Chapter 5
Now as I lay in bed going through the events of the evening before the two incidents that stood out for me had been my lack of reaction to that woman and the words told to me by my father. I could maybe put down my lack of libido to my past illness, after all I had probably been more ill than I would care to admit. As to what my father had said regarding a soulmate it was an interesting concept that he believed in, and I acknowledged that he and my mother had found something very special. As for myself, maybe I just wasn't destined to have a soulmate.
That decided I was keen to start the day because I was due to meet with Brown in the gym. He was going to be putting me through a full medical before reassessing my physical fitness against the standards imposed on every member of Rangeman. I had no doubts in my mind as to what the outcome would be. Ella had made sure that all my meals that she had prepared contained the protein and nutrients to build my weight back up. I'd been exercising regularly and whilst not up to my personal levels, I was certainly above the standard needed to pass. I was actually looking forward to the morning and the subsequent approval from Brown because then it would mean that I could once more be part of the teams working out in the field. But more importantly I would be free to catch up with Steph without anyone breathing down my neck or tracking my whereabouts.
It was early afternoon by the time that I eventually managed to get up to my apartment. A shower and change of clothes followed by a light lunch was what I had planned but it seemed that Santos, who had obviously learnt of my new work status, had other ideas. A shower and change of clothes was non negotiable but as far as Santos was concerned it would be a working lunch in one of the conference rooms. It seemed that news of my success with Brown was being used to full advantage,
"A high bond skip that we've been chasing for ages has turned up and we have until Tuesday to find him"
That was Santos's agenda item as he passed around a copy of the FTA's file. At least I could eat a sandwich while I read through the information. The man involved was a 42-year-old Caucasian man who had been arrested and charged with aggravated assault of a minor. That the man had been released on bail annoyed me and that Vinnie had posted bail just pissed me off because the charges were nothing compared to his past history.
Clarence Jupowski was responsible for the assault on a ten year old girl. That she was still alive was a miracle, but I hated to think of her emotional state. He'd befriended the mother and then unknown to her had begun to groom the young girl, inflicting injuries on her that increased with severity until the mother eventually started to notice. It seemed by then that both of the two females were terrified of him until the mother worked up the courage and ran away from the house to the hospital.
If that wasn't bad enough, through the searches that Santos had done it turned out that Jupowski had a number of aliases and with each alias came a string of accusations against him for similar violations against children. My annoyance at the judge and Vinnie turned against the face of the man that I was looking at. Blonde curly hair on the top of his head, swept back from a face that looked younger than his actual age. Yeah, it would feel good to take scum like him off the streets.
After reading through the file, it seemed that there were two possible locations where we might find Jupowski. It was at times like this when I wished that we had Steph to do her magic and pinpoint exactly where he would be. I was close to suggesting that when I stopped myself. Was that really how I wanted to start a conversation with her, that I was getting in touch because we had a job that she would be good at? I sighed as I realized that doing that would probably piss her off, especially after the length of time since I'd last seen her. I was brought from my musings as Santos divided us into teams. It seemed we were going to be doing some surveillance of the two places that had been identified as possible locations.
Spending hours sat in a car with Santos was almost as bad as having Steph with me. No, I take that back, it was worse because he thought that he could delve in and ask personal questions, something that Steph would never do.
"So last night, you know with Nicole?"
I assumed that the woman he was talking about was the woman who had tried to accost me at my parents. I didn't answer, instead continued to watch through the night vision binoculars at the derelict building down the street.
"Come on Ranger, did you meet up with her back in Trenton?"
That had me lowering the binoculars and turning in my seat to look at him, why the hell was he asking? Even if I had met up with, what was her name, oh yeah Nicole, I would never discuss my private life with him.
"Santos!"
He knew that he was pushing his luck but for some reason I didn't want him thinking that I'd screwed that woman, why I had no idea. Hell, he wouldn't think any less of me if I said that I had.
"No, I didn't meet up with her"
I went back to watching the house waiting for some come back from Santos, surprised at the silence that followed.
"Man, you've got it bad"
I wasn't listening because there was movement at one of the windows of where we were watching.
"Movement, top left window"
That had Santos sitting forward and looking through the window next to him. As I continued to watch I knew that we needed to get an id on who was inside, just in case it was a homeless person. After watching for a few more minutes a couple of youths appeared in the alley obviously as high as kites from how they were walking. I almost sighed as they headed for the door of the building that we were watching and watched as flickers of light could be seen from the downstairs windows.
