I use them for fun and not for profit.

Chapter 13

Rock knocked on Stephanie's office door within five minutes of her return from lunch. She looked up and said, "I was just calling you. Come in and shut the door."

He did as she asked. He was wearing RangeMan black again today and Stephanie was at once intrigued by the resemblance, and determined to see differences.

"I just found Mary Black," she said, "and the blue Honda. I ran into my ex-husband at lunch and he told me there is a serial killer in Trenton."

"I know that," Rock said. "It's my half-brother. The M.O. is unmistakable, but he's not implicated in any of the deaths. The police have nothing."

"Mary Black is dead and her body was mutilated just like the young women have been."

"Mutilated how?" he asked. "Missing digits?"

Stephanie frowned. "I don't know. Joe didn't say. But I'm thinking Mary may have been the contact. Tinley is missing, unless you've seen him this morning?"

"No, he's not back at Tommy's apartment."

"What's going on, Rock?" Stephanie asked. "You came to RangeMan and asked to work undercover so you could get this guy and then it turns out the guy is your brother."

"I'll answer your questions if I can, Angel. Where was the body found?"

"I don't know," she told him. She picked up her cell and called Joe.

"Yeah," he answered. He sounded distracted and she could hear traffic noises in the background.

"Joe, can you tell me where Mary Black's body was found?" She listened for a time and then said, "Thanks." She disconnected. "I thought you told me you were watching Tommy's apartment this morning," she said.

"I was, but I left right after I talked to you. I figure we aren't going to see Tinley in the daylight. I was thinking we might watch again tonight."

"Mary's body was found in Tommy's car. In his parking lot." Rock remained silent at her news, but Stephanie saw the tightness in his jaw and the clenched fists.

"Do you remember I said someone was watching us yesterday?" she asked him.

"Yes."

"Well, someone was watching you today. Morelli said they thought she'd been placed in the car after she was killed and driven to that parking lot. Someone waited until you left. It must have been Tinley."

"Or my half-brother," Rock said.

"Joe's still at the scene. Do you want to go back to Tommy's?"

"Yes." He stood and waited for her to grab her purse. She walked in front of him and opened the door and walked directly into Ranger. He stepped aside and watched silently as Stephanie and Rock passed by. The men nodded at one another and as they made their way to the stairs, Ranger's eyes followed Stephanie.

The trip to Tommy Hicks' apartment was made quickly. Stephanie drove her car and they pulled up to the yellow crime scene tape, where she angled the car to the curb. As they got out of the car she saw Carl Costanza and walked toward him. "Hey, Carl."

"Stephanie," he said. His face was grim, but he gave her a quick smile. "It's been a long time since I've seen you at a crime scene."

"That's true," she agreed. "Carl, this is my partner, Rock Madrid. Rock is new to Trenton and new to RangeMan. I'm just showing him the ropes. Can we get any closer?"

Carl raised his head and looked across the lot. He saw Joe Morelli eyeing them and then Joe beckoned with his hand. "He's still got a soft spot for you, Stephanie."

"That's good, Carl, because I've got one for him," Stephanie said. She wasn't going to let any rumors start about Joe and her. What Carl thought about Rock was beyond her control, but she knew there'd be talk. There always was.

As they walked toward Joe, Rock asked, "Do you know everyone in this town?"

"Yep, and that's why you wanted my help. Remember?" She drew up next to Joe and said, "Joe, this is Rock Madrid. He's my new partner, the one I'm in the field with. Rock, this is Joe Morelli, my ex-husband."

The men shook hands and then Joe turned to Stephanie. "I assume you're here because this person is involved with someone related to your skip."

"Yes. Tinley hasn't been around, has he?"

"Hell, I don't even know if I'd recognize him, but no, he hasn't. Neither has his brother. Tommy works at the Lucky Strike bowling alley. We called, but he didn't show up at work today. I don't necessarily want to tell him, but someone has to let him know his girlfriend is dead." He turned around and looked at the blue car. Stephanie and Rock followed his line of vision.

"They already took the body to the morgue," Joe said. "She was pretty messed up."

"Messed up how?" Rock asked. "Missing digits?"

Morelli gave Rock a long look. "If you know more about this you need to let me know. Yeah, she had missing digits. The fourth finger on both hands had been severed. We didn't find them."

"You won't," Rock said.

"He's here," Stephanie said.

"Who? Tinley?" Rock asked.

"I don't know. Whoever was watching us last night. He's here, I can feel him." She spun around, but saw no one who looked out of the ordinary. She looked up at the window of the apartment building and still saw no one, but she was convinced.

Joe ignored Stephanie and directed his attention back to Rock. "If you know something about these murders you can talk to me or I can have you brought in. How'd you know about the severed fingers?"

Rock shot a look at Stephanie. "I'll tell you here and now," he said to Morelli. "And any information I give you, you can use, but it's all off the record. I'm DEA and I'm using RangeMan for a cover."

"Shit," Joe said, pushing overlong hair out of his eyes. "Don't tell me this is going to be a freaking jurisdiction fight?"

