Chapter 20

I should have just carried Steph off that boat and then called Santos to get a team together to capture Gabe. Something had stopped me from doing that and at the moment I wasn't too sure what it was. It didn't stop the guilt from tearing through me though, along with another emotion that was new to me. I was filled with a wave of emotion that took my breath away. What if Steph decided that she really liked Gabe and his sister, what if he replaced Morelli and became a part of her life? I'd coped with Morelli because of the way their relationship always teetered on an edge, with their constant falling out. It served my purpose at keeping her at a distance from me, but I knew that I didn't want that distance anymore. I was green with jealousy and was of a mind to go back to that boat. I didn't though, which had me wondering if I was stupid.

Gabe had left me at the boat club and whilst I could have walked back to Trenton, I didn't want to waste the time that it would take. Then there was my car. Could I risk going back into that neighborhood and be recognised? I had no doubt there would still be men there keeping up surveillance. Well, that was what I would have done. My clothes were dry, but my boots were still wet along with the leather holster at my ankle carrying my second gun. Where my other gun had gone was a mystery but maybe it had fallen out when we were in that tunnel. I headed up the road away from the creek hopeful that I'd be able to find a cab that would take me further. At least the weather was dry, if a bit overcast not that I cared. I took advantage as I walked because there were a lot of things that I had to think about, but knew that I needed to focus on the immediate priorities. Explaining why my car was parked on Bridgeport Road was one of them, so I had to come up with a believable story. Hitting another road, I turned right knowing that it would take me into an area that had more houses and shops. I did what I hadn't done in years, stuck my arm out with my thumb to the sky, hell, it had been years since I'd had to hitch hike anywhere.

I wasn't hopeful of anyone stopping, knowing how I probably looked wouldn't tempt any law abiding person to stop their car and dare to have me inside with them. Hearing brakes, and the release of air, I turned to see a truck slowing down and stop just beyond where I was stood.

"Need a lift mate?"

"Absolutely"

I replied as I pulled myself up into the cab and pulled the door closed behind me. As the truck began to move, the man shifting through the gears, I took in his appearance. He was maybe late forties dressed in coveralls that advertised the company that he was working for. I had no reason to suspect him of anything so was accepting of the offer of a ride.

"Where you headed?"

He asked after a couple of minutes which had me knowing exactly where I would head to.

"Trenton"

Keeping my answer vague.

"No problem. Got a couple of stops to make, one at Bordertown and then the Food Bazaar on Clinton Avenue before I head over the river"

Clinton Avenue would be an ideal place to get to, because for where I wanted to go to next, I could walk from there. We made small talk as the man, Doug, drove making sure that I said nothing that would give him a hint of who I was or why I was so far from Trenton. I admired the man because he was going to be away from his family for a couple of days making deliveries, yet he never complained. He was just thankful that he had a job that he enjoyed. At the grocery store in Bordertown, I helped him unload the boxes from the back of the truck realizing that he was pulling a truck full of frozen ice cream. Certainly, a story to tell Steph, knowing of her love for the stuff.

Walking into the police station had me hoping that none of the Rangemen were here. They would never ask me my reasons for being there but would certainly talk about it amongst themselves. I wanted to beat them to doing that with a story that I felt had some merit. Well, it was the best that I could come up with. Looking around at the officers milling about I quickly turned around at seeing that stupid Officer Gapstick glance my way. No way did I want to talk to him. Ideally, I would have been happy seeing Eddie, but it seemed that he wasn't here or even maybe not on duty. Catching sight of Carl Costanza I made my way toward him, catching his attention as I reached him.

"Ranger, how can I help?"

I watched as his eyes scanned down over my appearance so before he asked me any awkward questions, I started to give my reason for wanting to talk to him.

"Carl, I have a bit of a problem. Someone stole my car last night"

"Stole your car?"

He repeated back to me emphasizing the word your. I knew that it would be seen as a funny situation but hey, anything to keep my whereabouts from last night quiet.

