A/N: It's nearing the end of my second year of Uni so I've been spending a lot of my free time complaining about needing to study instead of writing. This chapter was written between classes so I'll apologize now for any feelings of discontinuity you have while reading. There's some pop culture stuff in this chapter, which I haven't been using in previous chapters. I think that I was fairly obvious about everything but if you have any questions about them, I'm happy to answer.

Once again, thank you for all the inspiring reviews, alerts, and favs. Sorry for the wait for this chapter! I responded to all of the reviews since I posted the last chapter. I hope you enjoy this next installment of Ms. Plum and Mrs. Mazur's antics.

All of the characters you know and love were borrowed from the lovely Ms. Evanovich. They will be returned to her in due time. Maybe never since I'm having so much fun.

Chapter Four: Shake a Tail

I SAT ON the kitchen table swinging my feet while staring out the window into the parking lot. I had a box seat view of my Nova from here. It was a depressing sight. My senior neighbors had taken all of the good spots as usual so I was once again forced to park by the overflowing dumpster farthest from the building. I wished I could say that the dumpster smell was what was bothering me, but it wasn't. I'd parked only minutes ago and there was already an Olympic pool of oil marking my spot. I couldn't afford to buy more oil and the Nova had to be getting low. There was also no way in hell I was going to carry Morelli on my back if I ever did catch him so I really needed the it functioning.

I hadn't changed my shirt yet from my mechanic skills this morning. I was still debating on whether or not it would distract my mother long enough for me to be able to slip in that I technically wasn't a file clerk. Knowing my luck, my plan would just backfire and she would just bitch twice as much.

I absently rubbed the spot as I remembered how I'd caught Ranger glancing down at it several times throughout the day. I was actually a little disappointed that I couldn't tell if he'd been ogling me or simply amazed with how gross I'd managed to get. It wasn't fair, he'd looked perfect the whole time. He didn't even sweat and trust me, I'd been checking... okay, ogling. He had no right to look so good while I was having a typical sweaty, dirty, poofy haired day.

Ranger really confused me. I'd been too on edge while actually around him but now that I was alone I realized that he really got under my skin and I was pretty sure that I didn't mind. I'd constantly been waiting for him to discover that I was a little more than human and turn on me, but he never did. He had actually been fairly relaxed in my presence, at least he was when we weren't fighting. I had actually wanted to relax too, especially after he bought me pie, but I couldn't let myself. Something about Ranger was different from what I knew. How could I even want to relax around him let alone stand being near him at all?

The little I knew about werewolves came from hocus pocus my mother and grandmother had fed me growing up. Grandma Mazur had told me whatever she'd seen on TV while my mother told me horror stories. I'd ignored most of what they passed on, considering my mother just wanted me as fearful as possible to keep me from seeking them out and my grandmother got her information from sources like A Werewolf in London.

I hadn't run across a single werewolf until my post-graduation road trip with Mary Lou. It had been my turn driving and Mary Lou was drooling all over her seat belt. I wasn't sure when my next chance to shift without freaking her out would be, so I'd pulled over at the first gas station I came to. We were in the middle of nowhere at night so I wasn't too worried about being seen. I wasn't paying much attention to my surroundings after shifting either, I was too focused on how good it felt to not be cramped up in the car. I was lopping along, enjoying the night when I heard growling behind me. My first thought certainly wasn't werewolf so I simply stopped and turned to look. Three pairs of reflective eyes had stared back at me and the menacing growls had gotten louder. When the first one stepped forward and I saw that it was not only a wolf, but a massive wolf, I panicked and took off running. Totally a stupid idea. I'd turned it into a game for them and they began hunting me. While freaking out, a brilliant thought slipped into my mind: hey, they're people too. Maybe they're just confused and will leave me alone when I show them I'm a person too! So I stopped and shifted back to a human. Big fucking difference that made. That had only let them get closer to killing me. I took a chance on something Grandma Mazur had told me when she'd watched an Animal Planet special on wolves. Supposedly they had too low a fat to muscle ratio to swim and would sink like a rock in water. I ran naked to the lake we'd previously been avoiding and threw myself in. The werewolves had stalked along the shore before deciding I wasn't worth the effort to shift and follow me in their own human form.

