Because you love her- by jersey girl in oxford (sue)
Chapter 6
There was another set of prints on the note in addition to Stephanie's. No one came up as a match. A couple of people remembered seeing Stephanie with a sandy-haired man, but no one knew who he was. Dead end after dead end. Ranger pushed himself and his men all week. Rangeman was looking into some missing person cases and a few unsolved murders that had similar injuries to Stephanie's. Whoever did this must be a professional, Ranger mused. His tracks were perfectly covered. His mind started to drift to the one night they spent together. As much as he wanted more, he knew he could never give Stephanie enough of himself to keep her happy. It was a decision that he would regret for the rest of his life. He could have had her all to himself. All he had to do was tell her that he loved her and wanted her. But no. He gave her line after line of pure crap. Ranger sighed and dropped his head back against the chair. "I'm sorry, Babe. This is all my fault," he whispered to his empty office.
It was almost one month after Stephanie's death. Ranger and Morelli were still no closer to finding her killer or her body. Ranger refused to give up, but he could no longer push his men around the clock like he had been doing. He had been forcing mandatory overtime. At first, none of the Merry Men complained. They all loved Stephanie too. They didn't seem to mind giving up their nights and weekends and social lives. The guys were just as motivated to find the killer as Ranger was. But…it had been a month with nothing to show for it. Tempers were short, and nerves were frayed. The stress was taking its toll. Ranger also had been letting his business slip. Reluctantly, Ranger made the decision to scale back the resources for the search for Stephanie's killer.
Morelli tried to throw himself into work to keep him busy. When he wasn't working, he was helping Rangeman track down leads. While getting ready for bed, he took a good look at himself in the mirror. He didn't even recognize his own reflection. His hair was about an inch or two past his ears. He hadn't shaved in weeks. He wasn't sure how much weight he lost, but his clothes were loose. He knew he needed to take better care of himself, but it just didn't seem to matter with Stephanie gone. He knew Stephanie would hate that he let himself go like that. She wouldn't want him wasting away feeling sorry for himself. That thought was the only thing that kept him going. Plus, he wanted to see Stephanie's killer pay for what he did. He started to head for the bedroom, but turned back towards the sink. He grabbed his shaving cream, razor, and began to shave. When he was finished, he went down to the kitchen to eat. He needed to stay healthy and alert. If he didn't, he would only get weaker and maybe miss the most subtle clue to catch that mother fucker.
Not having to work for the first Saturday in a month, Lester and Bobby decided to take the train to New York City. They wanted to get as far away from Trenton as possible. Ranger had been riding them so hard these past few weeks. Not that they blamed him. Losing Stephanie like that was hard on him. They weren't quite sure what their relationship had been because she had been with the cop as well. The only thing they were sure of was that Ranger loved her. He never confessed his feelings to anyone. Whenever she needed something, he dropped what he was doing and ran to her. He gave her cars and let her stay at his apartment. He even assigned them to follow her around to protect her. Losing her was devastating enough for him, but to have her body stolen added insult to injury. So to say they needed to get out and unwind was a major understatement.
Two clubs and several drinks later, they hit China Club hoping to meet some hot celebrities. Nothing major seemed to be happening. The waitress brought their first round. The surrounding tables appeared to be engrossed watching a couple on the dance floor. Def Leppard's Animal pounded through the speaker system. The couple was dancing a rocked out kind of tango to the beat of the music. The woman was tall with long, curly brown hair. Her sandy haired partner was a half a head taller. She wore a black leather vest and black spandex pants that were tucked into low heeled black western style boots. The man was clad in a black silk blouse and leather pants. Watching the two of them move together was mesmerizing. At the end of the song, the man dramatically dipped his partner so that her hair touched the floor.
Bobby did a double take. Damn that girl looks like Steph, he thought. The man slowly pulled her back up and drew her close to his body. They shared a passionate kiss. His hands slid down her back to cup her ass holding her tight. The woman turned to leave the dance floor. "Fuck me," Bobby whispered. If it wasn't Stephanie then it had to be her twin. Bobby slowly rose from the table.
Lester looked up at Bobby. He was standing there visibly paled and mouth open. "Hey," Lester began tapping his arm. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."
"I think I have." Bobby pointed to the couple across the dance floor. "Please tell me that's not Stephanie Plum." Lester jumped up and looked to where Bobby pointed. He could only see the back of her head. The man turned around.
"That does look like the guy she was with," Lester agreed. They watched as the man pulled on his jacket and helped the woman on with hers. She spun around as he put his arm around her shoulders before they headed to the exit. "Holy Shit. I don't fucking believe this, Bobby. I think that is Stephanie." Both men were in a state of shock and unable to move. By the time the couple reached the bottom of the stairs to leave, they sprung into action. Fighting their way through the crowd slowed them down.
Bursting on to the sidewalk, they frantically looked left and right to see where the couple went. Bobby felt Lester pull him to the right. "Get your phone out, man! Get a picture!" Lester ordered him. The man was sitting on a Harley Davidson and putting on his helmet. The woman swung her leg over and straddled the bike. "Stephanie!" Upon hearing her name, she turned around and stared at the two of them for a second. Giving them a sly smile and a finger wave, she pulled on her helmet and wrapped her arms around the man as they pulled away. Bobby snapped several pictures. "Jesus, Bobby! That was Stephanie….right?"
"Uh…I don't know what to think anymore," Bobby stammered. He couldn't believe what he had just seen. Stephanie was dead, he repeated over and over in his head. It was definitely the man they had seen with Stephanie at DuJour's.
"What the fuck are we going to do?" Lester asked. "I mean…do we call Ranger and tell him we found Steph's body? He'll ask where, and then I'll say she was on the back of a Harley in New York City. He'll fucking beat the shit out of us." Bobby scrolled through the pictures.
"He won't believe it until we show him the pictures." His eyes widened. "What the fuck?"
"What's wrong? Didn't you get the shot?" Bobby held out the phone to show him. "What the fuck?" The pictures were just of the Harley. The couple had vanished from the shot. "This is so fucked up, Bobby. What are we going to do?" Bobby shrugged and put his phone away.
"We'll tell Tank when we get back. If I call him now, he'll be pissed off and think we were seeing things because we're drunk. I know we've had a lot to drink, but I know what we saw," Bobby replied. Lester nodded in agreement. "Let's get the fuck outta here. This place is giving me the creeps."