Disclaimer: I don't own them and I'm not making any money.

Chapter 2

Two days later, I was sitting at my kitchen table looking through the file on the second skip Connie gave me. This one was for forgery, which peaked my interest. I didn't see many of those.

It looked like Benjamin Wright had been caught selling forged paperwork for wyrm* dendrotoxins as well as some other chemicals I didn't recognize. I'd only heard of dendrotoxins because they were being used in a new high-end wrinkle removing treatment. It was like Botox on steroids and all the rage with celebrities. At least according to the tabloids in the bonds office.

He'd been caught when a shipment was flagged by a customs officer. Unfortunately for Wright, the officer in question happened to be intonto a hobby that used one of the chemicals. As a result, he knew of the handful of operators who could legally move them into the country. The paper trail led back to Wright and resulted in his arrest. According to his bond paperwork, when he wasn't falsifying documents, he worked for a temp agency driving a forklift in the industrial park. Tracking him down at work didn't sound promising since the area was huge. He'd be like finding a needle in a haystack, so I was hoping I could pin him down at home.

His address was a split level, located in a section of Trenton that was quickly sliding from low-income blue collar homes towards ghetto. It was a few blocks over from Stark and I'd picked up enough skips there that I had some familiarity with the area. I thought it sounded like a good place to start.

I was lacing up my boots and debating grabbing my gun when my phone started to ring. I answered without looking at the caller ID and immediately regretted that decision.

"Cupcake, we got results back from your explosion."

Joe and I were technically 'on' right now, but his tone was rubbing me the wrong way. It was making it hard to bite my tongue in the name of peace.

"It wasn't my explosion, Joe," I said after a deep breath in and out. "Just my skip."

"Tomato, to-ma-to," he said, kicking my irritation right back up.

"Can we get back to the reason you called?"

I heard a huff of breath come through the phone and could practically picture him pinching the bridge of his nose before running his hand through his hair.

I pushed his buttons just as efficiently as he pushed mine.

"Sure. The body recovered from the fire was confirmed to be your skip. They'll have a body receipt for you at the desk. The only other point of interest was the cause of the explosion. There were traces of a compound sourced from fire breathing dragons. That's under investigation because it's a hell of a coincidence when the ME says the cause of death for your skip was a Dragon Bite overdose. Those have been on the rise lately."

"Dragon Bite?" I asked, not following the conversation Joe seemed to be having with himself at this point.

"Yeah. It's a new drug being synthesized from dragon venom. It's about a hundred times more powerful than the highs you get from straight venom. People are going nuts for it. The trade around it is turning nasty with everyone wanting a piece of the pie. Makes me glad I'm not in vice anymore. And if you have any more skips tied up in this mess, you should stay clear. Let Manoso deal with it."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, considering it practice for the next time we had one of these conversations about my job in person.

"There was no way to know Smith had anything to do with your dangerous dragon trade. That's just part of my job. If it makes you feel better, I'm going after a forger today. So, no dragons, just paperwork."

"Not Benny Wright?"

"Yeah, what do you know?" I asked, instantly suspicious. Morelli didn't have the best track record when it came to sharing important information with me.

"Too much. That guy's bad news. He might have gotten busted for forgery, but he's tied up in all sorts of organized crime. We just can't pin him for anything serious. That's another you should pass off to Manoso."

"I'm not giving all of my skips to Ranger, Joe," I said with forced patience. "It's my job. I have to do it."

"You don't have to do it," he said, and I braced myself, knowing where this was going. "You could always move in with me. Then you could afford to just do pick-ups like Mooner and Eula if you still wanted to play bounty hunter."

"I'm not having this conversation right now. I need to get started finding Wright."

I pulled the phone away from my ear and hit the end button before he could reply. I knew he was going to be pissed, but I wasn't in the mood to get in a yelling match right now. All in all, I was pretty impressed with myself for not getting pulled into one. Maybe I was finally growing up.

A further sign that I might be maturing - or at least getting a bit wiser - was that I decided to go back to the drawing board on Wright. Before Joe called, I was about to head out to try to catch him at his house. After talking to Joe, I thought a bit more legwork might not be a bad idea.

With that in mind, I pulled out my cell and dialed Ranger.

"Yo."

