Dawn Tracy
The characters you recognize belong to Janet Evanovich. I'm just borrowing them for fun and pleasure.
Rating: R
Spoilers: HS through EOT CHAPTER FIVEI picked Lulu up at seven and headed straight to the McDonald's drive thru. I got an egg McMuffin, breakfast potatoes and coffee. Lula got two egg McMuffins a sausage biscuit a pancake breakfast and orange juice.
"I got to be fortified in the morning." Lula informed me. "But I'm watching my calories so I'm not getting breakfast fries and I only got one sausage biscuit."
Lula insisted on driving. Said I had bad luck with cars. We drove past the Morrison Center without incident. Construction crews were doing their thing. I saw tons of heavy equipment, men in hard hats and accompanying activity. The area around the building was fairly quiet. A couple of men hung out, they looked homeless.
I did not know what I hoped to accomplish by this drive by, but it was not turning out to be very interesting. I would have liked to park and walk around, but I did not dare.
"I used to come by in the afternoon with a couple dudes I knew. Probably not much happens here during the day with that going on." Lula pointed to the construction. "You couldn't drag my ass here at night. I heard a guy came here to sell some watches and they killed him."
"Why?"
"He didn't belong to no gang, or know nobody. He just walked in and started selling. They don't like strangers setting up shop."
Lula headed back the way we came. I knew the Explorer was following us. It made me feel safer, but at the same time, I hoped my activities were not being reported to Ranger hourly. I did not think Ranger would be happy to learn about my little field trip. He told me specifically not to come here.
Lula stopped at a red light. The back door on the passenger's side opened and a man jumped in. He wore a black knit cap and a blue sweatshirt. I reacted intelligently and screamed. Lula did too.
"Who the fuck are you? Get the fuck out of my car." Lula yelled. She slipped a gun in my hand.
I didn't want to take it, but I knew I had to. Weekly practice at the gun range did nothing to subdue my dislike of guns. I calmed slightly when I realized it was a stun gun. I could do this. I ignored the roaring sound of fear in my head.
"You have to stop being such a nosy bitch. Stephanie Plum." The man said to me. "You don't belong around here." I saw he was missing one of his front teeth.
"He just called you a bitch." Lula seethed. "Get him."
The light turned green and Lula lurched the car forward. The man leaned towards me reaching for my throat. When I felt his fingers touch my skin I just lost it. I let out a yell and I zapped him on the wrist with the stun gun. He collapsed on the back seat.
"Cuff him, cuff him." Lula chanted, tossing me the cuffs she had in her pocket.
I tumbled into the back seat, trying not to retch when I landed on top of him. I cuffed his hands behind his back.
"Do you have any ankle restraints?" I asked.
"No, mine are still attached to Leon Greskowitz" Lula said.
I would have to get that story out of Lula later. He wore basketball sneakers with the laces loose. I took the laces and wrapped them around both his ankles and tied the laces together.
"I tied his ankles together with his shoelaces." I announced.
"Fucking brilliant."
I looked up and noticed Tank waving his arms and flashing his lights trying to get our attention from the Explorer behind us. In the excitement I forgot about him. I climbed back into the front seat, anxious to get away from the man.
"Lula, pull over. Tank can help us. I forgot about him."
"Tank?"
"Yeah. He's been behind us the whole time." He's probably having a cow by now.
"Tank has been behind us this whole time and you didn't tell me?" She jerked the car over so suddenly the man fell off the backseat onto the floor and Tank almost went past us.
"I didn't want to distract you."
"Oooh girl, you got that right. That man is a distraction."
Tank was at the side of the car and opening the door before either of us had our wits about us.
"What's going on? I saw someone try to get in the car." Tank wanted to know.
"He's in the back seat." I indicated the back of the car with my thumb.
Tank drew his gun and cautiously opened the back door. He looked at the unconscious man for about a second and yanked him out of the car. I got out of the car too.
"You tied his shoelaces together?" Tank asked.
"I didn't have ankle restraints so I improvised."
