Well, I didn't time that very well did I. It could have been Chapter 13 on Friday the 13th! All mistakes are mine.

Chapter 13

Ranger found Stephanie sitting at her desk. Gently he put his hands on the back of the office chair she was sitting in and turned it around. He plucked the pen clenched in her teeth out of her mouth and leaned over, giving her a kiss on the lips.

"I was watching the feed and heard your conversation with Larry, Babe. He does seem a bit afraid of his mother, but right now he's safe in our building."

Stephanie put her arms around Rangers' neck and he stood upright lifting her onto her feet. Keeping his back to the other men, he put his arms around her and hugged her to his chest. She looked like she needed some comforting.

"He just sounds so downtrodden. Imagine living so much in fear of your own mother!"

She shook her head as she leaned into her husband.

"I can't imagine living in fear like that. Imagine sending his family away so that they are safe from that witch!"

Stephanie looked up into his eyes and sighed. Turning around just a wee bit, she reached behind her for the papers sitting on the desk. Holding them in one hand, she showed Ranger a lot of the questions she had written down already crossed off.

"He answered so many of my first group of questions, but look, now I have so many more!"

Stephanie looked up. "Thanks for re-assigning my searches. I really want to concentrate on this before I drive myself crazy."

Ranger took his wife by the hand and led her to the elevator. He pressed his fob and the elevator door opened and the 7th floor button lit up.

Stepping into their apartment, they both bent down to take off their boots.

It was close to the evening mealtime and by now Ella would have dropped off something delicious to eat.

Heading into the galley kitchen, they noted the crockpot sitting on the counter and plugged in. Ella had left a little card stating that a salad was in the fridge and the sourdough loaf was in the oven on warm. Obviously sensing that Stephanie needed something at this difficult time, there was a cake dome on the counter.

While Stephanie grabbed the dishes and the cutlery, Ranger lifted the casserole dish from the crockpot, placing the hot dish on a trivet on the counter. Sitting down across from each other, they served up supper and began to eat. Ranger was his usual quiet self but tonight Stephanie was also silent, almost toying with her food.

He slid his foot toward hers and rubbed up and down on her lower leg in a caressing manner, letting her think.

Stephanie finally spoke. "I checked the records from the 1980's and there was a home for battered women in Key West. I wonder if she managed to go there until she could get herself back on her feet? Even if Charles or his mother had gone to the door, the personnel wouldn't have acknowledged her inside. It was a safe home."

Ranger looked at her. "Did you want me to call the office down in Miami and they can do some legwork and some searches down there and you can concentrate up here?"

Thinking about it, she shook her head. "It's been over thirty years. The trail is cold. Maybe when you need to go down to Miami for your next round of meetings I could go down with you and snoop around some."

Ranger looked at his wife. How could she have wondered when they were heading down? He usually travelled there only a couple times a year. Something had just come up and he was thinking of taking a trip to that branch next week. A customer was giving the office some grief and was demanding to talk to 'the man in charge'.

"Babe, something has come up and I do need to go down. We can go down together and you can do whatever you need to do to try to answer some more of your questions while I handle the office situation. We can stay in the beach house and get in some us time at the same time."

Stephanie nodded. She loved this man. She wanted to and really needed to go and check things out. She might find something.

She looked from the cake dome to Ranger and back.

Ranger pulled the dome closer.

"You never disappoint, Babe."

~~~o0o~~~

Mary was becoming more and more desperate. She had tried to call Larry's phone so many times that she felt her fingers were becoming raw. What did he know, where was he, and why was he not answering? Did he not understand that his mother was worrying? Did that good-for-nothing son not realize that she was waiting?

Dropping the phone into the pocket of her housecoat, she marched to the grimy living room window and looked out. She didn't see the trashy front yard. She didn't see the neatly painted fence or the new deck and railing on the home. All she saw was the spot where her son would have parked his car when he was alive and living in her house. The memories came flooding back; him walking in the house, shouting, 'Ma, I'm home.'

She didn't notice a slate gray sedan parked down the street. She didn't know that photos were being taken of her house, and of the neighborhood.

Mary walked into her office, automatically caressing the faded picture of her deceased son. She then looked at the pictures of Charles and Michelle with their new baby girl. She remembered very well the afternoon when Michelle came back to the house without the baby and refusing to tell what had happened to her.

She remembered her son rushing out of the home looking at all the places she might have left the baby.

She also remembered the cries of pain from the bedroom later that evening as Charles continually hit Michelle trying to force her to release the information.

She also remembered Michelle disappearing that night after everyone had gone to bed, taking nothing, never to be seen again.

Then, in a stroke of luck, 36 years later, Mary saw a picture in the Trenton Times of a woman who looked just like Michelle. She had been searching for the obituary of a recently deceased relative who had moved away.

Sending her other son to Trenton with just enough money to get the job done, he was tasked with getting as much information on this Stephanie Manoso as he could. Quite by accident Larry had come upon one of her captures and was able to get a small blood sample from the garbage on the sidewalk and bring it back.

She had taken some hair from her sons' hairbrush and had the DNA tested, coming back with a match. This woman was the long-lost baby, and the only living tie left of her beloved son.

Once again, she sent Larry back to Trenton, booked him into a cheap motel and tasked to get more information on this woman. What better way to get her attention than to send her pictures and notes of her true start in life?

Mary rubbed her hands up and down her arms as if to warm herself. Her plan was coming together except for the small detail of where the hell was her other son to do what he had been originally sent to do. She had packed his bag and as an after-though had thrown into his suitcase shackles and restraints to transport this woman back to her rightful roots. He'd be told when it was time. Momma was thinking ahead.

Once back in the secure confines of the family home, she would be kept until she was conditioned to her new way of life. She would come to appreciate how lucky she was that her birth grandmother would 'set her straight' and in time would embrace the family unit.

She'd ordered the extra-large cage and it had just been delivered this morning ready to be assembled. There was a corner in the basement that would do nicely.

Mary looked at one of the pictures. There was a tall and very handsome man dressed in black near her. He looked virile and there appeared to be no doubt that she was attracted to that man. Well, he had the look of a ladies' man and women probably fawned over him all the time. She figured that he would have no trouble finding someone soon to warm his bed and probably he'd forget her in time.

She rubbed her hands in glee. Her plan was coming together.

Now, why hadn't Larry picked up his phone? She reached into the pocket of her bathrobe and pulling out the phone, pressing the redial button.

