Chapter 25

I awoke from the dream and wanted nothing more than to return to it, I was making love to Carlos, so sweet and passionate, and full of love. I think I huffed instead of sighing as I got up and went to shower, as I looked at the bath I could feel my cheeks heat up. Oh my, did we really do that on the phone? The phone interrupted my thoughts.

"Hey Steph you fancy going out for breakfast?

"Angel that sounds like such a good idea"

"Meet me in the garage in 30"

I finished my shower quickly flattening my hair to my head and put on the wig, I used gel to style the hair up into spikes, and then got into my uniform, plus bigger boobs and hips. Cat boots, holster and gun, with the leather jacket over and I was on my way. Angel was standing by her new dark grey Audi RS 5; of course it had all the extras, guess she was driving today. As we got in she turned to me.

"I have found this great little diner out toward Hamilton Township, so that's where we're going"

I was okay with that; in fact it felt so good to be out doing something as normal as eating breakfast. The diner was unique; everything on the menu was home made and tasted like heaven. Having eaten a plateful of pancakes with maple syrup, croissants with blueberry jam I was stuffed. As we were leaving I noticed a farmers market, so we spent the next hour wandering from stall to stall buying all sorts of cold cuts, cheeses and bread.

"Angel if this is dinner then we have to get doughnuts for desert, I know just the place"

I directed Angel to the Tasty Pastry, not really thinking I was well inside the Burg. Well my disguise was good, no one was going to expect me to turn up here, so I opened the door and signaled Angel to follow. As I was closing the door I stilled. Behind me I could here my mother talking to someone, and if my ears weren't deceiving me she was talking with Dickie Orr. Now why would she be talking to him? My eyes caught Angels and I nodded my head toward them, luckily Angel seemed to catch on. She got out her phone and started to walk toward them. She was almost next to them making out that she was looking in the window at all the cakes. I walked past them all and into the shop. By the time I had picked out a dozen doughnuts and had them paid for and in a box, Angel was back in the car. We drove in silence through the streets. It was nearly 2pm so the office seemed like the best place to be, I wanted to hear what Angel had recorded on her phone.

"Who the hell was that?"

"That was my mother talking to the bastard who is my ex"

"Wow, you're gonna have to tell me the story on that one. So why's she talking to him?"

"Don't know and I don't like it"

"Ok tell me about the ex"

Yeesh, if I had a dollar for every time I'd told this story I'd be rich.

"I married when I was young and impressionable, and probably because he and my mother harassed me into it. You know, you're going to get left on the shelf Stephanie, no one else will ask you; he's perfect for you. Well I hadn't even opened all the marriage presents when I came home to find him screwing an old enemy of mine on our brand new dining room table. So I divorced him, and you know all those things a girl can do to get revenge?"

"Oh I bet that caused a stir?"

"Yeah but he took everything and left me with some of his debt, it almost finished me off"

"So your mother liked him?"

"He was a solicitor, what's not to like?"

After we left the car in the garage we headed up to our office, closed the door and attached the phone so the recording could come through a speaker, before hitting play Angel turned to me with a serious face.

"Do I need to get Tobi or Kade?"

Would I get upset or angry? Could I contain those emotions?

"No I'll be all right and if not I'll head to the gym"

We sat down and Angel pressed the play button, I was hearing my mothers' voice.

"Dickie I don't know what went wrong"

"She's your daughter, didn't she say anything?"

"No, I expected her to call me"

"What exactly did she want from you?"

"I told her everything there was to know about that daughter of mine"

"Well what are you going to do now?"

"I don't know"

"Why don't you get in touch with Beatrice she was the one who talked to you?"

"But where are the contents of the box?"

"No idea, but obviously Stephanie doesn't have them"

"Oh god she wasn't meant to get hurt, I did it for her"

"Ellen come on, you did it for you"

"Well, I'm next of kin"

"And Edna?"

"She's too old, and she wants to forget her heritage, so it's my right"

"Whatever Ellen, talk to Beatrice and see if she knows where the contents are, I'm finished with all of this"

The contents were meant for me? That's why Elspeth went to all the trouble of getting me to the bank so that Langley could steal them? What the hell was in that box, why didn't I take more notice? But who put the contents there in the first place? Shit am I stupid or what? I'd used my own id at the bank and they'd accepted it, did that mean I was the only person who could access it? And what the hell had my mother done to be involved with this? I'd obviously stood too long thinking because Angel was stood in front of me.

"You OK?"

"Yeah, thinking. We need to do some B & E"

Did I expect Kade to go nuts at me when I said I was going to break into a solicitor's office? Not really, though I must admit I hadn't really thought about how.