It's perfectly reasonable for the idea of being around werewolves to make me want to tuck my tail between my legs and run or, you know, canoe out deep to open water. Being around Ranger hadn't made me flash back to this trauma though. In fact, I couldn't see a repeat of this at all with Ranger. I knew better than to drop my guard around him, but he honestly made me feel a little warm and fuzzy. I scowled a little bit at that, feeling even more confused. I mean, how much did I know about him? Other than that he was a BEA for Vinnie and was completely delicious, I didn't really know anything important about him. I couldn't really ask how he felt about killing me either.

I sighed and decided it was time for some pick-me-up TastyKakes. I'd stored them in the refrigerator to keep the chocolate coating from melting. They looked pretty pathetic sitting in there by themselves. I took a huge bite and tried to get my mind off of Ranger. All I could come up with was the empty fridge and all the money I had blown today that I'd been depending on to buy food with. It was quickly looking like dinner would be with my parents again not only tonight, but for the foreseeable future.

My snack didn't do anything to deserve depressing thoughts so I let myself drift back to Ranger. He was nothing like the weres I'd played with. I'd never felt scared or even uncomfortable when I had been purposely pushing his buttons. Hell, I'd even been a little turned on when I'd asked him how to use the handcuffs I'd planned to buy. He'd smirked then handcuffed me to the rack while he finished shopping for me.

Going even further against what I was sure I knew about werewolves, Ranger may have been beyond bossy but he had never once tried to pull any alpha crap with me to force me to do anything. I honestly wasn't sure that his alpha magic would be able to force me to comply, being a walker, but I really didn't want to chance it. He'd tried manipulating me into his desired responses but never once ignored what I wanted. Maybe keeping me guessing and confused was part of his strategy. One moment we would be arguing and the next he would be grinning at me, he would boss me around and when I resisted he didn't seem to mind and all the while infuriating me I'd somehow end up hot and bothered.

Thinking wasn't going to get me anywhere tonight and I didn't really think I would be seeing Ranger again anytime soon. I ignored my disappointment and wallowed in my dread of dinnertime. I glanced at the clock one last time then quickly left; it's best to be facing death, right?

The elevator was occupied when I stepped in. "-believe how ugly that car is? It's going to permanently stain the lot. Oh, Stephanie dear! Have you seen the oil spill out in the lot? Bertie and I are going out to write down the license plate so we can complain to the building super."

Isn't that nice? Just what I was missing out on today, some sort of extra fine tacked onto my rent that I also couldn't pay. "How terrible!" I grimaced at my sarcasm and hoped they hadn't noticed. "It's still sweltering outside. If you'd like, I can write the plate down for you. I'll even bring the paper to you, so that you can get the credit when you complain."

They tittered together then nodded while stuffing a buffet receipt and a pen into my hand. I smiled and waved as I got left the lobby and hung my head as I thought about taking the stairs later to avoid them. I suck at stairs, just a flight leaves me crabby but all the way up to my floor was going to make me sweaty and irritable with a stitch in my side.

I was pulling up in front of my parents' all too soon. I had taken the long way too making me twelve minutes late. No one had their face pressed against the window awaiting my arrival, which was good. I didn't want my mother to ask me to park several houses down to keep the Nova and it's accompanying mess away from the house. It was too hot to walk and I was hungry. I was also hoping that if my stained shirt didn't distract her, that the car might.

I grabbed the black leather shoulder bag that I'd bought earlier today to house my other goodies and began my own personal walk of shame up the walkway. I didn't bother knocking, my mother was expecting me. Everyone was already seated and eating when I slumped into the remaining chair next to Grandma Mazur. She gave me a grin then helped herself to seconds before I took whatever was left. There was no 'all for one and one for all' mentality in my family. We had mutated the 'early bird gets the worm' to 'whomever is twelve minutes late to dinner starves in silence.'

I took a roll and dipped it right into the gravy boat before stuffing most of it into my mouth. "You're late and I taught you better than that. Where are your manners?" My mother's plate was loaded it was out of reach of both myself and daddy so she apparently felt it was safe to take the time to harp instead of eat.

