Chapter 13

RPOV

The message that had come from Steph continued to play in my mind for the rest of the day. I couldn't work out why she would send it now, after so many weeks of us not speaking. I was also pretty sure that she had tried to avoid me over the last few days. That Steph was at the forefront of my thoughts for most of the day annoyed me. Why was it that four words from her could have me in a dilemma and overthinking things? Morelli had gone out of town, so it was logical to assume that Steph had left to join him. Maybe they'd planned it that way and intended to elope so as to avoid what would be an outrageous wedding planned by their parents.

So why did I feel so fucking annoyed? Maybe because she hadn't spoken to me about it, but then again why should she? The only answer that I could give myself was that she would have, normally. We were good friends, no more than that. There was a trust between us that I thought crossed into us confiding in each other. Yeah right. Since when had I ever confided in her? I kept my secrets close to my heart for a very good reason. No one should ever have to hear about the things that I hid deep inside of me.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard loud voices from outside in the hallway so went out to investigate what was happening. Seeing Tank down in the monitoring room decided for me where I needed to be.

"Got a hostage situation over at Cannon Street. The FTA that Santos was after decided to hold three women at gunpoint"

As Tank told me that I was watching the screens in front of me. Cameras on the SUVs and on the vests that the men were wearing showed an old duplex that had seen better days. I recognized the style of place that it was because it was similar to what Steph's parent's house looked like. I was about to turn around and head down to the garage when Tank pulled me back by my arm.

"Ram and Binkie just went in through the upstairs window. Santos can manage this shit without you charging over there"

I supposed that he could manage without me, he was good enough, but I needed some action to release the adrenaline that was cursing through me.

"Here, if you need something to do go get this son of a bitch"

Tank pushed a file into my hands so begrudgingly I took it to my office, obviously I wasn't needed in the control room. After reading the file I knew where to find the man, so taking Ram with me we headed over to an apartment block over on the west side of Trenton. Even by looking at the outside we knew what kind of place this was. Young kids were out on the street playing, which didn't concern us, it was the older youths who were hiding in the alley that might cause us a problem. Then again, they had no idea what they would be up against.

Both Ram and I both had vests on underneath our jackets and had the requisite guns and knives at hand but using those would be too quick in dealing with anyone who tried to stop us. I was hoping for some fun instead. It came as soon as we stepped through the door, two youths who'd been sitting on the stairs stood up to greet us. Why Harringer used kids was almost comical as both Ram and I delivered a punch to each of them that had them laying at our feet unconscious. Keeping to the inside of the stairwell we very quietly headed up the stairs until we reached the door that would lead to the hallway where Harrington's apartment was. Holding a gun in my right hand I gave Ram a finger count down from three then pushed the door open and rolled into the hall. Each of us fired our weapons at two more figures holding knives, but I have to admit whilst the tranquilizer guns weren't as much fun to use, they were certainly effective. Loud music was coming from the apartment that we needed to be in so once again we were crouched down ready to enter.

I heard the ratchet from a shotgun just before several holes appeared in the door and was waiting for the second cartridge to be fired before we went in. That way we'd have time while the shotgun was being reloaded to assault the door and find Harringer. We stayed where we were and watched as the door slowly opened, with the barrel of the gun appearing. Okay, so maybe I was impatient, but I pushed the barrel up in the air and hit the door with my shoulder, hearing another round of shot hitting the ceiling and a groan came from someone hitting the floor behind the door. Pushing the door open revealed Harringer laid on the floor holding his nose, obviously where the door had hit him.

Thirty minutes later we were walking Harringer into the police station and cuffing him to the bench. I gave Ram the papers expecting him to wait for the paperwork to be completed and went over to the door to wait. I had to admit that I was feeling less stressed than I had been before and for the life of me couldn't understand why I had allowed myself to get so wound up. Tank had been right to give me something physical to do but then he knew me too well.

Hearing a voice that I recognized I was surprised to see Morelli exit with another man from one of the doors at the back of the room and turn to go up the stairs. I was pretty sure that he'd seen Ram but had failed to look any further so knew that he hadn't seen me. Now why was Morelli here when Steph had only left town last night?