"Yeah. I was doing surveillance and saw my man exiting a house, so gave chase. I must have been further away from the car than I thought, so maybe the fob didn't lock it"

"Easy done. I'm guessing that you've checked the area?"

So far Carl seemed to be taking me seriously and maybe my story wasn't as bad as I thought.

"Yes. Nothing. Could you keep an eye open for it, though I'd prefer that no one realizes that the car was mine"

The small smile on Carl's face told me that he enjoyed the idea that I was taking him into my confidence as someone that I could trust.

"No problem. You want me to call you directly if it turns up?"

"Please"

I was about to turn away when Carl called out to me, so I turned back to him.

"Err, don't all of your cars have trackers on them?"

"Not my Porsche Turbo. It's my personal car"

I caught him as his mouth opened and closed but wasn't going to stick around for whatever he was going to ask. Instead, I was heading quickly for the door. I thought that I'd managed to avoid anyone but as I stepped out of the front door I almost groaned when I saw Lester stood leant against the wall. I shook my head, not at seeing that he was there, but that I was referring to him as Lester now, instead of Santos.

"You should know that we monitor the station. I was watching the monitors and seeing as no one knew where the hell you were I thought that I'd drop by. I made sure that no one was watching"

Lester was following me as I walked around the building to the parking lot. If he was here, then so was his car and at the moment I wanted to get back to Rangeman as quickly as possible. Of course, Lester wasn't going to let it go.

"So where's your car?"

He asked as he looked around the lot.

"Stolen. I was reporting it to Carl"

I didn't see any point in elaborating even for him. At the moment I was feeling conflicted and had no wish to add Lester's point of view into the mix.

"How the hell did you let that happen. Okay, okay. I'm just glad it was you and not me"

For once it seemed that Lester was taking notice of the look that I was giving him, and he had the sense not to say anything more as we drove back to Rangeman. I headed quickly up the stairs to my apartment needing to shower and change. Once in my Rangeman uniform I went to the safe to pull out another gun that went into the holster at my hip. I was about to leave my bedroom when I heard a sound that I didn't recognize and looked around for the source. The burner phone that was laid by the bed was vibrating against the wood. I was quick to pick it up and answer it because this had to be Steph calling me.

"Yo"

Hoping the familiar response would make her smile.

"Yo to you as well"

"How are you feeling Babe?"

Remembering how ill that infection had made her.

"Better. I'm sorry I passed out on you. I didn't realize how bad it was. Are you back at Rangeman?"

I let out a breath because I would really have liked for her to be here with me.

"Yes. I wanted to stay but"

"I know. Gabe explained it to me, that it would be safer"

There was so much that I wanted to ask but I didn't want to overwhelm her with questions. I wanted her to know that I cared about her, even if it meant that she never filled me in on the mess that she'd got involved with.

"Doesn't make me feel any better knowing that he's probably right. Are you still on the boat?"

"Yeah, but it sucks. We go so slow and every time a faster boat goes past, we rock back and forth so much"

I smiled at hearing her say that but then realized that she wouldn't be seeing it.

"I missed seeing you Babe, when I came back. I'll never take that for granted again"

"I'm sorry but"

"Not your fault Babe"

I wasn't going to let her feel bad for the decision that she'd made. She'd done it for all the right reasons.

"I'm going to help keep you safe, but I need some input from you"

A silence filled the room as I waited for her to say something, making me worried that I'd asked too much too soon. The problem was that if I was going to eliminate the threat against her then I had to have some idea of what I was up against.

"Start at the beginning Babe"

Hoping that if she did that then it might clarify her thoughts.

"I hadn't been involved when Danny went missing. Grandma reckoned that the Morelli's didn't want the embarrassment. I was surprised when I got a message from him asking for my help. I mean why me and not his dad or Joe. I couldn't not go and to be honest. Well, I knew that the gossip and rumors would detract from what I was doing"

"What rumors Babe?"

Hoping to get a better understanding of what problems she was facing.

