The Missing Piece in Ranger's Life
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Chapter 14
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Ranger's POV
"Chill man. Good news. The chase is on in earnest. Our targets are running scared and we have them in our sights. The Feds have tagged and tailed the two Washington idiots. They switched their vehicles en route when they met up, abandoning their own. We are pursuing Morelli and closing in, just giving him some false sense of security while the other two head north to rendezvous with him."
"Good. Damn good. Anything else? You sound like there's more to be said."
What the fuck? Damnit. Another chuckle? He was getting off on my frustration and he damn well knows I am not capable of taking him to the mats just yet. Fucker.
"Okay, okay. It's time to pack your bags, Rangeman. You're all going home. I'll let you discuss with your team about their exit options. See you soon. Doc and Taipan are already on their way to pick you up. They will clear the safe house. So, just pack up all the evidence, grab your duffels and we'll see you soon. Tank out."
Tank out? What the fuck?! He just dismissed me? Fuck. But then I couldn't help but smile.
Rex, Thiago and Miguel had shit-eating grins with the welcome news and doing their crazy handshakes and knuckle bumping routine. Yeah. Such a good feeling.
"Well?"
"Ranger. Man. We are too invested in this clusterfuck. We want to see it through, to the end. We want in on the action, even if it means just being on the premises at Rangeman. We want to see the assholes go down." Rex spoke on their behalf.
"Hooah!"
About fucking time!
Everything was quickly boxed and ready to go. To say we were excited was an understatement. We only had a short wait before the van reversed into the garage. We loaded all the evidence with our notes, and our duffels. We're going home. Finally.
"Gee. You guys look too happy," Taipan chuckled. That earned him a few friendly thumps but he accepted the knuckle bumps with a grin. See, the man can talk.
The drive back to Rangeman was only twenty minutes. As I stepped out from the rear of the van, I turned just in time to catch the happy squeal that resonated in the underground garage as Stephanie leapt into my arms. I caught her easily. Her lips were on mine in the same instant as she wrapped her long legs around my hips. I got lost in the kiss but surfaced with all the whistles and catcalls. Slowly, and reluctantly, she slipped down my body. Dios, that felt so good.
"Welcome home, Ranger."
A resounding "HOOAH!" echoed in the garage parking lot.
Her smile was radiant. Her eyes glistened with joy, the blue so enchanting. Beautiful, just so beautiful.
We were quickly surrounded by a sea of black. Our reception committee was quickly filling the garage. Thankfully, Doc had parked at the service entrance, so we were not conspicuous from the main entrance. Lots of back thumping and "welcome backs". With a shrill whistle, Tank ushered everyone upstairs, to meet in the large conference room on the fifth floor in fifteen. We grabbed our duffels and the rest of the guys grabbed the boxes of evidence.
Stephanie grabbed my hand, entwining her fingers with mine, and sighed, a happy sigh, leaning on my shoulder as we went up in the elevator. I kissed her temple and ran my hands through her sexy wild curls. She smiled up at me.
"C'mon Batman, we have bad bunnies and an asshole Italian jackass to chase and catch," she giggled.
I laughed at her waxing lyrical. Couldn't have said it better … asshole Italian jackass.
Once inside the conference room, we saw it had been extended by opening the concertina wall panels from the adjoining smaller conference room, making a larger command centre. On the boards they had the mug shots of said bad bunnies and the asshole Italian jackass, and their vehicles. Lots of notes underneath. Lula's mugshot was accompanied by the more data.
A large map was up on the big screen, showing Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania with the stateliness clearly marked. On the whiteboards was a summary of Lula's incriminating reveal, with all the sorted and catalogued boxes and files. There was also a log of Morelli's recent movements, prior to his final departure. I nodded my head in approval and glanced at my second on command.
"Report!"
He grinned knowingly but got straight down to business.
"Firstly, welcome to Ranger's mission team who were keen to join us in the pursuit of happiness in nabbing these assholes: Miguel, Rex and Thiago. We're glad you are all back here at Rangeman HQ. This is our command centre for the chase."