Ram was quiet as we drove back to Rangeman allowing me to focus on my driving. Once back I was pleased to see that Santos had managed the situation with the hostages and that no one had got hurt. If nothing else the teams of men in my employ were efficient and kept their heads in a tense situation. Santos though was his usual cocky self and declared that he was off duty and going to find a way to deal with the high that he was still experiencing. In other words, find a woman for the night. At one time I had been guilty of doing just that but now, doing that just didn't inspire me anymore and that was evidenced from the way in which I had ignored Nicole.

I pushed all thoughts of Steph to the back of mind and absorbed myself in work, that was until the Friday when Cal and Binkie had returned from picking up files from the bonds office. Apparently with Steph being away Vinnie had tried his best to push some of the lower skips that she normally went after onto Rangeman, and Cal felt he needed to talk to me about it.

"Vinnie tried to give me a couple of mid level skips today"

I'd looked up at Cal who was stood in my office wondering why he was telling me that.

"Apparently Steph is away for a few days at a family wedding with her father"

I'd sat back as Cal had told me that snippet of news and to be honest felt relieved that at least I now knew why she had gone out of town. As for Vinnie's dilemma I wasn't about to take on any more skips than we were contracted to take. Vinnie knew the score and to be honest I'd muted a few months ago about finishing doing any apprehensions at all. As a company we didn't rely on the income from the pay outs because business with the security section of the company was doing very well and we'd started to pick up some lucrative jobs from some of the alphabet agencies. I'd already stopped the redecorating jobs because they just didn't cover the cost of doing them.

"Vinnie can use Lula or even Joyce if he's that desperate"

I'd replied as an argument against us taking on extra work.

"Apparently Lula is doing okay with some of the low bonds, well she's managed to get a few in so far. Joyce has refused to help out. Something about not getting enough to make it worth her while"

In other words, Lucille, Vinnie's wife was onto him, and he wouldn't dare upset her by providing even a whisper of what he and Joyce might get up to. Wise man because I was sure that Harry, Lucille's father, would string Vinnie up and Harry wasn't a man that you wanted to upset.

"Steph won't be away for long if she's at a wedding. He'll survive and if he's that concerned, he can always go get them himself"

Vinnie had started out as a bounty hunter so I was pretty sure that he could get his hands dirty if he was that concerned. I watched as Cal listened to me and understood from what I'd said that no we wouldn't be taking on any more skips. As he left the room I sat back in my chair and thought through what he'd said. Maybe Steph going to a family wedding was why Morelli was back in town because he wouldn't have gone with Steph to something like that. In a way I was almost disappointed as I worked through the logic of what I was thinking.

It was two days later, Friday, when I managed to eventually get out of the building. Santos had had the nerve to suggest that I needed a change in scenery because I was in a foul mood. I'd never considered that that was the case, I'd kept myself busy with paperwork, done a couple of sessions in the gym and had little to do with the men on the floor. Okay maybe I'd got a bit short tempered with Hal when he was so slow at doing a search that I needed on a client, but he should have worked at it faster.

There were three teams involved with this operation to apprehend a skip and as I'd sat in the planning meeting, I'd realized that it would have been a lot easier to do if we'd had Steph helping us out.

"Carter, thirty three years old. Charged with assault when he knifed another man. The man survived, just. Carter went into a frenzied attack on the victim because the man had tried to chat up Carter's girlfriend. It didn't help when the girlfriend told Carter that she hated him anyway because he was a bully. There's a concern that he'll try to ambush the girlfriend or even go after any man who tries to chat her up. She's already taken out a restraining order on him"

Opening the file, I was looking at the face of Carter, probably mixed race with crew cut hair and the physique of a man who worked out.

"Ex military so he's got the skills to defend himself, especially with a knife"

I looked across to Santos as he gave us that piece of information and retracted my thoughts that Steph would have been able to help us out. This man would have a one track mind and would be focused on the ex girlfriend not on another woman.

