Chapter 16

I started my day with a run on the treadmill in the RangeMan gym. I was a little shy about walking into the place, although I'd been told many times the gym wasn't off-limits to me. I was relieved to see only one other person was present and that was Hal, one of the merry men I knew and had worked with in the past. I gave him a finger wave and then got down to business, doing a few stretches before I hopped onto the treadmill.

I started with a walk and gradually increased my speed to run. I was working up a more than healthy glow and having trouble catching my breath when I realized some idiot had left the treadmill on a six percent incline. I'd only gone a mile, but it felt like three, so I hit the stop button and went upstairs to shower, again utilizing Ranger's Bulgari liberally.

When I walked into the bonds office an hour later, I almost dropped the donut box in surprise. Lula was sitting on the sofa, one leg extended along the cushions with an air-cast on her ankle. The other foot planted on the floor was encased in a bejeweled Croc. Her poison green mini skirt had ridden high on her thighs, dangerously near to exposing parts best left unseen.

"What happened to you?" I asked.

"Don't get all worried," Lula said. "It's just a sprain. I'm here to file my workman's comp claim, but the doc said I'd be better in a few weeks."

Vinnie stuck his head out of his office door. "At least there's one thing you can actually manage to file," he said, before pulling his head back into his office like a turtle back into his shell. He seemed disgruntled which was pretty much a normal state for him. Lula wasn't much of a file clerk, but to be fair there wasn't much to file. The office had gone digital, and her filing now consisted of managing the old paper files which had to be kept in some cases, forever.

She acted as my wheelman and I always paid her a percentage of my take. It was a system that worked well for us. As inefficient as we sometimes seemed we had worked out a nice partnership and had a pretty good apprehension record. Good thing the office had Vince's services for a while because it didn't look like Lula was going to be mobile any time soon.

I set the donut box on Connie's desk and let her have first pick, then I found a chocolate donut with pink sprinkles and handed it to Lula. I noticed crutches resting against the wall. I'd seen her Firebird outside.

"Can you drive with that thing on?" I asked.

"Yeah. Luckily, it's my left foot so I can still drive with my right."

"What happened?" I asked again.

"Me and Vince got a little tangled on a takedown yesterday. I tripped on his big ole feet and I fell down and twisted my ankle, and when I fell, I broke the heel off my Lubootins.

"LouBOUtons," I said exaggeratedly, correcting her pronunciation.

"No, Lubootins," she said. "I bought them last week from Junior Brown's trunk sale. I hate to lose them though. They was nice looking heels with a red sole and everything. Vince felt real bad. He took me for x-rays and then he took my shoes to the repair shop to see if the heel can be put back on."

As if on cue, the door opened and Vince walked in carrying a Bergdorf Goodman's bag. He nodded at me and went straight to Lula.

"I took your shoe to the repair shop. They said they could fix it and I should be able to get it to you tomorrow. In the meantime, I got you this." He handed her the bag.

She opened it and let out a squeak as she pulled a Louboutin shoe box from the bag.

"I know fashion is important to you," Vince said with a completely straight face. "So I got you something that is fashionable and functional."

"OMG! OMG! OMG!" Lula exclaimed as she pulled out a pair of white leather sneakers with a red sole. "This is too much. My heels were, well, they may not have been quite authentic. You got me Louboutin sneakers! You didn't need to do this!"

"I did," he said. "It was my fault yesterday and I feel bad about that."

"These must have cost a fortune," Lula said. "No one ever gave me a gift this nice before."

"Nah, they didn't cost that much. They were on sale, and my sister works in the shoe department at Bergdorf's, and I got to use her employee discount. Are you done with your paperwork? Can I help you get back to your car?"

Lula shot a glance at me. "I am done, and as soon as I finish this here donut I'll be leaving. I want my girl Stephanie to help me to the car. We might have some girlfriend type stuff to discuss, if you know what I mean."

Connie gave her a suspicious look. There was almost nothing that was discussed in the office without Connie's involvement. I knew Lula wanted to ask me if I'd found my tape. The tape and its existence was a secret I wanted to keep between Lula and myself for the time being. If I was successful in convincing Ranger to let me help take Rafael down, then everyone might eventually know. I'd worry about that later. Right now, I needed to calm Connie's suspicions that something was being kept from her.

"I'll help you to your car," I said. "If you want to know if I've heard the rumor about Joe and Joyce Barnhart, I have and she's welcome to him." I had no idea if there was a rumor, but I thought it was a good ploy to occupy Connie.

"Hell, no," Lula said. "I don't want to talk about that skank. I want to know why you smell like Ranger. 'Course if it's what I'm thinking that might be why you don't care about no rumor."

All three of them took in a deep breath and turned eyes toward me. Vinnie chose that moment to come out of his office. "I'm on my way to the courthouse to bond out that loser Mooner again," he said. He took in a deep breath. "Hey, was Ranger here?" That effectively allayed Connie's suspicions that she was out of the loop on some juicy gossip between Lula and me.

A few minutes later I helped Lula out of the office. She was surprisingly mobile on her crutches. I held the Firebird door open while she settled herself in the driver's seat and before she could ask, I said, "I watched it, and it wasn't as terrible as I'd thought it would be." In truth I was still so traumatized by the tape of David and Rafael that I'd hardly worried about my tape at all.

