Chapter 14

Shopping, well Millie had a lot to learn seeing as she had no experience of a place like this. It wasn't as good as Quaker Bridge Mall, but it had everything that we would need. From jeans to T-shirts to leggings and footwear. We were both in our element picking items out and trying them on. Oh, and let's not forget underwear. Millie was probably slightly larger breasted than me and she had a good eye for design and styles. It was as we were enjoying a much needed drink of fresh orange juice that I saw Gabe walking toward us. How the hell he had managed to find us was a mystery to me.

He was smiling as he approached, and it dawned on me, even with the grey hair and glasses that he was a good looking man. Not Ranger good looking but there was something attractive when he actually smiled. Millie was already standing up and collecting her bags, so I quickly finished my drink before doing the same. What totally surprised me was when Gabe took the bags from my hand and then drew me closer to him with an arm around my waist. What the hell? No way was I comfortable with him doing that, plus I got a scowling look from Millie. I'm sure that I tensed and even as I tried to put some distance between us, I felt his face lean down next to mine. No, no, no. I had no desire to get involved with another man no matter how good looking he was. Besides, I just wasn't attracted to him.

"There are lots of cameras surveying this place, so we need to keep a low profile"

Oops, now why hadn't I thought about that? I was a little embarrassed that I'd thought that he was making moves on me so with a smile on my face tried to create the façade that we were a couple. What I found difficult to understand was who he thought might have the resources to track every face in a busy mall like this, then again, I was sure that Hector would have that technology. Once outside I was looking around for the grey merc that we'd arrived here in failing miserably to find it. Gabe walked me over to a dark blue saloon car and opened the door for me. Getting in and fastening the seat belt I was confused with why we had a different car and how that had happened.

"I liked the other car better"

Came from behind me as Millie climbed in. I waited hoping that Gabe would give an explanation if only to answer his sister's comment.

"Need to be careful, Squirrel. The last thing we need is someone noticing us"

I wasn't sure how he'd managed to swap the cars out, but I suppose if he'd taken Danny into Trenton then he'd need to be careful, which had me curious as to where he'd dropped Danny off. Surely, he hadn't driven into the Burg because that would definitely be noticed by some of the nosy neighbors.

"Did Danny get home okay?"

Hoping that my question wasn't being too pushy for details.

"Should have done. We walked to the bus terminal where I suggested that he looked around for used tickets that people had thrown away. Smart kid headed for a bus that was just arriving from Point Pleasant and sweet talked an old lady by saying that he collected bus tickets. She emptied her pockets so he ended up with a few tickets that would give him an alibi for travelling down the coast"

Even as he was telling me, Gabe was smiling as though he was remembering watching Danny doing that. Yeah, that was a smart move on Danny's part.

"Was he going to walk home from there?"

"Yeah, his idea. Said that the people around where he lived were, and I quote, nosey, gossiping zombies who had nothing better to do than watch how other people lived"

Wow, that certainly summed up the people from the Burg and also gave me a different perspective on how Danny viewed where he lived. The ensuing silence had me checking out where we were, though to be honest this side of the river wasn't somewhere that I came to very often, so I had no idea where we were. Okay so the sign at the side of road told me that we were driving down I-95 S but I was curious with where we'd end up at.

When Gabe pulled into a driveway and used a fob to open the large metal gates my curiosity ratcheted up a notch. This was a lovely area with its houses spaced out and I was sure that I'd caught sight of water close by. The drive led to a house that looked to be made from wood with windows on a first floor. It was set further back from the street than any or the other houses and had a high fence that seemed to surround the place. As Millie and I got out of the car Gabe fetched our bags and was opening the front door, with a fob again. That certainly wasn't usual unless you were obsessive with security, yeah like Ranger was.

"I need to park the car away from here. Make yourselves at home"

Both Millie and I watched as the car disappeared but neither of us said anything. I suppose it was Gabe's way of ensuring that the car wasn't seen here at the house. Once through the door we found ourselves in a dark hallway so began to open doors in order to explore. I made for the door on the left and found myself in a lounge area with a long couch set in front of an open fire. On each side of the fireplace were cupboards which to me hinted that the place hadn't had much work done to it for a while. The lounge area opened into a kitchen, with the same wooden flooring as the lounge, which again was dated but seemed to have been looked after with a variety of electrical gadgets that looked new and I suppose a bit out of place.

"I bag the room at the back. It's cool, it has the most adorable decorations. Come see"

I allowed Millie to take my hand, laughing at how excited she sounded, and found myself going through a door at the end of the hall.

"Wow"

Came from me as I looked around, taking in the flowered wallpaper and matching drapes. To be honest I was thankful that she'd chosen this room because the patterns of the flowers were, well overwhelming. At least the carpet was a plain rose color and had a matching cover on the bed. The doors to a small walk in closet were open as was the one into the bathroom. I never knew that you could buy rose colored bathroom fittings. Maybe I was right in thinking that nothing had been done to the inside of the house because this bathroom reminded me of the one in my apartment, except a different color.

I took a breath as I realized that compared to where Millie had lived for most of her life this was probably decadent in her eyes.

"So where is another bedroom?"

Knowing that Millie had probably already found it and dismissed it.

"At the front of the house, opposite the lounge. The room upstairs is locked so maybe that's Gabe's"

Opening the door to that bedroom had a feeling of trepidation run through me so I closed my eyes. Not that doing that would make the room any different. Just look, I said to myself, because like it or not you're going to be sleeping in here and it has to be better than that cabin in the woods.