Everyone nodded acknowledging them in return.
"Firstly, Ranger, what did your team discover with Lula's photographic evidence and documents? It's likely we came to the same conclusions, but you are just as involved, critically involved to be honest, more than any of us."
"Despite initial appearances, Lula was very organised with her accounting, both of financials and for logging events, meetings and transcribing conversations. Her financials would certainly have given your forensic auditing team a field day. She revealed so much incriminating data, verifying her direct involvement in the deception and acts of treason, and not just by association. More than just an accessory after the fact. This was reinforced with the emails and texting to Morelli. It appears that her substantial funding came from her "extra-curricular" monthly activities with various senior mob families in the greater Trenton area. Her assignments for her Accounting Certificate interestingly confirmed the many transactions, although the names had been changed. Her attention to detail with said transactions made it easy to track the transfer of funds to Morelli's partners in crime, and also to the off shore accounts held by Morelli. By including a list of the account details, with their respective numbers and titles, Lula made all the connections easy to validate. In addition to her involvement in funding this FUBARed mission, her intentions to eliminate Stephanie became obvious, right to the final act where she was arrested in the parking lot of Stephanie's apartment. The … er … graphic texts, and her candid diary entries, also corroborate her plan of action."
Tank nodded, as did other team members.
"Ranger, we concur with all the financial data and were able to validate the movement and transfer of funds simply, as you noted so well, because of her remarkable efficiency and thorough accounting. Efficiency or sheer stupidity. The memo for not leaving a paper trail must have been omitted, or forgotten. Morelli clearly warned her in one of his emails. There is no cure for stupid. Rodriguez, Manny and Steph were readily able to locate all their accounts. That data is ready and packaged neatly for the Feds, and also the IRS.
"Money laundering came close to our attention. Initially this did not seem relevant to our investigation, until we examined further. Manny and Steph were curious. Rodriguez, too. It appeared that Lula had a Sugar Daddy, a favourite senior client with whom she may have performed extra-curricular duties, or whatever. Lula managed a different account, not in her name, to launder money through a car wash chain he owned, and a laundromat under one of her aliases. The IRS will be most interested in talking to both of them. Her involvement with "Mr Bubbles" goes back a decade, so it is a separate issue from this mission. However, it explains how she was able to make the substantial deposits into her account, and make those significant transfers to the three fuckwit assholes. We discovered that particular file separately stashed in her apartment. Interestingly, in the forensic search, Manny discovered an off shore account with a substantial amount of money. Lula was loaded, like really loaded. It appears to be an inheritance from another Sugar Daddy. That explains how she accrued well over six figures in her other accounts."
He let that sink in. I nodded for him to go on. The IRS are going to take her to the cleaners! That's the least of her worries.
"Stephanie, in her deep searches, discovered a certificate of marriage, a Decree Nisi annulment, and then another certificate of marriage. Lula has been busy. In doing so, Steph uncovered an original birth certificate for Georgia Tallulah Maynard. She worked using her name Lula, as we know her here in Trenton, but, previously as Lula Georgia, and sometimes under the aliases of Georgia Maynard or Lula Maynard. However, according to her income tax lodgements, they were filed under Lula Georgia. She must have had some legal assistance to activate a different tax file number, perhaps one of her clients. There are still warrants current for Lula Maynard in Savannah, and another in Atlanta, under Georgia Maynard, for soliciting and drug related offences. None is current for New Jersey."
I smiled at Stephanie. I could hear Miguel mutter, "Why hasn't she been snapped up for our intelligence teams?"
I winked at her. Her curiosity obviously got the better of her. She loves to dig deep. I love that tenacity. Another marriage certificate, eh? Hm. How interesting. Another Sugar Daddy perhaps?
"And our three douchebag fuckwit traitors? Where are they now and what are their moves?"
Tank grinned, indicating another map, showing two trails heading into Pennsylvania, two initially heading north from Washington, before merging as one, and the other heading west from Trenton.
