Chapter 3

Ranger walked into the apartment a few minutes later. He ran a hand through his hair and stopped in the foyer to drop his keys and wallet in a basket on the console. "What a fucking mess." It was said almost under his breath, wearily, and I thought he was talking to himself. I wondered briefly how the confrontation with Vince and Lester had gone, but only briefly as I was still reeling over the video.

My secret was no secret anymore, but how did Ranger know? Or did Ranger know? I'd had to watch the video twice before I realized, and he'd said earlier that he wasn't sure of what he was seeing.

He walked by me and into the kitchen and returned with two bottles of beer. He handed me one and sat in the armchair across from the sofa. And he stared at me.

"You're usually more of a wine drinker," I said, mostly to break the silence and to cover up my nervousness.

"You don't change horses in the middle of a race, Babe," he said, referring to the beer we'd had earlier at Shorty's. I nodded and took a drink. I felt the beer go all the way down to my now empty stomach.

"You watched the videos." It wasn't a question.

I guess I wasn't as good at hiding what I was feeling as I'd thought. It took a second for his words to sink in.

"Videos? There was more than one?"

"Three."

"I only saw one," I said.

He came to sit beside me on the sofa and picked up his laptop, angling the screen so we both could see. He replayed the video I'd already seen. It was a woman with curly brown hair, exiting a building, head down and walking fast. Not just any building, but the Adams Building across the street catty-corner from the courthouse. A great place for a lawyer's office.

The woman had only taken a few steps when a man came out of the door and followed her. He grabbed her by the elbow, pulling her around to face him. Even with the poor quality of the video, it was plain to see the man used force to bring the woman against him, pulling her head back by grabbing her hair and then kissing her forcefully.

When he released her there was a short conversation and he turned and went back into the building. The woman continued walking away, eventually out of the camera view. The woman was me, and I knew it, but I couldn't understand how Ranger knew it. Or maybe, some little dangling thread of hope insisted, he didn't know. Maybe it was just a guess, and he was hoping I'd give myself away.

I was unaware the footage existed, but I remembered the day and seeing the video had pulled all the repressed memories from the corner of my mind to the forefront. I shuddered at the unexpected sense of fear and briefly thought I might need to run to Ranger's bathroom again. Instead, I took another long pull on my bottle of beer buying a little time to compose myself.

"What was it you wanted to discuss?" I asked.

"I want to know how you know Rafael Acosta and what he said to you after he kissed you."

"You think it was me on that video?" It was a weak attempt at denial, but I had to try.

"I know it was," he said. He tapped the keyboard and another video started playing. This was of the other side of the building, around the corner from where I'd exited. The camera must have been mounted across the street on the grounds of the courthouse. And the resolution on this video was worse than the first. I relaxed a bit and then I groaned.

The sidewalk was empty on the video but there was a lone car parked at the far end of the block, and yep, after a few seconds, there I was turning the corner, walking fast and making my way toward that car. I couldn't have identified me on this tape, but what was undeniable was the hulking shape of Uncle Sandor's blue Buick.

I gave up thoughts of denial. "It was the first time I borrowed it," I said softly. "I let Dickie have the BMW in the divorce settlement and I special ordered my red Miata. The dealer had a delay in getting it in and I was without a car for a week. I drove the Buick for a few days."

"You never mentioned you knew Acosta," Ranger said.

"Why would I? At that time, I didn't know you, and I hadn't reconnected with Morelli. Why would I ever mention an old lov…acquaintance?"

"You were sleeping with him then?"

"Hah! Sleeping? There was no sleeping. And that video is the last time I ever saw him."

Ranger was quiet. I knew what he was doing. He was not saying anything waiting for me to spill my guts, tell him the whole story, and it worked, sort of.

"I needed a lawyer. I knew Dickie despised him, so I purposefully asked Rafael to represent me in my divorce. He said he couldn't, but he suggested another attorney to me, and then he asked me out to dinner, only we didn't go out. We went to his home, and he cooked for me. Things…progressed. I saw him for a while, kind of a rebound after Dickie, I guess. Eventually I realized it wasn't going to work out, so I was going to end it, but I never did, because he just disappeared."

"He's back," Ranger said.

I sighed. "I heard Lula and Connie talking today that he's come back to Trenton. They said he left under a cloud of suspicion. They…they don't know anything about him and me, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"I think leaving under a cloud of suspicion is an apt description. He was a person of interest in a murder investigation," Ranger said.

"I remember hearing that at the time. The Burg grapevine was full of it, but all I could think of was how lucky I was that he was gone."

"You weren't worried that you'd be considered a person of interest as well?" he asked.

"No!" I exclaimed, genuinely surprised. "It was a secret. I didn't want anyone to know, except Dickie. I wanted Dickie to know. I was technically still Mrs. Orr at the time, and Dickie couldn't stand Rafael. It was the best way I could think of to get back at him for sleeping with Joyce Barnhardt."

"And Dickie has kept your secret?" Ranger asked.

"Not exactly," I said. "I had a vague plan of being out with Rafael and bumping into Dickie, accidentally on purpose. It never happened though because Rafael and I never went out in public. We met a couple of times at his home, but mostly at his office. He had a suite attached to his office where he could stay if he needed to be at court early. It's where we…" I let my voice trail off, remembering and then trying not to.

"The only time we were ever in public together was on that video, which until a few minutes ago I didn't know existed."

