Ranger came back into the bedroom with a smile, and I asked him to give the kids their letters in the morning before they left for school. I thought the letters would mean something to them.

Ranger said that he would and left the room to tuck them in the front pockets of their backpacks. When he came back, he said, "I'm all ears. What did you think?"

"Honestly? I'm glad we have Noah on staff."

"Okay? That wasn't what I thought you'd say, but I definitely agree with you. Why did you say that?"

"Because I am looking forward to seeing his psychological review of Darla. My instinct, and I could be completely wrong, is that Darla was far more invested in the original frauds than the FBI thought. There were, in the seven years she was with her husband, nine fairly complex frauds. The FBI then caught Simon and put him in jail. At the time, they blamed Simon for everything and Darla for nothing other than not pulling the plug, even though it would have been difficult for one person to do all the work associated with the setup and performance of nine jobs. We know that she is now pulling cons – again, fairly complex frauds. The difference is that she doesn't have her husband for a front man. She first did the fake-charity con in Houston, then the bank con in Chicago, then the car sales con in Phoenix, and now the discrimination con here in Trenton. Each time she was caught, the WITSEC program pulled her out and got the charges dropped. They are now tired of cleaning up her messes and after the Phoenix fiasco, they stepped away and Darla thought it would be a good idea to get out of Dodge and start again. For some reason, she picked Trenton to settle down in."

"What are you thinking?"

"When the FBI arrested her husband, he pled guilty and took the credit for being the kingpin for the con and, in truth, all the evidence points to that. However, I suspect that they were equal partners. She was the star witness that led to him being put in jail and she blamed everything on him and, when she set up the cons, she made sure that he was seen doing all the work. When she put him in jail, she found out the police had frozen their accounts and she no longer had access to the money that they had defrauded from people, and she found out that the money was all being handed back to the people that had been conned. She was livid. But her husband was apparently more than mad that she had testified against him. He supposedly had someone try to kill her for putting him in jail. She was beaten within an inch of her life, so the U.S. Marshals stepped in and offered her entrance to the WITSEC program. They did it to protect her, but I suspect that Darla accepted protection so that the government would pay for her expenses. Miguel talked to someone in the WITSEC program. He had luckily heard of us, and he came forward with the information that was in her file. He said he could share it because Darla had refused to play by the rules and had been let go and released from the program – and because we are contractors to the FBI."

"That explains why I received a call from the head of the WITSEC program confirming Miguel's identity. I talked to him for a few minutes, then patched him down to Miguel. Since the head knows me, having me patch him down through the Rangeman system was probably as definite a guarantee that Miguel was who he said he was as anything that I could have done."

I smiled. "Probably. Anyway, to make a timeline, she lives and works with Simon for seven years. Simon is not a con artist before he gets together with her according to the court transcript, and that we know of. I'd like the team to figure out if Darla was a con artist before they got together. After he is caught, Darla says that he is responsible for the whole shebang and he takes the blame. The FBI puts him in jail and freezes his accounts. Darla is furious to find out that she can't spend the money. Her husband then arranges for her murder, Darla gets scared but, more importantly, the U.S. Marshals offer to put her under protection and Darla takes the deal, thinking that her expenses were going to be paid for. I'd like someone to go into the jail to talk to Simon to find out if he actually did hire someone to kill her, or whether it was another con done by Darla. Because, quite honestly, that might have been her best con yet. The problem was that the WITSEC program doesn't pay your expenses for the rest of your life. They just help you establish your life under a new identity.

"My concern is that, after her husband was put in jail, Darla did one con after another. Getting accepted into the WITSEC program I suspect was a con. I could be wrong, but from what the Marshal said, it sounded like she was furious when she found out that the U.S. Marshals wouldn't be paying her expenses and, because I think it is a con, I wonder if she was hurt by someone else or whether it was orchestrated by her. The police never found any evidence or any indication of who the perpetrator was, and that makes me go 'hmm'. There is usually something, whether it is DNA off a cigarette butt, epithelial cells, fingerprints, whatever. In that crime there was absolutely nothing other than Darla's and Zack's DNA.

