Shiropolli sat down at the breakfast nook and looked out his window at the sweeping lawn. The summer day was starting out nice, but he had a bad feeling about Alex Ramono, he hadn't warned her not to talk. He picked up the newspaper that sat next to the place mat on the table. He opened it up and scanned the headlines. The cook sat down his breakfast plate and the coffee cup. She moved back away from the table. Shiropolli glanced down at his plate looking over the food. Nothing was touching, the cook was learning. He looked back at his paper and gave a nod to the cook. He could hear the exhale of breath that had been held. The curl in his upper lip became more pronounced as he heard the quick shuffling of feet escaping to the freedom of the kitchen.

"What do you want to do about Victoria Ramono?" His henchman said.

"Let's leave little Alex a message." He lowered the corner of the paper. "Make sure she understands not to talk." He looked at his henchman. "I'm sure you can find a suitable way to fulfill that message and make sure it comes across that its from me without everyone knowing."

His henchman gave a nod. "Consider it done. I'll make sure she gets the message." He turned and left the room. He wouldn't mind seeing that kid again, his boss was actually in a good mood. A better mood than he had been in a long time. He exited the house and drove to where the victim was being held and loaded the cargo into the back of the van and ordered two men to come with him. They only needed an hour in the apartment, he grinned at the thought of the kid finding her mother in her own bedroom.

Morelli sat down at the table in the interrogation room with the two suits.

"So he doesn't have her at all?" The dark haired suit asked.

"No, she got away from them after they exited out of the fight house." Joe told them in a droning voice.

"He's not getting his money then. The deal was to have the kid in custody and handed over to us today. No kid, no money." The blonde said.

Joe glanced at the California surfer type hair splaying over the man's eyes. "What if they can bring her in before midnight?"

"Tell him the clock is ticking." The dark one said and stood up, "that is all the time he's getting, all the time we are allowing you to get it through to him just how much we want her."

Joe stood up, "What if she doesn't want to play even if we get her?"

"She'll play," the blonde said, "have no fear of that. She'll play or she'll be locked up until she does. Maybe some time alone will convince her of it."

"Having her locked up won't help. We are talking about a fence who knows how to push buttons in jail as well as he does outside of jail. We aren't talking about some dumb kid who pisses in her pants when threatened." Joe picked up the folder in front of him and pushed his report across the table.

Dickheads! Joe thought, they don't have the measure of this kid yet. Maybe after reading this report they'll think differently.

"Then we'll find something that will make her piss her pants and sing." The blonde stated as he grabbed the file and headed for the door.

"Midnight," the dark one said over his shoulder as both men left.

Joe sat back down. "So much for Ranger getting his money back." He had talked to them over an hour and they wouldn't budge. He didn't like when his chess pieces decided to talk back instead of doing what he wanted them to do. He had hardnose and hardass to deal with. Joe sat the coffee cup back down after he drained it and only the dregs were left in the bottom.

"This is going to be a long fucking day." Joe stated as he got up and tossed the cup in the trashcan. He wanted to talk to that kid. He hoped he would have had the chance last night, he would have been able to get the measure of the kid and decide what to do from there. He didn't like it when his cases involved minors, they made him work that much harder to make sure the minors didn't get hurt in the process. It was better off on him if he just dealt with the coffee dregs of life. With those he always knew what to do with.

Joe walked through the station to get to his desk, the normal level of chatter was down to a dull roar. He sat at his desk and lifted the receiver on his phone and punched the code in to retrieve his messages. He wrote them down and hung back up. He called Stephanie and she didn't pick up.

I hate getting her damn service! Why doesn't she know how to keep her damn cell phone charged. His stomach started that slow roll of noxious quivering, he opened the side drawer to his desk and opened the bottle of Maalox and took a swig.

"Call me Cupcake." He said after the tone came ringing in his ear and he replaced the headset on the phone.

"Maybe you ought to see a doctor about that addiction you have to the Maalox." Antoine Lebeau said as he sat down at the desk across from Morelli.

Morelli looked up at the detective, Lebeau had transferred from New Orleans. He had been with them for only a year and had landed the desk in front of his when the last one decided to retire. Morelli had been hearing a lot in the locker room talk about how this smooth Casanova detective was flirting with a few of the female cops. Lebeau was young, no more than twenty-five and Joe was wondering when the chief was going to clamp down on the man's hair. Lebeau had it pulled back into a pony tail. Morelli knew he looked like a Jersey casino pit boss dressed in a suite and tie. Lebeau looked like he just walked off of a GQ cover shoot when he was dressed in one. So the chief had let him slide on his dress, it had something to do with how the women he ever had to talk to turned to mush and couldn't get more that 'uh' out of their mouths.

"A doctor won't help with this addiction." Morelli stated.

Lebeau furrowed his brow while he studied Morelli, "Maybe you need a change in your life. Get a woman who doesn't drive you to an antacid induced high every day."

