Chapter 47

I saved the spreadsheet and closed down the computer then took the envelope up to seven knowing that I'd need to go into Carlos's safe. Once inside I ignored everything except for the black bag at the back of the safe and closed the place up again. It was as I was moving the clothes on the rail back into place that I spied the boxes that Les had salvaged from my apartment. I'd forgotten all about those but seeing as I was on my own, I removed the one that I knew held some precious mementos. I sat on the bed and decided that seeing as Carlos wasn't here to see what was inside, so opened that box.

I found the envelope that I'd been so worried about in case Carlos had wanted to look inside and tipped it out onto the bed. Yes, there were photos in there, but I shuffled them around until I found the one that I remembered. I remembered that day well, because it was a day when Carlos had taken pity on me and taken me to Point Pleasant. He'd bought me ice cream and candy before we walked along the beach and this photo was taken just as he had turned to me and tucked a curl behind my ear. Thinking back the photo had just suddenly turned up on my dining table in my old apartment. I never did find out who was responsible for doing that.

Why was I interested in this particular photo, well apart from the fact that it was of me with Carlos. It was the way that we were stood looking at each other because the image was exactly the same as in the wedding photo that I'd seen in Ella's apartment. Had we both been so blind that we couldn't see what was right in front of us? I suppose that it just wasn't the right time and we both had issues within our lives to sort through. I leant back on the bed and placed it into my bedside cabinet suddenly aware that something had fallen onto the floor. There just under the bed was a watch. Hell, I'd forgotten that I had it and had probably hidden it for two reasons. One was because I liked it and it had been given to me by Carlos on one of the first distractions that I'd done for Rangeman and secondly, well I thought that he'd be mad at me for keeping it. I wasn't even sure if it still worked so set the time and fastened it around my wrist.

I repacked the envelope then replaced it back into the box, ready to now look into the bag that I'd got from my grandma. To be honest I'd had enough sentimental moments for the day so found the envelope with the bonds inside, those were what I would need to take to my meeting with Mr Ryland. Everything went back to where I had found them before I went through to the lounge. I wasn't sure what documents I would need so decided to take everything with me.

My meeting was at 10am so by 9 I was down on five trying to find someone who would take me. I'd gotten myself into a real state just thinking about driving. It had been months since I'd driven so didn't think that it was a good idea just yet, plus I didn't have a driving license, that was a job that I would need to do, but not today. Carlos had been so apologetic that he couldn't go with me, but he had an important client meeting, and I wasn't going to stop him from going. Yeah, that talk to myself came back to me, no way was I going to be a clingy and dependent woman. I'd taken my own advice and ensured that I had everything that I would need, apart from the documents, so was definitely ready to go.

"Beautiful, what you up to?"

Okay, so maybe me looking into the breakroom for who was hanging around did look a bit strange.

"I, err, I was looking to see if I could get a lift off someone"

I wasn't sure what Les was doing when he put his arm around my shoulder and led me out to the hall but seeing him stop me in front of one of those computer message boards had me reading it.

"See, it says there, Mrs. Manoso and next to your name is Woody and Mannie"

I had no idea why my name would be on there and looked at Les for some sort of explanation.

"Ranger added it this morning before he went out"

Okay, I could cope with that and was pleased that he'd done that for me. I found Woody and Mannie at their desks and spent a few minutes reading through a search that Mannie was doing on an FTA.

"Have you tried that address?"

I asked because to me it seemed to make sense.

"Steph why would our man be anywhere near there?"

"Well, let's see. It says here that he had a rifle when he robbed that place, so I assume that you've checked all of the usual places for ammo"

"Of course we have. No one's seen him recently. We've checked with his mother and his last girlfriend but they aint seen him either"

I suppose they had followed the usual sources that even I would have resorted to, but this was a higher bond than I'd usually looked for.

"So what about the not usual sources. Have you tried Baustista he deals in guns and ammo? Look again here, he got a parking ticket on that street, and that is where the bar is where Baustista's daughter works. So you might find him there at the end of her shift or even where she lives, though I'd maybe stay away from there 'cos I'm sure daddy will have the place guarded"

I waited for the guys to catch up with what I was saying and was pleased when he shouted over to Woody.

