Recap: After catching a skip, Stephanie and Ranger go to Morelli's house. Stephanie snags Joe's key. Ranger leaves, allowing her to take Joe's car.
Stephanie
I was going to hell.
How many sins had I committed today? I'd taken drugs, even if accidentally, laid about the house when I was supposed to be working, done a dance at a strip club, and was now getting ready to steal a car.
And there was the lust. Oh, the lust. When I was dancing I could feel Ranger's eyes on me. And it wasn't creepy, it was exciting. I wondered what all those muscles under his t-shirt would feel like.
Focus. Car thieving to do.
The fob unlocked the door of a red Jeep. I hopped in, basking in the comfortable seat. The key slid in easily, and it started on the first try with a small purr. It was such a change from what I had been driving that I nearly cried. Surely it couldn't be that wrong to take it. He was FTA, right? So I could commandeer his vehicle to help catch him. That wasn't so bad, was it?
Fuck it. I needed a car, one that operated. I couldn't catch criminals in a car that wouldn't start. My captures would laugh at me. I wasn't proud, but I put on my seatbelt and pulled out of the parking lot into traffic.
I didn't want to drive through the Burg and risk someone seeing me in Joe's car and calling my mother. That would be a disaster and a half. So I skirted around the neighborhood. Unfortunately I had gotten so used to having a GPS that now I was helpless without one, and within a few minutes I was lost.
"Ok Stephanie, think." I told myself, hoping to keep myself company. "You've lived in this city your whole life. So how do you get home?"
I tried to navigate via the moon, then realized I had no idea what direction the moon was at this time of night. At a stop sign I reached back and dug around in the pocket behind the seat, hoping to find a city map. A cop would have one of those, right? It took a moment, but finally I found what I was looking for. A slamming door grabbed my attention, and I looked up to see Joe Morelli across an intersection, storming away from a van covered in antennas. Right towards me.
"What the hell are you doing with my car?" I heard him yell as I went into panic mode.
"Shit, shit, shitshit" I mumbled to myself as I slammed on the gas, careening into the intersection. Probably remembering the last time I had pointed a car at him, and the subsequent broken leg, he dove to the side, and I sped off into the darkness.
I was still berating myself when I finally found Hamilton. Yet again I had been only a few feet away from him, and again I had let him slip through my fingers. I pulled over to think about my next step. He knew I had his car, and he knew who I was. With my name he could easily look up my address. So my options were to ditch the car, park it somewhere he couldn't find it, or use it as bait. I was pretty sure I could find a bar parking lot where it wouldn't get towed if I parked it overnight, but it seemed a waste to not use this opportunity to catch him.
I was in over my head. I needed advice. So I pulled out my cell phone and called Ranger, a little embarrassed that I had been away from him for only half an hour and needed him again.
A mechanical voice read out his number and said it was unavailable, and to leave a message. It hadn't rung at all, so he hadn't sent me to voicemail. Either his phone was dead or he was out of range. I hatched a vague plan in my head. Park the car in my lot in view of the bushes near the entrance of the building. Disable it by removing the distributor cap. Wait until he came to collect it, then pounce.
I sighed. It was an OK plan in theory, but it would work far better with Ranger helping. And there were flecks of snow dancing in the cold air. I wouldn't be able to stay outside more than 10 minutes before I'd get miserable. Perhaps I could do it tomorrow. I pulled back into the traffic lane, and headed to a bar close enough to my apartment that I could walk home, even in the frigid air.
Ranger
Lester had been annoyed that I was so late to inspect the latest addition to the Rangeman building. "You have been totally off your game lately. But wait until you see this." He led me down the stairs of the building that was still being constructed. Everything below ground was concrete, the first basement being the parking garage, and the holding cells below that.
A few feet past the stairway was a heavy door. It looked like it was nothing more than thick wood, but we had designed them to be impenetrable to either anyone trying to get in, or out. They were soundproof and could withstand a small explosion. If we had to hold people, nasty people, before turning them over, we would be prepared.
"We have 3 cells like this set up, the other 3 that will be saferooms are almost done, but the furniture still has to be assembled."
I nodded. "It really is all coming together. All those nights up late on watch, planning, dreaming. And now we're just a few months away."
Lester nodded. "Sure is cuz. Want to help assemble furniture? The IKEA shipment came today."
We spent the next hour and a half assembling 3 identical double beds. With the internet not set up yet, and no reception this far underground, we had nothing to go on but the wordless instructions. This led to a lot of confusion, swearing, and almost as much disassembling as assembling. The second and third were much easier, once we had gotten the hang of it.
Finally we were done. I stood up and brushed the dust off my pants, a long-standing habit from boot camp. When we got back up to the ground floor my phone buzzed. And buzzed, and buzzed. I looked at it. 10 missed calls. 3 messages. 5 texts. As I went to check the text messages it rang again.
"Yo"
"Ranger!"
Stephanie sounded like she was about to cry. "What's wrong?" I asked. Lester turned to look at me, and I held up a finger for him to wait.
"It's a long story. Short answer is, Morelli broke into my apartment and handcuffed me to my shower bar. Can you please come here and let me out?"
"I'm on my way. Are you hurt?"
"No, just upset and embarrassed. And besides, I'm naked."
"I'll be right there."
Lester looked amused. "Do you need help? Sounds like you could use backup."
"Shove it Santos."