I wasn't sure if it was my impressive mouth capacity that had her upset or if she had expected me to call and let her know I was late. I took a chance on her expecting a phone call, "I was working. I don't have a cell phone anymore, remember? I have no money."

She practically snarled at me. A day hadn't been enough time for her to forget what a disgrace I was. "You could have been dead for all we knew! We expected you here at six. What would the neighbors say if you had been in a car accident and I hadn't known?" I was pretty sure they would feel bad for her and make her cakes and cookies but I wasn't going to say that out loud. I was also pretty sure that if I were in a ditch somewhere bleeding, that I wouldn't be concerned about the neighbors but that's just me. I wasn't sure if I should bring up the Nova now though. It definitely wasn't a top safety rated car, in fact the only award that it might get is a shock value one that it's still running.

Grandma Mazur wanted a chance to complain too, "You're working overtime on the first day? If Vinnie thinks he can overwork my granddaughter just because she's family, he's got another thing comin'." She turned to my father who shrank back and tried to become invisible while also trying to eat at warp speed. "Frank, you take me over there so I can give that moldy rat carcass a piece of my mind."

Vinnie would fire me for any reason but if Grandma Mazur went down their in all her smack talking glory, I wouldn't stand a chance. "Wait, Grandma! I chose to work that long." It was too early in dinner to be feeling this panicky. I couldn't afford last night's verbal diarrhea this soon. "My hours are flexible. I can work whenever I want. I can eat doughnuts all morning and work in the afternoon if I want. Or!-or I don't have to work at all. Isn't that great, grandma?"

Grandma Mazur looked at me like I was crazy, which wasn't a good sign. When she thought I was crazy, I couldn't expect to fool anyone else. "You're a pip, Stephanie, but isn't it hard filing if you aren't there? Vinnie isn't making you do any of that sexual stuff he does for money, is he? Vinnie is family and he definitely isn't a catch, he's to greasy to have a good package."

Just another day in the Plum household, talking about Vinnie's downstairs at the dinner table. I wished I could say this was the first time Grandma Mazur had brought this up. "No, I'm not doing anything like that for Vinnie." I giggled before added, "Plus I don't quack." She beamed at me then picked up my purse from between us.

"Groovy new pocketbook, Steph. Where'd you get this? I wanna get one of them. It's very biker chick, don't ya think?" She started opening it when I quickly dived for it. We wrestled over the purse for a few seconds when my chair mysteriously lost two of its legs and I toppled onto my ass in a heap. I stared at grandma shocked while she held the bag over her head away from me looking beyond pleased with herself.

I gasped and turned to my mother, "Did you see that? Grandma just used magic to steal my purse!" I turned to daddy but his seat was empty. In the chaos he had slipped out and probably barricaded himself in the garage. I sighed and laid back in the floor waiting for Grandma Mazur to find the handcuffs and re-ask the question about sex with Vinnie.

"What's in your purse, Stephanie?" My mother didn't even blink at a broken chair or me sprawled on the floor. She wanted to know what I was hiding.

"Yeah, what's in this thing? It's real heavy." My eyes popped open. Grandma Mazur had the purse stuffed behind her back away from my mother. I wondered if she thought that it might be something dirty I could share with her that my mother might take away.

Maybe I could keep my answer vague and I could snatch the purse when she wasn't looking. "I needed some things for my new job. Everything had to fit in my purse so I bought a new one. It's cute, isn't it?"

My mother looked confused. "What could you possibly need that required a saddle bag to fit it?"

I sighed. She didn't like the purse, which made it all that much better, but wouldn't get me off the hook any faster. "The filing job was already taken but I was able to find another job with Vinnie."

"What other job could Vinnie possibly have for you?" Was that a burn? I was pretty sure my mother had just insulted me but this was her usual tone.

"I'm a recovery agent," I mumbled hoping that she'd hear something else and just make an assumption or that she wouldn't bother asking what I meant. She still hadn't touched the meatloaf on her plate and I was feeling a little hopeful that learning my new job might make her lose her appetite.

She glared at me. "What is a recovery agent, Stephanie?"