Ranger stared at me with his unreadable expression. It didn't seem to be judgmental, but it didn't seem to be sympathetic either.

"I wanted it to be a secret and I still do! It wasn't my finest hour and I'm sort of ashamed of it. Why do you have this video? What's your connection?"

"A friend of the murder victim came to me and asked me to look into it," Ranger said. "It was in the early days when RangeMan was more of an idea than an actual entity. I was spending my time bringing in high bonds for both Vinnie and Les Sebring, and in my spare time working off-record ops for the government. I was saving money and getting ready to turn a loosely organized business into a brick and stick business."

"How did you get the tapes?" I asked.

"Morelli."

"M-M-Morelli! Joe's seen this stuff?"

"I doubt it," Ranger said. "I knew him from a takedown where the police were involved. I thought he seemed like an okay guy, and he wanted to get to know me better. He saw me as a potential informant. I was well connected to the seamier side of Trenton at that time."

"You were an informant?"

"Only when the information I got was more important than what I gave," he said. "I knew the entire area around the courthouse had camera surveillance and I asked Morelli if he could get me tapes of that building. By this time Acosta was gone and I wasn't expecting to get anything, but Morelli brought videotapes to me. I looked at them and decided they weren't useful, but I saved them."

"Why are you just showing them to me now? Did you know I was on them all along?"

"I hadn't looked at them in seven years, but when I heard Acosta was back, I pulled them out. I saw you."

"You didn't see me. You saw the darn Buick and recognized it. And you wanted to know how I knew Rafael," I said. He didn't deny it.

"Are you still investigating for your friend? Am I a suspect now? Or are you just curious to know about my old lover?" I tried for haughty, or maybe supercilious, but I don't think I pulled it off. I just hoped he couldn't tell how upset I was by this new development. I needed to keep Rafael a secret. I needed never to see him again.

"I am still investigating for my friend. I don't think I'll be successful. If Acosta is guilty there is no evidence to convict him. He's smart enough that he wouldn't come back if there was any risk involved."

I didn't want to ask, but I had to know. "What's on the third tape?"

Ranger again tapped the keyboard, and a much clearer video came into view. I recognized it as the elevator in the Adams building. There was only one occupant, Rafael. When the door slid open, he exited the elevator and left the camera view.

"Morelli gave you this?" I asked.

"No. I obtained this on my own. It's just a small part of a 24-hour loop. Did you notice his briefcase?"

"No."

Ranger replayed the video and I saw that Rafael was gripping a well-used briefcase. It seemed at odds with his sleek well-tailored suit.

"I remember that briefcase," I said. "It looked old and sort of utilitarian, not like something Rafael would pick for himself. I wondered if it was a family heirloom or something someone had given him."

"It is a family heirloom," Ranger said, and then he was quiet for a few moments. The silence focused my attention, because I could see he was hesitating, trying to decide how much information to give me. Ranger had his secrets, too.

Finally, he spoke. "It belonged to the father of the man Acosta is suspected of murdering. Did you see him carry it often?"

"I never saw him carry it, but I remember seeing it in his suite."

"This video was taken two days after the other two tapes," Ranger said. "It was the last time Acosta was seen in Trenton. His car was found a few days later in long-term parking at Trenton-Mercer. It's suspected that he took a charter from Trenton, but he covered his tracks well. And it looks like he took the briefcase of a murdered man with him."

I sat thinking about this new information. I wasn't sure how it impacted me, but I sensed it did.

Our conversation was interrupted by the buzz of an incoming text for Ranger. He looked at his screen briefly and grimaced.

"Is that about Lester and Vince?" I asked.

"Yeah. Lester is on his way to St. Francis. He's got a gash over his eye that Bobby said should be attended to by a plastic surgeon. And Vince is on his way out."

"Out? Out where?"

"Out of RangeMan."

"You fired him?" I asked, astonished.

"No. Not exactly. This incident was provoked, but there have been others. I told him he would have to get counseling for anger management if he wanted to stay on. He declined. I'd hoped he would agree to get help, but he has a hair trigger, and I can't incur the risk of someone who could lose control in a work situation."

"I get it, but this is so sad. I don't know him well, but he seems like such a good guy," I said.

"He is a good guy," Ranger said. "Needing help doesn't make him any less so but refusing to get help makes him an unnecessary liability. I hate to see him go. He was one of the originals. One of my core team. He was my employee back when I started investigating Acosta."

Acosta. We were back to Acosta.

"Do you want to tell me the rest of the story?" Ranger asked.

"There is no rest of the story," I said. But of course, there was.

"He looked angry on the first video. It looked like a rough kiss. What did he say to you?"

"I have no idea. It was a long time ago. I've told you everything."

"You've told me the entire story?" he asked.

"I have!" I insisted. I had not told him the whole story but, as I later realized, he hadn't told me the entire story either.

I picked up my empty beer bottle and reached across Ranger for his. "It's late, Ranger. I need to go home." I stood to take the bottles to the kitchen, but he pulled me back down and I landed next to him.

"You don't have to go," he said.

"I do. I need to be up early. I run before I go into the office and Connie has two new skips I'm going after tomorrow."

"Stay," he said. "I'll run with you in the morning."

I didn't answer. My heart was beating so fast I could barely breathe, let alone talk. That was not the request of a man who was avoiding me. Before I could formulate an answer, he uttered the word that sealed the deal.

"Please."

I lifted my face for his kiss.