"Cindy, the ex, starts back at work tonight at the Venture bar. A bit of a dive but in general they have little problem there with the clientele. I spoke to the owner yesterday and he's concerned that Carter will cause her, or anyone she talks to, a problem, so he'll cooperate with us"

I was curious to know how Santos wanted us to play this. Normally we'd avoid crowded areas because there was more chance of an innocent bystander getting hurt. So was the plan to apprehend Carter before he even went into the bar?

"I know what you're thinking, that if we could apprehend before he went into the bar then that would be cleaner. The problem with that is that he has four thugs in tow most of the time otherwise we would have chosen a better place to do this. Carter hasn't been seen out on the street at all, he's been holed up inside a motel room with his mates"

I was still doubting the wisdom of doing this at a bar, surely a motel room would have been the easier option. Straight in and out, deal with the four thugs and have Carter in custody.

"What was wrong with the motel Santos?"

Because I still wasn't happy about the bar.

"It's one of them places that rents out the rooms for longer stays and at the moment we have a biker's convention being held there"

I conceded that having men like around around wouldn't work because the bikers would immediately want to get involved in a fight even if they had no idea what it was about, so taking on a large group of bikers wasn't a good idea. I just hoped that Santos had something planned for tonight to get Carter away from his friends.

"Binkie, you'll be behind the bar. Tank and Cal, outside at the rear entrance ready for when he comes out. Ranger, you and Bobby will be in the bar and it's your job to distract his friends from following Carter"

Which had two questions that needed answers. Why would Carter walk out of the back door of the bar and what and where was Santos in all of this?

"I'm going to chat up Cindy and walk with her out of the back door. That'll have Carter following me outside"

I suppose as plans went it was similar to what we did when Steph helped us out. Santos could certainly put on the charm so maybe Cindy would fall for it and agree to leave with him. I spent some time acquainting myself with Carter and the photos of his four friends along with the layout for the bar before heading upstairs for something to eat. We would be meeting in the garage at 2200hrs.

I was stood at the far end of the bar watching the goings on in the bar. Cindy, a tall blonde woman who certainly attracted attention in her very short skirt, was waiting on tables along with another woman, Binkie was behind the bar with the owner and Carter was playing pool with three of his friends. Seemed that the fourth wasn't going to be causing us a problem because he wasn't here. I was aware that Santos had already made moves on Cindy, talking to her when he ordered a drink or when she took it to his table. Carter was also aware as well judging from the looks that he was giving Santos.

A nod from Santos toward me and I was anticipating him moving, possibly talking to Cindy and them going out through the back door. I was moving toward the pool table with Bobby approaching from the other side of the room when a very unexpected development happened. Morelli sauntered into the bar and took up a position at the bar where I'd just been standing, and Cindy just about jumped him when she saw him. Shit, that was not what was supposed to happen. What the fuck was Morelli doing here and why would Cindy approach him as she had?

"Looks like he's her date for tonight"

Came from a very pissed off Santos. Somehow, we had to improvise for several reasons. We needed to do the capture and get Carter off the streets especially if he decided that Morelli was stealing his girlfriend. I made the decision to walk back to the bar and lean against it with my back, surveying the room in front of me.

"Santos, take my position by the pool table"

Because what ever happened, we needed to contain those three men. Seeing that happen I turned to Morelli as he watched Cindy start to clear glasses from a nearby table.

"Morelli, you're in immediate danger of getting yourself beaten to a pulp"

"Fuck off Manoso"

Was his response so I went with the idea that he hadn't understood the position that he was putting himself in.

"See that man playing pool with the crew cut hair?"

At least Morelli didn't turn around and stare making it obvious that he was looking at him.

"What about him?"

"He's Cindy's ex boyfriend and he feels that he has ownership of her"

Yeah, that had Morelli looking back at the pool table and paling slightly, especially as Carter was watching Cindy's every move.

"We need to take him in, he's FTA. He's also very good with a knife so if you want to get out of here in one piece, I suggest you cooperate with what we are planning"

Morelli raised a hand to the barman, and I watched as he downed another tumbler of bourbon in one gulp. Once he'd set the glass on the bar, I continued to tell him what we needed him to do.