"Stupid buggers are gonna set fire to the place if they keep striking up those matches"
Santos wasn't far from wrong by saying that, but it didn't help us in working out if Jupowski was in that building.
"Bandit on the move. Rear door. In pursuit"
Came through from Tank who was stationed at the rear of the building.
"Do you have a positive id?"
Not really sure if it was Jupowski running if that was a good thing or not.
"It's him"
I hit the control panel in the center of the console of the car and brought up a map that showed where Tank was heading. Turning on the engine I turned down the next street that ran parallel with where he was driving not sure where Jupowski would head to next. The route that Tank took was constantly changing meaning that Jupowski was being very careful.
"Lost target"
Came through next which surprised me, hell Tank usually managed to keep an eye on a mark. As I rounded the corner to where Tank had stopped, I immediately saw his dilemma. The street was teaming with people, some in large groups and others hanging around in alleys and on street corners. There was no point in trolling the streets because even I knew that here near Stark Street Jupowski could merge in with the people still roaming the streets, even at this time in the morning the place was always busy.
"Return to base. We'll look at the other address in the morning"
At least Jupowski wasn't aware that we'd had eyes on him, and it had been the youths that had made him run. The problem would be finding him again. It was the early hours of the morning before I eventually made it to bed, and I knew that I had a client meeting in the morning.
By lunch time I had successfully secured a new client and had changed from my suit into my Rangeman uniform, feeling a lot more comfortable. It had been a difficult meeting with an elderly man, who was obviously out to impress his young wife. He tried every negotiating trick in the book to get me to lower my price. What the idiot didn't realize was that the wife was making eyes at me most of the time and it was her who eventually talked him into the contract. Maybe she thought that it would be me who would personally install the system? She was in for a shock when Cal and Hector would be the ones to turn up.
Now though I was ready to get out of here. I'd checked when I was in my office for where Steph would be, and I was pretty sure that she was heading for the bonds office.
"Santos"
I'd called as I left my office and headed for the stairs pleased when I could hear him following me. He'd caught me up by the time that I'd reached the bottom of the stairwell and was about to go through the door that led into the garage.
"Where we going Ranger?"
"Bonds office, to pick up any new files"
Maybe it was my imagination, but I could swear that Santos looked uncomfortable with that. Shrugging it off I used the fob and opened the doors to one of the SUVs before getting into the passenger seat.
"Err Ranger, maybe you should know something before we get there"
My hand was about to push the start button, but I stopped and looked over to Santos wondering why he seemed so nervous.
"Talk"
I said as I turned back and started the engine, wondering if this was about Jupowski and the fact that maybe he couldn't find him and we'd forfeit our percentage of the bond.
"It's about Steph"
I hadn't expected that and was back to looking at Santos impatiently waiting for him to get to the point. I was confused because I knew that she was moving around Trenton and there hadn't been any alerts or calls so what was it that had Santos looking as though he didn't want to be sat here with me in the car.
"Word is that her and Morelli are getting married"
Santos had said that so quickly that I was losing what he'd said and could have sworn that he'd said that Steph was getting married.
"I'm sorry Ranger"
I wasn't sure why Santos would say that, I mean why would he be sorry. I put the car in gear and drove out of the garage onto the street, Santos's words repeating in my head. I wasn't too sure how I felt about what Santos had said. I suppose gutted that I had no idea that she was even close to doing that.
"Morelli?"
I had to ask just to confirm what I suppose I already knew and probably heard, noticing the nod of the head that came my way. I was trying to focus on driving but the thoughts that went through me weren't helping. I would have thought that Steph would have spoken to me, told me what she had decided, then again, I hadn't been around for that to happen. I was half annoyed at myself for that, and half annoyed at Steph, though why I was feeling that I wasn't sure. Maybe I'd thought that we were better friends than that. Whatever I felt it didn't matter, at least that was what I was telling myself.
I was hoping that Steph would be at the office and maybe then she would have the manners to tell me herself. Pulling up outside the office I looked around for her car but couldn't see it. As I stepped inside the office, I saw Lula laid across the couch, looking as though she was asleep, but as I walked across to stand in front of Connie's desk I felt disappointment surge through me, I knew that Steph wasn't here.
"Ranger, long time, no see"
I looked down at Connie as she spoke to me and as she started to sort through some files.
