CHAPTER 2

Ranger and I left the office a short while later. I was feeling fancy with my new attitude, and Ranger was feeling, well, Ranger. He's always fancy…in a badass kind of way. Ranger's car of choice for the day was a BMW 850 Ci. Black, sleek, and yum.

"So what's the plan?" I asked Ranger as I slid into the car's buttery leather seats.

Ranger caught my look of envy as I got in and grinned at me. "You looking for new transportation, Babe?"

I rolled my eyes. "Look what I drive. I'm always looking for new transportation."

Ranger slid his eyes my way as he cranked the engine over. "I've got a car ready and waiting for you whenever you'll take it."

Say what? What's that supposed to mean? And an even bigger question, what did I have to do to get the car? Mary Lou is convinced that when Ranger gives me a car I at least owe him butt stuff. I don't disagree with her, but I don't do that butt stuff, so I'm a little wary of taking another car from him. Not to mention his cars are never in...uhh...prime condition, when I'm done with them. Not that it's my fault, but these things just happen.

I looked up in surprise when the car stopped and I saw that we were at Big Jim's.

Ranger smiled. "Figured we'd get an early lunch since you're so hungry."

Good grief. Add stomach-reading powers to his already existing special mind-reading powers. How does he do that anyway? Forget Batman, he's like the ESP Man. You know there's ESPN- Ranger will be ESPM. I chuckled at my play on letters.

"Babe?" Ranger quirked an eyebrow at me, no doubt wondering why I'm laughing to myself.

"Nuh uh," I smiled, getting out of the car. "You figure it out."

It turned out that a few other people had the same idea about an early lunch of ribs and greens at Big Jim's as we did. One of those other people was Joe Morelli. Shit. His eyes narrowed to slits and he stared at us as we walked in. I saw him watching me in the mirror over the bar as Ranger and I got a table and placed our orders. Call me crazy, but I was feeling a teensy bit uncomfortable here.

Ranger turned to me and quirked an eyebrow. "You okay with this, Babe? We can go somewhere else."

I shook my head and sighed. "No, I need to get used to this. We do live in the Burg, after all."

When I was just about done scarfing down my lunch I saw Morelli get up to leave. He paid his bill, turned around, and we locked eyes for what seemed like hours. He nodded his head once and walked out. Gee, that was productive. At least it didn't involve yelling or arm whirling.

Later that afternoon we came to the end of our to-do list on Vinnie and had drawn a great big zero. I'm willing to bet our "to-do" list wasn't nearly as long as Vinnie's, which is probably why we couldn't find him. Blech.

I was tired and heading towards the cranky side, but Ranger seemed undaunted. In fact, he was in his zone, and I was left with just myself to converse with. I mentally reviewed what we had done during the day. We had tried all the regular spots. Vinnie's house, his parent's house, his favorite bar, and his favorite strip club (you know Vinnie). His wife, Lucille, and everyone else claimed that they hadn't seen him since Sunday. It was Tuesday now and his court appointment had been on Monday. He could be anywhere. He could be in Cancun for all I knew. To be totally honest, that was possible since I didn't know very much about this Vinnie situation, anyway. I got that Connie had been the one to write his bond, but why would he skip on himself?

When we came to a red light, Ranger turned to me. "Well, Babe, any other ideas?" Sure, I had other ideas. Just nothing that would help us with Vinnie. The corners of his mouthed tipped up, and I knew he was tuned in to ESPM.

I was about to say no, but then thought of the obvious. Duh, Stephanie. When you run out of clues and ideas in the Burg, where do you always ask?

"Turn here," I instructed.

Like always, my mother and my Grandma Mazur were standing at the screen door, hands clasped together, when Ranger and I drove up. I knew that Grandma Mazur had had an appointment at Clara's this morning to get her hair done, so I also knew that Grandma would be full to the top with all the latest gossip and dirty news on everyone from the Burg.

"Let me guess," Grandma Mazur said as we walked through the door. "This is a case, right? Oh, boy. Who are you two trying to find now? Is it that no good cousin of yours?"

"You shouldn't be looking for anyone, Stephanie," my mother admonished. "You know, I heard there is an opening at Macy's for a shoe department worker. You ought to hurry and put in an application."

I rolled my eyes. "Mom, I am looking for Vinnie and I'm not going to get a job at Macy's." I looked back at Ranger but he was just standing there grinning that 200 watt smile of his. Hmm...I wonder if ESPM could tell that I was about to sock him one in the stomach? Probably so. Damn.

After grilling Grandma Mazur for a while on what exactly she heard while at Clara's, Ranger and I escaped my parents house. I left there with very little new knowledge about Vinnie, but I did find out that Joyce Barnhardt tripped and fell on a lipstick tube that was on the floor behind the Macy's make-up counter where she works and broke her arm. Gosh, what a shame.

A few minutes later Ranger pulled into my lot and parked the car. He'd killed the engine, but continued to sit in his zone.

"Ranger? Something the matter?"

Silence.