~~~o0o~~~

Larry sat at the tiny table looking at the meal in front of him.

A guy named Lester had brought in the tray and had stayed to chat with him for a couple of minutes.

He was a personable sort, and the spikey hair made him look like an over-grown kid, but underneath that innocent exterior was a man that Larry firmly believed could be very dangerous. The way he held Larry's attention made him think that this Stephanie was very near and dear to his heart, as it seemed from dealing with any of the men he had seen so far.

Larry had looked him in the eye and stated, "I would not have done harm to her. I am not like my mother."

Les had taken a step forward which made Larry lean back as far as he could in the chair.

"And if I beg to differ, what the hell were the restraints found in your motel room? Christmas decorations?"

Larry shrank from the angry gaze.

"If I say my mother tossed them in my luggage when I wasn't looking, would you even think after seeing me that I would be physically able to do that?"

Les looked at the stooped man.

"You intrigue me, man. I see a man who looks like he's a momma's boy because he jumps to her every command. On the other hand, you say you sent your family away to save them from her weird ways, so that leads me to believe that there is some decency in you. Then again, I see a man who is stalking a very good friend of mine, with restraints of all kinds in his motel room. So, who are you really?"

Larry pushed back his chair and stood up as tall as he possibly could, looking Les in the eye.

"I'm a man who's had the shit beaten out of me, both mentally and physically. I'm too afraid to go somewhere to stop it. What does that make me anyway? A coward, a momma's boy, a fully-grown man who has no options but to live with his mother under her rules with no way to express mine. Yes, to all those things."

He sighed.

"I actually thought that if I was caught and sent to jail, I could finally get my life sorted out. They have these programs in jail that I could enrol in to help myself. I might get out with a job and an ability to make something of my life. Right now, I'm an unemployed painter in an economy that doesn't lend itself to renovating of any kind, so I have to take the scraps cast off by my dear mommy just to survive. I don't even have access to phone my wife and talk to my kids. I haven't had any money to send them Christmas or birthday presents for two years. I'm just a failure in life and even with my own family."

Les looked at Larry now sitting back in the chair. He had an idea but would bounce it off Ranger first.

Larry finished eating the meal and signalled that he was full. He patted his stomach and spoke again.

"Please thank whoever is making this how wonderful it is to have a real home cooked meal. Mother doesn't like to cook and so we usually wind up with frozen dinners that have been reduced for quick sale."

Les took the tray and headed to the door. He knocked twice, the lock turned and the door opened.

Closing it quietly, Mario re-locked the door and stood to the side. He was on shift for two more hours and while it was interesting to watch Larry in the room, by now he knew that he would be laying down for a nap.

~~~o0o~~~

Bobby was in Rangers' office with a report in his hand.

"I just checked on the man we are holding downstairs and he will need some medical intervention soon. I've got his meds and he's back on them in the prescribed doses and time. What I did notice was that the prescription has not been adjusted for some time and I think he needs to be re-evaluated for a change."

Ranger looked at Bobby standing in front of him.

"If we bring him to your infirmary, can the necessary tests be completed or do we have to take him out?"

Bobby hesitated.

"I can do most of the legwork on this but the results will need to be seen by a professional. What I suspect is that with his less than healthy lifestyle for the past few years or so, he's exhibiting signs of a number of things, nothing life-threatening, but life-altering."

Ranger nodded.

"Make arrangements to have him taken to your infirmary, with a guard both inside the room with you and outside your door. Do what you need to do and then book with our man. I still want him under wraps for the time being."

Bobby nodded, turned on his heel and marched out the door.

~~~o0o~~~

Ranger walked into the apartment and could hear Stephanie literally pounding on the office desk.

He walked in and noted, "Looking a little wild there, Babe."

She spun around in the office chair and jumped to her feet.

"I just found out that my birth fathers' mother was charged with uttering threats to my birth mothers' parents demanding to know where she had stashed me."

Her face crumpled and tears slid down her face.

"They suffered so much and this evil woman continued to harass them almost to their death over 20 years ago."

Ranger took her in his arms and gently led her to the couch by the wall.

Sitting down with her in his lap, she leaned into him as he rubbed his hand soothingly up and down her back as her tears continued to fall.

"I hate her and I don't even know her," she whispered.