Ray: Five UK readers now! You guys rock! Do British people say that?

Fraser: I'm sure the English are well-versed in such slang.

Ray: How do you know? You ever been to England?

Fraser: Well, no, but I have been known to sit through a BBC program or two, and...

Ray: Fraser? Zip it.

Fraser: Very well.

Chapter Fourteen: Catching Up

"Was Francesca very upset?" I asked RayV when he picked me up to go bowling.

"Nah, she perked up and started primping right after supper, so I think she decided to go on her date after all."

"Ah. Well, I'm glad."

"Not like it matters. She wasn't invited in the first place."

It seemed like an uncharitable thing to say, and not the most logical thing, either. "You did discourage her from coming for her own good, yes?" I asked pointedly.

"Yeah. 'Course. I'm just sayin'."

I studied his profile while he drove, and I couldn't be certain that he was being entirely honest with me.

When we got to the bowling alley, the man behind the counter told me that dogs were not allowed.

"Actually, he's a—" I started.

"Actually, he's a police dog," Ray said, getting out his badge.

"Oh, yeah?" the man asked, leaning over the counter to get a better look. "Does he sniff for drugs?"

"Should he?"

"I'm just asking... like, what tricks does he do?"

"We can have him demonstrate tackling you if you would like."

"Eh, whatever. As long as he's housebroken and doesn't bother anyone. But if he starts barking or anything like that, he goes outside."

"He won't," Ray said.

I nodded at the man behind the counter. "Thank you kindly."

As we sat down to put on our bowling shoes, I said, "You know, Ray... strictly speaking, Diefenbaker is not an officially trained police dog."

"Shh. I know that. I wasn't speaking strictly. I was being technical. Dief does police work; he's a police dog. End of story. You wanna leave him outside?"

Dief whined.

"Well, no."

"Good, so there's no problem."

I was starting to realize just how much Ray liked to stretch the truth for the sake of convenience. I was also starting to think RayK had been right about his motive for leaving Francesca out of his plans.

On the way back to the consulate, Ray explained to me all the subtle factors that contributed to his being just slightly "off his game" that night, resulting in my having beaten him by several points. I tried to listen, but mostly I was thinking about the women I had seen at the bowling alley. Many of them were young and attractive. And I hadn't seen any harassment going on. I felt a bit perturbed.

"I'll see you Monday, all right?" he said when I got out of the car.

"Yes. Good evening."

He waved and drove off.

I looked up at the sky. It was a little cloudy, but we hadn't gotten any rain that day as we had the day before. I thought it would be nice to see the sky away from the city again, but I doubted that would happen for a long time.

Dief and I went inside and got ready to retire. "It's late," I told him. "So, I'm going to let you sleep in a little. Perhaps until six-thirty or seven. Just remember, we have that luxury because it's the weekend."

Dief made a persecuted sound and lay down on his favorite rug.

"A poor attitude will do nothing to improve your situation," I said.

I was about to fall asleep when our night watchman, Constable Dean Edwards, knocked on my door.

"Sorry to disturb you, but there's a telephone call for you, sir," Edwards explained. "Detective Vecchio."

"Oh. Thank you. I'll take it in my office."

I pulled my trousers on over my union suit before going out to take the call. "Hello, Ray?" I said, full of curiosity.

"Hey, Benny. Franny isn't home yet. I was just wondering if you knew where she is. Has she called or anything?"

"No," I said, frowning. I looked at the clock on the wall. It was nearing midnight. "When did she leave the house?"

"Ma said around seven-thirty. She didn't say who she was going out with. Maria said she was pretty sure she'd cancelled her date with the Glenn-mustache guy, but she's not sure they didn't go out after all. Then again, it could be anybody."

"Well... Francesca isn't exactly a child," I pointed out, trying not to think of the time she had shown up at my apartment in the middle of the night.

"Yeah, I know... I just..." He trailed off.

"Ray?"

"Uh, yeah. Sorry, I think a car's pulling up. Yep, that's gotta be her."

"Ah. Good. Let me know if anything is amiss."

"Sure, thanks. Sorry to bother you."

"Not at all."

I returned to my bed, grateful that things had worked out. Ray clearly did care deeply for his sister, whether or not he particularly wanted to bowl with her.

The next day I did sleep in until seven. I showered and shaved and fed Diefenbaker, took him for a walk and bought breakfast at an open-air cafe. It was mid-morning by that time, and I felt a little guilty at having accomplished practically nothing so far. Still, it was Sunday. I went to the park for a game of chess before returning to the consulate to see if I had any messages. I didn't, and Inspector Lam had nothing to occupy me, other than ordering a pizza for him. The new inspector was quite a no-nonsense sort, except that he had become enamored of Chicago's culinary claim to fame.

By the time I was done with that, I was actually beginning to feel a bit bored. I went out again, thinking about the apartments I had looked at, going over them in my mind. I tried to weigh the merits of each logically, but I kept thinking about the look on RayK's face when he admitted that he wanted me to live near him for selfish reasons. Is it really selfish to want to see more of a friend?

We had certainly seen a lot of each other while searching for the grave of John Franklin. On many days, he was the only person I saw. We got into some very empty territory. I started to notice the little habits in his speech, what some of his less transparent expressions meant, what was likely to encourage him when he was tired. I'd seen him come to understand me a little better, too. He started to predict what I would say or decide to do about something before I told him. We were partners before, but so much more so after those several weeks together.

Going from a familiar two-man team back to a less compact, less predictable group hadn't been simple, but I didn't see it as a difficult thing. Maybe Ray did. Maybe he missed knowing who he would see when he woke up, and who would be beside him all day, and who would make sure he was safe at night.