"As you can see, Morelli is heading west having crossed the state line into Pennsylvania. His two cohorts are heading north from Maryland. This is where it gets interesting. Before his final departure, Morelli made a number of purchases from the Army Navy Shop, mainly camping and hiking gear, outdoor clothing, containers, and a sleeping bag, as well as a lot of supplies from a supermarket on the way home. That was just after he dropped off Bob the dog at his mother's place, while he went on "vacation".
"We have three teams tailing him. It might seem a little extravagant and over the top, but we need to nail that bastard after what he did to your mission. Hector and Lester, Woody and Hal, and the third team Vince and Zip, are in pursuit. As you recall, Hector had already put trackers on his truck, the Ducati, his leather jacket and his boots. He made sure that there was an easy obvious tracker to find, which the fucker seems to have discovered and destroyed. The others are all intact. Stupid ass. They have overtaken him and gone ahead, turning off to come up behind later, with the other teams doing those rotations, just to mix it up. Rotating the tail like this has worked well. They're driving insignificant looking pick-up trucks. No Rangeman black.
"In the meantime, Mancuso and Ragusto made similar purchases from an Army Surplus store, and food and drinks from a store along the way. The Feds had tagged their vehicles already, as soon as it became apparent about their treacherous involvement, suspecting that they were about to make a run for it. Initially the military police wanted to arrest them before they left DC, but we convinced them to have the Feds tag and tail while we pursued Morelli, to capture them together. Much better to capture them in this way since they were treasonous co-conspirators. Morelli having served with the navy will find himself under federal charges. If they, the two desk drivers, had dispersed then the MPs were a go. However, we had the texts and emails confirming their intentions to meet up and plan their disappearance with Morelli calling the shots. With this, we did wonder if Morelli would be devious enough to permanently get rid of his two treacherous cohorts.
Presently, they are still headed north, after they abandoned both of their vehicles en route, at Rockville, Maryland. There, while they were inside the diner, this next vehicle was easily tagged with a tracker by the Feds, confirmed by our contact liaison agent. The map shows they are, ironically, at a place called Halfway, still heading north. With Morelli heading west into Pennsylvania, just passing through Morgantown, we suspect they are headed for the Poconos Mountains. We thought he might head through Harrisburg initially, perhaps heading into one of the northern states, but he back-tracked a bit on Route 76 and is heading along the Pennsylvania Turnpike. To be honest, we thought he would likely avoid any toll roads. Obviously not. Rodriguez can home in on the cameras at the tolls to confirm his direction. He appears to be making good time, but staying within the speed limits."
While Tank was relaying all this, we were all watching the electronic map, which showed their respective vehicles, and the chasers. Ah, yes. He's suspicious, the fucker, or just being cautious, as we watched him deviate off Route 76, heading to Middlesex and back around. While the two fuckers heading north drove in a relatively straight line, Morelli was deviating, attempting to lose a possible tail. We listened to the reports coming in, confirming that Morelli was back to heading west. Cal and Zero were in direct contact with the chasers.
"Morelli's now heading south west on Route 81. He pulled over for a bit, at a truck stop and he was on the phone. Lester and Hector stayed back. As Vince and Zip passed by and continued on, Morelli got out of his truck slamming the door. Woody said they could easily hear his raging rant, obviously pissed off. Outside his truck, he was pacing up and down in a typical rant while refuelling," relayed Cal.
Zero continued, "Woody and Hal reported that they went inside the diner and observed him, keeping out of sight. They're all dressed like your typical truckies on the long haul, with their caps and lumber jackets, concealing their build and usual Rangeman appearance. Woody has his cowboy hat as we all know. Morelli had a piss, bought some drinks and a hot beef roll and some snacks while sweet-talking the server. Fucker. He was back on his phone again, calmer, telling whoever, to chill and stay with the plan. Before climbing back into his truck, he pulled a different coloured tarpaulin over his Ducati and then resumed his course. Hal and Woody called in the details, so Vince and Zip ahead of them, allowed Morelli to pass while they were in the slow lane. According to Vince, the fucker was still ranting, banging the steering wheel as he sped past them."
