I am not making any money off this! Just so you know...
The next morning I crawled out of bed to a bag full of Boston Crème donuts and a file on the skip we were looking for yesterday. Is there a downside to living with Batman? I flipped through the background on Monty Davis. He was wanted for attempted rape and resisting arrest. Why I landed it, I'm clueless, but I had been looking for the creep for a week. It wasn't going well.
Monty had grown up in Denver. When he got to Trenton two months ago, he had been disappointed to find it was an old game here. We are a center for the mafia and some new little pusher wasn't going to find any kind of territory. The old heads frown on drugs, but they are rivaled by the gangs and they find that it is better to let the gangs fight amongst themselves than to get involved.
I moved to the bathroom to work through my morning ritual and figure out what I needed to do with the day. As I was brushing my teeth, I remembered Mia. Lunch with Mia. I checked the time and found that I had about an hour before that had to happen. I pulled on my uniform of jeans and a tee. Mindful of the frigid Trenton weather, I threw a black hoodie on top. Seriously, there had to be better weather somewhere in March. I stepped out the door to the apartment building and ran to my black Colt that was on the far side of the lot. Correction, it was March and it was friggin' sleeting. The worst part was that the sleet was becoming blackish-grey sludge on the super-clean streets of Trenton. Disgusting, huh?
I stepped into the office and started dripping on Vinnie's carpet. Vincent Plum was my boss and distantly related to me on my dad's side. He was an ass so I felt some satisfaction in making the mess. Vinnie has some unusual tastes, like sheep and Joyce and ducks. You know, the usual weird stuff.
"Morning, ladies." I huffed out a little. I didn't like being cold, so sue me.
"Coffee." Connie Rizzoli pointed to the corner, without looking up at me. Connie was very Italian. She was short, squat and busty. Every morning, she would pluck the black hairs above her lip and make her hair big. She is so Italian that its rumored that she has relatives that make making cement shoes a hobby.
Lula, Connie's office mate, was wrapped around a cup on the couch, flipping through a magazine.
"Hunh, Britney flipped out again."
"What's new?" Connie and I spoke together in dry tones.
"Brendan Frasier had an extension."
"Where?" I asked as I sat down next to her.
"Where else?"
"Hunh." I sipped my incredibly strong coffee and thought about this tidbit.
"Oh, some aliens landed on some farm and demanded to see Elmo. They had the hots for the little guy." Lula quoted.
"What are you reading?" Connie demanded, looking up for the first time.
"The New York Times." She held it up. I leaned in and read the front.
"That's the New York Timer. Some how I don't think that's the same thing."
"Hunh. Well, it has some good information."
"Go for it." Connie leaned back into her files. I dropped two low level body slips in front of her. She looked up. "How's Monty?"
"Missing."
"I thought he might be a hard find."
"Anything new for me?"
"You kidding? In this weather?" I looked at my watch and jumped. Crap.
"Oh, I gotta go. Mia hates when I'm late."
"Tell her to take that stick out of her ass…"
"Oh, yeah…that'll go over well." I made a face and waved on my way out.
* * * * * * * *
Mia was waiting for me when I skidded into the Panda Express and dropped into a seat across from her. She didn't look happy. Well, tough cookies.
"Ready?" I was thinking about hitting the huge buffet.
"I've already ordered." She had her arms crossed and her body was tense, just screaming for me to try to argue with her.
"That's great." I gave her a fake smile and waited for her to start talking. When she didn't, I sighed. "So, you wanted to talk?"
She melted in her seat and dropped her head to her hands. "Oh, gods, Steph! What am I doing?"
I looked around for inspiration and put my hand on her shoulder. She stayed as she was for a few beats. "They all hate me!" She straightened up and looked me in the eyes.
"Who hates you?"
"The Morelli's. They hate me. With a passion." I thought back the emotionless Angie Morelli. How could she do anything with a passion? Grandma Bella I could see. The woman is a psycho.
"I thought evening went great. You know, when Joe proposed and we ate with them? They were a little quiet but I tried to be nice and charming, you know? Later, I heard from another detective that they hated that I was a cop. I figured, it's okay, it'll pass," I winced as Mia spoke. It didn't pass. 'Burg women didn't work and if they did, they didn't do things like being a cop. Or a bounty hunter for that matter.
"It's been months! They still hate my job and they have moved onto misunderstanding and thinking Dawn was my baby. They called her a bastard! No matter how many times I try to explain, it doesn't sink in. Every time I see Grandma Bella, I run into stuff for a week after that. I had three fender benders in one day after I got into the fight with them about Dawn. I think she is a witch, Steph. I can't take this anymore." She buried her head in her arms and rested there for a while.
"Have you talked to Joe?" I murmured to her bent figure.
"Of course, but he doesn't understand. Please, tell me you understand!" She caught my hand desperately.
"More than you know."
"Why are they saints all of a sudden and everyone treats me like scum?" She asked rhetorically. I actually had an answer for that one.
"Because they're Morelli women."
"And that means something?"
"In the 'burg, that means everything. Morelli men are scum. Drunk, abusive bastards. Half are in jail, the rest are either dead or burdens on their families. However, the Morelli women are respected. They are pious and their houses are spick and span. Joe respects them, just like the rest of the 'burg."
"So he's blind?"
"Sometimes, yeah."
"And I fix this how?"
"I never found a way. They just accept you eventually."
"No, they accepted you. You are 'burg, I'm not."
"Maybe you have more in common with them than either of you know."
"I don't need a fortune cookie, Steph."
* * * * * * * * *
Mia and I ate in silence and she got paged half way through. I had just decided to go look into Monty Davis some when my phone buzzed.
"Hey," I said to Andy.
"Steph," He sounded anguished. I sat up straighter. I had never heard Andy sound this upset. "Oh, Steph. She's gone."
"Andy, where are you?" I was planning to go and get him. He didn't sound capable of driving.
"She's gone. Deedra's gone."
"Are you at her apartment?"
"Yeah, it's ransacked. The window's broken, Steph. The whole place is freezing."
"I'll be right there. Wait for me, okay?"
"You have help me find her, Steph. She's just a kid."
"We'll be right over." I hung up and called Ranger.
"We've got a problem."