"Got a line on him, well Steph has. We'll do some surveillance tonight"

"Use an undercover car Mannie because there are sure to be customers who would recognize a Rangeman vehicle"

I'd once gone into that bar after a low life who'd beaten up one of Lula's girls. The others had given me the low down of the place and I'd had Lula with me, but we were lucky that my FTA managed to get himself thrown out for annoying one of the waitresses.

"Where we going Steph?"

I noticed that Woody was stood next to me so showed him the address for where Mr Ryman's office was on Carnegie Center Drive out in Princeton, So not somewhere that I was likely to come across anyone but then again I'd said that about the bank that she'd used. Neither of the men asked me why I was going that far out of Trenton which I was grateful for. I still felt that I didn't deserve that amount of money but seeing as grandma had given it to me then the least that I could was to own it, not the money, but the whole inheritance thing. I suppose in a way it acknowledged my ties to her. There was just one more thing that I needed to do for her but that could wait until tomorrow.

The area around the office was surprisingly busy in terms of cars and parking. There were several fast food places and a couple of those warehouse places where they advertised that they sold designer clothes cheap. It was more likely that they were designs from ten years ago or were damaged stock. Mannie ended up parking to the side of the building where Mr Ryman's office was but at least he walked me to the door while Woody stayed with the car,

The office was on the first floor to the east side of the building, and it was the nice receptionist who greeted me as I walked through the door.

"Good morning, Miss Plum. Mr Ryman is running slightly late already but I'm sure that he won't be too long"

I smiled at her knowing that it wasn't her fault and couldn't be helped. Things like that happened, as I'd learnt from working with Jenson.

"Would you like a coffee? There's this place next door that I use, Mr Ryman prefers the coffee from there more than anything that I can make. He has a Affogato. It's an espresso poured on a vanilla ice cream"

"That sounds amazing"

And I could see why it couldn't be made here. I took a seat to wait as the receptionist picked up her bag and left finding nothing else to do but to look around the room. I'd expected an old fashioned place which was quite wrong of me. Just because Mr Ryman was older than me didn't mean that he didn't appreciate the clean cut lines of glass and metal. The door at the side of the room was where I presumed Mr Ryman's office was so as I heard the turn of the handle, I stood up with my bag ready to greet him.

What I didn't expect to see was Joe Morelli walk out through the door and a quick look told me that he was totally pissed off. His face was red and the vein in his neck was pulsing, he seemed so annoyed that I didn't think that he saw me straight away. I didn't know whether to make a dash for the door that would take me from the office or move around the room to where it could be safer. The second option seemed the better choice due to the distance between me and the door and to be honest Joe was closer to there.

"Mr Morelli, I'm sorry, but there's nothing that I can do"

I heard from Mr Ryman who was stood at his door and to be honest he didn't look at all comfortable, probably because of the way that Joe was behaving. I had a glimmer of hope that maybe Joe just wouldn't see me, but hey, this was me and as he turned to answer Mr Ryman his eyes fell on me.

"You. This is all your fucking fault"

I backed up a step which only seemed to annoy him even more and before I knew it, he had hold of my arm and was dragging me toward where Mr Ryman was stood with his eyes wide open. That Joe punched Mr Ryan had me screaming out. What the hell was wrong with him to do that, had he totally lost it? I felt myself being pushed forward, into Mr Ryman's office, and landed up against a desk, my hands taking the brunt of the fall. I know that I was scared stupid and as I heard a key turn in the door also knew that I was trapped. Think, what the hell could I do? There was no way that I could avoid Joe now and I didn't think that Mannie or Woody would even consider that I was in trouble.

"Just the person that I wanted to see"

By the tone of Joe's voice, I could tell that some of the anger had dimmed but I also knew that he felt that he was now in control of the situation. I didn't move and I didn't say anything because I was too busy trying to calm down my breathing. He can't hurt you anymore kept going through my head, he can't control you. Was what I had to cling onto if I was going to get out of this unscathed. I closed my eyes to try and compose myself but when I opened them, I was looking at the watch around my wrist. It was reading 10.15 so maybe it was still working. I racked my brains to try and remember how it worked. Of the three buttons I knew one was a panic button and another was, what? I pushed both of them in the hope that someone somewhere would pick up on the signal. Knowing my luck, it had probably been deleted from the system.