"I'm going to my mom's house for dinner and I'm planning on telling her. It's my dad's lodge night so it will just be her and grandma."

"If you got the tape, whatcha gonna tell her for?"

"It may not be the only tape," I said. "I'm definitely not going to let Rafael use that as blackmail anymore, so if there is another tape and it comes out, then she'll already know." It was a version of the truth.

"Well, good luck with that," she said.

"Thanks. Worst case scenario, I'll have to learn to make my own pot roast."

I stood on the sidewalk for a moment and watched as Lula drove away. The craziness of the bonds office, even with Vince in the mix, seemed normal and I was glad to have a brief moment of normality. Since the minute I'd heard Rafael was back in town I'd been operating in high-stress mode. I'd probably be right back there later in the day when I talked to my mother, but for right now I was going to try and enjoy the day doing a job that I suddenly realized, I liked.

I walked back in the office to see Vince helping himself to a Boston Crème that I'd had plans for. I found a plain glazed that was an adequate substitute. I worried for a moment that I'd been responsible for Vince finding a new habit that Ranger wouldn't approve of, but maybe Ranger needed to lighten up.

"I'm not helping Ranger today," I said. "I've got the whole day to put a dent in the FTA pile. Can I be your wingman today, Vince?"

"I'm only here for the morning, and shouldn't I be your wingman?" he asked. "You're the OG here."

I laughed. "Let's try partners. We'll be partners, at least for the morning. Guess I'll be going solo this afternoon."

"Yeah," he said. "I have some other business to take care of." I knew he was talking about the anger management counseling he was getting. Connie was on the phone with a client and wasn't paying any attention to Vince and me.

"Uh," I hesitated. It wasn't really my business, and I spoke low so it wouldn't be Connie's business either. "How's that other business going."

He looked at me for a moment and then seemed to remember I knew what his other business was. "Better than I thought it would," he finally said. "I wasn't too excited about it in the beginning, but I'm starting to change my mind about the…" he paused as if looking for a word. "About the probable outcome," he finally said.

Later, when we were sitting in Vince's SUV waiting for our skip to exit Gary's Tavern, I turned to Vince. "That was a very nice thing you did for Lula. I didn't know Louboutin came in a sneaker style."

"Yeah, according to Vicky, my sister, they're very popular. I got the size from Lula's other shoe and had Vicky bring a pair home last night."

"It was a generous gift. I mean pumps or sneakers, that red sole means a high price tag," I said.

"I did get a good discount on them," Vince said, "and, it sort of was my fault that she fell. I like Lula and I hate that she's going to be off work for at least a couple of weeks."

I tilted my head and gave Vince an appraising stare. "You like Lula?" I asked.

It was Vince's turn to give me an appraising look. "Not in that way!" he said. "I like her as a person. She is an original and she makes no excuse for the way she dresses, or the things she says. She has a good self-image and that isn't the case with everyone. If you listen closely to what she says, she often makes good sense with some of her convoluted theories."

"I'm impressed," I said. "You've discovered in a day what it took me a couple of years to figure out. I count her as one of my closest friends."

"I might have figured something else out, too," he said grinning widely. "When she wasn't looking, I emptied her gun and took her spare supply of bullets. She likes to stand behind me during an apprehension."

"You didn't!"

"I did, and after I did it, I started feeling much more comfortable working with her."

"Does she know? I mean if she actually got into a situation where she needed her gun…"

"I put everything back at the end of the day. She's going to be off duty for a while, so I've probably solved my problem. I don't expect to be helping you and Vinnie out much longer."

"The counseling won't last that long?" I asked.

"The counseling will last a long fu-freakin' time. It's only been a couple of sessions, but what I know now is that it takes time, effort and commitment to make a lasting change. I'm committed and I'll do whatever it takes. When the counselor can be sure of that I'll have her talk to Ranger. I think he'll bring me back into RangeMan soon."

I nodded my head in agreement. I thought he would, too, but I didn't think I should say so. I didn't want Vince to think I had any say in the matter.

"The thing is," he continued, "I like this skip tracing. I wouldn't mind being the RangeMan go to when Vinnie needs extra help. I know Ranger usually helps when he's needed, but he is getting busier and busier with the administrative side of things. I might mention to Ranger that I'd like to help when needed."

Again, I nodded. This was interesting news to me. Was Ranger stepping back from the street side of RangeMan to sit behind a desk? It was a tantalizing bit of information to ponder.

"Showtime," Vince said.

I looked up to see our FTA ricochet off the door frame of the tavern. He started unsteadily around the side of the building where presumably his car was parked. It was the exact same scenario that had gotten him into trouble in the first place.

"One thing about apprehending a drunk, they're easier to catch when their blotto, but then you always run the risk they're going to be mean," I said.

"Mean drunks don't bother me," Vince said. "I can be just as mean sober. Let's roll."

We got out of the car and walked across the street toward our guy. In preparation I pulled a pair of zip ties from my bag.

"You always use those?" Vince asked. "I like regular cuffs better. They're easier to slap on in the heat of the moment, and they're much harder to get out of than the flexicuffs."

"Yeah, they're much harder to get out of," I agreed. We went to get our man and I deferred to Vince and shuddered only slightly when I let him "slap on" the regular cuffs.