Undoubtedly from his two co-conspirators. Morelli is more familiar with this sort of subterfuge scenario, in stark contrast to the two morons who spend most of their time driving a mouse behind a desk and a computer.
Tank thanked Zero and Cal while they maintained contact with the three pursuit teams. He grinned slyly, lifted an eyebrow with a subtle chin lift while looking expectantly at Stephanie. There was mischief in his eyes and she caught on immediately. They had a silent conversation. Huh. My girl is doing the ESP thing with Tank. She winked at me as she grabbed a blingy mobile phone. That's strange, not her usual style.
"Lula's phone. It's time for a bit of creative mind fucking. Tank and I thought it would be fun for "Lula" to text her "Hairy Bear/Stud Muffin". Ugh! I wanna puke. We are using her words from previous texts so it's not something unfamiliar to him."
Her full body shudder was amusing with Lula's pet names for the asshole.
Everyone smirked at this ploy. As she typed out the pre-scripted text, we watched in fascination as it was relayed to the other screen beside the map.
Hey Hairy Bear,
This is your sexy Honey Bee. Haven't seen you in a bit, Honey Buns.
Just so you know, I am having a little vacation atm.
I wanna lick that lollipop. (smiley face with tongue and a winky smile)
xoxox
Everybody sniggered. Then "Eeuww" or a gagging reflex with the lollipop remark. She grinned at me with a sly wink. Madre Dios. Later Babe. Hold that thought.
"Yeah. Right. She's having a little "vacation" in a nice cell compliments of the Trenton PD!" Tank rumbled.
WYD Honey Buns?
We waited to see if her "Hairy Bear" would respond to reveal what he was doing. Five minutes later he responded. Hal confirmed that Morelli pulled into a roadside rest stop. Hector and Lester waited back while Vince and Zip passed him again. Zero explained the phone call and sent a copy of "Lula's" text. He chuckled giving us the thumbs up, message received.
"Hooah!" was his reply.
We waited with bated breath, watching the screen in mixed anticipation. Sure enough, he responded.
Hey Honey Bee.
Driving atm.
Yeah Baby. Gimme some lickin.
On a camping trip with a couple of guys.
Booked a cabin in Poconos.
C U soon. The Boys miss you Lollipop Lady.
From your Stallion
Again, the gagging reflex was unanimous, with absolute disgust and distaste on Stephanie's face. Maybe distaste was not the right word. Sick man. His message reply was received with mixed reactions of revulsion.
"Ugh! Puke!"
"Gross."
"The Boys? What's with that?"
"I just lost my appetite."
"Oh no! My poor brain! My eyes!"
"Yuck! Him and his Boys. Eeuw!" muttered Stephanie with a massive eyeroll, shaking her head.
"Ha! The Poconos! Hand over da money, boys!" Tank remarked triumphantly with a shit eating grin.
The money was handed over readily with some mutterings and a few congratulatory knuckle bumps. A bit of levity is good in the mix.
Damn. It was so good being in the mix. I could tell that Miguel, Rex and Thiago felt the same as the latter nodded and grinned at me. I wondered what their plans were now after all this was behind us. For all three of them this had been their last mission too. Perhaps they might like to consider a role in Rangeman. I can vouch for them at the drop of a hat. They certainly fit our ethos and projected image. Something to consider.
In the meantime, Stephanie was responding as Lula again.
OK Wild Thing.
Be careful.
C U when U cum back to me Stud.
xox
"Ha ha ha!"
"Oh no, Stephanie! Really?"
I smiled. Gross as it was, it was just something that Lula would say.
Gotta go Honey Bee.
Meeting up soon.
"Well done, Babe."
"Morelli is on the move again," Cal confirmed, as we watched his red dot move on the main screen.
Zero and Cal worked well relaying the information between the pursuit teams and us.
"So, now we wait."
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TBC
Uh oh. A cliffie you say? But I did gift you two longer chapters to make up for it. Gotta love Lula's stupid efficiency, eh? So ironic. And the pursuit is closing in.
Dedicating this chapter to my dear Bestie Ms Margaret.
