Chapter 12: The Bet
I woke up the next morning in one of my favorite ways. Three Morelli introduced orgasms and later Joe was in the shower and I was trying to catch just a few more minutes of sleep. Joe and I had stayed up well into the morning catching up on lost time; a night full of sex rejuvenates Joe, me it leaves feeling like I could use six more hours of sleep, but damn it was worth it.
I was just nodding back to sleep when I heard the shower turn off. The last thing I rembered hearing was him moving around the bathroom. My pleasant dream came to a screeching halt as a very chipper fully clothed Joe started pulling me out of bed. Of course, I started fighting him all the way. I mean, a girl needs her beauty sleep, right?
"Steph as much as I would love to crawl back in there with you, you have to get up, you have to go to work." I propped myself up on my pillow and gave Joe a once over starting with his black boots, moving up to the perfectly faded and fitted jeans to his green polo and then deep into his eyes. I saw them go from normal whiskey brown to sexy chocolate. I licked my lips.
"Tempting Steph, very tempting", he told me. I saw him take control of his desire and he returned to normal. "We both have to get to work", he reminded me turned around and walked out the door.
"Growing up sucks!" I yelled back to him.
A few minutes later Joe returned with coffee in hand. "Seeing you in our bed makes me wish I was still that kid that thought the most important thing was sex." He said as he handed me the coffee.
"I'm not". I told him, "That was the Joe Morelli I ran over with my dad's Buick."
"Yeah I was an ass wasn't I?" He told me leaning down and giving me a kiss. "I'll walk Bob but you have to get up. I'll see you tonight". And he was gone.
I got to the office that morning and ten minutes later Ranger called a staff meeting. When Ranger is here we have a lot of meetings, when he's in the wind, Tank has one weekly staff meeting and we dealt with issues individually as they came up.
We were sitting around the table waiting for Ranger; some of the guys were complaining about this taking away from work they already had been assigned, others were talking about plans for the upcoming weekend. The conference room was abuzz, and then everyone went silent. Ranger had arrived. He took his place at the head of the table and plopped down a mountain of files.
"Connie called this morning. Vinnie is falling behind on the FTA list. They need help getting the skips picked up."
"Yeah." I muttered ,"He's writing to many risky bonds. Lorraine wants new boobs so we have to clean up after his mistakes again."
Everyone was looking at me. Damn did I say that out loud?
"Anything else you want to share, Babe?"
"No I'm good, Please continue."
"I told Connie we would take the next two days and clear this up for her. Babe, Lula will be waiting at the bonds office for you in an hour." He handed me a stack of FTA's. "Look though those if there is anyone in there that makes your toes curl let me know, but they all seem like they will be okay. The rest of them we will split between ourselves. Team up in twos and grab a stack."
I glanced at my files. They all made my toes curl but they looked liked my average case load.
"You okay with them Babe?"
"Yeah I'm good." I checked the clock it was 9:30a.m. I was picking up Lula at ten I could leave now and stop by the Tasty Pasty for some happiness. I got up from my chair. "We done?"
Ranger gave a slight nod.
"Ok then I'm out of here."
"The donuts will kill you Babe," Ranger told me as I was leaving.
I stopped at the Tasty Pasty and got a dozen assorted. I stepped outside and found Joe leaning against my car.
"What are you doing Cupcake?" Taking one Boston Cream and one Chocolate frosted out of the box. "Rangeman doesn't allow these things," he said handing me the Boston Cream.
"Connie called and whined to Ranger about the amount of outstanding FTA's and Ranger put us on Bounty Hunter Business for the next two days. I'm picking up Lula and we're heading out."
"Have fun Cupcake and be careful, you still going to be home at five tonight?"
"Unless something comes up." I reached over and gave him a kiss and than watched him walk away. My husband has the best ass in Trenton. After spending a couple of minutes admiring his backside, I hopped back in my car and headed to the bonds office. I pulled up to the bonds office and headed inside.
Connie was at her desk filing her nails, "So Steph, are you and Joe going to the reunion Saturday night?" She asked as she grabbed a glazed from the box.