"Yo, yourself. Do you mind if I stop by and use your search programs to do some work on a skip?"

"You're always welcome at Rangeman. Just be prepared. I have a few guys out sick and we're spread a thin. If they see you there, you might start getting some other search requests."

"That's not a problem. I'm always happy to help out if you need it."

"Thanks, Babe," he said and then the line went dead. Guess we were done with that conversation.

I got to Rangeman around 9:30 and ended up staying through lunch. Ranger was right. As soon as the guys realized I was there they started sending requests to me. All in all, it wasn't a bad day. I got a free lunch, and I was sure there would be a direct deposit in my bank account for the hours I'd worked. I'd given up trying to convince Ranger that he didn't need to pay me for work I did while mooching off of his resources. Apparently the 'no price' thing didn't extend to work I did for Rangeman.

His fancy cyber sleuthing programs were able to get me quite a bit of information on Wright. I didn't feel like I knew all the dirty details Joe had been alluding to, but I had a better idea of what I was dealing with.

I was also able to pin down where my skip was likely working. He was technically employed by the temp agency he'd listed, but he'd been working out of a warehouse owned by Varanus Solutions for the last couple months. A quick search revealed they were a pharmaceutical company in Flemington, NJ. Their distribution was heavily reliant on cargo ships going in and out of the Port of Trenton.

Wright was likely loading goods from temporary storage in the warehouse onto ships. Still a bit of a needle in a haystack, considering the size of the warehouses down there, but at least it was a smaller haystack.

By the time I pulled out of the Rangeman garage, it was midafternoon. I wasn't feeling motivated to put in the leg work required for finding Wright. Instead, I decided to stop by the TPD to pick up my body receipt for Deliah Smith. If I got in and out of the station, I still had time to catch Connie and get the money into my account before the day was up. Then I'd treat myself to a night off to celebrate my bills being paid for another month.

"Hey, Steph," Brian Simon called out to me as I walked into the station.

I thought about ignoring him. I wasn't his biggest fan, what with him being a Bob abandoning jerk. But, I decided to dig deep into the new maturity I'd been sporting today and turned to acknowledge him.

"Yeah?" I asked. I wasn't going to go overboard and be polite on top of this maturity thing.

"Just wanted to thank you. I won the pool. Five hundred bucks for an explosion and a dead body!"

Screw maturity. I flipped him off and turned to keep heading towards the desk while Brian laughed behind me.

Becca Polosky was working the desk. I willed myself to relax, she was a new addition to the station and didn't deserve to deal with my annoyance from Brian. She'd been a year behind me in school and took the typical Burg marriage and housewife path until her divorce a few months ago.

We caught up for a bit and I did what I could to encourage her to keep her chin up. I felt qualified to give advice as a fellow victim of a 'failed marriage' in the Burg. Just like my mom thought I should look the other way to Dickie's cheating, hers thought she was overreacting to her ex spending the bulk of their income gambling.

She was just finishing up telling me about the new apartment she'd found. She could afford it on her clerk's salary and it had enough space for her two girls. I was genuinely happy for her, but I had to cut our chat short when I saw Morelli coming down the hallway that led to his office.

I was still irritated with him and not in the mood for an in-person discussion.

Getting out of the police department had the added bonus of keeping me on my self-imposed schedule. I hopped in my car before motoring across town to the bonds office. Luck was on my side and I just managed to catch Connie before she closed up for the day.

"Where's Vinnie?" I asked.

While Connie usually closed the office, it was still a bit early for my weasel cousin to be gone.

"Don't know, don't want to know. Joyce came in about half an hour ago dressed up like a medieval dominatrix. He followed her out like a lost puppy. I'm grabbing a bottle of vodka on my way home. It's going to take at least three dragon's blood cocktails to erase that sight from my memory."

I winced, knowing just one of Connie's preferred drinks would knock me out. I'd get out of her hair and leave her to it as soon as I had my check. Since there was enough time to get to the bank before they closed, I swung in there and deposited my money. That way it would be available immediately rather than the delay that came with using their app.

With my money in the bank, I had enough to cover my bills and a bit of a buffer. I decided to celebrate and treat myself to a Pino's sub on my way home before calling it a night.

oOo

*Wyrm - a type of smaller, venomous dragon in this universe