"I want you to walk Cindy out of the rear door but make sure that Carter sees you. We want him to follow you out. I'll be behind him, and we have a team outside ready to take him down. You just keep Cindy out of the way"

I ignored the look that Morelli gave me and when he waved at the barkeeper one more time, I gave a slight shake of my head. If we were going to get away with this, then I didn't need Morelli drunk. Stepping to the side I gave Morelli the space that he would need and watched as Cindy came back to him. He sure had the moves on her, and it wasn't long before he was walking her out of the bar with his arm around her shoulder.

"Suspect on the move, time for distraction"

I slowly stood up and followed Carter as he followed Morelli and Cindy toward the back door, ignoring the shouts that were coming from behind me. I was almost worried that Morelli was going to stop when his hand fell and cupped her backside. Luckily Morelli must have seen Carter behind him because he was suddenly walking with purpose through the door. Tank and Cal were stood on either side of the door and as soon as Morelli and Cindy had passed them, they were ready for Carter.

Carter never saw it coming he was so focused on Cindy and as we were prepared for him to resist us using his knives Cal was quick to touch a stun gun to his neck. As Tank and Cal cuffed the guy and carted him off to their SUV, I wandered over to Morelli who was stood with Cindy in his arms.

"Cindy, you shouldn't be having any more trouble from Carter. I'll make sure that the police know that he went after you. Do you need someone to take you home?"

"I'll do that"

Was the immediate response from Morelli. I raised an eyebrow at how keen Morelli was at wanting to do that, surprised when he was supposedly engaged to be married to Steph. It seemed that Morelli didn't care that I was watching him as he led Cindy over to his old brown truck. I watched as first Cal and Tank drove from the parking lot followed by Morelli and was aware of Santos coming and standing next to me.

"Fucking asshole. How the hell can he be marrying Beautiful and still playing the field?"

My thoughts exactly, but I knew of other women that he'd been seen with. It seemed that Steph was the only one who seemed ignorant of the fact or maybe she thought that once they were married, he'd be loyal to only her. It would break her heart if he continued with the womanizing, and I felt a strong need to protect her from having to suffer that.

I sighed as I remembered that she wasn't even in town so wondered if that was why Morelli had decided to hook up with Cindy. I realized that there was nothing that I could do as we travelled back to Rangeman and what would I do anyway? I couldn't exactly call her and say, "By the way did you know that your fiancé is sleeping around?" Like she'd even talk to me now, let alone believe me. No, I could only hope that she realized what he was doing before walking down the aisle with him.

As I reached Rangeman I knew that there was nothing I could do with regard to telling Steph but maybe I could give Morelli a warning of what I'd do to him if he didn't treat her with the respect that she deserved and cheated on her. I knew how devastated she'd been with Dickie Orr so I wasn't sure that her confidence would hold up to another cheating husband. I felt better with having made that decision as I went up to seven.

Saturday was never a quiet day in terms of break ins, maybe it was the bravado from too much to drink on a Friday night. From getting up we were getting alerts through from people tampering with the alarms to petty vandalism. All of them had to be dealt with and even Tank was getting frustrated with constantly having to redirect teams to different parts of the city. In the end I'd had enough as well because to me there seemed to be too much of a coincidence at what was happening.

"They're running us ragged all over the city, distracting us from something bigger"

Looking at the map and where the red alarms were sounding there was one area that that stood out to me at having none.

"Who's our biggest client here in Lawrence Township?"

I wasn't sure that Tank would know without looking it up and was surprised when he came back at me straight away with an answer.

"Kennleys, diamond merchant. I'm meeting with the owner next week to renew our contract"

Maybe I was working on a hunch but to me it was worth finding out.

"I'll take a man and go and check it out"

Maybe Tank scratched his head as he tried to understand why I would go to that particular location, but he never questioned my decision. As I left the control room it was Cal who was with me as I went down to the garage. I made sure that the trunk had what we would need, from flack vests to guns and additional ammo. Somehow, I had a feeling that this might get messy. As we left the garage Cal was setting up our comms units and had patched us through to Tank in the control room, just in case we needed backup.

