Chapter 6

Ranger entered his apartment with his mind still on the young girl who'd suddenly risen in importance to him. Tank was slouched back on the utilitarian sofa, looking oversized for the furniture and uncomfortable. Ranger walked to the armchair and lowered himself into it, cautiously extending his healing leg to the angle of most comfort.

"Nice to see you," Tank said. "You were down there so long I thought maybe you and your gimp leg walked her home."

Ranger ignored the taunt. "What do you think?" he asked.

"I think it's a good story," Tank said.

"You don't believe her then?"

"I believe that she believes what she said. And I believe she's Morelli's kid. When you asked if she reminded me of anyone, she did, but I didn't know who. Now I'm wondering why I didn't put two and two together sooner. She resembles him, except for her eyes. Those are her momma's eyes."

"They are," Ranger said. He didn't meet Tank's gaze. He couldn't. He hadn't completely processed what Cally's news meant. And he wasn't going to come to grips with it until he was alone. Until he could think it through.

"So, I believe that she thinks she has the straight story," Tank continued. "But the thing is, WITSEC don't work that way, man."

"I know that."

"What we need to find out is if it's the same story Stephanie believes. Maybe her kid got the details wrong, or maybe Stephanie was confused. It was a real bad time for her."

"That's an understatement," Ranger said quietly. He remembered what the time had been like for him. Like it still was. He'd never gotten over her, and now she was alive!

"I asked Cally to say nothing to her mother about meeting me. I told her I needed some time to process the information, and there is more to the story than she told the both of us. We're going to talk again tomorrow."

"She went out on a limb to tell you that Stephanie was still alive. I'm sure she was thinking you'd be doing something about it. What are you going to do?"

Ranger reached behind his head and pulled the leather thong from his ponytail. He ran his hands through his hair and sighed. His head was pounding with the effort of staying focused on the story they'd just been told, instead of exploring the possibilities of reuniting with Stephanie. He breathed deeply.

"I can't effing wrap my head around this," he told Tank. "Before she left, Cally told me that her relationship with her mom was damaged when Cally insisted on moving up here with her husband. I think she has some plan of getting Stephanie and me together to make amends."

"Is that your plan?" Tank asked, sitting up straight on the sofa.

"All I know is she can't know I'm alive," Ranger said. "At least not until I figure some things out. And Cally promised she wouldn't tell her."

"Do you really think Stephanie doesn't know you're alive? She's dead to the people of her old life, but they're not dead to her. You think she hasn't somehow kept up with what's going on in Trenton?"

"How many times has RangeMan, or me specifically, been in the news? Zero. And you know I can't be found online. I paid good money to Silvio over the years, and he did his job."

"Point taken," Tank said. "You're invisible on the publicly accessible web."

Ranger lowered his head to avoid Tank's gaze and said, "You're going to have to be my legs, man." He pointed to his leg. "I'm close to getting this hardware off, but until it is gone I can't do what needs to be done."

"What needs to be done?" Tank asked.

"I need you to put eyes on her," Ranger said. "I just need to know. Tomorrow I'm going to give Cally a few facts. Like how I was MIA when her father died. And then we are going to work our way through what happened, and why. I'm thinking that we've just uncovered the tip of the iceberg. Once we have the complete story, I'll decide whether I go see her."

"Are you shitting me?" Tank asked incredulously. "I saw you when you found out she was dead. I'm the one that fucking told you she was gone. You've been only half-alive for the last almost twenty-five years and now you've been given the gift of a second chance. And you might not act on it?"

Ranger ignored Tank's outburst. "I was held away for an extra month by false Intel. By the time we realized it was over and I could come home, Stephanie was buried. Yeah, you told me, and at the time I forgot about my screwed-up mission. I never thought of it again, until Cally was talking this evening. Now I'm wondering who was responsible for the faulty Intel. If I'm completely incommunicado, which I was, it makes it easier to make a bereaved widow believe I'm dead."

"Are you saying this is some sort of massive cover-up?" Tank asked.

"I don't know what I'm saying," Ranger said. "All I know is you were right when you said WITSEC doesn't work that way. And suddenly there are a lot of coincidences that need to be double checked."

"Such as?"

"Such as Morelli in an accident that was no accident and Stephanie and Cally were supposed to die with him. No one was ever prosecuted. It was a hit and run driver who plowed into Cally's husband while he had another driver stopped on the side of the road, but he's never been caught. My accident is still an unsolved hit-and-run, despite the fact you were an eyewitness and gave the police an accurate description of my assailant."

"Assailant?" Tank questioned. "That implies a purposeful attack and not just an unfortunate accident."

"That's exactly what it implies," Ranger responded.

Tank was silent for a moment. He stood and walked toward the window, his back to Ranger. "You think they're connected?" he asked.

"I think we have to prove they're not. Because if they're connected, then there are still two potential targets."

"Stephanie and Cally," Tank said, turning around to look at his friend.

"Stephanie and Cally," Ranger agreed. "And if this is somehow related to some of the shit in my past, I have to make it right."

"How could this be related to you?" Tank asked. "What makes you think it is?"

"The same thing that makes you think it. What happened to Stephanie was not protocol for WITSEC. And Callie kept mentioning the name of the WITSEC contact. Brian. I pushed her on it before she left, but she couldn't be certain of a last name. There was a SOB in my life at the time named Brian. Another coincidence."

Tank's gaze on Ranger was unwavering, and Ranger met his stare. There was silence in the room while each man dealt with the new reality they'd been thrust into. Tank would have liked clarification on the SOB named Brian, but he didn't ask. Ranger would tell him in his own time. Right now, Ranger had other information to process.

"I'm going home," Tank said. "Tomorrow, I'll leave for Georgia, and then I'll come back and we will start with those encrypted files you wanted me to destroy. We'll see if we can find anything that might link Morelli to what you had going on at the time. You talk to Cally and get every detail she knows. Interrogate her. We need to know if the story she told is the story Steph told, or if it's Cally interpretation."

"Make sure she doesn't see you," Ranger said.

Tank stretched to his full height. "No problem, man. I can blend in. Stephanie won't know I'm there until I want her to know."

Ranger watched his friend leave the apartment and for just a moment he was tempted to smile. As incongruous as it seemed, he had every faith in Tank. He could blend in.