"We should take him to the police station." Tank announced, all business.
"How 'bout you two take him to the police station and I boogie on out of here. I got things to do, people to see." Lula offered. She had an aversion to police stations. I think it came from her former days of being a ho.
"Fine Lula. Be careful." I told her.
"I will. Call me soon."
"Tank will you do me a favor?" I asked when we were in the car.
"Depends what it is." He responded dryly.
"Will you wait to tell Ranger what happened this morning until he comes back?"
He was quiet for a minute. "I don't know if I can do that."
"I'm not asking you to lie to him. Just wait to tell him. No one was hurt. We don't really know who this man is or what it means. There's nothing Ranger can do. I'll tell him about it myself when he comes back. Look I know he's not off on the beach working on his tan. I don't want to worry him while he doing whatever it is he's doing."
"He would worry about you less if you would move into his apartment. But okay I'll wait to tell him. Try not to make a habit of doing this. There's no reason to be taking a drive down Clinton St at seven in the morning."
"I wanted to get a look at the Morrison Center and Lula could tell me about it."
"I'll take you by the site sometime or Ranger can."
After I spoke to the police I ran into Eddie Gazzara outside. Tank waited for me in the Explorer.
"You can't stay out of trouble can you?" He greeted me.
"I'm not in trouble. I was carjacked. Hey can you tell me what they have found out about Cesar Hugas or Rodney Smith's murder? They aren't going to go after Ranger and Hal as suspects are they?"
Eddie frowned. "You have a thing for Manoso don't you?"
"I want to know what is going on." I insisted.
"They are keeping everything locked up tight. I know Barnes would like to pin this on Ranger. The little I saw looked like his alibis are good. The other guy's are too. It's hard to say what angle Barnes is working from though. You should be careful Stephanie. Don't get involved in this."
"What about the pictures and the letters? Did you hear about those?"
"Yeah. Could be a coincidence. The man's a bounty hunter. Could just be another psycho. It might not be related at all."
I told Eddie about the bribery and the trouble with the dealers.
"Hmm. That is interesting. But again it could be a coincidence. Don't go off doing anything on your own. Did you tell this to Barnes and Tartino?" They were the homicide detectives working the case.
"No. I'm telling you."
Allen Barnes was the lead homicide detective trying to bring Ranger in for the murder of Homer Ramos. I wondered if there was still some resentment on his end towards Ranger. Another chance to pin a murder on Ranger might seem like a golden opportunity. I didn't trust Barnes to be fair or objective where Ranger was concerned. I didn't know much about Nick Tartino. He was a new homicide detective and seemed eager to please Barnes.
I finally made it into work and in between my regular searches I searched for more information about the Morrison Center and the companies that had contracts to work on the construction. I remembered that Mary Lou's husband Lenny's sister Paula married George Gumbazzi's son Stanley. Gumbazzi Contractors lost out on the Morrison Center contract. I called Mary Lou and told her I would stop by later. I could see her before going to meet Jackie. She could help me set up a meeting with Paula and maybe George. Paula was about five years ahead of us in school. I did not know her well.
I called Tank and told him of my plans for the day.
"I want to go talk Mary Lou. Her sister-in-law is married to one of George Gumbazzi's sons. Gumbazzi Construction was one of the companies that did not get the Morrison construction contract. She might know something about why they lost. I also want to take a look at Rodney Smith's messenger business and I was thinking about doing a drive by of Gray's Gym"
"Okay, take Hal with you. Take one vehicle." Tank always sounded like he was giving orders on the telephone.
"Um, have you heard from Ranger?" Damn I sounded like a lovesick puppy.
"Not today. Talk to you later." He hung up.
I found Hal in the control room with Vince and Woody. "Want to go out and play?"
Vince and Woody looked at each other and tried not to grin I could tell.
"Sure."
Hal followed me out to the garage. "Two vehicles or one?"
"I think I should drive us both, but it's up to you."
Hal reluctantly got into my Explorer and we were on the way.