A/N: I'm late in updating, sorry about that! As always, I'm not the Queen of the Plum-verse. That is solely Janet.
"Dawn! Come on, time to go!" Mia shouted next the couch. I cringed. It was too damn early and Mommy was in true form. Lester and I were crashed on the couch, watching Batman cartoons. They weren't bad, but not very true to the original character, in my opinion. Mia looked down disapprovingly at our sprawled forms, especially our feet on the coffee table. Bite me; it's barely six in the morning, which is four hours before I usually roll out of bed. I'm not in the mood, besides, whose apartment is this?
"Mom, can't I just stay here with Steph and Les? I don't want to go to school."
"Honey, you have to go to school. It's very important."
"Why?" I grinned at Dawn's straightforward question. This was probably what my mother put up with. Lester and I looked up at Mia with the same look Dawn had.
"Because it's the only way to get ahead in life. You need to learn all the important things." Mia looked a bit at a loss for how to say this.
"Steph can teach me how to be a bounty hunter. Then, I can catch the bad guys." Mia looked stricken at the thought. Her little girl a bounty hunter? Perish the thought.
"Hey, little girl, come here." I spoke softly to Dawn and gestured between me and Lester. She hopped between us. "Dawn, you have to go to school. It seems pointless now, but someday, you will have to be smarter than the bad guys and school is the only place to get those smarts, okay?" Dawn nodded reluctantly. "Now, go with your mom and stop giving her a hard time. She loves you, even if she is a pain, got it?" Another nod and she jumped down to get her coat.
"Well, that was easy." Mia frowned over at Dawn.
"Just try telling her the truth. It was the one thing my mom never did."
"All that about education and being smarter than the bad guys from a bounty hunter." She shook her head. I couldn't help it, I was offended. I'm tired of her acting like I'm a lesser person than she is because of my job. What gives?
"Yeah, a bounty hunter with two bachelor degrees."
"Why didn't you use them?" She challenged.
"It's my life. Why don't you quit your dangerous job and stay home with Dawn and keep Morelli's house?" I shot back and Mia seemed to think this was crossing the line. She broke off the lecture and walked out the door with her kid. I turned back to the cartoons, trying to hide my anger from the way too perceptive guy beside me.
"What did you go to school for?" He asked, nonchalantly.
"Business and psychology."
"Why didn't you go into business or something?" He kept his eyes on the screen, just like I did, but we weren't watching it anymore.
"I tried to and I failed at it, okay? That's how I fell into this shit."
"I dropped out of high school." He said after a moment, finally looking at me. "It was pointless compared to the shit I was facing outside of the classroom." I turned toward him, burning with curiosity to find out more, but the look on his face didn't welcome my questions. I just nodded, accepting him. We turned back to the TV with a mutual understanding. We watched cartoons for a while and I must have fallen asleep at some point because my ringing phone broke into a dream I was having about Andy and Deedra. I fumbled around for it and flipped it open without opening my eyes.
"Yo." I mumbled into the phone.
"Is this Stephanie Plum?" An old man asked in voice that sounded rather unused.
"Yes," I sat up, trying to place the voice. The sleeping Lester stirred a little and almost fell off the couch.
"You, uh, gave me your card. I saw some things and you told me too, uh, call if I saw something…?" His voice kind of petered out and I got the feeling that he wasn't really very sure of himself.
"The homeless guy?" I asked stupidly. Yes, not my brightest moment, but I'm tired.
"You gave me money," His voice was kind of off in its own little world. "I didn't want to look for that man, but you helped me. I was just going to ignore it, but when I saw him with that woman, I couldn't help it. I had to call you." I was definitely awake after that.
"You saw Monty Davis?"
"He pulled up in his car and drug a pretty lady out. She was fighting him and he hit her."
"Where are you?" I asked, grabbing for paper.
"I watched him go in after I finished eating. I don't like that he went into that place. That's a safe place. He can't just go there."
"Where did he go?" I was practically ready to beg him.
"That shelter is new. None of the other shelters are safe like that one. He can't just walk in there." The man went on muttering. I tried desperately to figure out where he meant. "I have to go now. The kitchen on Houston serves good toast and if I don't get there early, it will all be gone."
"Wait!" But he was already gone.
