After I read three chapters to the kids, I had another short sleep. When I woke up, I was a little bummed out because I missed kissing the kids before bed, but I was happy that I'd been able to spend the two hours with the kids after school. We'd had a good time, and it had meant a lot to the kids that I had planned it so that I could be awake when they got home.

When Ranger came in with a meal replacement drink for my dinner, I told him what the teacher had said about Tia. Ranger sighed. "Let's talk to Kai about his experiences in being in a gifted class, and talk to Julie about her experiences with having skipped grades. I don't want Tia to be bored – I have always thought that bored kids tend to get into trouble. However, at the same time, I don't want her to miss out on learning the social nuances that she would learn in a class of kids her own age."

I sighed as well. "I know and I agree with you. And by the sound of it, whatever we do with Tia we will also be doing with Grace and Alix. The good news is that they would be in the same class together. However, the bad news is that we would have three kids not learning the social nuances and that could be bad. They are good friends and would hang around with each other rather than growing their social network and learning how to be friends with other people."

Ranger sat on the bed beside me. "I agree."

I sighed again. "Mrs. Katz is sending the paperwork home to start the testing process."

"Okay."

"Now, what is happening with the case?"

Ranger grinned. "The kids definitely get their curiosity from you. And quite frankly, that will do them well in life. I always think that curiosity is a sign of intelligence, and you are the most curious person that I know."

I made a face and he laughed. "So? The case?" I said.

Ranger laughed again. "Absolutely the most curious." He kissed me. I must have been getting a murderous look in my eye though, as Ranger looked at me, kissed me quickly again, and started to speak. "I talked to Miguel", he said, "and they have done an incredible amount of work this afternoon. Noah and Miguel stayed a little late and continued to do more work as they wanted to make sure it was locked up nice and tight. I talked to them a few minutes ago. Dirk and Nick finished doing the timeline before they left and Noah has now finished doing the psychological assessment. Miguel did his interview and has put together the final report. Their work is incredible and, with the addition of Noah to your team, your team has become even more of the dream team for research. Our clients are going to be happy with the Guru's newfound ability to offer psychological analysis.

"Miguel and Hector went to the jail and talked to Simon. He adores Darla and says that he misses her terribly. It seemed heartfelt. He said that she was his everything and he doesn't understand why she doesn't come to see him. He said that he hadn't done anything to Darla other than protect her when everything was going down. He didn't accuse her and he took all the blame when it wasn't all his fault. From their discussion, it became apparent your theory that Simon and Darla had planned the cons together was correct but, in court, he took all the responsibility for what happened. He said that he loved Darla very much, and he was hurt that she could have pretended that he had hurt her, and he was hurt that she would say such horrible things about him like that.

"While Miguel was checking out Simon's story, Dirk looked back into her far past. She has a sealed juvie record and she spent a year in juvie. When she was eighteen, she was caught shoplifting. The judge sentenced her to a year of probation and community service. Darla elected to raise funds for a charity. Dirk and Nick suspected that was where she got her idea for her first con. She took that knowledge and started a series of jobs that led to a number of cons – working for a charity, working for a bank, working for a car dealership, working at a financial investment services company, and so on. In each case, she learned about the business and was basically doing the setup and research for another con. That series of jobs lasted until she was put into the WITSEC program.

"At twenty-three, Darla met Simon and, at twenty-four, she married him. And they soon started doing cons together.

"She is now thirty and the government took all her money when they arrested Simon to give back to the victims. She had been riding the fraud train for a long time and had done well financially from it. However, when the government took all her money and gave it back to the victims of her cons, she was furious.

"From there, it appears to be as you suspected. She had no money, so she pretended that she was beaten up by one of Simon's friends. However, we believe that Zack was the person to have actually beaten her up, which is why the baseball bat that was found next to her only had Zack's and Darla's prints on it.

"Interestingly, what started Simon's arrest was that the police had received an anonymous tip regarding Simon. However, we traced the call and at the time that the call came in, Darla was making an outgoing call to CrimeStoppers. It looks like the whole thing was set up by Darla – from Simon's arrest, to her providing evidence against him, to Darla's attack so that she'd be admitted to the WITSEC program, to her failure to respect the WITSEC rules, and finally, Darla's release from the WITSEC program. She is smart, and she was getting away with it – and she would have continued to get away with it if she hadn't picked the wrong company to try to con. There was no way for her to know that. No computer search and no security guard would be privy to the inner workings of our company, and there would be no way to know our insane ability to research people and their crimes."

"So, in addition to the frauds that she did when she was a young adult, she did all the frauds with Simon, then turned in Simon to get the money, defrauded the government to try to get her expenses covered, performed the three frauds while in protection and the fourth fraud after she had been released. Judging by how much she asked for, she is desperate to rebuild her kitty and have some money behind her again."

"Exactly."

"So what are the next steps?"

"That is what Miguel and Noah stayed late to do. Noah prepared the psychological profiles for Darla, Simon and Zack, and Miguel stayed late to put it together into a cohesive report. Miguel was taking Noah out for dinner afterwards to celebrate the end of his first Guru case, and they sent the document to you and Tank and me, in addition to the other Gurus. The report is fantastic, and I look forward to hearing your take on it. I don't think there are any holes in it, but you need to review it. You have a way of identifying holes that I didn't even think of."

"Thanks", I said. I picked up my phone. "Could I review it now?"

Ranger smiled. "You can. And while you start reviewing it, I will dish up some trifle for your dinner. The kids and I decided that we needed a special dinner and dessert to serve since Grant peeked at your legs."

My head whipped around and I stared at him. He sounded awfully pleased.

"Your legs are healed, babe. Grant said the infection is gone completely, and you just have to finish your course of medication. Another two days and you'll get your stomach back. And in the meantime, the girls all thought that trifle would be an excellent way to celebrate."

I grinned. "It is an excellent way to celebrate. Did the girls help you make it?"

"They made it themselves", said Ranger. "We cheated a little bit, as it was a last-minute celebratory dinner. We went to the store and bought pound cake and custard. The girls made the dessert almost all by themselves though, so you might want to mention that it tasted good. They were quite proud of it. They cut the strawberries themselves, cut the cake, and whipped the cream, and then layered the cake and the custard and the strawberries and the whipped cream in the bowl. They even added a box of strawberry jello into the whipped cream so that it would be a pretty pink color. Grace said that the whipped cream tasted like a strawberry cloud. And they each had some for dessert and said it was the tastiest dessert ever."

I smiled. "I know that it has always been one of my favorites. And with the dairy and the fruit and the cake in it, it's healthy." I nodded sagely as Ranger snorted.

"Only you could justify trifle as a health food."

"Oh no. If you asked Lula, not only would she be able to justify it, but she would also be able to justify it if you made it with the alcohol in it like it is traditionally made."

"Would you have liked it better with alcohol?"

I stared at him. "Are you kidding? That makes the cake soggy, and no one likes a soggy cake."

Ranger smiled. "Good to know."