"Kade I'm not running off to do it, I came to you to help"

"Nice to know Bonita"

"Oh come on Kade I know I'm no good at the breaking in, but I'm hell with the entering and searching, and I usually get myself out"

"Tell you what, we put a team together and plan it"

"Fine, but it's got to be soon, Dickie has a habit of cleaning up real quick if he thinks he's gonna be got rid of, and I think he's a loose end"

"You have anything that will help?"

"Of course, Rangeman does the security on the building"

"I'll call the team, you take a nap, meet here at midnight, wear your cover, and black"

"Sir, yes sir"

I ran from the office before he either hit me or laughed at me. I decided to shower and be dressed ready so if I did fall asleep I could just get up and go out. I lay on my bed in my thinking position, that conversation rolling through my head. Had my own mother betrayed me for an inheritance? I wonder whose name was on the ledgers for buying my Great Grandmothers ticket? Yeah a random thought but maybe another thread to pull. I sent a message to Hector asking him to find out. I did doze still laid on my back with my head over the edge of the bed and a pillow over my face. I woke to the feel of kisses on my throat, my ear and my face.

"I know this girl who loves upside down kisses"

With that I lean up my head away from the bed to devour his mouth, my tongue seeking and gaining entrance, I held his head to me, deepening the kiss and changing the angle to intensify the passionate mating we had begun. Lips still touched but he'd pulled away.

"We have to go Babe, someone I know wants to do some B & E, and I'm your man"

"Oh indeed you are"

As usual with any mission these guys were planned and planned well. There were two men out back, Hal and Vince, two out front, Gaz and Sam and four to go in, Kade, Lester, Carlos and me. Tank was on the comms back at Rangeman, watching the monitors with the security cameras on. To me this seemed like overkill but I was just along for the ride, and to find some evidence, because I was bereft of it. There was no talking, all hand signals so I stuck with Carlos like glue. Lester and Kade took the solicitors outer office where there were some filing cabinets, Carlos and I went into Dickies private office. With a penlight in hand Carlos started on the files, me I knew that scumbag too well and went straight to a picture on the wall, a really ugly picture of Dickie shaking the hand of some big wig, you could actually see my hand at the edge of the picture because it was me that got him into a conversation with said big wig, then he had the nerve to cut me out of the photo and enlarge it with just himself. The picture was on hinges down the left side, like a door, so I opened the door and set to work on the dial of a safe. I noticed Carlos had stopped what he was doing and was just watching me. I tuned the dial according to Dickies social security number. After turning left then right a few times there was a clunk and I pulled the handle to open the door. Oh my, I could have a field day in here with all this stuff. Carlos by this time had moved closer, he shone his torch onto the pile of stuff I had dumped on the desk. I started a pile of files I wanted to take; each had a name that fit in with my investigation. Stephanie Plum, Ellen Plum, Edna Mazur, Beatrice Lang, Ian Langley, Ben Grossman, Ricardo Carlos Manoso and, Gerald Hickman and Elspeth Langman. Carlos looked through some I didn't know and threw those in the pile as well. Too many to start copying, I looked at Carlos.

"Too many to copy, what you want to do?"

"Take them"

He touched a mic at his throat.

"Kade take Steph out, send Lester in"

He then transferred the paper from the named files putting it all into one, and then replaced the empty files in the safe. He shrugged and winked at me before Kade had me turned around with the loose papers in my hand, and walked me out of the building. Back in the safety of his office Kade handed me a coffee and I started to separate the papers according to the file they'd been in. Once done I photocopied each sheet of paper then started to pin them onto a large board, with a pink highlighter in hand I started to read. After two hours I had read through each paper, I hadn't started to pull the threads together, I just needed to sit down, nah maybe lay down, and yeah that was better.

Chapter 26

By 2am we had left the building that Dickie Orr had his office in, the place was clean and the camera had been footage doctored, leaving no trace of a break in, I was still laughing inside at how Steph had totally stumped everyone when she simply walked in and found the safe, then proceeded to open it. I told Kade where Steph was concerned try to plan for the unexpected because nothing ever went to plan when she was involved. I suppose to some extent it showed how arrogant we had all been by not including her in the planning. Never mind, we were in and out in a third of the time we'd been planning on.

At 5am I was woken by my phone, I'm sure I hadn't set the alarm; I was willing to forgo the gym today in lieu of our late night. The phone went again and this time I answered.

"Yo"

"Sorry but I've lost Steph"

That got me up in a hurry.

"Kade, how do you mean you lost her, how can you loose her?"

"If I knew she wouldn't be lost"

"Where was she when you last saw her"

"In my office, last night"

"Then that's where she'll be, go check and get back to me"

I decided since I was up I might as well go to the gym, on the way down Kade got back to me.