"It's not. The DEA is after Naldo Montara for drug trafficking. He is a priest in a Cuban religion known as Santeria and he uses illegal drugs in his religious rituals, and he also performs ritualistic sacrifices. Most Santerians use animal sacrifice. I believe Montara uses humans as well, but I can't link Naldo to the killings in Trenton. It's just a gut feeling I have."

"It's not unusual to cut off a digit and offer it to a deity in some Satanic rituals where human sacrifice is involved," Rock continued. "At the end, the already traumatized victim becomes the complete sacrifice."

"So you think this Naldo Montara guy is responsible for this murder?" Morelli asked.

"I know Naldo Montara well and I believe he is capable of human sacrifice and mutilation. He is my half-brother. I can't prove he's behind the killings, but I think the DEA can link him to dealing and that might be enough to get him off the street." Rock stopped speaking and closed his eyes for a moment.

Morelli was silent, waiting for Rock to continue. When he did start to speak again his voice low and his words clipped as if he was struggling to hold onto his temper. "There is no jurisdiction problem, Detective. Get him if you can. If not the DEA will get him on drug charges, and frankly I hope you find him before we do. I'd rather see him charged with multiple counts of murder than possession with intent to sell. And we never had this conversation." He turned and walked back toward the yellow police line. He ducked under it and stood by the side of Stephanie's car. She shot a look at Joe and hurried toward Rock.

"I just lied to a cop," he said as Stephanie approached. "Take me someplace quiet, Angel. I'm going to tell you the truth." Stephanie reached out to him and placed her hand on his arm. He turned and enfolded her in a tight hug. He leaned his chin forward and placed it on top of her head. After a few moments he pulled back. "I need to get out of here," he said.

She got in the car and drove back toward RangeMan. She was going to take Rock to her apartment and give him time and space to tell her a story that she was at once curious about and loathe to hear.

They walked into her apartment and she pointed to the sofa. "Sit," she told him. "It's the middle of the afternoon and I need something to drink." She returned with two cans of Coke and handed him one. She watched as he took a gulp of the soda. He was eerily similar to Ranger, but only in looks. This man had emotions, and he wore them very close to the surface, especially right now.

"I'm going to tell you my life story," he said, setting his half-empty soda can on the sofa table. "To start out with I'm not DEA."

"You're not?" Stephanie exclaimed.

He held up his hand. "I'll explain. I was DEA and I resigned my post right before I came to RangeMan. I was raised by my mother's family in Miami and, unlike most Cuban-Americans, I'm not Catholic. I'm Jewish."

"I know that," she told him. "I discovered it in my research."

"My father came to this country with nothing but his books," Rock said. "He was an erudite man and a humble man. When the time came for him to leave Cuba he did so without looking back and he left all his worldly goods, except his precious books. He met and married my mother in Miami. She was Jewish as well, but not Cuban. She was a citizen of this country. She died in childbirth with me. My father raised me to the best of his ability and we were close. When I was two, he remarried, this time to a Cuban woman, also Jewish. They had a son and they called him Naldo.

Naldo was wild and constantly in trouble. When he was ten he killed a boy in the neighborhood. There were witnesses and there was no doubt that he'd done it. The police were going to arrest him and my father was afraid his status would be found out as he was not in this country legally. My father had developed a quiet reputation as a Judaic scholar and he had a good life. He wanted me to have the advantages living in this country would bring, but when Naldo got into trouble my father's dream of a life of religious freedom for his sons started to crumble.

Papa contacted my mother's family and arranged for them to take care of me. Then he and his new wife and my half-brother left and went back to Cuba. He gave up his life so that I could have mine and he saved his other son from what would surely have been some sort of incarceration."

Rock ran his hands through his hair and was quiet for a moment and Stephanie could see the strain on his face. Telling this story wasn't something he did lightly. "My mother's family was wealthy," he said, "and Papa knew they would see to it that I was educated. And they did. I grew up in a loving family, but not with my father. It was difficult, but I managed to remain, infrequently, in contact with my father, primarily because of the efforts of my father and my mother's family. I knew very little of his life in Cuba, but I know it wasn't pleasant. He lived with the family of his wife, even after she was killed."

"She was killed in Cuba?" Stephanie questioned. She'd been watching Rock as he talked. His eyes had been trained on the floor as he spoke, but she didn't think he was seeing anything in the apartment. The timbre of his voice, rising at times with emotion he couldn't keep suppressed, had held her attention totally on his words. While he spoke, she'd sat in the chair across from him. He looked up at her and she saw pain in his eyes. She wanted to go to him, but there was an aloofness about him. It was as if he needed to be apart from her and his normal persona to get the story out.

"Yes, in Cuba," he answered her softly. "Ten years ago my father's wife was killed. The details are sketchy, but my father told me he was afraid. Naldo was grown, a young man and he hadn't given up his wild ways. My father was afraid of his son. He thought Naldo had killed his mother. Less than a month later, my father was dead." Rock paused to pick up the can of cola and drained it in another large gulp. He closed his eyes for a moment before he continued.

