"Okay," I said as I took what would normally be Ranger's seat at the conference room table and looked around at the assembled group. I would have loved to keep Morelli and the TPD out of this briefing, but since they were already working with the state police, I knew better than to create that rift. "Yesterday, we caught a break with some new information regarding the rehab investigation."
Morelli bristled. "Why wasn't TPD notified, and where did this new information come from?"
"You're learning about it now," I replied. "The rest is on a need-to-know basis, and right now you don't need to know."
He pushed out of his seat and slapped his hands on the table. "Since when do you decide what the TPD needs to know?"
"Since I discussed the situation with Detective Shaw," I said and cut my attention to the State Police detective sitting across from Morelli. "Considering he's the lead on this case, he was the only one who needed to know right away."
Morelli slowly eased back into his chair, and I took way too much satisfaction in putting the asshole in his place.
"I've advised my superiors of this new info," Detective Shaw said. "And we've determined that the data is sound. We also decided that due to the sensitive nature of this information, the source will remain protected."
"Even from TPD?" Morelli asked.
"Even from the TPD," Detective Shaw said. He turned to look at me and motioned with his hand. "Please continue."
"We have it on good authority that Elliott Pfeiffer's brother Broadrick has been in charge of tracking down the discharged rehab patients. Broadrick is a small-time bookmaker who has been trying to make a name for himself over the past few years." I stopped and motioned to Ram. "Our man, Eric Ramsey took the lead on this investigation and began digging into Pfeiffer's past. Ram?"
Ram stood and handed a stack of papers to his left. "The paper I'm passing around outlines everything I've been able to glean so far. It turns out that Broadrick Pfeiffer has been in bed with our favorite mobster Harry the Hammer for the last few years."
"How'd you find that out?" Morelli asked as he took a paper from the pile and passed the rest on down the line.
"We know from our informant that when Isabella Sanchez was kidnapped, she was also sedated and transported across the bridge into Pennsylvania. According to our source, she was delivered to a secluded house on River Road in Morrisville. Once we were sure we had the correct house we began a records search and learned that the property is owned by a shell company. We were able to trace that company back to none other than Harold Hammerstein."
"Of course, the last thing Harry wants is attention," I added. "So, after we made a quick visit with him and explained some of the situation, he gave us permission to move forward with our investigation on his property."
Morelli smirked. "He gave you permission. That's rich."
I shot Morelli a look that screamed shut the fuck up or I'll shut you up. Without another word, he leaned back in his seat.
Detective Shaw began to speak. "We've already taken a statement from the property owner and given him immunity in exchange for his cooperation in helping us catch Pfeiffer." His gaze drifted around the table to each of us. "We've also been in contact with Morrisville PD and are in the process of obtaining an arrest warrant for Pfeiffer and a search warrant for the property. Once that's all in place, we'll assemble again to work out the logistics of who will be involved. Until then, everyone is to sit tight, keep their eyes and ears open and their mouths closed."
"That's all for now," I said. "Gentlemen, you're all welcome to grab lunch in the break room before you head out. Knowing we were having this meeting today, Casey and Ella put together a feast." I stood. "For now, this meeting is adjourned."
I waited for the room to empty then followed Ram out and over to the breakroom. "How's Casey after the scare yesterday?" he asked as he grabbed a plate and bowl and took his spot in line behind Detective Shaw.
"She's incredibly resilient," I replied. "She drifted off to sleep last night without any problems and slept peacefully all night."
He paused and ran an assessing look over me. "You look like you finally managed a good night's sleep yourself."
I grinned as I took a plate and bowl and joined him. "It's amazing what some pain meds and the love of a good woman can do for a man's sleep."
Ram smiled. "Zero's right. You're totally whipped."
"Just wait, my friend. When you find the right woman, you'll understand what I mean."
He grabbed the ladle and scooped up soup for his bowl. "Not me, pal. I plan on enjoying the bachelor life until I die."
I remember a time when I said something similar. Instead of pointing out that fact, I remained quiet and ladled up my bowl of soup.
Four hours and what felt like a ton of paperwork later, I glanced at my watch for what had to be the sixth time in the last hour. Where in the hell were Steph and Manny?
While I was running the meeting with TPD and the state police, she and Manny had gone out for a business meeting. An existing client of ours was opening a new branch of his business in Cranbury. Even though it was outside of our coverage area, we agreed to assess the property for him and recommend what we thought he would need to secure his new facility. He was one of Rangeman's oldest and most loyal clients. Usually, Ranger handled his account personally. Since Ranger wasn't here, Steph volunteered to go in his place.
I glanced at my watch again as I pushed away from my desk and headed out to the control room floor. Their meeting was at one this afternoon and we were pushing five o'clock with no word from either Steph or Manny.