"Yeah but I still need to find a dress." Then it dawned on me. "You were in that class too."
"Oh yeah Class of '92 we were definitely memorable.
She was right. Some really important people to me graduated in that class. Connie was one of my best friends, my sister Val , my husband, hell even Terri Gilman.
Lula came busting into the office at that time wearing a sunshine yellow spandex top and blue shorts that looked like they were busting at the seams. "Who got the doughnuts?" She zoomed in almost knocking me over. I could see that the back of her shorts were advertising "Cutie". I was thinking that was a stretch. "Oh hey Steph, what are you doing here?"
"We are going to catch the bad guys today and hopefully stop by Macy's, I need a new dress."
"Give me a call if you get by there," Connie told us. "I'll shut the office and come with you."
"That sounds great but we busted bad guys yesterday." Lula reminded me as she handed the receipt to Connie.
"Well she went whining to Ranger about the FTAs so Ranger made it top priority at Rangeman for the next 48 hours and you're stuck with me girl."
"Well who do we have?"
I pulled the files out of my bag "Carl Shapiro, he was bonded out on the charge of holding up the dry cleaners."
"Who holds up a dry cleaner?" Lula asked.
"I guess Carl does, maybe they wouldn't give him his clothes back," Connie told her. "I heard someone did that once because Mama Mac was holding her sweater."
"That was not my fault!" Lula exclaimed turning back to me, "What did he use to hold the place up?"
I checked the file "A bat."
"Well that's not too bad, who's next? "
"Owen Marshall "I told her.
"Sounds like a nice name what did he do?"
"Ran over his mailman"
"Like by accident? Maybe he was backing up and didn't see him?" Lula asked.
"Chased him down the street and gunned it."
"Okay." she said after taking another doughnut. "Let's roll"
"Fine, let's do Owen first he doesn't live too far from the mall."
We got into my car and drove East down Hamilton.
"So how many guys we got to bring in?" Lula asked.
"Ranger gave me ten files but unless we get lucky I'm thinking we may get half of them."
"Well aren't you little miss ray of sunshine this morning. Come on girl we have gotten good at this, we can do it. Remember last night we did good."
"I got trashed"
"It was only a little ketchup and you didn't roll in it." Lula told me as I pulled up to Owens's house.
We got out walked to the door and knocked. A blonde woman about 25 opened the door; the bond file said Owen was 47. Okay so maybe she's a niece or something.
"Is Owen Marshall here?" I asked.
"Owen honey," she screamed into the house. As he headed to the door he smacked blondie on the butt and said, "Something's burning, go check." He then turned to us and asked "Who the hell are you two?"
"I'm Stephanie Plum and this is my friend Lula." That was all I got out as he slammed the door closed.
"Go around back," I told Lula "I 'm going to try this again." I gave time for Lula to get into position and knocked again. "He's not interested in getting rebonded, sorry." Blondie told me and shut the door.
I heard Lula yell "Freeze Sucker!" I took off around the back. Owen didn't freeze, but he was a middle aged, out of shape man. With my running start I easily caught up to him and tackled him to the ground. Lula finally arrived and I assessed the damage. Not bad. I scratched up an elbow, but I was wearing my Rangeman outfit so my clothes were still intact and looking clean.
"Let's get the asshole to the car"
At the police station we had to wait to rebook him. Hal, Cal, Lester and Bobby were all there in front of us. "Hey guys how's it going?"
"Not bad one down nine to go," Cal told me.
"Hey Beautiful you want to get in on the action?" Lester asked.
"What action?" With these guys sometimes I was afraid to ask.
"After you left we put a wager on who can bring the most in, we all have ten files. You too right? "
"Yeah, go ahead."
Whoever brings the most in that team wins the pot. We all put in $50.00" Lester finished.
"Hey Lula you want to get in on this?"
"Shit yeah, we can get all ten of these guys no sweat."
"By Friday night at 10pm, keep your body receipts until then," Cal added.
Lula and I both dug $50.00 from our bags and handed it over to Bobby.