"I've got two for Rangeman"
I couldn't help but sense that I was missing something as Connie passed the files over. Turning I nodded to Santos who was stood by the door knowing that it was time for us to leave. I passed the files to Santos once outside but couldn't help myself from looking around, feeling as though I was being watched. Once in the car I drove out into traffic constantly looking at the sidewalk and the people on the street.
"Ranger, what's wrong?"
"Just a feeling"
Was all I said to have Santos being a second pair of eyes. I felt on edge once back at Rangeman but had no idea why. It had me thinking of Steph and wondering if the feeling had anything to do with her, so I went straight to my office and pulled up her trackers. Sitting down at my desk I was surprised when they showed the ones in her bag at the office but that her car was parked down the street. Had Steph been there when we'd arrived, had she seen us? Was that why I felt as though someone was watching me, but why didn't she make me aware that she was there? Was this her way of telling me that she was annoyed at me or was she avoiding me because she didn't want to tell me that she was marrying Morelli. Maybe she shouldn't talk to me then because I was annoyed at her decision. Morelli wasn't the man that I thought he was, no that was wrong. In the past I'd always assumed that they would make an ideal couple, but Steph wasn't the woman Morelli thought she was, she wasn't a typical Burg woman that you could cage into domesticity. Well good luck to Morelli then.
I immersed myself in work for the remainder of the day, ignoring any of the banter on the floor. I decided to hit the gym before dinner pleased when it was empty of any men. For some reason I felt off, a weird feeling for me, as though I needed to ground myself, something that I only really felt before going on a mission. It was as though I needed to center myself and regain the control that was teetering on a knifes edge. Okay, I acknowledged that in the distant past when I'd felt like this then physical exercise would help but I wasn't that stupid to also know that being with Steph could do the same. That option wasn't there now because whilst Steph and I had taken advantage of those times when she was in an off phase with Morelli, I knew that I could never put her in that position now, much as I wanted to.
I'd have to respect the choice that she'd made and allow her and Morelli to live their lives without me coming between them. I would never do that to Steph, and I hoped that she knew me well enough to know that, though maybe that was why she'd avoided me today, avoided the temptation for a last trip down the alley. That thought had me punching the bag even harder until all thoughts were vanquished to the back of my mind, and I allowed the primal aggression of the punching to take control.
After a restless night I was woken by my phone going off so leaning over noticed that it was Santos calling. It was 0700hrs so I was usually up by now so maybe Santos had assumed that as well.
"Yo"
"We've got a lead on Jupowski"
"Give me twenty"
Going after Jupowski was just what I needed, so I was quick to shower and dress before heading down to five. Once in the conference room I was keen to know what Santos had uncovered and hoped that Jupowski was hiding out somewhere where it would be easy to extract him from. Once sat down I turned to Santos for him to take us through what he knew.
"It seems that Jupowski has caught the attention of the father of his last victim"
I looked at Santos because from what I had read in the files there was no father named on the young girl's birth certificate.
"I know, I don't think anyone else is aware of who he was either. He's Jackson Morgan, one of Grizoli's lieutenants. Morgan, along with three of his associates picked Jupowski up off Stark Street last night. One of Hector's snitches let him know because he knew that we were looking for him"
Interesting, because I was pretty sure that Morgan would put Jupowski through a lot of pain before making him disappear. There were two problems with that. One was that we would lose our money and the second was that if Jupowski turned up dead that might have the police looking for a murder suspect. It wouldn't take long before they put the pieces together about Morgan's parentage to the girl and that could cause for unpleasant consequences between Grizoli and the police. As much as I wanted the worst for Jupowski I knew that we would have to intercede.
"We have two options. Try to take Jupowski from Morgan and his crew and incur the wrath of Grizoli for attacking his men or have a conversation with Grizoli and appeal to his better nature"
I really didn't want to upset Grizoli because as Santos had said, he could cause Rangeman a lot of trouble if he wanted to. All he'd have to do was to have some of the young punks breaking into our client's places and that could damage our reputation and we could lose a lot of contracts. That didn't include the pressure that would put onto the men on duty having to deal with the break ins.
"No one wants Grizoli focusing on us Ranger, not with the damage he could do to Rangeman. So, you up to talking to the old man?"
I didn't answer because I knew that it would be up to me so instead stood up and went through to my office. I needed to sit down for this conversation so with Jupowski's file in front of me found the number for Grizoli, just hoping that he was available.
"Yeah?"