"Well?"

"Like you thought, fast asleep under the table, the lights are on motion detectors to conserve energy, so when she went to sleep the lights went out. I've left her there to sleep"

"OK ' I'll be over, there were some names on files that I wasn't expecting so I need to take a look, plus I think she needs to know about Morelli"

I hung up and continued to the gym, Re hashing that particular conversation I needed to have with Steph. Morelli was a total screwball when we got to him yesterday. Yeah, he knew he'd shot Steph, didn't know why except an instinct to obey orders. I almost felt sorry for him but I'd handed over all the evidence we had from his house and his recorded confession over to the Chief of Police, he could decide what to do. After working out I called to see Hector, he'd had a message from Steph for some information so I took it with me. No joy on the phone it was totally fried, that was another one down to Morelli, he'd told the FBI all about the trackers, wires and panic buttons Steph often carried, and they'd obviously come up with a way of disabling them, and that was worrying because that type of tech equipment was not easy to get your hands on. Back at the satellite office I found Steph in the kitchen with Tobi eating doughnuts? Well if that kept her happy today, who was I to spoil it?

"Babe, you get enough sleep?"

"I think so, I need to get back to work"

"I'll join you"

I followed her into the office and as the door closed literally made a grab for her, she giggled! What kind of response was that?

"Sorry I keep having dreams about telephone sex with you, and now you're here, if you come near me I'm gonna jump you"

I laughed and took her in my arms.

"Then do it"

"No, not in some one else's office"

Finishing the kiss I turned her toward the boards.

"All right, I give in, lets get a look at those files"

Steph had already copied them and put the copies onto the boards, there was pink all over the place showing that she'd already spent a lot of time reading.

"So what do we have Babe?"

"The oldest file belongs to Grandma, it must have been one of the older partners who set it up, but it was someone else who spoke with the solicitor. Basically it explains that Grandma or the youngest named relative has the rights to the safety deposit box at the bank. The solicitor updated as children reached 21 and I'm added on last, as I'm the youngest. I think the file got lost when the solicitor died, then when Beatrice Lang got in touch with the firm Dickie found it. It seems as if she'd tried every firm in the area looking for something that tied in to Grandma. He probably told her what the file said when he found it and told my mother at the same time, maybe wanting some payoff from my mother, especially if he now thought the box contained valuables. When Beatrice put the plan together with Langley and Hickman, Dickie tried to find out who they were, to be honest the files have very little in them, but they do give us a timeline. My mother must have got the contact details from Dickie and I think she tried to hatch a plan to get me hooked, hoping I'd go running to her and then she'd take possession of the box"

"I brought you the information you asked Hector for, and guess who paid for your Great Grandmothers ticket?"

"Thomas Grossman"

"Yes, I don't know how you do it'

"There's probably some big word, but I think it through and follow my spidey sense"

"So what next?"

"Find Elspeth Langman and have a conversation with her"

"Tall order Babe"

"Any other suggestions"

"No, but"

"Spit it out, you're stalling"

"Just remember I was putting you first"

"So?"

"Kade and I had a conversation with Morelli yesterday. We found him in your old apartment. He's totally lost it Babe; the ballistics came back to his gun. So we handed all the evidence, everything over to the Chief for him to deal with"

"What other evidence?"

"The bullet, ballistics, the basement and his confession. Babe he was the one who told the FBI about you wearing trackers, mikes and a panic button. They came prepared with an EMP or microwave devise to fry them, that's why your phone won't work, and why we lost all the electronic units you had on you"

"I'm all right with that decision Carlos, and I suppose you were right that I didn't see him myself, he's supposed to be a good cop and he let his emotions get the better of him, he also nearly killed me"

"I'm glad you see it that way"

"There were some files you brought out?"

"Good people I know, like me, who wouldn't want anyone to have a file on them, they're good guys Babe"

"No problem as long they aren't involved with this"

"So we're left with Grossman senior and Elspeth Langman?"

"Yes, can you find where Elspeth has gone, and I'll dig into Grossman?"

"I'll do that, I can also call in a favor to have agent Langley dealt with"

"Let me think about that. You know we always assumed that when Erzsébet Lange lived here as a child she lived with a woman, maybe it was Thomas Grossman, but I'm not sure why they disappeared"

"Babe we're talking history here, we may never know all the answers"

The most important thing for me was to clear my Babe's name and be rid of any threats to her, for her to be able to live her life freely. At Rangeman I asked Hector to track Elspeth Langman and find her whereabouts then had to get down to the mundane tasks of the business. Steph was going to be following her Grandmothers history.