"My mother and Joe. He wouldn't let me alone even though I'd told him that we were over. My mother, well she was her usual self. I knew that Joe was going to Philly, some job with the department there. Hell, he actually thought that I'd go with him. No chance"

I felt so relieved that Steph had made that choice and stuck to it. So many times she'd relented and gone back to him. Now though I needed to understand her reasons for not wanting to risk calling Rangeman or Connie.

"Why the concern about talking to someone here at Rangeman or even Connie?"

I heard her sigh which meant that we were in that area of her not being sure of the thoughts that she'd had. I was hoping that Steph would open up to me, I'd listened to her in the past and had always taken what she'd said seriously.

"It took hours of driving for me to start to work through it and even now I'm not sure what it all means. The morning that I left I called to see Connie first, to leave her my bag. I was about to pull out into traffic when I noticed a Rangeman SUV stop a few cars back. Lula got out, which seemed strange to me. Then as I drove past that club, Tropical, I noticed that the SUV had parked up and Terry Gilman was talking through the window. I never got a chance to see who was in the car"

This was what Gabe had tried to explain to me, how Steph sees and hears things but only afterwards does she see their significance. She'd started to put things together but wasn't sure where her leads were taking her and that was why Steph wasn't sure about trusting anyone from Rangeman. She'd know that Connie would chat to Lula or that Lula would probably be at the bonds office which was Steph's reason for avoiding Connie.

"There was no going back, because I needed to find Danny"

One of Steph's more endearing qualities was her passion for doing what she saw as the right thing, though sometimes it was that passion that sometimes got her into trouble. It shouldn't have but then Steph had a way of finding trouble.

"Danny is home Babe. Safe and sound"

"I know, we brought him back and gave him a story to tell everyone. I have to go, we're stopping again. Can I call you again?"

"Yes, any time night or day. Babe, te amo"

I wasn't sure if she heard me or not as I said those last words. I was hoping so as the phone went dead. Sighing, something that I didn't do for no reason, I wasn't sure if I was any wiser from what Steph had said. I'd already decided that we could have someone inside Rangeman but given what Steph had seen was confusing. I mean why use Rangeman, what did they hope to find? Terry Gilman, now why didn't it surprise me that she was involved. I never had liked that woman. She was conniving and couldn't be trusted. Which begged the question as to whether her uncle, Vito, was involved.

Going down to the fifth floor I tried to avoid having to talk to anyone and went straight to my office still trying to work things out. Of course, my life was never as simple as that and as I walked around my desk to sit down Tank appeared at my door.

"Santos was worried about you"

I looked over to Tank as he sat down and raised an eyebrow indicating that I had no intention of explaining myself.

"Okay. We all have a right to our privacy, you included. I forwarded you some emails, applications for those jobs. Have a read and then we can decide on who to call for an interview"

I sat back surprised when Tank left my office because I'd expected more pressure from him as to where I'd been, then again, I was pleased that he hadn't pushed me for an explanation. I knew that I had to look at my emails, at least try to act normally even if inside my guts were churning. There were eight applications for the finance assistant, but it was as I'd closed down the third one that my phone went off. I wasn't sure who it was so answered cautiously.

"Ranger. Carl here. We, err, found your car. It's in the pound but I think you need come look at it"

I sat back in my chair because I was surprised that it been found so quickly but what concerned me was why it was at the police pound here in Trenton. I'd expected Carl to have told me where it had been found and then I would have sent a tow truck for it.

"I'll be there in thirty"

Then began to worry if maybe it had been badly damaged. I was once again driving from the garage, this time in one of the Cayennes and this time with Lester sat next to me. If anyone wanted to know where we were going, then I had nothing to hide, a tracker in the car would put me at the police station. Pulling up at the gates of the pound I watched as Carl came forward and opened them and then waited for me as I parked the car. Lester stayed with the car while I followed Carl deeper into the area, amongst the parked cars, bikes and even boats.

"It was found about fifty miles south of here. Some residents complained about it being parked there. I was gonna call you to go get it but, well you need to take a look yourself"

Now I was intrigued with why Carl was being so insistent that I look at the car myself. Was it that badly damaged.