I wasn't put off by the short reply knowing that Grizoli would never answer the phone himself.
"This is Carlos Manoso. I need to speak with Mr Grizoli"
All I heard was muffled talking so assumed that the man who had fielded the call was talking to someone else, I just hoped that it was Grizoli himself.
"Mr Manoso, how can I help you?"
"We may have a situation that needs to be dealt with carefully"
I waited not sure if Grizoli would find what I'd said interesting enough to continue our conversation.
"I'm listening"
I spent the next few minutes explaining what his men were involved with and who they had basically kidnapped and then possible outcomes that might happen. I waited as Grizoli considered the information and was sure that he was trying to come up with a possible solution. I knew that I had one but would never tell Grizoli what to do, he wasn't a stupid man. Thirty minutes later I walked back into the conference room to have everyone look at me waiting for what Grizoli was prepared to do.
"Grizoli will deliver Jupowski to this address at 1330hrs"
I didn't add that Grizoli had assured me that he had contacts doing time who would make sure that Jupowski suffered immense pain before he had an accident. That was probably one of those grey areas where I preferred not to pass judgement on or do anything about.
The agreement was for just two of us to meet up with Morgan, but I wasn't taking any chances that Morgan wouldn't cause us any problems even though Grizoli had assured me that his orders would be followed. We had a backup team strategically placed should anything go wrong but I was pleasantly surprised when Morgan arrived with only one other man and allowed us to remove a very frightened Jupowski into our care. He was quickly cuffed and shackled in the back of the SUV for transportation to the police station and I have to say that I was relieved that Morgan had already left. Okay, Jupowski did look as though he had taken a beating, a black eye and broken nose the only injuries that we could see, no doubt his body would have incurred far worse, but I wasn't going to be checking.
As I drove toward the station, I was surprised to see Lula's Firebird parked further up the street but then again Lula had a hatred for the police so maybe that was as close as she was prepared to park. Pulling into the parking lot I was close to swearing when I saw how busy it was, but luck prevailed as another car reversed out from a space, so I quickly pulled into that space. Jupowski was complaining from the back seat and maybe he did have cause to complain but I didn't give a shit about him and was dragging him from the back seat before we escorted him inside. The place was packed with people talking in groups but fortunately the duty sergeant's desk looked reasonably quiet with only Connie stood with a woman waiting.
Maybe Lula had apprehended a skip and Connie had agreed to come into the station? That was the only explanation for what I was seeing because I knew that Steph would always bring her FTAs in here herself.
"I'll wait with him and if Connie is still here, pass the receipt directly to her"
I nodded my agreement to Santos and watched as he took charge of Jupowski and led him to the desk. Retreating to the back of the room I observed what seemed to be happening inside the area but was ambushed by Eddie.
"Sorry it's a bit chaotic. We've got a recruitment program running so the people here are potential applicants"
As I looked at the crowd of people, I was actually surprised at the range of ages represented.
"Rookies?"
I asked because to me some seemed too old to be starting up as new policemen.
"No, not all of them. We have a couple of detective positions coming up as well. Morelli was supposed to be showing them around, but he went and decided to take a few days off"
That surprised me when I knew that Steph was still here in Trenton.
"All I know is that he's out of town, went Sunday, so maybe he's doing some work with the FBI. Bastard is still thinking he has a chance of transferring over to them"
I didn't comment because I knew that he did work some cases with them, but I wasn't aware of an operation happening and usually I was given a heads up. As to Morelli disappearing on Sunday, I found that unusual if he and Steph were supposed to be engaged and getting married, Steph would hate him being out of town. Seeing Santos talking to Connie and passing over the receipt I walked away from Eddie toward the door meeting up with Santos before we exited toward the SUV.
Lula's firebird was still parked up so she must have been waiting for Connie but to be honest I was past caring. Maybe I needed to leave Santos to his job of being in charge of FTA work and back out from visiting the bonds office. It did have me wondering if Morelli would force Steph to quit her job, after all that was one of the things that he hated her doing. That would be a shame for Steph because although she did get into some awkward situations, she was damn good at her job. Did that mean that we'd have to find alternative ways of enticing skips from bars and maybe even look for another woman to do the distractions? Morelli wouldn't let Steph carry on associating with me or Rangeman for that matter, he'd always made it very clear that he hated her working here at Rangeman or helping us with distractions. Had that been why Steph had avoided me because Morelli had forced her to? I was close to sighing as I pulled into the garage as I realized that I would miss Steph and not just because of the work that she did for Rangeman.