Morelli chuckled. "She would still find a way of getting me to drink this." He leaned back in his desk. "It's just one of the side effects from falling in love with her."

What is it about this guy I just like telling him things? He knows more about my family and my life than I know about him in the last year he's been here. Joe thought.

Antoine snickered. "Man you Italian men take the cake." He reached down and pulled the file out of his drawer. "Maybe you just need a vacation, go catch something strange and then come back." He looked at Morelli. "Either that or just ask her to marry you and get it over with."

"I'm not ready for marriage." Morelli told him. "Why aren't you married?"

"I haven't found someone to fall in love with. I want a lady on the outside and a slut in the bedroom. Every lady I've come across is a prune in the damn bedroom, and the slut I don't want to be seen out in public with. I'm too young to get serious, it'd be stupid for me to give up my bachelorhood."

Morelli shook his head. "Maybe you are setting your standards to high."

"Probably so." Antoine told him, his Cajon French drawl coming out. Even after a year in Jersey he still hadn't lost his slow Cajon French tongue.

"When are you going to lose that accent?" Morelli asked him.

"Never. Right now, I'm exotic in the clubs, I can't lose my edge. Get's in good with the women in this state." He opened the file and shuffled around the pictures of the latest murder victim he was looking into.

Joe glanced at the pictures, the right arm was broken, the bone punctured straight through the skin. His mind went over the scene of Alex's fight last night. He went over the fight in his head. "Whose the victim?"

"Charles Williams, been dead about week. Got the call yesterday, he was found over by the barges. He wasn't a floater, he was dumped off. Gun shot to the back of the head." Lebeau looked up at Morelli. "It was real clean, the only thing that doesn't fall into place is the broken arm." He picked up the picture and tossed it over onto Joe's desk.

Joe picked it up. "Killed there or some place else?"

"There, but no signs of struggle, his arm was broke before he was murdered. He had this shoved under the loose sole in his right shoe." Lebeau picked up the paper that was incased in plastic and tossed it on the desk for Joe to read it.

Joe read the fluid handwriting it read: i'm sorry.

He concentrated on the circle above the I, it wasn't a dot, it was circle. "How do you dot your I's?"

"With a dot. Not a circle."

Joe looked up at him. "He didn't write this."

"No he didn't, a copy went in yesterday morning. The paper has a water mark." Lebeau told him.

Joe held it up to the light, the water mark had TKA. He put it back down with the picture. He looked over at Lebeau. How much to tell him? There was no way the kid pulled the gun, the broken arm she did that. She even apologized to the guy. "Any ideas?"

Lebeau pulled out the phone book and opened it to where he had it marked and showed it to Morelli. It was the advertisement to the Trenton Karate Academy. Damn it! This will lead him to the kid and the kid didn't do it. "We need to talk, but you didn't get this from me." Joe stood up and started walking, Lebeau followed him, they walked outside the station.

Antoine kept following Morelli, he stopped when Morelli reached the beat up piece of shit unmarked cop car.

"You're sniffing in the right direction. Your stiff is involved in my case, I can't have you going around and talking to the wrong people. Sit on this." Morelli told him.

Antoine crossed his arms. "Does this have anything to do with the kid who hasn't shown up for her probation meeting that Gaspick keeps everyone well aware of?"

"Yes, she broke your stiff's arm. She didn't pull the trigger." Morelli opened the car door and leaned on the frame. "Don't let anyone push you on this case. I have a bigger fish I want to land than the trigger man."

"Fine, but you owe me. I'll sit on it. I want the trigger man." Antoine told him.

"You can have your man. Just leave the kid out of this." Joe told him.

"She's withholding evidence."

Joe shook his head, "No, she apologized for breaking his arm for Christ sake, that is as much as you're getting. She doesn't know who killed him, at least I think she doesn't."

"What if she actually knows more?"

"She lives one block from Slayerland, how much information do you get from that neighborhood?"

Antoine let out a slow breath. "I get the picture. I'll copy the file and put in your desk. You didn't get that from me either."

Joe watched as Antoine turned and headed back for the police station. He got in the car and started it. He was just glad Antoine knew how to play this small piece in the game he was dealing with. He figured Antoine knew he had to give up his pawn piece so he could get the king later on. "I hate having favors to repay."

Antoine knew one thing, if he got on Joe's good side, he could further his career faster. He didn't mind scratching this older cops back. It had it's place and time, he knew that time had come. He wanted to work vice, he hated working homicide, Antoine smiled a little, maybe if he could talk Joe into it, he could go undercover on this case. He'd been doing undercover work before, but when he got transferred their wasn't an opening in vice. He knew Morelli played everything close to his chest and that his partners never really were his partners. That suited him fine, he could play that way, but he needed to convince Morelli he could play that way and keep his head while doing it. Antoine copied the file and placed it in the top drawer of Morelli's desk along with a note on the inside. He explained his position, and he wanted in on this case.