Anytime I said something about the apartment in Ray's building, Dief seemed to perk up, whereas he showed little enthusiasm for any of the others. The other apartments should have been just as appealing to a canine as that one, so I could conclude only one thing: Dief liked the prospect of living near Ray better than living anywhere else. I wouldn't say that was what decided it for me, but it did make things easier.

"Come on," I told Dief.

Back at the consulate, I went to my office and made a phone call.

"Hello," a woman answered.

"Good afternoon, Miz Tate," I said. "This is Benton Fraser. You were kind enough to show me an apartment yesterday."

"Oh, Benton. What can I do for you?"

"I wanted to tell you that I would like to take the room, if it's still available."

"It sure is. I can't process your paperwork yet because it's the weekend..."

"Of course. And I'm sorry to bother you today. I just wanted to be sure not to miss my chance."

"Okay. You just come by tomorrow or the day after, and we'll get that started for you."

"Thank you kindly, ma'am."

I hung up the phone and saw Dief looking expectantly at me. "Yes," I said. "We're going to be Ray's neighbors."

Dief trotted over to me and gave my arm a nudge, a rare show of affection. I patted his head in return. "I think so, too," I said.

By suppertime, I had gotten in touch with the landlords of the other apartments and told them I had made other arrangements. Then I received a call from RayK.

"Hey, buddy," he said. "Did Ray tell you what happened to Franny and me last night?"

"No... he was worried because Francesca was out later than usual, but then he said she was home. That's all he told me."

"Oh. Well, see, the thing is..."

He proceeded to tell me all about the attempted kidnapping.

"All of this happened last night?" I asked, feeling a sort of retroactive worry for my friends, along with some indignation that no one had thought to tell me about it when it occurred.

"Yeah, it was quite a night."

"Why didn't you call me right away? Ray, I have been living in complete ignorance of the facts for..." I looked at the clock. "...eighteen hours or so."

"I guess it didn't occur to me. She was safe and... I guess I thought it would keep. Didn't want to worry you."

He sounded as if he understood his mistake and regretted it, so I let it go. I asked him to meet me at the crime scene, and with some reluctance he agreed and offered to pick me up.

I noticed that Ray seemed tired, and there were some irritated-looking red marks on his neck, but he seemed to move normally, so I concluded that he wasn't badly hurt.

After we found a few shreds of evidence, RayV joined us for a few minutes. He invited us to dinner, but RayK declined, pointing out that Francesca could probably do with some peace. RayK took me back to the consulate.

Because of the attempted kidnapping, I forgot all about deciding which apartment to live in until I sat down to read before going to bed. I would tell Ray later; maybe tomorrow.

In the morning, I stood guard outside the consulate; then I picked up lunch for my friends at the Chicago PD and we ate in the lunchroom there.

When Francesca joined us, she gave me a hug which I welcomed. I was glad to see that she seemed to be doing just fine after her ordeal, and told her as much.

We discussed the case and both Francesca and Ray were able to recall a few details that they hadn't before. By the time we returned to the bullpen to continue the investigation, we had a rough idea of the people we were looking for.

After a while, RayK pointed out that the kidnappers might attempt to take a different member of RayV's family, and that set us into motion. RayV and Francesca left with Diefenbaker to find Maria, and RayK and I went to see if we could intercept the malefactors.

"They could be tailing Maria right now," Ray said as we headed for his car.

"Perhaps," I answered, "but I think it more likely that they will wait closer to the house. Maria took the bus because Tony has their car at his workplace, and as we discussed previously, the walk between the bus stop and the Vecchio house is a fairly secluded area. They might or might not attempt to take her in broad daylight; I'm guessing they would, since their previous attempt failed. They'll be getting desperate."

I continued my line of reasoning, but after a while, I started to think Ray had stopped listening. He parked about a block away from the house and we prepared to seek our quarry.

"Let me just call Ray real quick," Ray said, getting out his phone. He spoke to RayV briefly and then put the phone away again. "They haven't found Maria yet," he reported. "I told him where we're at."

The seriousness of the occasion forestalled my impulse to remind Ray that it was incorrect to end a sentence with a preposition. Instead I said, "I think we should split up to cover more ground.

He shook his head. "You're not armed, Fraser. I'd feel better if you stuck with me."

I relented, and we searched together.

As Ray has already related, we found our nicotine gum-chewing, combat boot-wearing miscreant and managed to collect him in spite of an ill-timed call from RayV. RayK handed the phone off to me so he could deal with the suspect, and I heard RayV's voice saying, "Ray? Fraser? What is going on?"

I began relaying what was happening.

"I told you not to do anything crazy!" RayV exclaimed over the phone. "Oh, my god, you two are gonna die because you can't follow simple instructions!"

"Oh, Ray, we're not going to die," I told him firmly.

"You better not, or I'll kill you! Again."

"But we may be in need of backup."

"Damn it!" I heard RayK shout, followed by, "Fraser, he's going down!"

I turned to hurry down the stairs and out of the building. I didn't speak on the phone again until RayK had handcuffs on our suspect.

"Talk to me!" I heard RayV's voice as I put the phone to my ear.

"Nothing to worry about," I assured him.

"Nothing to worry about! I heard gunshots!"

"We have a suspect in custody. However, don't cancel the backup. I'm sure his partner is in the vicinity, and we need to find him."

"Okay... that's good. Listen, we found Maria. Also, Welsh called me a few minutes ago. Unies found the Dodge we were looking for abandoned on the outskirts. It came up stolen. Meet us back at the station when you're done there and we'll get to work on the one you've got."

"Understood."

Thank you for your attention. A response is not mandatory, but it is appreciated. ~B. Fraser