"So how much will we get?" Lula asked.
I did the math "there's ten of us at $50.00 each that's $500.00."
"$600.00. You forgot Tank and Ranger." Bobby corrected. Shit that wasn't good. All Ranger and Tank had to do was snap their fingers and FTAs jumped into the car with them.
Before we left Ram and Zero brought a guy in and the booking room was starting to look like the Rangeman conference room.
Joe just happened to come by. "You know Lula, you keep hanging out with this crowd and you're going to need to dress in all black. What's up in here?"
"I told you Ranger is on a pity mission for Vinnie. I walked over and gave him a kiss and whispered something naughty in his ear. "If you take a few files tonight and help us..."
"NO NO NO !" Lester started yelling. "No help only you and Lula. Morelli wants in he can get his own files and pay his own $50.00 to the pot."
"What are you yelling about Santos?"
I explained about the pool we had going "Sounds fun, but I'll let you have it all to yourself Cupcake. You and Lula can round up all Trenton's bad guys. Should I let Carl and Big Dog know to start the pool here? What happened to you elbow?"
"No need to alert anyone about anything. I had to tackle Owen over there and got a scratch" I told him.
He gave me another kiss and a "Be careful". "Later guys" Joe said and he was off to really rid Trenton of the bad guys.
On Lester's way out he stopped by and said "I mean it Beautiful no help from the hubby."
That deserved an eye roll. "I promise."
"Good luck Steph," Bobby yelled as they were leaving.
Hal and Cal's guy was processed and they left with their receipt in no time. Robin was working the booking desk today.
"Hey Robin, how have you been?"
"Not bad I heard about the competition you in on it?"
"Oh yeah Lula and I can do this. Maybe it will pay for my dress for Saturday night."
"Good luck?" She told me handing over our receipt. I tucked it away and said "Thanks". Lula and I hurried out the door.
After starting up the car I told Lula, "If we are going to win this we don't have time for shopping. Let's go get Shapiro."
"You got it girl, let's go."
Carl Shapiro's address wasn't far from the station. The file said he was in his late twenties and worked as a teacher. Since its summer he should be home. We drove two blocks over and parked out front of his Row house. The neighborhood looked just like my parents or mine and Joe's. "Shapiro's row house is the blue one on the right. "
"Doesn't look like anyone is home." Lula told me and I had to agree but we got out and knocked anyway. No answer. I checked with the neighbor and she told us he went to the shore and would be back tonight. So we decided to pick him up tomorrow.
The next file from the bag was Kim Lee. She caught her husband sleeping with the babysitter and stabbed him with a kitchen knife. Lucky for Mr. Lee the babysitter was a med student and home for the summer break. She managed to get the bleeding under control, Mrs. Lee had great aim. They lived just outside the Burg in a section of town that was rebuilt a couple of years ago with new mini mansions.
We got to their street. There were no cars parked outside. This was the kind of neighborhood where you parked your car in the garage. We parked on the street by the Lee's house and saw the kids in the backyard playing.
"She's not going to want to go in; we are going to make a scene." I told Lula.
"Yeah, mothers are the worst. I hate having to cuff them in front of the kids."
We got out of the car and walked to the door and knocked. Mrs. Lee came to the door. "May I help you?"
"I'm Stephanie Plum and this is Lula. We are bond agents for Vincent Plum and we need to take you in to get rebonded today."
She just kept starring at Lula. "Okay," she finally said. "Just let me call my neighbor to watch the kids, please come in."
This was too easy. Mrs. Lee placed the call. Another lady showed up and we left five minutes later. Well she was a first timer. I guess anything is possible. When we got her in the car, we cuffed her and explained we had to transport her, okay again she was a first timer and I didn't want anything to go wrong. We were two down already and it wasn't even noon yet. Maybe the mall was still possible.
When we got there Ranger and Tank were walking some guy in. Tank held the door for us. "Ladies," he said and stole a kiss from Lula, "How's it going?"
"Two down and you?"
"Just the one, seems like you are in the lead for now."