As we neared the location of the jewelry outlet, I made sure to stop the car in a parking lot that overlooked the outlet. Fortunately, the two areas were separated by a row of newly planted trees so offered some protection from being seen. I was almost thinking that I'd totally misread this when a plain white van pulled up to the side of the building. Four men got out of the van with them going to a side door.

"Tank we have hostiles at Kennleys. Four men with heavy bags"

I needed for Tank to be watching the external cameras that were positioned around the jewelers.

"I see them. Look like workmen, but the camera angle isn't good"

Three of the men were wearing overalls and hard hats whilst a fourth was wearing a suit. To be honest to anyone watching this they might see it as a legitimate entry, as workmen entering the premises. My gut was telling me that things weren't as they seemed, but I knew that I needed some confirmation from the owner.

"Tank, call Friedman, ask him if there's work scheduled"

Waiting and watching I saw the suited man stood at the back door and as it opened and three of the men went inside, concerned that the alarm hadn't gone off. Either they had a code or were able to override the alarm and if they knew the combination that could only mean one thing, one of the robbers was an inside man.

"Friedman has no knowledge of any work being done at the premises"

Came back from Tank, which meant that those four men were probably there to rob the place.

"Send two teams to us Tank"

"Will do"

The problem as I saw it was whether or not we'd get back up here in time to stop them from stealing a large quantity of diamonds, though they'd have to open the vault first. I wasn't aware of how many of Friedman's employees would know the combination to the vault.

"ETA for backup?'

Hoping that Tank might have some good news.

"Fifteen minutes"

Which was going to be too late.

"We going in boss?"

I looked across to Cal as he stared out of the window at the building and thought, why not. Maybe we could cause enough of a distraction to slow them down until a team arrived or even the police.

"Tank, place a call to the PD and have them send a couple of units our way"

Leaving the car, we suited up and ensured that our weapons were in easy reach, though I really hoped that we wouldn't have to use them. Skirting the parking lot, we approached the building from the front and then slowly made our way along the side until we were at the corner. One man was stood leant against the wall, to anyone looking at him in the overalls he didn't stand out or look threatening, but I could see the automatic gun that he was holding behind his back. It seemed that if we were going to get to the back door then he would need to be dealt with first.

He was too far away for me to rush him, so we needed him to come to us. To be honest I was startled by the noise that suddenly came from Cal but acknowledged that it was a great performance of someone who was either very drunk or totally crazy. The loud off key singing, okay maybe shouting, was enough to attract the attention of the man. I was waiting crouched down near to the ground as he came around the corner. A punch to the gut followed by one to the side of his head as I stood up rendered him unconscious and we soon had him cuffed on the ground.

"Heading to the back door"

I said over my comms unit to let Tank know what we were doing.

As we made our way to the rear of the unit, I noted that some clever person had turned the alarm back on. I went for our first distraction by opening the door with an override combination and then set the alarm to come on as we entered the building. A vibration from my phone had me looking at the schematics for the layout of the place, courtesy of Hector, so now we had to decide how to approach this.

The vault and workshop were down in the basement but if this was an inside job then I was damn sure that they'd have got past the locked door to get down there. There was another room ahead of us before we reached the door to the basement so crouching down just inside the outer door, I went back to the floorplan paying particular attention to the schematics for power and ventilation. It probably wouldn't make much difference if we killed the power because the vault was an old fashioned dial system and the men down there would probably have flashlights.

"Have we any gas grenades?"

I said quietly to Cal because I knew that I didn't have any on me. He gave me the thumbs up and began to sort through the rucksack that he was carrying, while I zoomed in on the schematics for the ventilation system and where we could deposit the gas so that it would infiltrate down the ducts and into the basement.

Of course the best place was in the next room and I had a feeling that there'd be someone guarding that door.

"Someone's gone to a lot of trouble to set this up, causing all of the distractions around town"

I heard what Cal was saying but for now we needed to stop this break in and then we could figure this out.

