The very next day, Stephanie and Ranger ate breakfast early that morning. She watched as Ranger ordered water, fruits and vegetables and oatmeal. She ordered black coffee with sugar, bacon and eggs and had jam with toast. They ate at a restaurant instead of eating breakfast at the hotel. Ranger ended up paying the breakfast bill.
After he paid the bill and tipped the waiter, they both walked to the rental car. Once the key was in the ignition and the engine started warming up, Stephanie watched as Ranger took out the Clayton Morgan file to find the address to the Fonz's garage. He found it, all right. Fonzie's garage was about ten to fifteen minutes' worth of driving.
Ranger usually liked to drive without the radio chatting away with music, talk shows, you name it. He found driving with the radio on very distracting. Stephanie looked outside the window, trying to keep an eye open for Fonzie's garage. During the drive, not one word was spoken between the two in the moving vehicle.
Five minutes later, Fonzie's garage came into their view. It wasn't a fancy garage, both Ranger and Stephanie noticed. Ranger was able to find a parking space for the rental. Once Ranger took the key out of the ignition and locked the door, Fonzie was inside the garage, working on one of the cars when he heard Stephanie and Ranger slam the doors.
That's when Ranger and Stephanie both walked inside. When Vinnie first gave her this case, Vinnie gave her a photograph of Fonzie from the computer and she could use the photograph so she would remember Fonzie's description when they would meet for the first time.
It turned out the photograph's description was right, but he looked somewhat older than what the picture told her and Ranger. For a while, the person who was working here had plans to do missionary work out in England and would be absent for some time, even if Fonzie was now retired, the Fonz was happy to take over.
Fonzie's back was faced to Stephanie and Ranger, so the very first thing Ranger did was clear his throat to let Fonzie know someone recently walked in. Fonzie heard Ranger clear his throat. All Fonzie did was stand up and turn around.
"Are you Fonzarellid?" Ranger asked.
"Yes, I am. Do you need me to fix your car?" Fonzie asked.
"No, thank you."
Fonzie looked in Stephanie's direction.
"Let me introduce ourselves, Mr. Fonzarelli, and we can get down to business," Ranger told him.
Before Ranger gave out introductions, Fonzie studied Ranger. He saw that Ranger wore a lot of black and Fonzie could tell Ranger shared that interest as himself and Johnny Cash.
"Mr. Fonzarelli, I'd like to introduce us as Carlos Manoso and Stephanie Plum. I prefer to be called Ranger. We came here from New Jersey to take your FTA so he could receive his court date," Ranger told him.
By listening to Ranger, Stephanie could tell Ranger sounded professional.
"I hope I pronnounced your last name correctly," Ranger added.
"Yes, you did get the pronunciation right. This whole robbery thing has been going on for a short time very recently," Fonzie began.
Before he could continue on, he asked, "So you're the bondsman who took my case on this creep?"
"Yes, sir," Ranger answered.
Fonzie kept his eyes on Stephanie as he and Ranger talked.
"I do happen to have one question to ask you," Fonzie told the two of them.
"What's that?" Ranger asked.
"Is she involved in this robbery, too?" Fonzie asked.
This was the very first time he found out there was a female bondsman who came all the way from New Jersey to collect Clayton and take him to court.
"Yes, she is, Mr. Fonzarelli. I am here to help hunt down Mr. Morgan," Ranger continued.
With surprise in his tone of voice, Fonzie asked, "Is this whole thing true that men are only capable of this certain type of job?"
"Anyone can do the job, even women," he answered.
Fonzie found this entire conversation very interesting. While they were out here in Milwaukee, he hoped he'd spend some quality tine with Stephanie when Ranger wasn't around.
"How many times has Mr. Morgan been here to steal the money?" Ranger asked with interest.
He hoped this would be a good place to start to help him and Stephanie out and go on their search for Clayton.
"I would say about three to five times, but I can't be one hundred percent sure," Fonzie answered.
"So every time Mr. Morgan would enter this place, he would come back for larger amounts of cash with him?" Ranger asked.
"I would like to think so, but I really can't tell how much money went missing," Fonzie replied.
Stephanie decided not to interrupt since Ranger was here to help her on collecting Clayton and ship him back home, but she could tell for sure Fonzie's tone of voice sounded surprised when he found out that a bondsman was a woman. She really never gave any thought enough to spend time with this local citizen. She hoped not.
Even though Fonzie was already married, he still showed a lot of interest in women such as herself. He knew a pretty woman when he saw one and she sure was one of them. Ranger decided to ask another question about Clayton, so he did.
"When Mr. Morgan would return, do you think he came alone or with a group of friends?"
"How am I supposed to know that? I am at home with my family when this entire thing began," Fonzie answered.
'Boy, this guy sure is asking tough questions I can't even answer,' Fonzie thought quietly to himself, but bothered to keep that thought to himself.
"Are there any other witnesses besides you who noticed there was money missing?" Ranger asked.
"Of course there weren't. I work alone here. This used to be my job, but now that I'm retired, someone else took over for me. A lot of good times here have left," Fonzie said sadly.
This was the first time since his retirement he entered this garage and it felt good to come back.
"If we have anymore questions, we'll let you know. If you need either one of us, please call Holiday Inn and leave a message," he told Fonzie.
"Got it. It was nice to meet you both," Fonzie told them.
"It was nice to meet you as well, Mr. Fonzarelli," Ranger said as Fonzie watched them leave the garage.
This was a very interesting day to the Fonz, and he planned on sharing this meeting with Stephanie and Ranger to his friends. They would really be interested for sure.