"How is it that you always manage to fuck things up, always manage to screw me over"

I had no idea what he was talking about because as far as I was concerned other than walking out on him all those months ago, I hadn't done anything that could impact on him. Turning I kept my hands by my side pleased that I'd relented and worn gloves. I was still very aware of the scars on my hands, but I was thankful for them now because they were covering up my rings. I didn't think that Joe would be too pleased if he saw those and was sure that it would only ramp up his temper.

"What am I supposed to have done, Joe?"

"You really don't get it do you? All that you had to do was pack in that shitty job and then you would have married me. Hell, you were almost there after your grandmother died, but what did you do? You ran. Do you know how much trouble you caused me? Everyone believed that Crocker was the one who did it, I set it up like that, paid him a shit load of money. Then you disappear and he's trying to blackmail me for more. Stupid man said that he wasn't going to be blamed for what happened when he didn't even do it"

I wasn't going to respond because I knew whatever I said would be wrong. What he'd done was to confirm that he'd tried to get Crocker to set fire to my car. Did he really think that happening would have swathed me, made me change my mind about him?

"I suppose the old bat dying made up for it, made you a blubbering mess, susceptible to what I'd planned. Why did you run Cupcake?"

That he was asking me that after what he'd told me made me want to hit him. How dare he call my grandma an old bat and basically demean her death like that? I didn't answer, instead I knew that I needed to keep him talking and to do that I couldn't say what I really wanted to.

"Manoso, well he was out of town so you couldn't go running to him. Where did you go because no one, not even your precious Rangemen could find you?"

"West, I just kept going. You pushed me too far Joe to the point that I didn't care anymore. Why Joe, why do that when you never really loved me?"

I was looking to the door trying to figure out if I could get to it, keep Joe occupied was the only way that I could think of to distract him. Maybe by doing that I'd learn the truth, though I already suspected what his reasons were.

"I needed the money, and knew that you would eventually get it. Edna was devious but not enough to fool me. I worked out that she must have had a big winning when she stopped buying any tickets, so I did some research. Your petty mother knew nothing about it, so I worked out that she'd probably leave it to you"

That was a big leap to have made which had me wondering exactly what research he'd done and how legal it was. I suppose he was at my parent's house often enough to nosey around and I knew that my grandma was pretty sloppy when it came to important documents. To her the bedroom that she used was sacrosanct to her and would never have expected anyone to look through her things.

Okay I knew why he had tried to bully me into marrying him and the first part of his plan, but I really wanted to know if he'd purposely shot Crocker to get rid of him. To me it seemed obvious, but then again hadn't Willoughby told me that they couldn't find any evidence to accuse Joe.

"So getting Crocker out of the way, that was a brilliant plan, Joe"

He had a large enough ego that the smile that went across his face told me everything that I wanted to know. The bastard had planned out the murder of Crocker perfectly.

"It was wasn't it, though I have to admit that Internal Affairs catching onto where the gun had come from threw me. I had to lay low why all of that shit was going on and then there you were with Manoso and suddenly a lot of questions were being asked about Crocker"

I suppose that me turning up and then the internal investigation happening could have been seen as a coincidence but by then Carlos had found me and all of the pieces for Joe being involved started to fit together. So why was he here and why wouldn't he just let me walk away and accept that he was never going to get his hands on my money?

My eyes widened as I saw Joe start to step toward me and I knew that I really needed to get away from him. I stepped to the left and darted toward the corner of the room where there was a couch thinking that maybe I could put that between me and Joe. Of course it didn't happen like that. I thought that I was out of his reach when I felt a hand around my calf and was tumbling to the floor. I tried kicking out, but it only resulted in Joe grabbing hold of my ankles and flipping me onto my back. I was trying to reach into my jacket pocket for my gun when he crawled up me and sat over my hips holding my wrists to the floor next to my side.

He was so close to me I could smell him and the alcohol on his breath. My heart was beating so quickly that I was sure I was going to pass out. A lone tear fell from my eye as I realized that there was no way for me to get free and no matter what I'd told myself about Joe I was totally terrified of what could happen next.