"Next room"

Was all that I needed to say to Cal for him to focus on what we were doing and once again we were positioned on either side of the door. I reached to my left and carefully turned the knob allowing the door to silently open, pleased when it continued to open on its own. It's amazing how predictable people are when confronted with an opening door. Curiosity usually prevails and a few seconds later a man came through holding a gun ahead of him. The stupid bastard never saw what hit him before we had him knocked unconscious and cuffed. That allowed me to use a pick and lock the door from the outside on the basement door, effectively keeping anyone down there locked inside, before I opened the grill and dropped the grenade down.

We were outside when two backup teams arrived followed by two police cars and began to explain to them what we had done. By the time I finished talking I reckoned the men downstairs would be unconscious from the gas.

"Do you want to bring them out?"

I asked the police officer who I'd been talking to.

"Err, we don't have gas masks"

Was the excuse that he came up with. I nodded to Ram, Binkie, Junior and Slick and then watched as they collected some masks from their SUVs before they went into the unit.

The police arrested the men, but Ram made sure that he checked their belongings before bringing them out and had photos of them so that we could find out who they were. Cal had been right, there had to be someone who had set this up.

By the time I eventually got back to Rangeman the day had gone. Kennleys was secure and I'd spent time with the owner, Mr Friedman, who fortunately was so grateful for our quick action he was willing to come in to Rangeman on Monday to renegotiate a contract renewal. The atmosphere on five when I came out of the stairwell was calm, so I went to find Tank.

"Good call Ranger"

I walked through his open door and sat down in the chair in front of his desk watching as he sat back and looked at me.

"What's on your mind?"

"Someone organized those alarms all over town to go off to cause a distraction"

I was hoping that one of the teams had managed to pick up at least one person who was responsible.

"We caught a group of youths after the alarm went off at Vonnors. They were frightened to death with what might happen to them, so spilled what they knew"

I sat forward waiting for Tank to continue but by the look on his face I already knew that it wasn't going to be good.

"You guessed. Someone paid them to do it. Contact was through Whatsapp on one of the kids phones, with a drop off point to collect the money from. I had Hector go through the phone, but the messages had been deleted from the chat line"

I knew that the app was encrypted by default with end-to-end encryption for both messages and calls, hell even the government agencies had a problem with that program and either the sender or receiver could delete any messages from the chat line. So much for finding out more through the kids so maybe the men who had been arrested at Kennleys could have more information. I'd catch up with Ram in the morning to see what he had discovered when he'd gone down to the basement to bring them out.

I was on call during the night but fortunately there were no emergencies to deal with, so it was possible for me to get a full six hours of sleep before beginning the day. Santos was in charge today so I felt that I could follow up with the questions that had arisen from the day before. After the morning meeting I went to the gym and then showered before breakfast feeling like having a day when I could catch up on things in my own time. Once back down on five I went looking for Ram.

Ram was one of the men who had been on some of the teams that I'd worked with on government missions. He was detail orientated so was an excellent sniper and strategist. He'd struggled in a civilian world after leaving the rangers which was how he'd become involved with special ops and how I came to know him. I'd offered him a job with Rangeman, and he had never given me any cause to regret that decision. Rangeman had supported him to gain qualifications in forensic science so now like the rest of us he could sate the need for a physical challenge, while honing his newfound skills, and like most of us he'd finished with the government ops.

According to the rota Ram was on monitor duty so I told Hal, who was doing some computer work, to relieve him so that I could talk to him. I was waiting in my office when Ram eventually arrived, to be honest I was a little annoyed that it taken him so long. It was the probably the look that I gave him that implied my annoyance but instead of giving excuses he simply placed a file down on my desk in front of me.

"I just checked now, and the four men were released on bail this morning. According to the police report they didn't have enough to charge them with armed robbery, so they were charged with breaking and entering and carrying without a license"

Opening the file, I suppose that I shouldn't have been surprised that it had been Vinnie who was the bonds agent.