"What's up?" Lester asked when I flipped my cell shut.
"Monty Davis is still in the area…but I don't know where." I sighed and started grabbing my stuff.
"Where we going?"
"We are going to look around. How well do you know the North side?"
* * * * * * * *
We had been driving around for two hours and I still had no idea where the man had seen Monty at. I was frustrated, I was hungry and I was tired. Sue me, I'm feeling incredibly bitchy. I told Lester to find a place to eat.
"Yes, boss." He pulled up to a small diner that I hadn't seen on the right side of the street.
"You know this part of town pretty well, huh?" I was impressed, despite myself.
"I've work this area a lot." He shrugged and we swung out. Well, he swung out. I fell out. He hid his grin at my stumble and led the way in. It was a greasy spoon and it had no décor, but according to Lester, they had the best pancakes in Jersey.
"As long as you don't get their milkshakes, you're fine."
"Whatcha want?" A bored black woman poured us coffee and managed to look at us like we were the bane of her existence. Gotta love Jersey waitresses.
"Pancakes, two orders. Side of bacon. Hold the fries. Extra syrup. Extra juice." Lester rattled out and I stared at him until the waitress had left in her sulky way.
"Come here a lot?" I asked and he chuckled.
"We all do, even Ranger used to."
"What do you mean?" I leaned forward. Okay, I'm pathetic, but hearing about Ranger fascinates me.
"We used to have an office here in the North ward."
"Before Haywood?"
"Long before Haywood. That building is a recent addition."
"Where was your old office?" I was intrigued. I hadn't heard anything about the history of Ranger's company.
"Hmm…" Lester shook around his coordinates and pointed south. "Down the street about four blocks. We all still spend a lot of time in the area, like our home base." The waitress shoveled out the food and left without a word. "Actually, spending too much time at Haywood is bad for our image. No one knows about the building on the streets, but we used to be more connected, you know? We knew more about the criminals back then." He shrugged and dug into his food. I did the same. It was surprisingly good.
It was totally a coincidence that I looked out the window in time to see Lula's skip walking down the opposite street. She had been looking for Danny Kromanski for a few weeks and I had actually helped her on a few almost takedowns. He was pretty elusive.
I jumped up and ran for the exit without a plan.
"Yo, Steph!" Lester shouted, throwing some cash down and running after me. I stopped before I hit the door and he slid to a stop just behind me. I gave Lester the short of the situation. He nodded, looking almost like a little kid. He loved takedowns. Well, at least that made one of us.
We calmly stepped out the door and quietly crossed the street. We were about a block behind Kromanski, who was heading north. We silently jogged closer. He didn't notice that we were behind him until we were about a hundred feet from him. He started running and I chased him. Lester cut down a back alley and disappeared. Kromanski was way ahead of me when he turned a corner. I sped up and rounded the corner in time to watch Lester tackle him. He started to fight the smaller guy, but he was no match for the former street rat. Lester pinned him down and I dropped beside them and cuffed Kromanski.
Lester went to get the car while I sat on the sneaky perp and dialed Lula's number.
"You bitch." The prone man jerked around trying to move me off his back. I elbowed him hard.
"Hey, girl," Lula answered. "Kinda early."
"How bad to you want Danny Kromanski?"
"Enough to get out of my warm bed."
"Meet me at the 12th precinct and he's all yours."
* * * * * * * *
Lester and I finished the hand off. Before he started the pickup, he turned to me.
"You had trouble with that takedown." He stated. I blushed but before I could get defensive, he continued. "I know a place you can work out, maybe even learn a thing or two."
"I already take Tae Kwon Do three nights a week." I pointed out, trying not to get mad. He meant well, I think.
"But that's not enough. The other people that workout at your dojo probably don't have the high stress type of job you have. You need to be more prepared."
"I hate gyms."
He grinned. "Me too. But the place I have in mind is different."
"Oh?"
"Not sterile." He shrugged and started the cold truck but didn't put it into gear. "You can spar there with some of the Rangeman guys and we could teach you some stuff."
"Are you talking about the gym at Haywood?" I asked, ready to bulk. That gym was pretty sterile to me. He made a face.
"Heck, no. How about I take you there and you figure it out?"
"Where is it?"
"North side, of course." Lester grinned and motored out of the lot.