"So, once she was in the WITSEC program, she was settled in Houston, where she did a charity fraud. But she was without her smooth front man, and she was caught. When the U.S. Marshals found out, they swept it under the rug, moved her to Chicago, and she did another con. So when they caught her at that, they moved her to Phoenix, where she did another con. When she got caught, the U.S. Marshals got her charges dropped – again – and released her from the program. She moved to Trenton and started the discrimination con. But something my mother used to tell me when I was a kid has always stuck with me. 'A leopard doesn't change his spots.' She's a con artist now and because she was in the WITSEC program she was getting away with it. She doesn't have the talented front man that her husband was, Zack doesn't have the confidence to be a front man and Darla doesn't have the EQ. But what if she was the person behind the cons? My mom is right, and a leopard doesn't change his spots. And she has been doing a con of one sort or another since her husband was about to be arrested."

"So you think that it was Darla orchestrating the cons, and her husband was the front man performing her cons?"

"Exactly. And as another con, she dumped the blame for what happened directly in her husband's lap."

"Interesting. Nothing says I love you better than putting your husband in jail?" Ranger thought about it for a moment as I laughed. "How are you going to prove it?" he said.

"It will require a bit more work than I am capable of giving. Someone needs to go to the jail and talk to Simon. Someone needs to review all the data behind the previous cons, as well as all the data behind Simon's arrest. I didn't get a chance to fully read Simon's trial transcripts, and someone will need to go through those with a fine-tooth comb to see if his trial was fair, especially in light of my new theory. Someone needs to go through Darla's history farther back, before she met up with Simon. Basically, when Simon was put in jail he was believed to be the con man. And we have no doubt that he was a con man. He just might not have been THE con man. We now have to put Darla under the microscope and see if there is a case there. There is a lot of work ahead of us but, if I am right, Darla should have been arrested at the same time as her husband was arrested. She's a con artist now, and she likely always was."

"Do you have the stamina to write up your hypothesis and send it to Miguel and the rest of the team?"

"No – not as in-depth as I would need to direct the team. I think, instead, I will ask the team up to the apartment tomorrow and talk to them then. If we could have a brainstorming session and could divide out the work, I think we will come up with a much better product. But after I send an email to the rest of the Gurus warning them that I am going to ask them up when I wake up? Then I want a painkiller and to go to sleep. Despite sleeping all day, I'm tired and I have just about had enough."

"How's your stomach?"

"I am half-finished my meal replacement shake, and it is a crapshoot as to whether it will come up again. But the painkiller hasn't completely worn off yet, and my pain is about an eight on my left leg and a six on my right and my abdomen."

Grant grinned. "That's fantastic, Steph", he said. "The last time I dosed you was at two-thirty, so you are actually overdue for a painkiller. I am thrilled that your pain isn't worse."

I smiled. "Me too", I said. Grant and Ranger laughed at the enthusiasm in my voice.

"Send your email, Steph", said Grant, "and then I'll roll you and stuff a blanket behind you. You don't have pressure sores yet – but I don't want you to get them either. I'll then step out for a few minutes to let you two say goodnight to each other. Call out when you are ready for the painkiller and I'll administer it and let you go to sleep for the night."

I sighed. "I feel bad, Grant. You have that wonderful new house, and you are spending all your time with me rather than appreciating your new place."

Grant smiled. "Steph, don't worry about it. If I wasn't here, I would be worrying about you. It is better for me to be here with you as much as I can."

Tears came to my eyes. "Thanks, Grant. I appreciate it."

He waited until I had sent the email, rolled a blanket and stuffed it behind me, and left the room. Ranger laid down and looked at me. "Don't worry, babe. I know that you are concerned about how much time you are taking while Grant is caring for you. I have told him that this time is considered work time, rather than his holiday time and, when you are feeling better and don't need the constant care by Grant, he can then take his two weeks of holidays. He said he didn't mind using his holidays this way, but I put my foot down. Like you, I didn't think that was fair. Besides, his office hasn't been built yet and the people that Nate organized to build it aren't available for another month. Same with Eduardo's office – and Miguel's office – and what this means is that Eduardo will be getting the same amount of time off as Grant. Since he wants to come in every day to support you, that also makes sense. They are good guys. I'll take care of them."