"Clive Robinson was the inside man, his prints were on the security pad at the outside door. No priors and had worked for Kennleys for a year. Jackson and Kalum Flores, brothers, both have records for armed robbery. The file has the searches for those four men. The last man had an id for a Christian Roberts, but a search is coming up blank as is a facial recognition, and his prints aren't on any data bases"

That did surprise me because I would have thought the man would be somewhere in a data base. Which made that last man a prime suspect for being the one who had organized everything. I had a feeling that he wouldn't be turning up for his court date, which had me wondering if Steph would get the file. If I knew her and how she could follow a clue I was pretty sure that she would eventually find him. That was if Morelli allowed her to keep her job.

"Anything else sir?"

I shook my head and watched as Ram left my office, closing the door behind him. I wasn't too sure why I was interested in the men who had broken into Kennleys, we'd stopped them, and they'd been arrested so they weren't our problem now, so closing the folder I placed it in the bottom drawer of my desk.

It was the following morning when I had need to look at that file again, much sooner than I would have liked to and it was Hector who had walked into my office who was responsible for that.

"Jefe"

I looked up as Hector had said that, noticing that he'd closed my office door, and seeing from the expression on his face that he was annoyed with something.

"Spill it"

Wanting him to get to what he saw as trouble, because Hector had never been a man to skirt around a problem.

"I was listening to the police scanner this morning, three dead bodies were found down by the docks, floating in the river. Three of the men who were responsible for the break in at Kennleys"

That was when I had pulled the file from my drawer and looked again at the men who Ram had identified.

"Let me guess, Clive Robinson, Jackson Flores and Kalum Flores"

I wasn't surprised when Hector nodded his head at me. That fourth man was probably responsible for their deaths, no doubt worried that they'd have some knowledge or information that could lead back to him?

"I'm hearing that they were shot before being dumped"

I sat back as Hector gave me that last piece of information but was then concerned with why that was bad news for us.

"Hector, how does that concern us? We were the ones who assisted the police in apprehending them?"

Even as I asked Hector that I knew that whatever he said wasn't going to be good. Hector wouldn't have come to me to tell me this unless he knew something else.

"Morelli is lead on the case and is asking the officers who brought them in what our role was"

I know I closed my eyes in order to rein in the reaction to slam my fist down on the desk. Morelli had never particularly liked me and had always done his best to degrade the men and the company as thugs and mercenaries. Was it because he hated that Steph classed us as friends and was jealous or did he feel threatened because we were better than him? Whichever it was he wasn't going to intimidate me or any of my men by going down that path.

Of course, the phone rang at that moment, a call from reception. I looked at Hector as I answered it because I was pretty sure that I was going to be told that Morelli was here to see me.

"Sir. A detective Morelli and Hopkins are here asking to speak to you"

"Have them sign in and ask Cal to show them to conference room 1"

Hector was already on his feet as I stood up.

"Just know though that if he hurts Estefania with his womanizing, he'll have me to deal with"

I was surprised at hearing that from Hector wondering when he had become so concerned over Steph. Hector was one of the men around here who rarely voiced his concerns and as far as I knew there had been little interaction between him and Steph. I was annoyed to say the least and as I walked into Tank's office, he knew it, but was wise enough not to say anything. Yes, I was annoyed that Morelli was here, but I was more annoyed at myself for not trying to protect Steph from him.

"Three of the men that were arrested have been murdered. We have Morelli downstairs"

I saw the frown cross Tank's face as he stood up and followed me out of the room. I thought it prudent as we went down the stairs to fill Tank in on what Hector had told me. I didn't wait for Tank to respond before pushing through the door on the ground floor. I nodded to Cal as he opened the door to the conference room knowing that he would remain there. Entering the room, I ignored Morelli and the other detective and went and stood at the head of the table before even acknowledging them.

"Detectives. How can I help?"

Tank and I sat down, the both of us looking relaxed as though we had no idea why they were here. At least the two men sat down opposite us, but I couldn't help but detect that Hopkins wasn't looking overly happy with being here.

"Those men that you stopped and apprehended inside the jewelers on Saturday, three have been murdered"

I watched Morelli and remained quiet as he said that wondering how he would continue the conversation.

"You know anything about that?"

I sat back as I looked at Morelli not sure what he was implying so went with being ignorant of knowing anything.

