Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money

Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money. I'm just playing.

Shadow Puppets

Chapter 7

"Babe, the teams are both back early, we have a meeting here in–" Ranger stopped. "What happened to your eyes?"

"I needed mascara."

"But you're a puppet."

"Didn't you hear me? I said, I needed mascara."

"It just looks a little odd with the fuzzy look, and it's smudged."

Stephanie hauled him in by the front of his black tee-shirt until their noses were almost touching. "You try to apply mascara using these fingers. I'm warning you now, drop the subject. The mascara stays."

"Yes, Babe. Sorry, Babe."

Ranger's childhood opinions about Kermit the frog were changing fast now that he was nose to nose with his own puppet woman. Kermit was one brave fucking frog.

o0o o0o o0o

Tank, Bobby and Lester arrived on the hour and sat on the couch and one of the large leather chairs in the apartment. Ranger and Stephanie fit into the other chair together.

"Bomber, what happened to your–" Lester started, falling silent as Ranger fixed his gaze on him and fractionally shook his head.

"Report."

Tank started with his report. "We located an herb-woman in Boonton, about an hour from here. We have her contact details in case we need them in the future, but she was emphatic in her opinion that what we were describing wasn't possible."

Lester was nodding. "That's confirmed by the opinion that we got from the coven representative in Wisconsin. Not possible. It wasn't that she thought that it wasn't witchcraft that was responsible. She considered it to be just plain impossible."

"And yet here we sit," commented Ranger. "Bobby, anything to add?"

"The coven contact was reputable. She came by recommendation. And we've had no luck locating Bella Morelli in the meantime."

"So, we're no further forward," noted Ranger with displeasure. "No trace of the person responsible, no cure, in fact, no leads at all."

Tank nodded grimly. "We could look further on the voodoo angle. How about asking your Grandma Rosa if–"

"No," Ranger cut in. "Absolutely not."

"We're running out of options, man."

"My family doesn't find out about this. They do not need to be involved."

"But–"

"No. Anybody who calls them will get hurt. Are we clear?"

"Then it looks like you're fu–"

Tank's cellphone rang. He looked at Ranger, who nodded at him, confirming that he should answer it.

"Talk."

"Tank, it's Hal. You're not going to believe who just walked into the building."

Morelli quietly escorted his grandmother into the living room where they were all still sitting. Tank vacated his armchair for her and took a position leaning against the wall with his arms folded instead. Morelli helped Bella sit in the chair and stood behind her with a hand laid protectively on her shoulder.

He caught sight of Stephanie's and Ranger's fuzzy puppet bodies where they sat side by side in the chair opposite. "Oh my God," he said quietly to no-one in particular. "What did she do?"

Bella looked up at him from her chair. "Joseph–"

"Just fix this, Grandma. Tell them what you can and help them fix this. I would never have wanted this to happen to her." He didn't take his eyes from Stephanie, who looked all around the room, anywhere but back at him.

Ranger noted the 'her' in that statement. He wouldn't have expected anything different.

Bella opened her mouth a few times before finally starting to speak. "I will help because Joseph asks it of me, and no other reason. When I saw my Joseph broken hearted after he caught this puttana–"

"Grandma!" Joe interrupted, warning in his tone. "Helping, remember?"

"–after he caught Stephanie with this other one again and again, I was so angry, I swore that I would put the eye on both of them. That evening a woman came to me saying that she came with a gift from the ancient forests; that she also had the power, and we could work the eye together to make God help us make them regret their lying and cheating forever." She glared fiercely at the two puppets. "I just had to find them, the same way that I found him before…"

Stephanie turned and looked accusingly at Ranger, receiving just a puppet shrug in response.

"… and when I did I was to put the eye on both of them. She would lend me her own power and together we would punish them. They would never be able to cheat ever again. I don't know why this happened, but I can guess that they are not cheating." She shot a triumphant gaze at Stephanie and Ranger as she said it.

Ranger's hand flexed unconsciously near his gun, and Bella gave him a smile that was more like a baring of teeth.

"I have never met her before, and she didn't give me her name. I didn't need it. The power that she brought was enough."

Bella glared around her as she finished, daring anyone to say anything. They just regarded her silently.

"Grandma, what have you done?" Morelli's whisper seemed louder as it fell into the silence.

"I did God's work! I struck down sinners with his power."

"Doesn't sound like God to me," Bobby said. "Sounds to me like you made a deal with something that came out of the woods and told you what you wanted to hear. Look at them, does that look like God's work to you?"

"It was my right! I was born with the eye. It was my power to use."

"All of it?"

Bella looked closely at the two puppets sharing a chair, puppets that used to be people. She sagged in her chair, suddenly just a tired old woman as triumph gave way to realization. "Oh my God, Joseph, what have I done?"

Morelli crouched next to the armchair and put his arms around her. "I'll fix it. I promise."

He helped her to her feet before walking her slowly to the door and out. He turned back to the room at large before he followed her. "I'm going to take my grandmother to Father Carolli, and then I'll be back. We need to talk about what happens next."

"No," Ranger objected. "We'll deal with it."

"Wrong. I'm involved now. I promised my grandmother I'd fix it and I will. You just got yourself a detective on the case."

He looked at Stephanie with an unreadable expression before closing the apartment door behind him.

o0o o0o o0o

"I hate this. Lula's involved. Joe's involved. Even my freaking grandmother is involved, and I'm stuck in this freaking apartment. I can't even comfort eat."

Stephanie was pacing a circle in the carpet in the apartment living room, and looking up to glare occasionally at Ranger where he sat at the table with a laptop computer. "Are you managing to type or are you just looking for a way to ignore me?"

"I'm managing, and we don't know about the eating question yet. We might be stuck like this for a while, so we should start to find out what these bodies can and can't do. I asked Ella to arrange something soft for us to try. She'll be here any time now."

Ella bustled in holding a large dish with the aid of oven gloves. A serving spoon was sticking out of the top. "Here we are, lovely rice pudding for you both."

Ranger regarded her flatly. "Ella, you know I don't eat dessert."

"Oh, now don't be silly. Everybody loves rice pudding," Ella said briskly. "It's full of things that are good for you. If you're good I'll even stir some jelly into it for you."

Ranger continued to stare at her in silence.

Horror chased comprehension across Ella's face as she realized what she had just said to her employer. "Oh my… I'm so sorry." She put the dish on the counter and hurried out of the apartment.

"Ella, wait!" Stephanie called after her, "I want jelly."

"We're small, Steph, not children."

She turned round slowly to glare at Ranger. "Excuse me?"

Ranger sighed. "I'll ask Ella to bring the jelly up."