"The thing is that there was a real bad fire at a house down there. Neighbors said that they heard an explosion and I suppose your car being there spooked them. It was collected in case it had anything to do with the explosion. Stupid idiots never checked it out. You said there weren't any trackers but when she got here our guys got a bit worried. Take a look yourself"

As we approached my car, I was very aware that it was parked on its own in an empty section of the area. Carl handing me a pole with a mirror on the end only intrigued me more, so while he stayed well away, I used the mirror to take a look at the underside of the car. It was as I moved the mirror toward the front of the car that I saw what must have been the cause of the worry. On the inside of the wheelhouse on the passenger side, attached to the undercarriage was a small black box that was emitting a steady pulse of red light. It wasn't large, small really, maybe only an inch wide and long but very thin. Was it a detonation device? Were there explosives elsewhere in the car? To access the engine or any other parts wouldn't be easy because of the thick plastic guard that covered access into the engine compartment and that didn't look as though it had been tampered with.

There was only one way to find out, well two if I wanted a man from Rangeman to come down here and take a look at it. I wasn't for doing that so went with my first option and pulled my key fob from my pocket. I walked over to where Carl was standing and then as I pushed the fob to open the car pushed him back behind another car. Nothing happened other than the sound of the locks disengaging. I relaxed slightly but was still on alert just in case. Only one way to solve this problem now. Returning to the car I very slowly opened the driver's door looking for wires but saw none which gave me the confidence to open the hood. By now Carl had moved closer and was next to me as I inspected the engine compartment.

"What the hell is it?"

My best guess, a long range tracking device. The decision that I needed to make was whether or not to remove it. If I removed it, then whoever put it there would know that I'd found it. Leave it and they'd be able to track my whereabouts.

"Maybe Hector decided to add a tracker and never told me"

Trying to make light of it for Carl's sake.

"Shit, the guys thought that it might be a bomb considering where it was found"

My mood faltered as I considered what I'd found and the thought that it had been me that had led the danger to Steph. Someone was tracking me, and I'd led them straight to her. I was fuming as I looked at the car and slammed the hood down. I went through in my mind where I had been with the car and left it unattended. The bonds office but there were too many people on the sidewalk, besides, I'd managed to park right outside the office. Steph's apartment was a possibility. Was I away from the car long enough for someone to attach the damn thing. Then there was the garage at Rangeman. I didn't want to think that it could have happened there because that would only reinforce that I had someone dangerous working inside the building.

I decided to leave the device where it was and after signing some paperwork for Carl and presenting the necessary papers for the car, I was soon driving back to Rangeman. Fortunately, Lester had already left to get to a client meeting so at least I wasn't going to have to give him any sort of explanation, though he was aware that I'd reported the car as stolen. I was back to wondering where and when a tracker could have been attached to my car and considered that it had been sat in the garage for months while I was away. Could it have been there when I returned? The garage had cameras inside, but wouldn't someone know that? I parked the Porsche where I normally would and then was taking two steps at a time to get up to my office. Second thoughts had me detouring via the monitors instead. If I replayed those recordings, then I might be found out.

"All quiet Hal?"

I asked as I approached him looking over his shoulder at the view of the garage on the screen. My car wasn't in full view, certainly not the passenger side of the car. Had the cameras been moved because I was sure that the camera had originally covered a full view of the Porsche? That alone had me sure that someone inside this building had moved the camera's position and attached a damn tracker to my car. What I wasn't sure about was when it had happened, while I was away or after my return, regardless surely the men monitoring the screens should have noticed.

"Hal, do you cover monitors very often?"

Suddenly remembering that Tank had employed people for doing that task and trying to remember who those men were.

"Not really. Tank brought in some men that he uses but we need to fill in on their days off"

Which made sense. I knew that we hadn't employed enough men to totally remove our long standing men from having to do the job. I moved to Hal's side and pointed to the view of the garage hoping that maybe he could enlighten me on what I was seeing. Hal had been with Rangeman from the beginning so I knew that he wouldn't question what I was about to ask him.