Grandma Mazur cut in before I could answer. "I saw a commercial for that Repo Men movie while watching Dancing with the Stars last night. That Pamela Andersen is awful top heavy, isn't she? Anyway, these beefy men were stealing back loaned organs. Are you gonna cut open some bad guys, Steph? I bet you've got all sorts of knifes in here." She was practically bouncing in her seat now, clutching my purse to her chest and rubbing it protectively with one hand.

My mother looked horrified and I started to wonder if they even thought about what kind of business that Vinnie owned. Believing the worst was a talent my mother had though.

"No! I don't do that. I'm not a sex trade ring leader either. I'm a-" I gulped and looked back and forth between my two worst nightmares. "I'm a bounty hunter for Vinnie. It's not illegal and I'm not stabbing people!"

My mother sighed loudly and calmed down but Grandma Mazur looked even more excited. "Stephanie, what are you thinking? This isn't a good job for you."

"What are you talking about, Ellen?" Grandma Mazur piped in. "This is the best job she's had yet! Steph's like a cop but she doesn't have to follow the rules. Are you going to break any knee caps, Steph? I want to help. This sounds like something that I can do too."

Vigilante grandma nearly made me pee my pants. I wanted to squash that before she took to the streets whacking little kids for jaywalking or something. "It's not like that. I just have to find FTAs that Vinnie gives me and bring them to the police station. Then they pay me." She looked a little disappointed but not nearly enough to mean I'd got my point of no roughing up anyone she felt like. Whatever, she was my mother's problem as soon as I left.

"FTA...what's that?" My mother asked suspiciously.

"It stands for 'failed to appear'."

"You mean it's those criminals who don't want to go to jail so they're in hiding."

That's pretty much what I thought too but I didn't want her to discover the handcuffs and cuff me to her to keep me from the job. "Usually they just forgot. That happens more than you'd think." I didn't sound very convincing.

"That still makes them criminals, Stephanie. How will you make it to dinner if you're in the hospital?"

Dammit, she sounded just as sure as I was that this job was going to end badly for me. I sighed. "Are you going to eat the rest of your meatloaf? I'm still a little hungry."

"You shouldn't have been late to dinner if you wanted some. Your father had worked for the post office for thirty years and was never late to dinner. He still isn't late to dinner with his new job." Yeah well, he also willingly married her. Crazy was most definitely genetic. "Get off the floor and sit in your father's seat." She angrily pushed her plate in front of his seat and I quickly dug in before she could change her mind.

My mother ran and hand over her face and gave me a tired look surprising me enough to stop my food inhalation. "I just- are you sure about this, Stephanie? You could learn to make slipcovers. That would be a good job. There's always a need for slipcovers."

I gave her a weak smile around a mouthful of meat. "I'm sure. I've looked for a job for forever and this is all I've got. There's always a need for underwear too and look how that ended up."

I almost felt us bonding until grandma added, "Oh, I'm not so sure about that. I'm not wearing any."

I surprisingly wasn't feeling up to doing any more work on finding and capturing Morelli today. The only thing that was going to let me survive to see tomorrow and get that image out of my head was sleep.

I WAS PACING from my kitchen to what I suppose I could still call the living room. I carried the zip lock bag of leftover apple turnovers that my mother had sent me home with the night before. I was on my fifth and they weren't alleviating my deep seeded fear of the Morelli women. They put my mother and grandmother to shame in nearly every aspect imaginable. When my mother was upset, she ironed and cleaned obsessively. Joseph's mother did that shit for fun. I shivered in disgust. I only did laundry once every piece of clothing I'd owned was dirty and even then I might happen to have my dirty clothes in the car when I stopped by to see my mother. And if she happened to notice my bra hanging out the window and huffed that my laundry would only get clean if she did it, who was I to stop her?

I knew for sure from Grandma Mazur that neither of them were witches but I sometimes wondered how she could raise a couple of boys and still maintain an immaculate house. If I didn't have an aversion to scientists that comic book movies had instilled in me, I would probably advise one to take a trip over there and learn how to eradicate the world's germs from the Morelli ladies.

After I'd given up on my witch theory, I'd tried to convince myself that they weren't possessed even though that seemed the only logical explanation for their beady black eyes. I wasn't even sure if demons were real but if I was, it seemed likely that they were too. Grandma and I had borrowed a few occult books from the library, I still couldn't go in there without the librarian crossing herself every time I walked into her field of vision. We were both a little disappointed that every book seemed to agree on demons inability to cross onto holy ground. The Morelli women never missed mass. Come hell or high water, sleet, snow, and whatever plagues you want to send their way, they're both always in attendance. Not that I knew from personal experience.