If I called Steph, she'd complain that I was being overprotective, but if I got Vince to pull up her tracker, that would at least give me some peace of mind. "Hey, Vince."
He glanced over his shoulder at me then turned back to the bank of screens. "Yeah?"
"Can you pull up Steph's tracker for me?"
With a couple of clicks of the mouse and some typing, he had all of Steph's trackers up on the screen. Most were located right here at Haywood. However, her car and pen tracker placed her and Manny on Cranbury Road near Grover's Mill Pond. Her hair tie placed her in the actual pond.
Vince motioned to the screen. "That can't be right."
As Steph would say, my spidey senses were telling me something was wrong. "Run the timeline on the tracker for the last ten minutes. Vince did and we both watched in super speed as the trackers moved along Cranbury Road, then all of a sudden stopped. Then, her hair tie tracker moved separately from the vehicle toward the pond. "What the hell?"
Before Vince finished his question, I'd pulled out my phone and was calling Steph's cell. When she didn't answer, I tried Manny's cell. When he didn't answer either a moment of panic flashed through me. I knew I should have been the one to go with her for that damn meeting. "Cal!" I shouted, causing him to pop up from his cubical. I need you to check the scanners for West Windsor Township and see if you can pick up any chatter on an incident at or around Grover's Mill Pond."
Without asking questions, Cal gave a nod, then dropped back into his chair.
"What's going on?" Ram asked as he walked up to me.
"I can't get ahold of Steph or Manny and Steph's trackers haven't moved the last five minutes," I replied.
Ram turned his attention to the monitors. "Wait…why is Steph's hair tie tracker in the water?"
"That's what I want to know too," I replied. I turned to Gene, who was running monitors with Vince. "Gene, who's our closest patrol to their location?"
A few clicks on his keyboard brought up the screen I wanted to see. "It looks like we have an installation team at the Toyota dealer on Route 1," Gene said, "But the closest available patrol is in Hamilton Township."
"Start them in the direction of Steph's trackers," I ordered as Cal shouted from his cubicle.
"West Windsor PD has called for EMS and Fire to roll for a vehicle submerged in the pond."
I swear I think my heart stopped. Why does shit with Steph always have to happen on my watch? "Shit!" It took everything I had in me to remain in place and not go racing down to the garage. It made more sense to let the teams that were closer to the scene head that way while the rest of us waited for word.
"But Steph's vehicle tracker is still showing as being on the road," Vince said as he glanced up at me. "Is it possible it glitched out when it hit water and we're getting a false reading?"
As much as I'd like to believe that Steph's hair tie was giving us the false reading instead, I was afraid Vince might be right.
It was nearly two hours later when Manny and Steph's vehicle finally pulled into the garage with Zip and Slick following close behind. Bobby, Ram, and I hit the stairs at the same time.
Thanks to Zip and Slick, we'd received preliminary information about the situation and knew that Steph and Manny were uninjured. The rest of the information had been sketchy at best. I skidded to a stop at the sight of Steph and Manny climbing from their vehicle. Both looked as if they'd taken a swim in their clothes.
"What in the hell happened to you two?" I asked even as Bobby advanced on Beautiful. After her car accident last winter, we were all a little more protective when it came to Stephanie.
Manny shook his head. "You're not going to believe it."
"I'm going up to Seven to shower and go to bed," Steph said, and I could hear the exhaustion in her tone. "I feel like crap."
"Are you okay?" Bobby asked.
She nodded. "Yeah, I'm just mentally and physically tired and I want a freaking shower."
I watched as she started for the door. She held her heels in one hand and her bag in the other. Her limp was extraordinarily pronounced. She wasn't lying about being tired.
"Steph," Manny called after her. "You haven't had dinner. Make sure you eat something."
She waved a dismissive hand at him. "I'm not hungry."
Like a ping pong ball, my attention shifted back and forth between the two of them, with my concern growing exponentially over Beautiful's condition.
"I'm going to send Casey in forty-five minutes with some soup," I finally said.
With her hand on the door, Steph stopped, turned back toward me, and sighed. "Lester."
"Stephanie," I shot back. "Ranger left knowing that we were going to take the best care of you possible and I'm damn well going to make sure we do that."
"Fine," she snapped, then yanked open the door. "Just because you send her up with it, doesn't mean I have to eat." Before I could reply, she was gone. I could see through the glass as she disappeared into the elevator. Then I turned back to Manny. "What happened to you two?"
"You're not going to believe it," he repeated as we all began walking toward the building. "Follow me up to my apartment and I'll tell you while I get changed. I'm fucking freezing."
We hit the stairs and made our way up to Four, with Manny in the lead. "So, we're on our way back from the meeting in Cranbury." He glanced over his shoulder at us. "It went well by the way."
