucksack.

"Where was it?"

"In the cupboard in the hallway. Ella must have put it there when the things arrived from the lakehouse"

I got to my feet and walked over to him looking at that rucksack. It had become my lifeline when I'd left Trenton holding everything that I'd had. It certainly looked the worse for wear, the brown faded in places from the sun, and had stains all over it, probably from getting wet. Ella must have cringed when she saw the state of it, and I was probably lucky that she didn't throw it out.

"I had everything that I needed in here when I left. Clothes and some personal bits and pieces. It was with me everywhere that I went, even when I left with Xander"

I took the rucksack and walked past Ranger to sit down on the couch and then carefully unfastened the buckle at the top. Inside were the leggings, socks and hat that I'd bought at Spokane so I brought those out and dropped them on the floor. Next to come out were a couple of pairs of gloves that I'd constantly worn and washed out. Lots of wrappings and paper bags from rubbish until I could reach the bottom. There at the bottom was the black pen drive, just as I remembered it. I sighed a breath of relief as I held it in my hand and then became concerned in case it had got damaged.

It had been there when I was on the back of the bike with Xander, our flight down to Atlanta and then on the bus journey to Chicago.

"Go try it on the computer in my office"

I think that Ranger was as keen as I was to check out the contents so we both got to our feet. I sat at the computer with Ranger stood behind me as I inserted the drive into the USB slot and waited. Once the symbol came up on the screen, I double clicked it to open it, watching as the screen filled with a list of files.

"Put them into date order and look at the last ones that you uploaded"

That made sense because a lot of the older files were already on Jenson's computer. The files weren't numbered and I'd never got around to naming them and there were nine files that had the same date next to them. I double clicked on the first one to open up the image that had been saved and started to read it. The date at the top was 1998, which meant that Jenson had brought files with him from when he worked with Peralta.

"It's the arrangements and contract for a prenup agreement"

Which to me looked very complicated and seemed to involve a lot of property and holdings. A quick glance at the name didn't match to any that we were looking at, so I closed that one down and opened the next file. After reading through details of an employment contract, a merger of two businesses and several divorces it was the fifth file that had me leaning forward to be able to read it better.

"Chiconi was the client"

We were both quiet as we read through the first page and as I moved through to the next page. Jenson had been the lawyer managing this document, I presume because Trevor was included in the legalities meaning it would have been a conflict of interests.

"From what I understand Chiconi wanted a legal document that included himself, Kenny Laborni, Matthew Burns and Jimmy Salowski"

"Yeah, but what kind of document is it?"

The whole thing was written in legal jargon and seemed so vague I was struggling to understand what it was about.

"I'd say that it is referring to something that all four men had equal ownership of. That if one of them died then it would be transferred to the other three. Then at the death of all four of them the remainder would go to Trevor Peralta"

Okay I could understand the context of that but couldn't see any indication of what exactly it was that they had ownership of.

"What does that mean, where it specifies a date?"

I waited as Ranger read through where I was pointing to and looked around waiting for an answer when he didn't reply straight away.

"It seems to read that the named men couldn't access something until after five years and then only a percentage of their ownership at each access. There's a lot concerning liability, disclosure and timings. I would need to ask a lawyer exactly what it meant or if it was even legally enforceable"

There were so many questions going through my head and to be honest this document seemed to add more questions. I agreed with what Ranger had said but I wanted to say aloud what my impressions were and see if Ranger agreed with me.

"If I use what I already know about those men in context to what this document is saying then this is what I think. Samuel Chiconi Kenny Laborni, Matthew Burns and Jimmy Salowski were friends and all of them were thieves. They got caught and spent time in prison for various jobs that they did individually. I think they got together, planned and did a job that involved stealing something that was worth a lot of money"

"Which was why they divided the value between them all and if one died it was divided amongst the surviving men"

Okay, Ranger seemed to be following what I was saying and what he said next certainly confirmed that he was one step ahead of me.

"I think that they stashed whatever it was because it would have been too hot to sell"

That made sense to me, but how would they access bits of it and why spread that access over time?

"If you're right then it can't have been one item. Maybe pieces of jewelry or even cash?"

I sat back and pulled my legs up to my chest as I tried to put all of those pieces together. The four men stole something valuable. They couldn't sell it for fear of that being noticed so had to wait five years. After five years they could each acquire a percentage of the value each year.

"So where was it being kept and who was looking after it? They must have been worried that one of them would run off with it"

Chiconi was the mastermind because he was the one who drew up this contract and I bet he was the one who knew where the stolen goods were and controlled when and how the other men got their share. If there was anything left after they had all died Trevor got it and one of the specifications in that contract was that it couldn't be inherited. Once all five of them were dead it was lost forever.

"That's why Lawrence is annoyed, because when Trevor died the secret of where anything that was left died with him"

There were a lot of pieces that were starting to make sense now, the four men and Trevor with the events from the timeline. I wondered if Burns had killed Salowski because he was worried that Salowski was going to give up their secret. That maybe explained why the three men, Kenny Laborni, Matthew Burns and Jimmy Salowski

never seemed to be overly rich, because they could only ever access an amount of money each year. That would have stopped the police or any other agency becoming suspicious of them. Laborni had gambled and drank away his money, Salowski had obviously siphoned his share to his wife. Chiconi had an expensive lifestyle but had also cared for his mother and brother. That left Burns so I would need to reread about him and how he'd spent his money.

I had a feeling that Trevor had never accessed any part of those stolen items, but his brother Lawrence would know about it. Hadn't Lawrence tried to cozy up to his brother? Yeah, but I bet it was to try and get his hands on the money.

"I think that tie pin is the key to what was stolen and to where any that's left is hidden"

"Your grandma would be mortified had she known what she'd had it in her hands. A treasure trail"

Ranger was right there. I could almost hear what she would have said to me. "We get the loot, Baby Granddaughter, and then enjoy our lives" I didn't want to think how different my life would have been had she realized what she had. Probably just as dangerous as it had always been. We would have had people after us in the same way and I doubted that we'd have been able to keep the treasure even if we'd found it. I sighed thinking about what my life would have been like had she still been alive. Would I have had to put up with Joe and his never ending berating or would I have eventually given in to him? No, I was finished with him before grandma died. Then there was Ranger. Would we have continued our friends with benefits with me refusing to accept the inevitable outcome, that no matter what he was never going to commit to me?

"Hey, what are you thinking that has you looking so sad?"

Ranger had swiveled my chair slightly and was crouched down in front of me. Would that friendship with Ranger have just carried on as it was, or would I have realized that all we had was an amazing friendship with benefits? Would I have found someone who had loved me as much as I loved Ranger? I realized that was probably the same now as it always had been and when all of this mess was sorted out, I'd have to decide what to do. There was no Joe to fall back onto and maybe that was all he had really been to me. Someone who was there and took notice of me. I could feel Ranger still watching me so knew that I had to give him a reasonable answer or he'd get suspicious of what I was really thinking about.

"My grandma. She'd have loved the idea of looking for treasure and maybe if she hadn't died what my life would have looked like. It doesn't really matter now because she did die, and things happened"

Even with my knees pulled up to my chest he drew me to him and hugged me. He never said anything, maybe because there was nothing to be said but as he pulled away, he kissed me on my forehead.

"Lunch"