"When I went to work for the DEA I used any contact I could find. There was very little information on my father's death, but I know he was murdered and his body mutilated. I knew Naldo had killed his own father, my father. I kept track of him and three years ago I learned that he had entered the country using false documents. That's why he is now known as Naldo Montara." The empty Coke can crunched loudly as Rock's fingers crushed it. He let it drop to the floor seemingly unaware he'd done so.

"Even as I was keeping track of him, he was keeping track of me. He stayed in Miami. I learned of his interest in Santeria, and then I began to hear horrible things though many contacts. Naldo is very smart and there is never any trail, but I know he is responsible for many deaths. He's…crazy.

He came to Trenton because I was located in Newark. I believe his intent is to kill me, but I'm going to get him first. I gave up my job with the DEA because I am going to kill my brother, in cold blood, if necessary. It's the least I can do for my father. Now you know the true story, Angel."

He sat back against the cushions of the sofa and Stephanie watched as he slowly lost the tenseness that had encompassed him during his story telling. He looked at her long and hard and gave her a little half-smile that caused her breath to hitch. He's not Ranger, she told herself. He only looks like Ranger. In truth, the emotions she'd seen play across his face as he spoke scared her a little. She had assumed Rock was straightforward and easy going and now it seemed that was a role he'd adopted. She hadn't known him at all, but she was getting a fast track into what made him tick.

Stephanie was quiet a long time trying to make sense of what she'd just heard. "I don't understand," she said finally, "why you'd need to be affiliated with RangeMan."

"It's simple," he told her. "I needed some cover to get close and when I heard Tinley Hicks was arrested and bonded out by RangeMan. I originally thought Hicks was connected to Naldo because of the drugs. Now I'm thinking there was another connection, Mary Black. I am going to kill my brother, make no mistake. RangeMan afforded me the tools I needed, and still need, to surveil Tinley and find my brother. He's here in Trenton and the dead bodies piling up are proof."

"You need to talk to Ranger," Stephanie told him. "You owe him the truth."

"What was said here is between you and me, Angel. Last night we almost made love. I didn't think it was fair to let you get involved with me without knowing the entire story. Now you do."

"I do know the story," Stephanie said, "and it places me in a horrible position. If you act as a RangeMan operative, it could be detrimental to the organization. I am obligated to tell Ranger. I work for him. He assigned me to help you."

"I'm good at research, too, Stephanie. I asked for you. I read about your ability to find people, your great capture rate, and then I came to RangeMan and heard all the stories. I became infatuated with the Bombshell Bounty Hunter."

"That damn Lester and his big mouth," Stephanie interrupted and Rock's face broke into a small smile.

"Lester told me I could look but not touch. He told me they all knew you were Ranger's woman. It didn't matter if you were married to Morelli or not. Lester said there was a connection between you and the boss man and no matter how sweet your ass was..." He stopped talking for a moment when her saw her full lips press together into a thin white line. "His words, Angel, not mine. He said it didn't matter how much any one of the men wanted to ask you out, they wouldn't because you belong to Ranger."

"Well, that's just bullshit!" Stephanie said. "I owe Ranger a lot, my life for example, but Ranger has made it clear from day one he is not a relationship guy, and he had no interest in anything remotely permanent. I married another man for Pete's sake, and now I'm single and I'm…" she trailed off, because she wasn't sure what she was.

"You've got to tell Ranger," Stephanie said, abandoning her previous line of conversation.

"I can't do that," Rock said.

"He won't judge you, and he won't try to stop you, but if you are doing something that could bring trouble to RangeMan you can't do it under the guise of being an employee. Ranger has more resources than even I know. He can help you. It's not for anyone to judge what you plan to do. Tell him."

Rock stood up from the sofa and reached out for her hand. He pulled her up and against him. "Last night you would have let me take you right here on this sofa, or maybe on the floor, or up against the wall." Stephanie blushed hotly at the memory of the kiss she and Ranger had shared against the very wall he was talking about. "I walked away, because I didn't think it was fair to let you get involved with me without knowing the true story. I want you, Stephanie. But I'm picky. I want you to come to me knowing who I am. And I mean that I plan to kill my half-brother. I will be a cold-blooded murderer. And I want you to come to me knowing who I am not. I am not Ricardo Carlos Mañoso. I am Ricardo Carlos Madrid."

He pulled her closer and brought her mouth close to his. The kiss was tender and unsettling. "I heard you last night. You said the word transition when we kissed. I'll be your transitional man, or I'll be more. That's up to you. You talk to Ranger if you have to. You know where I'm staying. If you want me, you know where to find me. If you don't, well, we'll both survive."

He left her in her apartment and she sat on the sofa in the same place he'd sat to tell his story. She felt an obligation to tell Ranger, but she didn't want to betray Rock's confidence. It wasn't that she cared if Naldo Montara died. She couldn't summon up any remorse for enabling Rock to find his brother. His brother was a crazy mass murderer and the sooner he was stopped the better. She thought about calling Joe and telling him the truth, but she couldn't. Joe had the cop gene and if Naldo turned up dead, Joe might have to arrest Rock. She rested her head in her hands and sat for a few minutes before pulling herself together and making her way down a floor to her office. It was still midafternoon and there was always work to be done.