Church was never a fun experience for me. My mother seemed to believe that the other fit into the abomination category and the pastor was only too happy to speak on such things. I was honestly a little afraid that my mother might have an exorcism or staking or pretty much anything heinous preformed on grandma and me if I set foot in there again.

There was a better chance that I'd be struck by lightning and eaten by a shark in my apartment than there was of Mrs. Morelli telling me anything that might lead to her son. I was counting on her to lie though, that I would be able to sniff out. I'd spent some time in front of the mirror with my turnovers practicing questions that I could ask her. I'd made it through two or three before I saw my hair and declared a national emergency.

I finally decided to just suck it up and go. What was the worst that could happen? She could slam the door in my face and I'd learn nothing, big whoop. The best possible outcome was the Joe needed his mommy to wash his laundry too and just handcuffed himself then got into my car.

I slipped on a charming floral sundress that my mother had boughten me when I'd tried to get out of a block party last summer. I'd told her that I had nothing appropriate to wear and that I hadn't wanted to embarrass her. The next day daddy had dropped off this atrocity with a note that said happy early birthday.

I fed Rex some apple from my breakfast before taking the stairs. The Nova was looking even more dejected that yesterday. I stepped carefully through the oil and climbed in. The car made some coughing sounds then remained lifeless. How was I supposed to suck it up and go see Mama Morelli when my car didn't want to go? I felt like this might be a sign to stay home today but I really needed money. Really, really needed it.

There was no way I was walking all the way over to her house, especially in this dress. I wanted as few people as possible to see this. That left shifting and heading over there while hoping she said something helpful that my keen senses could pick up. Worst plan ever, but that worked for me yesterday.

I left the parking lot, glad that yesterday had taught me that it was closely monitored by a bunch of old birds. I slipped between the building and a neighboring building's privacy fence before pulling off my clothes and balling them up. I hoped my panty thief struck and took the dress. I shifted then began the long, hot trek to Morelli manor.

It was hot and I had to stop to hide several times when weirdos took to back alleys like I was instead of using the sidewalk. When I nearly got pissed on behind some trash bins, I promised myself to pick up a collar and tags and hope that I would be mistaken for a house dog in the future. There was no way I was subjecting myself to this again.

I reached my destination nearly an hour later feeling severly worse for wear. I snuffled around the back of Mama Morelli's yard for a bit before clambering up some crates and nearly tore the rain gutter from the garage as I pulled myself onto the roof. There was a window cracked right next to me since she, thankfully, had a connecting garage. I could hear her cooking and shuffling around downstairs fairly well. Well enough that if she took up talking to herself and happened to slip Joseph's location that I would have no problem hearing it anyway.

I had only been waiting for a half hour when the phone rang. I stuck my muzzle through the crack and nudge the window up further while she was distracted. I vaulted through the window and snuck as far as I dared down the stairs toward the kitchen. I couldn't make out who was on the other end of the phone but I heard Mrs. Morelli say, "Oh, Mrs. Mazur. How nice of you to call" quite clearly.

I mentally groaned, there was no way this phone call was going to benefit me. And Grandma Mazur clearly thought we were a team still. I couldn't even begin to imagine what she was saying and I was going to strangle myself once with was over for letting Joe's name slip on my way out last night. How could I have been so dense?

Mrs. Morelli's snort brought me sharply back to reality. What did grandma say to get that reaction? Not good, so not good. "Is she now? I was unaware that your darling granddaughter was qualified to be a bounty hunter." The thing about grandma is she had no problem fibbing if she thought it would benefit her. I could almost hear her telling Mrs. Morelli about how I'd just got my mastered aikido after only a week or how I'd single handedly captured all of America's most wanted last month.

"I don't care that you're looking for Joe. I'm sure he has a perfectly reasonable excuse for what he's doing." Dammit, Grandma Mazur and I were definitely a team. And Mrs. Morelli still hadn't said anything helpful. She'd added an opinion qualifier to 'reasonable excuse' but even then her idea of that could simply be staying out of jail so that wouldn't help me.

