It was almost 9:30 and I was sitting in the Food Court outside Macy's with a pretzel and an Orange Julius in my hands and the spoils from an outrageous orgy of shopping strewn around me. I had left a message for Morelli on his cell phone about a half hour ago and still hadn't heard back. Most of the mall was closing but if Morelli wasn't going to be home before 10:30, I was diving back into Macy's for another half hour of decadent shopping before it closed at ten.
My phone rang and I rummaged through my purse to find it. A glance at the face told me that it was Ranger's cell. I had left a message on Ranger's cell phone a couple of hours ago, and I was a bit surprised that he hadn't called back sooner. I felt my defense mechanisms rise into place as I flipped open the phone. I was pretty sure I knew what he was calling about.
"Yo!" Chipper Skipper here.
"Babe." I straightened in my seat. There was a note in Ranger's voice that told me that something was very, very wrong.
"We've had an incident here at the hotel. Right after you left, there was an assassination attempt on the Princess."
My hands were shaking and my knuckles turned white as I grabbed the edge of the table. "Was anyone hurt?"
"Cal took a couple of shots to the chest, but he was wearing his Kevlar so it just broke a couple of ribs. Tank got grazed by a shot on his leg, but nothing serious. Morelli is fine..."
"Morelli is there? What's he doing there?"
"He heard the reports of gunshots at the hotel on his police scanner and he knew that you had been working here today..."
"I bet he was shocked to find a scene of carnage and destruction and me not in the middle of it!"
I could feel Ranger smile in the silence, but it was a weird silence. I felt a panic rising in me.
"Ranger, what's wrong?"
"It's the princess, Babe. We can't find her. We figure that the attack must have been a diversion tactic to kidnap her. We've got the State Department involved, but the people we're dealing with don't want her alive. It doesn't look good."
I bit my lip as I glanced around the food court trying to find something to say.
"I'm sorry, Babe. I know you really liked her..."
"Are you searching for her?"
"Yeah, we've got everyone out looking, but..."
"Have you checked the food court at the mall? Outside of Macy's?"
"What?"
"BB!" I heard a voice whine at me. "You rat me out!"
I turned to the girl sitting across from me. "PJ, they think you're dead!"
There was a heavy silence on the phone from Ranger, then "You've got the princess there with you?"
"Hey, it's not my fault! She snuck into the backseat of my car while we were... talking. I called you on your cell phone as soon as I found out. It's not my fault you took two hours to get back to me!"
The silence from the other end only lasted a second, but I knew Ranger was more than a little bit flabbergasted. I heard him speak to someone else at his end. "She with Stephanie at the mall," he said. He paused and listened to someone speak and then he said to me, "Stay there, we're coming to get you. You have your gun?"
"Well, yes."
I heard the murmur of someone speaking in the background and recognized Morelli's voice.
"Is your gun loaded?" Ranger asked dangerously.
"Well, no, but I do have bullets here somewhere." I rooted down in the bottom of my purse trying to find a few of the shells that I had tossed in that morning. I mean, really! Who knew that I would need a loaded gun to go to the mall?
"Put the bullets in your gun and wait for us there. We're on our way."
A weird movement caught my eye and I glanced up at the far end of the food court.
"Fuck!" I whispered.
"What is it?" snapped Ranger.
"We got a problem. Get here fast!"
I disconnected, grabbed PJ's arm and dragged her into Macy's, leaving our bags behind.