Lester went into Stephanie's kitchen and opened her refrigerator. "Stephanie do you never shop?" Lester asked.

"There is bread and peanut butter, deal with it." She growled at him, a little angry with herself that she had just let Ranger give her an order that she had followed.

"Damn, don't get so hostile. It was just a simple question." Lester shut the door and then leaned up against the counter. Bobby walked into the kitchen.

"Who do you think is going to get to baby-sit who?" Bobby asked.

Lester shrugged, "Tank will probably have to take Alex, I don't want Stephanie, she's in a mood."

Bobby looked around the wall and looked at Stephanie she didn't look too happy right now. He looked back at Lester. "Maybe Ranger will take Stephanie."

"Better him than us. If he stays with Alex they'll kill each other before the day is out." Lester grinned. He had never seen his boss look so bad. "I can't believe she gave him the slip."

Bobby grinned, "I told you I liked this kid."

"Life is going to get a little more interesting. Do you know if Lula is coming back to the office building again tonight?" Lester asked.

"I don't know, but Tank has been spending a lot of time with her. He wasn't happy sitting in the SUV all night last night. Never shut up last night, all he talked about was Lula this and Lula that." Bobby complained.

Hal walked into the kitchen, "Are you two shooting the shit again? You better not let Ranger catch you two at it again."

"You gonna tattle again?" Lester jeered at him. "Not our fucking problem he sends you on shit cases half the time."

Hal didn't like Lester, he turned away and walked back into the living room with Tank and Stephanie. He was itching to prove himself to Ranger again. Ever since he let Stephanie leave when she was supposed to stay he had been getting the shittiest jobs Ranger could give him. Only in the last couple of weeks had he got back in this position of being around him again. Hal liked Ranger, liked him a lot. He wanted to please the damn guy and help him any way he could, Ranger had too much in him to teach. Hal had been more than willing to step in and learn. But it was hard coming into this little pack of guys. He hadn't been with these four when they were in the army together. It was hard getting close to these four and he was damn sure he was going to stay with this group this time.

"Why can't you lay off him?" Bobby asked.

Lester raised an eye brow at Bobby, "I'm tired of babysitting his ass. I've gotten shot twice because he doesn't watch out for my back."

"You weren't this hard on me when I got you knifed that one time down in Miami." Bobby commented.

"That was different, you didn't do it on purpose. He saw those two fucking pricks coming and didn't do shit about it. I watch his back because Ranger asks me too, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna let him waltz his way back in our group without him proving himself he can keep up."

Bobby opened Stephanie's refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water and downed it. He tossed the empty bottle in the trash in the kitchen. He knew Lester was right. Tank had grabbed Lester and Hal was salivating like a puppy dog to come along. He looked back at Lester.

Bobby leaned on the counter next to Lester, "Did you see his face when Alex told Ranger off?"

"Yeah, I did. Alex is Ranger's baby right now and Hal better watch himself. I thought Ranger was going to bust out laughing at her for a moment before he got angry." Lester said.

"I know, he was so close. Hal doesn't know him like we do though, Hal isn't going to see the humor in that kid that Ranger sees so much."

Tank moved off the couch and stepped into the kitchen. "Who is going to come with me with Alex? Have you two decided that yet?"

Lester pointed to himself. Bobby just shrugged, "Let Lester go, Hal is getting on his nerves again."

Tank looked over at Lester. "Fine, we'll let Bobby have baby-sitting duty. Unless Ranger says other wise, and you know he just might."

"I'm tired of baby-sitting him, I already told Ranger." Lester said.

"I think we all know how tired you are of him, but until he figures out it is you he has to prove himself too and not to Ranger then he gets stuck with you over and over." Bobby said.

Tank nodded in agreement. "You know that is what Ranger wants."

"I don't see it happening. He gets along okay with the guys on the other teams." Lester told him.

"You know Ranger wants a fifth man in his group." Tank said.

"Why do we have to have a fifth man? Why can't Stephanie take that place, she fits in better with us than Hal does at the moment. Hell, I'd even take Alex over Hal at this point." Lester commented.

Bobby smiled, "She wouldn't listen to Ranger, they'd be at war."

Tank grinned, "We are going to get in trouble. God help me but I like that kid."

"We've all stood up to Ranger at one point, Hal hasn't done that. If he can't stand up to Lester who is easier to do it with, he can't stand up to either you or me, Tank." Bobby said.

Tank rubbed his forehead, "I know, Hal hasn't got a clue. Ranger runs the show, but we all have a say so in what we do."

"Exactly." Lester said. "Hal doesn't need to be put with Alex at all. If she'll but heads with Ranger, she'll walk all over Hal."

Bobby nodded.

"Okay, as soon as frick and frack get out of the bathroom I'll talk to him." Tank said.

"Good, because I need a break from him before I choke him to death." Lester said.