Robin got us booked and the four of us agreed to break for lunch at Mario's.
The easy talk flowed easily back and forth in our little group. We talked a little about the FTA's.
"So I saw that Ranger hand picked mine for me what do you guys have?" I asked Tank as Ranger stepped away to take a phone call.
"They are all about the same low level criminal. The high bonds Rangeman already had and as you know we are empty now that Zero closed Morstien. You looked good up on the pole." Tank smiled.
Lula slapped him leaving a mark on his arm as she turned to me and asked "WHAT?"
I gave her the I'll tell you later look, and Tank continued. "The only difference between our files and the ones you got is location. The rest of the teams will be spending time on Stark with the gangbangers." Well that was okay by me after the Slayer incident I stayed far far away from Comstock and the rest of "gangland".
As Tank and Lula conversed I realized that Ranger was in Wall Street mode making a deal. He spent most of his time these days in that mode. When I first meet him Ranger fit in on Start Street and I never would have believed he had another side. I noticed that Tank was telling Lula about a problem we had at the office last night. Tank was called in from his dinner with Lula to take care of it.
Ranger came back did some ESP shit with Tank and said "Let's roll", for the benefit of us mere mortals, namely Lula and me.
Ranger and Tank were gone, so I asked "We going for number three or heading for the mall?"
"The mall." Lula told me not believing I even had to ask. "Call Connie we can pick her up." And with that we were gone.
"So how's it going with the skips?" Connie asked getting into the back of my car.
"We got two already. I know most of the other guys already snagged at least one as well, don't worry about it, we'll get them." I proceeded to tell her about the bet the guys, Lula and I had going. Connie was thrilled. She knew how much the guys all loved competition.
My cell phone rang. It was Val. "Hey Val what's up?"
"I need your help!"
"What's wrong?"
"I have nothing to wear Saturday night. Albert told me to go buy something pretty. I'm at Macy's standing in the dress department, and I have no idea what to buy."
"We are on our way be there in five," and I hung up.
We parked outside of Macy's and went inside. It looked like we got to Val right in time. She seemed frazzled and didn't even have the kids with her, hold on, was that right? "Val, where are the girls?" I asked.
"Mom's". Okay so that was a relief.
"So Val, what kind of dress do you want?"
"She looked at me and for the first time saw Lula and Connie. She looked at us and said "It doesn't matter what I wear." She sounded so defeated "When Steph walks in on Morelli's arm I will vanish standing next to Albert."
"That's silly Val, no one will be looking at me they will all be looking at Joe, I always vanish next to him."
"Only in the eyes of the women. All the guys will be looking at you"
"Tell you what," I had to do something. Val hadn't sounded this depressed since she first moved back home after her ex husband ran off with the babysitter. "I'll switch dates with you and you can go with Joe."
"Oh Steph, I can't do that Albert already feels inferior to him for some reason."
I thought Albert was inferior to Joe in every way but what I said was "Why?"
She pulled me away from the girls . "The other night we were at dinner at mom's. Grandma got talking about Joe and mom just couldn't shut up about how wonderful he was it was all Joseph this and Joseph that. Grandma wasn't any better keep calling him Office Hottie all the time; even Dad had something to add to how wonderful he was. I saw how much this was bothering Albert, he feels like our parents, especially Dad doesn't like him, so I thought I would bring up some of his less than good qualities"
"Like what?" I asked. Joe didn't have any less than good qualities as far as I was concerned. Okay it would be nice if he put the toilet seat down but I'm pretty sure that wasn't what Val was talking about.
"Like his sexual past and doing all the girls in school, being the heartthrob that made all the burg girls swoon. This at least made Mom shut up with a finishing remark that he isn't like that anymore, but the damage was done. Albert asked if I was ever included in that group. I guess I was thinking back to those days and it just slipped out, Sorry Steph but yeah I thought he was hot, every girl did, but Albert started thinking maybe I still do and than Grandma started in on how great he's supposed to be in bed and how lucky you were,. I guess I was kind of nodding my head in agreement with her and by this time Mom's in the kitchen drinking and Albert was thinking that I was comparing him to Joe every time we, you know. By the time we got home Albert had worked himself up to such a state he couldn't, you know, that night. So you can just imagine what would happen if I went with Joe to the reunion."
