Chapter 12: 89 Ridge Street in the Lower Broadway neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey

The Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart was over 50 years in the making and the workmanship showed, from hand-carved decorations of wood, stone, and marble to the stained glass and massive bronze doors. But the rose window- it was almost beyond words.

Stephanie sat upright in the front row between Les and Julie. Bobby was beside Les, and Hector sat on the aisle near the side door. Rachel and Ron sat on Julie's far side. Across the aisle Julius sat with his wife Ana and their family, both Ranger's parents and Abuela Manoso in the front row, and each of the four Manoso sisters filled the four rows behind him with their husbands and children.

The memorial was attended by the majority of Ranger's men except Tank and Hal who remained in rehab and a skeleton crew in the control rooms in Miami, Boston and Trenton. In uniform, the men lined the outer walls of the enormous cathedral and they were armed and ready for anything.

The church was packed with people who had a relationship with Ranger and those who loved Stephanie:

Vinnie and Lucille Plum and her father, Harry Hammerstein and his wife sat just behind Frank and Helen Plum. Stephanie's parents shared the second row with Edna, Connie, Mother Rosolli and Lula with Randy Briggs at the end. Behind Vinnie, Stephanie's aunt Mabel Shutz and cousins Marion, Marjorie and Maureen sat with Valerie, Albert and their children.

Mary Lou and Lenny Stankovic, Carol Zabo and Marilyn Truro sat with Walter "Moon-Man" Dunphy, Dougie Kruper, Dillon Ruddick, Marilyn Truro and Sally Sweet and some of their other classmates.

Eddie and Shirley Gazarra sat with another bunch of Stephanie's cousins, Bunny, Christine, Evelyn, Francie, Jeanine, Kitty and Jessica.

Carl Costanza and Robin Russell sat with Big Dog and Joe Juniak, representing Trenton PD.

Louise Malinkowski and Sunny Raspich swapped hospital shifts in order to attend. They sat with some of their High School classmates, Kenny and Mickey Zale, Anthony Gorman, Lenny Gruber and Cynthia Hawser.

Even Joyce Barnhardt had shown up. She sat with Jeanne Ellen Burrows toward the back and Melvin Pickles sat with them as he arrived late.

Diesel and Wulf stayed in the back of the church, wanting to pay their respects but not draw attention. Gabrielle Rose stood with them.

Joe Morelli sat with Terry Gilman across the aisle from Joyce and Jeanne Ellen. They sat behind three rows of men and women Ranger must have known from his government work. Joe recognized Andy Roche from Treasury and Meri Maisonet from the FBI. Joe needed to speak with Stephanie, but had no idea how to manage the private conversation when most of the Burg was here and it would be worse at the luncheon afterwards.

"Send a message with Valerie." Terry whispered to him. Valerie would not be so closely watched, so closely guarded. Joe gave a slight nod. He would speak to Val.

For the offertory hymn the Choir sang, "Be not afraid, I go before you always. Come, follow me, and I will give you rest…" My eyes began to burn and my throat seemed to narrow as I struggled to hold back the sob. I always get so emotional at funerals… and this is for Carlos… my husband… the father of my child. My tears were running freely and my nose started to run. It was no use; I couldn't suppress it. The keening wail emerged and was heard throughout the cathedral. Lester wrapped his arm around me as my body shook. I couldn't stop it. We shouldn't be here. Julius was wrong. He has to be. Carlos… Please, I need you to be alive. I can't bear this. You have to still be in this world… Please let Gabriela be right.

Bobby, on Lester's other side, asked me if I needed to step out. I shook my head. I couldn't leave the memorial service for my husband. The memorial Julius insisted on when the DNA stored at RangeMan Boston "failed to amplify" so DNA testing of "the body" was on hold. I swallowed hard. Julius didn't know we were working outside of the RangeMan system to determine the body's identity.

Gabriela, who had been given time with the body, arrived at RangeMan Trenton last night and asked to have a chat with me privately. When we got to the seventh-floor kitchen, Gabriela took out a device and turned it on.

"It blocks listening devices." She told me when I raised my eyebrows. "Ranger told me about the mole, and since Julius is still looking for the traitor, I don't want to take chances." She took a small plastic box out of her bag next. "When I was with the body, I drew a blood sample and got some hair follicles for testing- it is stable in this box, but we can't send it to a traditional lab- that supposedly damaged sample of stored DNA from Boston has me worried that any Genetics lab might be bribed to misreport sample results."

"You don't think the body is Carlos?" It was barely a whisper, as I squeezed my eyes tight and rubbed my eyes.

"Stephanie, did Ranger tell you how his knuckles were bruised the night before you got married?"

"I don't see where that is relevant."

"He didn't tell you that while he and the guys were screwing around, he broke the knuckle of his left ring finger?"

I shook my head. "How on earth did his ring still fit if his knuckle was broken?"

"It didn't."

I pulled the chain from the inside of my blouse on which I kept Ranger's wedding band. My grandfather's wedding band. "I put this ring on his finger when we married."

Gabriela took an identical ring from her pocket. "Stephanie, this is your grandfather's ring. Carlos came to me after getting a cortisone shot in his knuckle, because he couldn't get this ring on his finger. I took him to a Miami jeweler who owned me a favor and Ranger was sized and returned to the hotel so he wouldn't be missed. I waited till the duplicate ring was ready, and gave the new ring to Tank right before the service. It is two sizes larger than the original."

"Ranger never said anything."

"He knew how much it meant to you that he would wear the family ring. He didn't want to change the original till he was sure what size his finger would be once the fracture healed and the swelling went down. The duplicate was a placeholder till he could change the original."

"Why does this matter now?"

"Stephanie, the body, the person who was given to us was… they had this guy a while… and they hurt him. No teeth, no finger or toe nails… burned fingertips…it seemed like overkill unless you are attempting to compromise identification." She rolled the ring on her finger. "But nobody knew about the change of rings but me and Ranger. When I tried the original ring on, it fit the guy on the slab."

Oh my God!

"But it shouldn't have." I swallowed hard.

Gabriela nodded, "I reviewed the x-rays and they reflected every injury that was reported in Ranger's medical record. What they didn't show was the injury he received that was not recorded, because the mole doesn't know about it."

Could it possibly be true? Was Carlos alive? Did this prove he was still alive?

"Stephanie, we need to test Julie and your unborn child against the DNA I have from the body. That will confirm the DNA is not from Ranger. But we need to do it on the downlow."

"We could have it processed as a research sample- they are numbered instead of having names and dates of birth. Joe Morelli has a cousin who works as a research assistant in a Genetics lab in Philly. We could have Joe bring her the samples." Joe's cousin, Julie Morelli got married and moved out of the Burg a few years before. Joe thought she was the smartest one in their family, working in a fancy research lab and resisting the urge to have a kid a year. I think staying kid free was her bigger accomplishment.

"Do you think Morelli will help?" Gabriela sounded doubtful.

"I will ask him. After the memorial tomorrow. Even if he won't help, he won't say anything, but I think he will. He has been a different man since … everything happened."