"Excuse me? Are you threatening me? Put Ellen on the phone, please." There was a deathly long pause where I was left in terror wondering what grandma had possibly said that made it necessary to talk to my mother. "Did you know both your daughter and mother have guns? And your mother just threatened my life if I didn't tell her where my Joseph is!" I heard a screech that must have been my mother before Mrs. Morelli slammed the phone down angrily several times. She went right back to cooking as if nothing ever happened after her fit.

I left the house back through the window and carefully lowered myself back to the sweet, sweet ground. I slowly made my way back to my apartment, shaking at the thought of confronting my mother about the gun later. I hoped to hell that she didn't think I had put grandma up to that phone call. Here I was at thirty year old, and Mrs. Morelli had tattled on me and I knew I was going to get into trouble. This wasn't a fifteen minutes in the timeout chair offense either. This was a no dessert until you horrify me with something else offense.

My dress was sadly exactly where I left it. I put everything on and dragged myself up the stairs back to my apartment. I laid down on the floor to catch my breath and cool off. My answering machine was flashing, signaling that I had a message. I was willing to bet my remaining apple turnovers that it was from my mother. I grabbed the phone and called my cousin, Francie, to put off listening to the message for a while.

Francie was a gossip monger. She was probably useless, but it meant having a legitimate excuse I could give my mother for why I hadn't immediately called her back. If I didn't have to pay for the calls I made, I would have been willing to go through the whole phone book before calling my mother back.

Francie was even more useless than I'd expected. She had however, made me feel even more depressed after telling me how brilliant Morelli would be at disappearing and starting a new life then going on and on about how pathetic a detective I would be.

Grandma Mazur had the right idea to call people for information. You can't get shot over the phone. I flipped through my contacts until someone helpful popped out. Just as I got ready to dial Eddie Gazarra's number, my mother called again so I cleaned my bedroom for a few minutes while singing loudly to the radio to tune her voice out. I didn't want to hear her death threats just yet.

Once I deemed it safe, I returned to the phone. Eddie Gazarra was a Trenton cop like Morelli. Gazarra had the privileged of being one of my best friends though. He had also married into my family. I think he'd gotten tricked into marrying Shirley the Whiner but I didn't mind. Eddie and Shirley had been married for eleven years and he was my friend, so maybe he just had a thing for whining. I had nothing on Shirley though. He had to attend all the family events with me which made drunk grandma and perverted Vinnie so much more bearable.

"Heya, Eddie." I tried sounding cheerful but it came out a little desperate.

"Hey, kid. What do you need?" I could tell he was smiling, asshole.

I didn't bother covering up my irritation this time as I told him about my new job with Vinnie and my very own FTA. "Sooo, do you know anything about the shooting that us mere public don't?"

He sighed and I felt a little better. Misery really does love company. "Jesus, why are you working for Vinnie? Were you drunk? Did he blackmail you into it or something?"

See, Gazarra was much more reasonable that Grandma Mazur. I was a million times more likely to be a permanent drunk than be trading sex for money with Vinnie. I knew we were friends for a good reason. "It's of my own free will, sadly. Thank you for your concern. Wait, if I had said yes, would you have been able to arrest Vinnie?" Arresting Vinnie was almost as joy bringing as Morelli's. The only thing that tipped Morelli in my favor was the attached cash.

He chuckled then sighed again. "You really don't want to get involved in this. None of us at the station wants to be involved. When one of us gets charged with murder, we're all put on edge and get touchy. You won't be getting any favors from us, you know, other than me because we're family, friends, whatever. Get Vinnie to give you a different case."

"I can't. You know how Morelli gets me, all psycho. I'm way past giving this up."

"Tell me you're at least prepared for this?"

I dumped my purse out and started telling him about all the great stuff Ranger and I bought. "I got handcuffs, a flashlight, some really great personalized business cards and uh...maybe uh a gun."

"Shit, you got yourself a gun?" He almost sounded impressed with me.

I scowled, "I had a little help from another bounty hunter. I'm not completely clueless. Are you gonna actually tell me anything? I've already had BEA 101 and sorta aced it." 'Sorta' in this context meant 'totally didn't', I didn't want to worry Gazarra though.