"Has that camera been moved?"

Hal leaned forward to get a better look and seemed to spend some time studying it. I suppose of all the screens that were watched the view of the garage wasn't one that was focused on or taken much notice of.

"I never really noticed before, but you're right. It doesn't look to cover as much as it used to"

So not my imagination then, but I assumed not many men would really notice that it had changed or even have any idea when it could have happened. Turning I made my way to my office. In my head I was going through any men that I could trust and pondering why this could be happening. Was all this about Steph and what she may have uncovered? Was someone watching me in the hope that I'd lead them to her or had it something to do with the job that Ashcroft had asked us to take on. Tank had said that Ashcroft had called while I was away so that was a possibility, but why?

"Jefe"

A voice calling out to me from behind had me turning to see Hector following me.

I nodded to Hector as he followed me into my office but held up my hand to stop him from talking. He immediately went on alert even though he had no idea what was going on. Taking a pen and paper from my desk I wrote down the words, bugs or cameras in here? Hector knew immediately what I was concerned about so when I suggested our next move, he was quick to understand.

"That new sensor that you told me about, did you a get a chance to look at it?"

I asked hoping that Hector would understand my need to talk to him somewhere secure.

"Si, I have the results in my lab"

Which was exactly what I'd hoped he would say because it gave me the perfect excuse to follow Hector down two floors to where he worked. No one would dare to try and plant anything inside his room. Once inside his lab I realized that subconsciously I was trusting Hector which of any of the men who worked here was probably right. Hector hadn't come through the forces like we all had, he was someone that I saw the potential in and seen as an asset to the company and not just for his computer and electronic skills. He'd been very involved in gang life and had taken a stand against other members. The tear drop was his sign of honor when he enacted his revenge for the death of his younger sister. Yeah, honor was very important to him, so I felt confident in bringing him into my confidence.

"You think you have bugs or cameras in your office?"

I could hear the surprise as Hector asked me that, sure that wasn't what he expected to be hearing.

"I don't know, but I do know I have a damn tracker on my personal car"

Saying that had obviously surprised Hector but instead of asking me more questions he was turning to the screens surrounding his desk. I watched as the scene from the garage came into view and as Hector began tapping away at the keys of a computer. Understanding Spanish, I could hear the expletives coming from him.

"It has been moved, that was where it was positioned two months ago"

Which showed clearly the Porsche sat in the garage. The problem would be narrowing down to the time when it happened. It seemed that Hector was way ahead of me in working that out because he suddenly had two images on the screen, one before the camera was moved and one after.

"Can you"

I was about to ask if he could capture who had moved the camera or had attached the tracker, but I was cut off with a firm answer.

"No, only when, and I know exactly when that was. Seven weeks ago we had a power surge that took out the breakers. Everything went down for maybe fifteen minutes until I could reset them, and I never did discover the cause"

Which meant that I was no closer to discovering who had put the tracker on my car.

"I will do complete full scan of building, starting with offices"

I could feel the anger rolling off Hector and understood that he needed to be sure that the building was secure, but I didn't want the man responsible knowing that we were on to him.

"Hector, we need to tell the men something that will be a cover for you doing that. I may be totally wrong but if I'm not then I want to know who it is and why"

"Internet transmitters. I need to ensure that they are sufficiently powerful, and we have no dead areas if we're going to be moving over to PDAs for everyone"

I raised my eyebrow at Hector as an acknowledgement to his quick thinking. It would certainly be sufficient to cover exactly what he was going to be doing. I was about to leave when I remembered that it had been Hector who had sought me out so wondered what he had needed from me.

"You came to me Hector, what was that about?"

"I found that kid, the other one who disappeared. I managed to eventually talk the mother, Stacy, into letting me look at her son's computer. The hard drive wasn't damaged, so easy to reconstruct. I managed to pull up his browser history to find out what sites he'd been into. The kid had been looking for his father. He'd been scouring records for his birth certificate and then for a man to go with the name that he found. Started messaging him and eventually ran to him. I took a road trip just to check and I'd say that the father has welcomed him into his home"

So that kid's disappearance had nothing to do with Morelli's nephew and was probably in a safer place than with his mother, which begged to be asked why that was. The boy had been with his mother since birth so why would he leave now when he seemed be doing so well?