"Wow"

But this wow wasn't because I was shocked with what I was seeing it was because I really liked the room. Maybe someone had painted the walls because there wasn't a flower to be seen. Instead, the walls were a soft cream color, and the drapes and bed cover were a similar color with a deep burgundy for the carpet. Yeah, this would do me.

"I take it Millie likes the back room?"

I jumped, literally, because I had no idea that Gabe was behind me.

"Will you make some noise, you scared the shit out of me"

I turned away from Gabe because saying that brought back so many memories. I could almost hear what Ranger would say to me when he sneaked up on me like Gabe had just done. "Gotta be more aware of your surroundings Babe" Just thinking of Ranger had tears coming to my eyes but I didn't want Gabe to see that.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you"

Wiping my eyes, I turned back to Gabe and could see that he was genuinely sorry and maybe concerned with my reaction.

"It wasn't that. It's just that. Well, it had me thinking of someone else, that's all"

After a brief smile Gabe was leaving me and I heard him walking through the lounge. That was when I realized just how hungry I was. Leaving my bag just inside the door I went to find out if we had any food in the place.

It was after we'd eaten, a delicious stir fry prepared and cooked by Gabe, that Millie decided to go to her bedroom. Having cleared away our dishes then washed and dried them I went through to the lounge area. Gabe was sat in a chair, that I hadn't noticed before, so I sat on the couch with my legs pulled up under me. There was the sound of music playing very softly in the back ground but it didn't help me to relax. I wanted some answers from Gabe about what he'd said to me in the car earlier that day. His words had been rolling around in my head ever since trying to work out if he was telling me the truth or not.

"Gabe"

Hesitating because I wasn't sure where to begin. Okay, I hated that he'd done some research on me and what he might think of me but I'd resigned myself to the fact that I couldn't change anything that had been written about me or any of the incidents that I'd been involved with. He could think what he wanted.

"Who do think that I might know?"

That had Gabe looking at me and I knew that I didn't have to add any more detail to my question.

"How about we start with Terry Gilman?"

I closed my eyes because she was the last name that I expected to hear. How the hell did Gabe know her? Go with the facts, went through my mind.

"We went to the same school but she's two years older than me"

"Steph, I don't need her life story, what I want is what you know about her"

I didn't appreciate him interrupting me but knew that he was asking me for what couldn't be found through a search. After sighing I looked down at my hands that were laid on my knee before continuing what was perhaps a more personal understanding of who she was.

"Vito Grizzoli's niece, so she's known locally as the Mafia Princess. Word is that he likes having her work for him because he thinks that she's good for his image. Terry is a bright cookie and probably knows more about the business than he does, but she'll never take over from him"

I looked up to see if Gabe was listening to me and if this was what he wanted to know. Seeing that he was now leant forward on the chair, his elbows on his knees looking at me it seemed that this was the type of info that he was interested in.

"Why not?"

I resisted rolling my eyes. He of all people should know the reason for that.

"We live in an area called Chambersburg, or the Burg. It's just like it is where you and Millie grew up. Women aren't seen as business women, or as running things, that's the job of the man. Instead, women are allowed to run errands or have an understanding of what's going on, have an ear to the ground for gossip and rumors. That's Terry's role. She's too clever for that though"

Even as I was explaining about Terry, I was beginning to see what type of woman she was.

"How do you know?"

This was going to be hard to explain because it meant me revealing my relationship with Joe, a Trenton police detective. No, much as I disliked Joe, I couldn't betray him like that, but I had heard that story from Mooner.

"I think that she's doing business that her uncle knows nothing about. One of my skips, well I found him dead of an overdose before I could take him in. There was a syringe and a bag of drugs next to him. I was upset, but his niece, well she was pissed because she said that he never used a needle. He had a phobia for needles and only touched weed. To me it looked as though someone had killed him, so I started to ask around. I was told that he'd been moving drugs for Terry Gilman"

In some ways I felt better for having shared that information with someone else but for the life of me I wasn't seeing how it was relevant. Then it dawned on me. Was Gabe asking about Terry because he thought that she was in cahoots with that drug lord. They were moving the drug into Trenton.

"How do you know that it isn't her uncle orchestrating that"

A good question from someone who didn't know the background of the bosses that had control in Trenton. Being born and bred there it was a part of our upbringing to understand the who's who of the powerful people that moved around us. Harry the Hammer dealt with gambling whilst Ramos ran guns. Garibaldi had a handle on prostitution which left Grizzoli with drugs. Only his preferred drug to supply was heroin.

"He's known for supplying heroin. Apparently, he doesn't like to have to rely on a pharmacist"

Which was who was needed to provide cocaine. The problem was that I didn't know much about meth. I looked over to Gabe wondering why he was asking me about Terry. If he thought that me knowing Terry was a reason for me needing to stay away from Trenton, then he was so wrong.

"Terry doesn't see me as threat, not with what she's doing. I don't know what she thinks about me, but it probably has more to do with the fact that she sleeps with my ex. She's welcome to him"

I was going to add that she would never be more than a fuck buddy for Joe. A police detective sleeping with the "family" or been seen publicly together, no Joe wouldn't be that stupid, because it would be the end to his career.

"Anything else that you think might be important?"

I shook my head because as far as I knew there was nothing else that I knew about.

"Gabe, why are you asking me?"