Holy cow I was only joking about switching dates, and I was stunned first that Joe was dinner conversation and second that Albert was bothered by him so much he couldn't perform, that thought made me shiver. "Ok Val let's go get Connie and Lula and find you a dress that will knock Albert's socks off and you can tell him that you picked it out with only him in mind, that should get him to , you know." I really didn't want to know, but it put a smile back on Val's face and we rejoined the girls and got down to business.
"I feel left out," Lula said. "I might just have to buy me a dress and make Tank take me out Saturday night."
"You should!" Connie and I agreed in unison and I decided to drop the hint to Tank to ask her.
An hour later we had all found dresses. Val got an emerald green dress that had a V neckline that looked great with her bust and was layered in ruffles. The skirt hit her just right below the knees. Connie got a black satin number with a circular low cut neckline that hugged her big bosoms and added to it tastefully.
Lula bought a hot pink satin dress that was two sizes too small and she busting out everywhere, but damn she did look good in it. Tank had better take her somewhere nice.
I found a red dress that had a similar neckline as Val but the body of the dress hugged me in all the right places. We each got shoes to match and were on our way. I spent more than I had intended to but that just gave me more incentive to win the bet.
Later Lula and I dropped Connie back at the office and we decided to go after contestant number three, Steve King. The file said he was arrested buying pot from Lonnie Johnson. I ran Lonnie back in a while ago, but it wouldn't have been for this bust, I wondered if he was FTA again? According to the file King lived off Germantown Road, so Lula and I headed over to the other side of town. Germantown was an old warehouse district that had been turned into apartments. King lived on the second floor of a three story complex. Lula and I knocked but no one answered so we checked the apartment across the hall.
"Yeah he doesn't get home until the library closes every night after work. He goes there to do research." The neighbor told us.
We were sitting in the parking lot of the library when my cell phone rang, it was Joe.
"Hey"
"Where are you Cupcake, thought you would be home by now."
"Sorry Joe got a lead on another FTA so Lula and I are sitting outside the library, waiting for it to close in five minutes." I said checking the time "We scanned the lot and his car is here."
"Go get your man Cupcake, when I left you were tied with Lester and Bobby. The guys at the station have money and bets on this as well. I put my $20.00 on you, but Ranger and Tank are the favored."
"Makes sense. If I didn't know that they both have too much to take care of I would be worried. Hal and Cal are my main concern." I told him .
"I guess I should also tell you that there's another bet on if and how you will destroy your car during this."
"And you placed your bet on what?" I asked
"That nothing will happen. Cupcake, I know you can do this, call me when you get your guy, Love you" and he was gone.
I told Lula and about Lester and Bobby and we saw King coming out of the building. Just our luck he was leaving with a group. "Go stand by his car." I Told Lula, "Have your cuffs and stun gun ready."
I got out and checked my gear. Stun gun, check; cuffs, check; spray, check, I was ready to roll.
"Hey Steve," I yelled. He looked straight at me and bolted. Crap I hate when they do that. I took off after him. The dumbshit was running straight for Lula, she blocked him and he fell to the ground. I tripped over him and fell right by him, in a huge oil pit. I rolled over and felt the oil soak through my shirt, good thing it was already black. As I cuffed him I noticed he wasn't as lucky as me. His white t-shirt was soaked with black oil and his blue jeans were ripped and oil stained as well with his ass hanging out of them. I spread a blanket over the backseat of my car that I kept in my trunk for these kind of situations and buckled King in for the drive to the station. I folded a beach towel also from the trunk over my seat as well as I could. Then Lula and I got in and we left.
We pulled into the station and got King out of the car. He was dragging his feet, and making it hard to move him when my buddy Eddie drove up.
"Heard about the bet, I got $20.00 on you Sweetie, need some help here?"
"Yeah turn around while I put my size seven boot up his ass and kick him into the station."