I smiled. "Thank you. Otherwise I just feel guilty that I still need them, and I think that it is a problem with me rather than a result of the circumstances."

"I was wondering…"

"Oh boy."

Ranger laughed. "What do you think about inviting Grant and Eduardo and Noah to our weekly get-togethers? All three are good people and I think they will fit in well. Besides, Grant and Eduardo are basically part of the family already, and I don't want to exclude Noah when the rest of the Gurus all come to the parties. That would make him feel like a lesser team member, and I don't think that is a good way to build a strong team."

I grinned. "I agree. I talked to Tracy about Grant and Eduardo being invited, and she too thought that was a good idea. And you are right. We can hardly exclude Noah and still have a strong team and, to tell you the truth, he is a good person but I think he is a little lonely. He hides it well, but he had a girlfriend until about two months ago. He was thinking forever but, when he asked her to marry him, she told him that she couldn't envision marrying someone that she couldn't have children with, and the explosion that took his legs also rendered him unable to have children. He broke up with her, but he was devastated, and I don't blame him. It was such a stupid reason for her not to settle down with him. Anyway, I think he would do well having friends who accepted him as being a good person."

"How on earth did you find out about his girlfriend? He holds things very close to his chest."

"Remember that, when we were in Scotland, I talked to Noah a few times to get confidence about coming home and rejoining the staff? He told me then. It had just happened the night before and he was pretty broken up about it."

"Jesus. Noah is one of the best men I know, and there aren't many men that I have more respect for than I do for Noah."

"I know. When Noah told me, I was furious and I might have called his girlfriend a few names. Noah laughed and told me that my fury was restorative to him, that he had thought the problem was with him rather than with her, and he felt like a lesser person for not being able to have kids. I told him that was ridiculous and that I was proud to call him my friend, and that he was a good guy and if his girlfriend couldn't see that, the problem was with her and not him. I also told him about Tracy and Joe, and how Joe had wanted kids and Tracy had wanted kids, but because of some health problems Tracy had needed a hysterectomy. Joe's reaction was that he loved Tracy the person, not Tracy a baby making machine, and Tracy the person made him happy. After they married, they elected to adopt and have provided a loving home to a little boy who they are very proud of, and that he was a wonderful boy who I had adopted as my nephew. I told him that sometimes you have to make the family where you find it. He told me that he had thought that no woman would be interested in him again. I told him that I didn't agree and that any woman worth having wouldn't care too hoots about whether he could have kids. He was too wonderful a person. Then I asked him whether he would be interested in a woman if she couldn't have kids, and when he sounded horrified and said that it wouldn't matter, I told him to remember that. The break in the relationship was not his fault but rather his girlfriend's, and I knew that all of Rangeman would agree with me in that thought."

"Were you able to smooth the waters?"

"I think so. He sent me an email the next day telling me that he was very happy to have talked to me. He had said that before he talked to me he had been feeling substandard and ashamed, and after he had talked to me he felt proud of himself again. I was glad. He is an incredible person, and he doesn't deserve to suffer – especially over something he can literally do nothing about."

Ranger smiled. "You are a good boss and a good friend."

"He's an easy person to be friends with."

Ranger kissed me. "I could talk to you all night, but I think you'd better get some sleep, babe. The guys will need your direction, and to hear your theories tomorrow, and I know that you won't want to meet with them at noon but rather first thing in the morning. I also know that you would like to see the kids before their first day of school."

I smiled. "You know me well."

Ranger kissed me deeply, and when he finished he pulled back, then kissed my nose. "I love you", he said.

"I love you too."

He called in Grant so that Grant could administer the painkiller, and he held me as I fell asleep.