CHAPTER 7

There were people everywhere. Apparently someone had already called it in to the police station so, only seconds after Mary Lou and I arrived on the scene, the cops did, too. And who else but Morelli was with them. Yay.

He strolled over with his hands in his pockets and a big smile on his face. "Yours, I'm assuming," he said, rocking back on his heels, grinning that dopey cop grin. In fact, all of the cops were grinning dopey cop grins.

I glared at him with my death rays. "Just get it down!" I yelled.

"A truck's on the way."

"Why the hell are you here, anyway? You're vice!" I was furious, yelling and waving my arms. People were staring but I didn't care. Someone had dared to put Ranger's BMW on top of a fast food restaurant and then Morelli and all his dumb cop friends had the gall to come and laugh? I don't think so.

Carl Costanza strolled over. "This is a real nice touch, Steph, but you won't be going far with your car on a roof."

Now I turned my death rays to him. "If you value your lives you both will stop grinning. Now just get my car off there!"

"Your car, huh? Does Ranger realize that his car is sitting on top of Cluck in a Bucket?" Morelli asked.

God, I hope not. "Shut it, Morelli."

Just then Mary Lou came walking up. "The truck is here, Steph. They brought a crane of some sort and it looks like it won't be too hard to get your car down."

"Thank god," I said, turning my back to Morelli and Costanza. Who needed them? "Let's go over there. If there is one scratch on that car I am going to be pissed…and dead."

"A couple of questions for you first, Cupcake," Morelli called.

I turned around, rolling my eyes. "Now what?"

Costanza was grinning again. "You need to fill out a report. Come in for questioning. Gaspick thinks that you need to be charged with disturbing the peace."

I looked at them with my eyes as big as saucers. "I didn't do anything! Someone stole MY car and put it on there! I have no clue how it could have even gotten up there in the first place!"

Morelli looked at me. "Stephanie, you really do need to come with us. You're not in trouble."

I rolled my eyes again, but I followed him. Mary Lou said that she'd stay and check things out. I'm pretty sure she was doing less checking on the car, and more checking on the emergency personnel. Just sayin'.

The questioning wasn't so bad. Morelli stayed with me the whole time while Officer Gaspick asked his annoying questions. A few times Morelli shot Gaspick a warning look. Finally, I was able to go, but I had no ride. Morelli had to get back to work so he couldn't take me home. Not to mention, he'd been weirdly supportive all afternoon, and I didn't want to push my luck. I finally gave in and called Ranger to pick me up.

I was waiting outside the station for Ranger when he pulled up.

"Yo, Babe."

"Yo yourself."

"Care to tell me why you're at the police station without the car?" he asked, sliding a glance my way.

I blushed. The smart part of me was screaming No! No! Don't tell him! while the stupid part of me was like, Go ahead. He probably knows anyway. So I went with the Stupid Stephanie and told him. "Okay, well, to tell you the truth, the reason I was at the station is because of the car. See, this morning I went to leave my apartment and then the car was gone. So I got Mary Lou to drive me around and I found it..." I paused. "on the roof of the Cluck in a Bucket on Hamilton."

I shot him a furtive glance and was relieved to find that he was not mad in the least. In fact, he looked quite amused.

"At least you can still drive it," he said smiling.

"So you're not mad?"

"Nope. I'm assuming that's why you ran out of the office this morning with Mary Lou when you saw me?"

I sighed. "Yeah, I didn't want you to know."

"Who put it up there?"

"No idea," I said, shaking my head. "But my guess would have to be Joyce Barnhardt."

"Good guess. She showed up at Cluck in a Bucket after you left with Morelli."

I gaped at him. "How do you know?"

"Heard the call on the police radio in the office," he said.

Geez, it was almost scary how he always knew everything. I narrowed my eyes. "And you let them take me to the station for questioning?"

I saw the muscles in his jaw tighten. "I didn't know they were doing that or else I would have stopped it."

Hmm, something to ponder. Something else to ponder was how the hell I was going to get revenge on Joyce Barnhardt. That bitch.

Ranger idled in my apartment parking lot, where the BMW had magically reappeared. "What's your plan for the rest of the day?" he asked.

"Hair appointment at 3:30, and that's about it."

"You better get a move on then, it's 3:20."

Oh shit! I looked at my watch to make sure. I had no idea that I'd been at the station for that long. "Gotta go," I said, jumping out of the car.

Ranger leaned over and gave me a long kiss. "Have fun. Be at my place for dinner at 6. We've got to talk." Then he was gone.

Eeek. What did we have to talk about? I mentally reviewed everything I'd done in the last couple days, and nothing major popped into mind that I should be guilty about. Stop it, I told myself. He's not your mother. He's not going to yell at you. In the meantime, you're going to miss your appointment.

I hopped in my car and floored it out of the lot. Nothing like having a close call in missing a hair appointment to make a woman break the speed limit!

An hour and a half later I walked out of Mr. Alexander's shop in the mall. My hair now had natural looking blonde highlights, my frizz was tamed, and my curls were bouncy. Morelli and I had parted on fairly amicable terms, and Batman wanted me to come over for dinner tonight. I was feeling downright happy.

Only two things were bothering me: Joyce and Vinnie. Where the hell was Vinnie and why was he FTA over a charge that wasn't that big a deal? The judge undoubtedly would let him off easy since Vinnie was actually a good businessman. He brought in the crooks off the streets and made sure they came to their court dates. Actually, Ranger and I did that, but Vinnie got the credit for it.

And Joyce. What did I do to her that made her feel like she had to pull a stunt like that? How the hell did she accomplish it? And a bigger question, how was I going to make her pay?

On the way out of the mall, I ran through Macy's to look at their shoes. A girl can never have too many pairs of shoes, is my motto. While looking at a great pair of red FMPs and contemplating if I had enough time to try them on, I heard that voice coming from the make-up department. It was Joyce, behind the counter and gossiping with some of her cohorts. I immediately narrowed my eyes and I thought of beating Joyce over the head with the shoe that I had in my hand, but then I realized that if I did I would undoubtedly be late for dinner at Ranger's. I didn't want to be in big trouble with Ranger, so I decided that Joyce could wait at least another day.

I pulled up at Ranger's house at 5:58, buzzing through the gates with the BMW's key fob, and I breezed in the kitchen. Ranger was at the stove, cooking up something that smelled absolutely delicious. He smiled at me when I walked in and gave me a light kiss on the lips.

"Not even late," he said, still smiling.

"Of course not," I replied haughtily, teasing him.

I saw his eyes darken when he saw what I had done to my hair. Hmm. I guess he likes it. "Nice," he said. "I like it."

I smiled back at him. "So, what smells so good?"

"Dinner. You hungry?"

In answer to his question, my stomach rumbled loudly. "There's your answer," I told him.

I studied him while I ate the delicious meal he cooked. I didn't really know what it was, and I was sort of afraid to ask in case it was brussel sprouts casserole or something hideous like that. Something was different with Ranger tonight. He seemed more relaxed, but I could tell that he was a little...nervous? Hmm.

"You're staring," he said, without looking up.

I blushed. "Sorry. Just thinking. So, what did you want to talk to me about?"

He finally looked at me. "I've got something to ask you."

I raised an eyebrow. "Which is?"

"I wanted to see if you would like to come to Boston with me this weekend."

For the second time that day, I knew my eyes were as big as saucers. "Boston?" I choked out. "What for?"

"Remember how I told you I own a building in Boston? Well, I happen to own the company in the building too, and they are having a big party which I have to attend. I wanted to see if you would be my date."