"That's good," I said. "But we can talk about it later. What happened?"
"So, we were on our way back and I was going to take her to this great Italian place in Princeton Junction for dinner. We were coming up Cranbury Road right near Grover's Mill Pond. Then, out of nowhere this little red car comes speeding down a side road, cuts right in front of us, and runs off into the Pond. I slammed on the brakes and pulled over. For a second, we both watched the car. A crowd slowly began to gather along the road, but nobody was emerging from the water, and nobody appeared excited about going in after them."
We reached his apartment door, and he punched in the code on his keypad. "I think it was then, we both decided that we were going in."
"Steph went into the pond?" Bobby asked. "With her cold?" She'd been fighting a head cold for the last couple of days after picking it up from one of her nieces.
Manny answered Bobby's question with a shrug and then pushed open his door. "When have either of you ever been able to stop Stephanie when she sets her mind to do something?"
I glanced at Bobby and gave him a knowing look. Manny was right.
"So, I stripped out my weapons, shoes, and phone. Steph did the same," I locked the doors on the Explorer, and we ran across the road and dove into the pond."
He stripped out of his dress shirt and began unbuttoning his pants as he headed for the bathroom. "Good thing we did. There was a young woman in the driver's seat of the car, unconscious," Steph helped me get her out and I pulled her to shore."
With no modesty, he left the door open to the bathroom walked butt-ass naked into the shower, then set the taps. "I damn near had a heart attack when I looked back and realized that Steph wasn't behind me."
"Where was she?" I asked as I leaned against the open doorframe.
"Still in the water," Manny said as he stepped under the spray. "I was just about to go back in for her when she popped up with an infant in her arms." With hands now in his soapy hair, he paused and looked toward us through the glass shower doors. His eyes haunted. "I never noticed the infant carrier in the back seat. If she hadn't seen it…" he shook his head.
"Holy shit," I murmured.
"That's an understatement," Manny said. "Some bystanders pulled Steph and the infant from the water. The baby wasn't breathing. Steph kept her cool and gave the baby CPR." He rinsed his hair then paused again to look at us. "The look on her face when that baby took a breath and began to cry. I'm not sure if I can describe it. She pulled the baby against her and began to cry herself."
"Steph saved a baby's life?" Bobby repeated causing Manny to nod as he began scrubbing his body clean.
"The next thing I knew there were paramedics and police. The medics were covering Steph and me in the same emergency blankets we keep in the back of our vehicles."
He rinsed, then motioned for a towel then turned off the taps. I handed it to him over the top of the shower door. "Steph was shivering something fierce. Paramedics wanted to take both of us to the hospital, but I told them we had a medic here who would check us out if we needed it."
With a towel now wrapped around his waist, he stepped from the shower and headed toward his bedroom. Just as we had while he was in the shower, Bobby and I hung back at the door while he dressed. "Once we gave our statements to the police and we were free to go, I ran the heater on high back here."
He appeared a moment later dressed in sweats. "I'm still cold," he grumbled.
"Drink some hot tea or hot chocolate. Maybe a cup of decaf coffee," Bobby said. "Use a blanket if you need to and rest." he glanced at me. "I'm going to go research that pond. I want to make sure you guys didn't expose yourselves to something dangerous."
"It might be wise to check on Steph too," Manny said. "She was still shivering when I pulled into the garage."
Bobby gave him a nod. "I'll try." He walked forward and patted Manny on the back. "If you develop a fever or any strange symptoms, call me right away. Otherwise, rest and I'll check on you in the morning."
Manny rested his hand on top of Bobby's. "I will."
Once Bobby left, I turned back to Manny. "What happened with the woman?"
He shook his head. "I don't know. She was still unconscious when the paramedics took her away, but she looked as if someone had beaten the shit out of her. So, I'm not all that surprised. She probably suffered a head injury."
"You know if I hadn't seen the two of you looking like drowned rats, I'm not sure I would have believed that story," I told Manny. "It's just so crazy."
He moved around in his kitchen now, filling a mug with water and a tea bag before popping it into the microwave. "I know. Imagine being us at the moment. For a split second, I wondered if we'd somehow stumbled into a movie or television shoot."
"I can understand why you might have felt that way." I raked a hand through my hair as I watched him. "Do you need anything else?"
He shook his head. "I'm good, but thanks."
"Okay." I angled my thumbs toward the door. "I'm gonna go talk to Casey and Ella about taking Steph some soup, then check in with the control room before heading back to my apartment. "If you need anything, even just to talk, call me."
He nodded. "Thanks, man. That means a lot, but I'll be okay. You just focus on taking care of Steph."
I'd damn well do my best to do just that.