I heard Gazarra slamming stuff around then shut a door. "I can't believe I just shut myself in the men's room to talk to you. Okay look, there's a ton of physical evidence against Morelli, a whole shit load. He was apprehended with the smoking gun still in his hand at the scene and then told us some story that we have a big ol' goose egg of evidence to back up. Ziggy had no weapon that we can find and there was no proof that he'd ever had one, no gun shoot residue, no shell casings, hell, no bullets in Morelli's side of the wall."

He hadn't told me anything I could use other than it seemed even more likely that Morelli was actually guilty. Gazarra hadn't actually come out and said it though, which did mean something to me. "Why are you hiding in the bathroom?" I couldn't believe I had just asked him that. It really wasn't any wonder why people thought I couldn't do this bounty hunting thing.

He laughed. "Only you... Morelli's name gets mention around here and suddenly everyones got urgent business out of the building. Nobody wants to be attached to this case. If Morelli's innocent, anyone working the case will be hung out to dry, but if he is guilty... we don't talk about that. He's doing a damn good job of making things look bad for himself too, fucking going Failure to Appear..."

"Wanna team up? If I catch him I get ten grand. Right now Grandma Mazur is helping me out and she's already made threats to Mama Morelli and bought her own gun."

He let out a deep belly laugh. "You aren't gonna sell team Steph very well that way. Christ, I don't know how you do this to yourself. Should I be expecting a phone call from her? I'm not arresting your grandma. She asked Shirley about our sex life last time we saw her."

I groaned, "I hope someone walks by the bathroom and thinks you're off the deep end because that's what would happen to me. Morelli's mother already placed her phone call about the threat... she told on me to my mother. Can you believe that? She went straight to death by shooting gallery."

"Smart woman." It was surprisingly silent on his end so I could only assume he had his hand over the speaker and was laughing his ass off. "I think I'll keep my day job and leave you two to the hard stuff."

"What about that girl? What's-her-face, the woman Morelli was supposed to be meeting."

"Carmen Sanchez? She's still completely MIA. We've looked everywhere for her too. She's the one aspect of the case that the department has been willing to take on."

"You guys suck. Okay, what about the second mystery man?"

"There's no trace of him. He's up in smoke too."

"You've been totally useless. I'm sending you my phone bill."

"Hey, don't make me call your mother."

"That's not even funny. It's way too soon to be making jokes about that. I still haven't listened to her messages. Do you think I could drop the tape by the station as evidence for a restraining order?"

"No way, I don't want your mother angry with me. You're on your own. I know I haven't been very helpful, but honestly what do you expect? He thinks like us so he's gonna know every strategy we'd use to find him. You're best bet is to look for those two missing people. He'll be looking for them too, whether it's to clear his name or, I dunno, kill them. We've tried though, Steph. I don't know what you can do that a bunch of us couldn't."

I nearly blurted out my nose, but even Eddie didn't know that secret. It's better for those who are in the dark to stay that way. The world is a prettier place that way. I thanked him and told him to say hi to his wife for me then hung up.

Eddie's idea was pretty good and since I didn't have any other ones, I decided to go with it even if he thought it was impossible. I wasn't sure who to start with though. I could pick up Carmen Sanchez's scent at her apartment and follow it, but someone had died there and I wasn't sure if the whole thing had happened because of her. It seemed like that she was the more likely path for me to get hurt. The mystery man had also been at the apartment, so I knew I would need to go there eventually. I would probably need a little time to prep myself for that though, a pint of ice cream would be the bare minimum.

I could talk to that boxer Ranger had mentioned. If he was close to Ziggy maybe he also knew Sanchez and the other guy. I finished off the turnovers and I made up my mind that Benito Ramirez was definitely my next step.

Special A/N: Because I feel a little bad about making all you lovely readers wait, I have a little something extra for you! Reviewers will get a little one-shot (350 words) of the Ranger & Steph handcuff scene. It will eventually get posted to FF once I write more little moments that chose not to include, so don't worry if you don't wanted to review!

Next chapter will be meeting Ramirez and a huge step for Steph into the supernatural, probably. I haven't had a chance to start writing yet :(