"On your back Cupcake, where you belong. No Manoso to rescue you now, so are you ready to accept your fate? I have to have that money or I'm a dead man. Do you know how much it costs to contract a killer out? Two hundred thousand grand and he wants paying"

I'm sure my eyes went wide because it had never occurred to me the lengths that Joe would go to, that he'd actually paid someone to kill Carlos.

"You did that? You paid someone to kill C, Ranger?"

Because that was the only thing that made any sense. But it wasn't just Carlos who could have died that day it could also have been me.

"A pro who knows him well and hates him as much as I do. When I found out that Lula was heading out to Hawaii I knew that you'd be there with him. It was perfect and my man knew that he'd insist on using the professional tank. Then as soon as he was in the water and the pressure increased, boom. Couldn't have him come between us Cupcake. You know I'm the only one who'll take you now that Manoso has gone. He's not there to protect you now, is he?"

I was staring wide eyed up at Joe because I couldn't believe the lengths that he would go to just to get to me. Did he really think that if anything happened to Carlos, I'd go running back to him? My god, he was delusional to think that he could control me like that. Okay, if anything had happened to Carlos, or ever did, I'd be inconsolable, very much like I had been when grandma had died, and I believed that I was to blame, but go back to Joe? Never, never would I allow him anywhere near to me.

That was when it suddenly occurred to me that Joe actually thought that Carlos had died that day, that this pro that he'd hired had done the job. I wasn't going to deny his death, but that piece of information was something to think about. Later though, not now. Now I had to get away from Joe.

My wrists were starting to hurt with Joe pushing them down onto the floor, but it didn't stop me from fidgeting or trying to buck him off me. I did manage to unbalance him so that he shifted slightly from my hips. With his weight gone I drew up one of my legs and managed to catch him in his crutch. The power of his hand as he struck me across the face nearly had me passing out and certainly dazed me. Him pulling me toward him only freed my arms but he was too close to me to make a hit do any good.

How I ended up with my back against the wall near to the desk surprised me and that was when his hands came around my throat.

"Why can't you just understand?"

At least they didn't tighten anymore but then again if I died ,he wouldn't get any money. That was when he noticed the papers on the floor. I wasn't sure when that had happened, maybe I'd dropped my bag when I had first been slammed to the desk. I didn't know, but from how Joe stepped back from me and picked up one of the sheets of paper I knew that it couldn't be good. He held out the paper in front of him as he read it so I had no idea which paper he was reading.

"He married you? Is that when he took you to Hawaii, back to that damn resort where you'd been with him before?"

Oh shit, it must have been a copy of the marriage certificate that he was reading. He'd know then that he could never force me to marry him, and he'd never get his hands on that money.

"You stupid bitch. He only married you for your money. What the hell have you done?"

I honestly thought that when he stepped further away from me and turned around that this was over. He'd finally concede that he'd lost any hope of getting his hands on my money. He'd know that Carlos was my beneficiary if anything happened to me. The thought of where the money would go to if we were both dead just never occurred to me. I watched as the silence dragged out not daring to move or say anything, as he wiped his hand down his face thinking it through.

That he was holding a gun pointed at me when he turned back to face me totally stunned me. I was shaking my head as I inched along the wall, though how I thought that I could avoid being shot I had no idea. To compound things, he was holding my gun in his hand, the one that I'd had in my jacket pocket.

"You never were the brightest, were you? I felt the gun and removed it before you even thought that you could shoot me. Maybe if I shoot you with my gun and leave your gun in your hand then it would be self defense again"

I watched horrified as he brought out his own revolver and knew that he was capable of doing just that.

"Hey, look on the bright side. With you dead all of your money will go to your next of kin, your mother. She'll help me out, get my house back and pay off my debts"

I wouldn't be sure of that if I was him. My mother was a very selfish person who wouldn't give scraps to a dog. As he raised his gun, I closed my eyes knowing that I had one last thing to hope for.

Gun shots rang out, but I felt the excruciating pain sear through my shoulder as I turned. I know that I slunk down the wall to the floor, my vision blurring, but I could swear that I saw figures moving and heard shouting. As I lay there, I could feel hands on my face, and something was making the pain worsen to the point that I couldn't seem to get my breath.

"Babe, stay with me, don't you fall asleep"

Like I could even stop that from happening but at least when my eyes finally closed, I felt a contentment settle over me because Carlos was here with me.