I pulled Joe back from the blast zone, and as other patrons in the restaurant poured out of the building so that they could see the blaze, we kept them back from the fire as well. Joe called the burning car into dispatch, and seconds later I got a call from the control room. "Are you okay?" said Hector. "I have you at the location of a dispatch call, but your car hasn't yet stopped transmitting."

"Give it a few minutes", I said. "Morelli's car is on fire and, since I'm parked beside him, my car will soon catch fire as well."

"Alright!"

"You sound happy."

"I picked today as the day your car would get incapacitated."

I laughed. "I'm pleased to have made you richer." Hector laughed.

The fire made it to Joe's gas tank, and the car exploded. The resulting fireball engulfed my car in flames and the car to the other side in flames, and seconds later my car and the other car exploded as well. "There", said Hector with some satisfaction. "Your car is now off-screen."

"How much did you win?"

"Three hundred dollars", he said. "I'll let Ranger know."

My phone buzzed with an incoming call, and I looked down to see that Ranger was calling me. "Don't bother", I said. "He's on the other line." I said goodbye to Hector and answered Ranger's call. "Were you listening to the police scanner or was this just good timing?"

"I was listening to the police scanner."

"I just made Hector a very happy person."

"Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"What happened?"

I told him about the bookie's thugs and how they seemed to have targeted me. I told him about them torching Morelli's car rather than mine, and that got a bark of laughter. And I told him how Ronald McDonald seemed to be the culprit.

"You know that it really isn't Ronald McDonald, don't you, babe?" he said.

"I know what I saw. Even Morelli said that he looked like Ronald McDonald."

"Do you need a car?"

"Does insurance cover it?"

"Yes."

I thought about that for a moment. "I think it would be a good idea for me to drive Big Blue for a while. I've totaled three cars in two days, and my track record isn't good. For some reason, Big Blue is indestructible."

"No. You're too noticeable in Big Blue. Remember, babe. You have to blend in. I'll be out to pick you up in about fifteen minutes. I just have a report that I have to finish writing, which will take me about ten minutes, and then I'll come get you."

"It's a ten-minute drive."

"Babe." He hung up the phone and I smiled and shook my head.

He made it in twelve. He parked at the edge of the confusion and came jogging up to me, captured me into a hug and kissed the top of my head as his hands ran up and down my back and he assured himself that I was alright. Joe came over to us, and Ranger smiled. "The men were thinking that they should start a pool on your cars as well", he said.

I laughed. As much as I didn't like seeing Joe in distress, it was nice that it was him, rather than me, for a change.

"Do you need us for anything?" Ranger said to Joe.

"I'll need Steph to come into the station later to make an official statement, but otherwise no", said Joe.

"We'll go talk to our guest then", said Ranger. "He has been waiting impatiently to talk to me."

"He's making your life difficult?"

"You have no idea."

Morelli laughed. "Actually, I do. I was responsible for protecting him the last time he was in witness protection", he said. "I have never met a more obnoxious person in my life."

"I know", I said. "And I was the idiot that married him."

"He had to have been different when you were going out with him", said Ranger. "You love people and give them the benefit of the doubt. However, I think his behavior would have stopped even you from settling down with him if he acted like he currently acts."

He reached down and captured my hand and, as we turned to leave, Morelli looked at Ranger. "Take care of her, and good luck. Remember, I don't want to have to bring you in for murder."

Ranger smiled. "Trust me. If it came to that, there would be nothing to hang me on."

Morelli smiled. "For some reason, that makes me feel better."

I looked at them. The love-in was making me feel uncomfortable. Unless I was in danger, there had always been a quiet rivalry between the two of them. Although I was happy they were getting along – after all, outside my dad they were the two most important men in my life – it was giving me a bit of the creeps. After years of competition between them, it seemed unnatural.

Ranger and I walked away. "He seemed particularly happy for someone whose car had just blown up", he said. "Did you have a good lunch with him?"

I smiled. "I had a great lunch with him. He told me that he's started to see another woman. It's nice to see him so happy."

"Are you okay with it?"

"He's not seeing Joyce or Terry and he's happy, so I'm extremely good with it. We talked about you a bit, and he was supportive about us. Part of that is because he is more settled in himself. Morelli is a good friend of mine, which is why we lasted as long as we did. I don't want to stop that friendship, but I also am happy and because I am happy, I want to see all my friends happy as well. I didn't like upsetting him when we broke up, but he wasn't right for me. It is nice that he agrees with me now."

"Who is he seeing?"

"A Becky Bianchi. I don't know her. She apparently is a year or so older than me, but she went to another high school. I don't think she grew up in the Burg or, if she did, I don't recognize her name. I don't think she grew up too far away though, as Morelli met her at his mother's church. Apparently she was there in honor of her mother. He's keeping it quiet as he is still publically working with Terry under the guise of dating each other."

"My lips are sealed. Do you want me to run Becky through the system?"

"No. That seems a little wrong, and he hasn't asked us to do that. As long as he is happy, that's what matters. After all, if there is something in Becky's past that would cause us to flag her, Morelli would be furious with us for looking into her history. And if there wasn't anything, I would feel terrible for looking into her history. There would be no winners for investigating her."

"Okay. Remember the search engines are there though. If you want to investigate her, go ahead."

"Thanks."

"What else did you talk about?"

"Family. I told him about my grandmother's desire to get a job."

"How did it go looking at your grandmother's resume?"

"Let's just say that my mother doesn't have to worry about getting my grandmother to a job on time. I tried to get my grandmother interested in applying to the funeral home. I told her that it would be a lot of fun and that people were dying to go there." Ranger groaned as I grinned. "I told her that she'd be able to see all those bodies before they go into the caskets and that it would be in the funeral home's best interest to hire her since they got so upset when she took a little peek when the casket was closed. I don't know if my mother was relieved or horrified when my grandmother decided that it would be better to be a 'ho than it would be to apply at Stiva's. When I left them, my grandmother was tailoring her resume to appeal to a pimp and my mother had given in and had decided that it was late enough to take a shot of whiskey."

Ranger smiled. "I didn't know what to say when your grandmother said that she wanted to be a prostitute."

"Well, she seems to have settled on that as her life's ambition. I told Lula, and she said she'd stop by and give my grandmother pointers, from one professional to another. I told her to try to talk her out of it."

"Will she?"

"Who knows with Lula? She's like a fart in a fan factory. You never know which way she'll blow."