"Last time that I saw them was when we handed them over to the police"

Which was true, Morelli didn't need to know that we'd run our own background checks on them.

"I'm curious. How did you know they were going to hit Kennleys?"

I suppose there was no problem in giving Morelli the background and maybe he would understand then why we'd been so quick off the mark.

"We were experiencing random alarms going off where kids were tampering with the systems. That area of town stood out from the lack of foul play in the area and Kennleys would be a prime place to try and break in to, so I went over there to check it out"

"What did you see when you got there?"

To be honest I wasn't happy having to answer his questions because he should already have read my statement that I gave the officers who were there.

"It's all in my statement detective"

I saw the frustration in his face, the slump of his shoulders not really knowing what he expected from me. I watched as he picked up a piece of paper and read it before looking back to me.

"So you don't know any of the men who were arrested?"

"No. I only saw the two that we subdued outside the building and in the first room. What's causing the confusion detective?"

Because somehow, I was missing something that had him worried.

"Clive Robinson was the inside man, he admitted in his statement when he was arrested that it was him who disarmed the alarm and led one of the men downstairs. The thing is he swears that he didn't know the combination to the vault and forensics and a conversation with the owner tell us that it hadn't been tampered with"

"Maybe they hadn't started to try and open it, or they were looking through the jewelry that was in the workroom"

That would be the only logical explanation as to why they had broken in. That store held some valuable pieces and maybe now Mr Friedman would agree to a more extensive security system.

"Mr Friedman did an extensive stock check yesterday and reported that nothing was missing, but now I have three dead bodies that tie back to that break in"

"Which three?"

I asked just to assure Morelli that I had no further information and didn't have a file upstairs that told me who they were.

"The brothers, Jackson and Kalum Flores and Clive Robinson. We have no idea where Christian Roberts is because the address that he gave us doesn't pan out"

I was still in the dark as to why Morelli was here talking to me so sat back waiting for him to say because it seemed strange to me that he was here at all. I watched as Hopkins leant into him and whispered something, something that Morelli obviously didn't like.

"We could do with some help to find Roberts"

Morelli almost spat that out at me as though the mere idea was abhorrent enough let alone having to ask. Morelli must be getting pressure from above if he was asking me for help. Maybe we'd worked together in the past but only when the common interest was to keep Steph safe. I kept my expression totally blank as I paused for a minute to consider how I was going to make Morelli squirm.

"We could do some more evasive searches, but our best researcher is away at the moment. Do you know when Steph will be back?"

That had his attention and from the way that he frowned I wasn't sure if he understood me clearly.

"Steph is the best person for finding something out, so she would be the best option"

I caught the intensity of how he looked back at me wondering if he was annoyed at me for suggesting Steph, but he didn't give me an answer as to when she'd be back or even offer to ask her to work on this. Was he so adamant that Steph stopped all contact here at Rangeman?

"I'll send you what we have and whatever you can find just email it to me at the station"

Was his only comment as he made to stand up. I was quick to be by his side as he walked out of the room because I wanted him to know that I wasn't pleased with his behavior of cheating behind Steph's back if he was going to be marrying her.

"Have you and Steph set a date yet or are you hoping to have more time to try out other women?"

"Fuck you Manoso"

Were his parting words as he stomped toward the front door with Cal smiling behind him. It was definitely worth being sworn at to get him to know that I wasn't happy with how he was treating Steph.

"What are you going to do about him Ranger?"

Asked a curious Tank as we made our way back up the stairs to five. I wasn't too sure other than to get Ram to email that search to Morelli in a couple of days.

"I'll get Ram to email what we have, though it won't help because there's nothing there"

"Not that. Him still picking up women when he's supposed to be marrying Steph. If you don't do something the men are mad enough to pay him a visit"

I wasn't sure what to do. If I told Steph after not talking to her for so long, she could end up hating me and that was the last thing that I wanted to do. If I threatened Morelli, then I'd still be seen as the bad guy

That had me stopping and turning to Tank. Why would my men do that?

"Ranger, they're very protective of her"

I knew that just from what Hector had said to me earlier. I'd have to bide my time until she came back and then decide what to do.