I went straight to my office to look at the contract from the morning before and noticed that a message had been left on my desk that simply read.
"A Nicole called but as you were unavailable, she said that she'd call back later"
Shit, the last thing that I needed was to have her start harassing me. I picked up the phone and pressed the button for the internal line down to reception where all calls came through.
"Sir"
Junior was the one to answer so at least I knew that he would enforce my instructions for anyone on reception to follow.
"If a woman called Nicole calls, I'm unavailable. Make sure everyone follows that order"
"Sir"
That done I emersed myself in the work on my desk. It was a couple of hours later when I realized that I'd left my phone in my jacket pocket and that I'd switched it to silent when I was in the station. Retrieving the phone, I was surprised to see that I had four missed calls form an unknown number. There were no messages left so I was curious as to who would have been calling. I was using my phone to contact Hector knowing that he'd be both fast and keep his findings confidential.
"Hector, find out who this number belongs to"
I'd find out without having to respond to the caller so read out the number for Hector. It didn't take Hector long before he was calling me back with the information.
"Nicole Garcia"
I had an inkling that maybe it had been Nicole and assumed that maybe she'd used a different phone to call me with and probably had talked my sister into giving her my number and that annoyed me. Not a lot of people had this number because it was a personal phone, only the men here at Rangeman and my family had access to it. Obviously Nicole had a new phone so I immediately blocked the number hoping that she would get the message, because I had no desire whatsoever of meeting up with her. It was an hour later when Santos knocked and came into my office a cross between a grin on his face and concern. I just looked up at him as he sat down in the chair in front of me wondering what the hell was wrong with him.
"I've just had to experience a very pissed off Nicole downstairs. Poor Binkie thought that she was going to attack him when he passed on the message that you'd left with reception. Did you know that she was going to be coming here, because from the outfit that she was wearing it looked to me that she was expecting to see you?"
I closed my eyes briefly before staring at Santos, annoyed that he was asking me that and annoyed that Nicole had decided to come to Rangeman.
"No. I told her last Saturday that I didn't want to see her again"
"Why not? Hell, Ranger she's just about throwing herself at you and from what I've heard about her she's a good lay"
"Not happening"
Was thrown back at Santos who had the sense to see that I was being serious. Santos being who he was though just had to push it further.
"What the hell's wrong with you? Since when have you ever turned down a good evening's entertainment?"
I was almost about to say since Stephanie but caught myself before that came out and I was livid that Santos was asking me that. Yes, he played the field, but he also knew that our nights of hitting a club up in New York had stopped. That was when he had the audacity to smile at me and sit forward in his chair.
"You know she isn't married yet. If you stopped being such a coward and talked to her maybe"
I slammed my fist down on the desk making Santos back away quickly and as I continued to glare at him, at least he had the sense to get up and start to walk toward the door.
"You've only yourself to blame Ranger"
The paperweight in my hand hit the door as he quickly closed it behind him which left me fuming. How dare he question me about my sex life and what right did he have to make assumptions about Steph? I was so annoyed that before I realized what I'd done there were papers floating down onto the floor as I swept my arm across it. It was time to hit the gym and get back some control back before my anger consumed me, so I sought out Santos for a bout on the mats.
It was probably as well that I couldn't find him because it took a lot longer than I expected of punching the bag until I felt more composed. I decided that the mess in my office could wait, and wanting some solitude avoided five, going straight up to my apartment. The problem was that now that I had calmed down, I started to think through what Santos had said. What the hell had he meant? Of course, I knew that Steph wasn't married yet. What did that have to do with anything?
I was in bed by 2300hrs and was once again experiencing difficulties falling asleep. Too many things were rattling around inside my head, and I wasn't prepared to try and sort through them. I'd turned my phone off deciding that was the best way to avoid any more disturbances. Waking up at 0530hrs I went straight down to the gym, maybe a little stiff from my previous bout with the bag the evening before, so decided to exercise on the tread mill. It was only after showering and dressing and as I sat down with my breakfast that I decided I should turn my phone back on. I felt more composed in the light of day but that soon disappeared as I opened up a message that had come through from Steph.
"Going out of town"
Several things went through my head, at the forefront was that it didn't surprise me, after all Morelli was already out of town. But the more I thought about it the more puzzled I was. Why was she telling me this now after so much time of silence and why the hell was she sending the message at 0230hrs?