"Good work Hector"

I said as I patted him on his shoulder, because at least that solved the mystery of where the boy had gone. It didn't help mine or Steph's situation and what Lula had told me came back to me. Why would Morelli not want Steph to know that her friend's son was missing as well?

Trying to behave normally around the men wasn't easy so spending time looking through those applications for the jobs that we'd advertised at least kept me occupied inside my office. Of the eight people that had completed the application there were only three that I would consider looking at further. The other five worked in very small businesses that to be honest wouldn't give them the experience for what I needed. It would be interesting to hear the opinions of the other core members and if we agreed. It was gone seven by the time that I finished which had me wondering if Steph would call me again, then again, I had her number in my phone so what was to stop me from calling her. Because I couldn't be sure if someone was listening to my conversation or if they had heard me when Steph called had me this morning and the thought of that was really pissing me off. What other conversations had I had that had been overheard?

Leaving my office, I went via the conference room next door only to find it locked and empty. When I said empty, I didn't just mean empty of the men. To me there seemed to be less information pinned to the boards and the extra board that had been wheeled in wasn't there anymore. Ajax and Flynn had been in the building, as far as I knew, which had me concerned with where they were and what they were doing. Tank hadn't mentioned anything to me, though I have to admit that he hadn't seemed to be around. Checking on the screen in the break room I noticed that Tank was offline for the afternoon and evening leaving Bobby in charge. It must be serious between him and that woman, but I just wished that he'd be a bit more open with me. Then again, I suppose that I had never discussed my personal life with him.

It was a long, lonely evening being in the apartment on my own. I hadn't realized just how much Steph seemed to fill the place. Her laughter or her talking and on those few occasions her loving me. To try to get myself out of the mood that I was feeling I decided to use my time productively. Sat in my office I pulled out some paper and began to write down everything that I knew, be it something minor and not appearing to be connected or not. When I finished writing I realized that I had a lot more information than I thought I had but now I needed to make sense of it. The sound of someone knocking on my door got my attention so the papers went into the drawer of my desk before going to see who it was.

Hector was stood there carrying an array of equipment so without saying a word I stepped back to let him inside.

"I think up here should have good coverage, but I want to be sure"

I watched as he moved around each part of my apartment with a metered gadget in his hand. I knew that if I had any listening devices in here then they would be using a wireless connection which was what Hector was looking for. I felt so damned annoyed when he pointed to a vase that was currently displaying some satin flowers sat on one of the shelves. In the office it was a similarly designed holder for my pens. At least in the bathroom he said.

"Nothing here"

Before walking around my bedroom. Having my personal space violated like this, I was beyond angry, it had my temper flaring, which calmed after he scanned the bedroom and closet.

"Clear in here. I found one in your office on five and each of the core team's offices and one in the breakroom and monitoring station, all of the same design. What do you want me to do now?"

I wanted to stamp on the ones up here but knew that wouldn't solve anything.

"Can you find the receiver?"

Hoping that if we knew where that was then maybe it would give us another lead to identifying the person responsible for planting them.

"Si. The range isn't that long because they had to use a frequency that wouldn't interfere with our own Wi-Fi network. I'm thinking that it's somewhere in the building"

Ella and Louis had their apartment on the sixth floor with the rest of the rooms devoted to storage areas, usually only accessed by them. I knew that Ella kept bedding and towels along with spare uniforms. There was also a laundry and workroom that both Ella and Louis used.

"The men don't have access to the sixth floor"

And I wouldn't ever suspect Ella or Louis of being responsible for the devices but how had those pieces of ceramic pottery ended up in my apartment and around the building? Maybe I needed to have a quiet word with Ella and find out if she knew anything about them, but it would have to be in the morning now.