"Something you want to tell me? Want to share any thoughts?"

Still silence. Okay, this was beginning to get annoying. What did he do, slip into a coma in my parking lot?

I shrugged and started to slide from the car. "Okay, well, see ya."

Once out, I leaned in the open window for one last peek and Ranger in all his stillness. He finally looked at me, but I could tell that his thoughts were still a far-away. I could feel my heart flip-flopping in my chest. What was the deal here?

"Aren't you gonna say something?" I asked.

When he spoke, it was so quiet I almost didn't hear him. "Are you really done with Morelli?"

Whoa! Back up! Where did that come from? Obviously I don't have his ESP powers because I would have seen that one coming and I certainly didn't. I was thinking more along the lines of sharing thoughts on Vinnie, the weather, last night's Rangers game…but you know, whatever.

I sighed. "Yeah, I'm done with Morelli. Why?"

"Because I want to know what to make of you. And of us."

Us?

He looked at me and gave a slight smile. "Yes, us."

Well, hot diggity dog. I smiled, leaned in, and gave him a little kiss on the lips. Sauntering into my building, I gave Ranger a little finger wave as he pulled away.

I met old Mrs. Bestler in the elevator on my way up. "Second floor," she sang out. "Excellent buns and designer dresses."

I was a little confused by the buns comment but chose to ignore it. When I got in my apartment I figured it out, though. As I was standing in front of my door, searching for my keys, my front door opened and I looked into those gorgeous whisky brown eyes.

"Morelli!" I huffed. "What the hell are you doing in my apartment?"

"We need to talk," he said, stepping back to let me pass.

I stomped past him and immediately went to the kitchen to get a beer. "So talk," I growled.

Morelli walked into the kitchen after me and watched me take a gulp of beer. "What's going on with you and Ranger?" he finally asked.

"Not a damn thing. We're looking for a skip. Why does it matter to you?"

"It matters to me because I care about you. You know that, Cupcake."

I sighed. "I do know that, Joe. But I also know that at this point in your life, your job matters to you even more than I do, and I can't keep playing second-string. Not to mention, you're not a big fan of my job, either."

His eyes were sad when he looked at me. "I have to do my job, Steph."

"I know that, but I need more than this never-ending Merry Go Round we're stuck on. We can't give each other what we need; we're too much alike. I need to know what my other options are, what else I can become."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "And what would that be? Dead? Because if you keep working with Ranger that's what you're going to be."

He strode towards the door. I followed him, beer in hand. Before he opened the door to leave he turned to me. His voice was quiet and serious. "This isn't the end of us, Stephanie. You and I both know that. We've been chasing each other for over twenty years." He paused. "You know my number if you need me."

"Bye, Joe," I said as he walked out the door. As I turned around, I realized for the first time that Morelli had brought back Rex and Bob. Bob had been quietly eating all the contents of my bathroom trashcan while Morelli and I were having our discussion. I fed them both, turned on ESPN for Bob, and plopped down on my couch with the portable phone, another beer, and a pad and pen. I desperately needed some information on Vinnie.

An hour and a half later I finally got off the phone. I had called all the major gossips in the whole Burg grapevine and finally come up with some leads. This was no small feat, considering all the gossips wanted to talk about was my love life.

At any rate, Vinnie must have learned a thing or two from some of his FTAs since he was doing such a good job hiding himself. However, what he hadn't factored in was the all-knowing Burg grapevine. Women in the Burg are great mothers, great housewives, and above all, nosy as hell. I re-read over the notes I had jotted down while on the phone. After a few minutes I decided that it would probably be easier to read and comprehend what all these notes meant if they were in more of a list so I copied them down on another sheet of paper in a more organized way. Ranger would be proud.

One particular piece of information stuck out at me. Hmm, I thought. Very interesting, Dr. Watson. I believe we have a winner. Picking up the phone yet again, I made one more call.

"Yo."

I smiled. So predictable. "Yo, yourself. I found out some more information on Vinnie's possible whereabouts. You want to get together and look these over?"

"Sure, Babe. Pino's in 10." Click. Looks like I had a date. I ran in the bathroom for a quick hair and make-up check before grabbing my keys and coat. I called goodbye to Rex and Bob, telling Bob if he made any sort of mess that he would be responsible for cleaning it up. It's only fair.

I made it to Pino's in just over 10 minutes. Ranger, of course, was already there, leaning up against his Beemer with his muscular arms crossed in front of him.

He walked over to my driver's side window and leaned in before I had a chance to even get out of the car. "Hey Babe. There are some people in there that you might not want to see right now."

Oh shit. I had forgotten about the ever-present legions of cops that filled the bar stools at this time of day. I had never needed to worry about that before now. Now that I was on the outs with Morelli, I'd rather avoid the whole scene for right now. Hello, Denial, you old friend. How have you been?

I nodded. "Follow me," he said as he started walking back to his car.

"Where are we going?" I called after his retreating back.

He turned around, giving me his 200 watt grin. "My place."