"How about I just lend a hand," and he grabbed King by the neck. "What happened" he asked as we walked into the station.
"He fell into an oil pit when he bounced off Lula."
Robin was off duty. I had seen her replacement before, but couldn't remember his name, it didn't matter he knew me.
"Put another one up for the Girls team," he announced over the intercom. A cheer went out through the station.
"Thanks," I said as he handed me the body receipt.
I dropped Lula off and told her I would be by to pick her up in the morning. I was going home to shower.
I got home and Joe was watching TV as I went for the steps he looked up
"Take down go bad?" he asked with concern in his voice.
I turned to see him. "Got the guy rolled in oil to do it."
"Go take a shower. I'll take you to Pinos'"
That actually sounded great I gave him a smile and ran upstairs.
When we pulled up at Pino's it was past normal dinner time but it was still packed with off duty cops and bar regulars. Joe and I sat at our usual booth in the back. The waitress came over and took our order.
"So how did the rest of your day go Cupcake?"
I told him about the dress I got and about Val and Albert, he got a big laugh out of that. "Be good," I told him, "It's hard to live up to a legend."
"A legend?"
"According to Grandma you are."
"This is the same Grandma that a year ago was offering to get me a 'Sex for Dummies' book?" Joe and I laughed at the memory of Grandma accusing him of not being good in bed and that was the reason I wouldn't marry him.
The waitress brought over our beer and pizza and Joe and I ate in silence. That was when I noticed Earl Finley walk into the bar and take a seat.
He was one of my files, If I got him that would be four tonight. I could do this, hell I was in a room filled with cops and this guy was just a first time DUI, a walk in the park, except I didn't have my cuffs. I checked my purse. My stun gun was there but crap.
"Cupcake what are you doing?" Joe asked.
"One of my FTA's just walked in, you got your cuffs?"
"No, where are yours?"
"I left them in my car, who would have some here and help me out?"
Joe looked around the bar just as Eddie came in for his dinner break.
"Bingo!" I yelled. Joe just shook his head and handed me his keys.
"Don't forget to come back for me." I bent over to give him a kiss and made a bee line for Eddie.
"I need your cuffs."
"Hey if you and Morelli are going to get kinky use your own cuffs" Eddie told me.
I gave him a playful slap. "My FTA is sitting at the bar. I left my cuffs in my car and Joe doesn't have his… please?" I added with a pout.
Eddie just stood there a minute shaking his head. "Fine" and he handed them over to me.
"Thanks." I grabbed them from him and walked over to the bar. "Earl" I asked as I tapped him on the shoulder.
"Yeah pretty woman?"
Wow this was not his first bar tonight. I grabbed his hand and pulled it behind him while introducing myself. Got his other hand in the cuff and as I was marching him outside I saw money exchanging hands and cheers went out through the place. I looked back at Joe, Eddie had joined him and they were both beaming. Joe was proud of me.
Earl Finley was booked and I noticed the board.
Stephanie and Lula 4
Lester and Bobby 3
Cal and Hal 4
Ram and Zero 3
Ranger and Tank 2
Junior and Woody 2
I knew the competion would be Hal and Cal but Lester loved the game. He and Bobby were a threat as well. Heck all the guys were I was thinking as I drove back to Pino's with Eddie's cuffs.
"Thanks Eddie," I told him as I slid into the booth next to Joe.
"No problem Steph anytime."
"So" Joe asked "Can we enjoy our evening or do we need to go hunting FTA's tonight?"
"I'm tied with Hal & Cal. I think I can take the rest of the night off." And just than Hal and Cal walked in boasting about having the lead at four, seeing us they walked over.
"Take it easy boys; you're not the only one with four. I just booked Earl Finley tonight. He's currently sleeping it off in the tank."
Cal smiled and Hal said "It's on Steph."
"Not tonight, come sit and have a beer." Joe invited them to take the seat Eddie left open.
They sat down and filled the booth. We sat and joked and drank beer for a couple of hours. I was sure Hal and Cal wouldn't bring anyone else in tonight.