Hello, thanks to everyone who reads and reviews. Do you think FFnet will ever send us email notifications again? They fixed the problem once, I don't understand why they can't fix it again. Anyway… enjoy!

Hyped Up

I almost skipped into the office where we were meeting up with Carlos and Hector to catch up over lunch. Carlos had promised to bring Chinese food. We walked in to see Carlos and Hector unloading the distinctive carboard containers onto the coffee table and I bounced over to Carlos and gave him a smacking kiss on his cheek.

"We found him," I sing-songed.

Carlos looked up at me, surprised, "Really? How? Where?"

Bobby and I took turns explaining our morning as we opened out the containers and grabbed the plastic cutlery and paper napkins, before all sitting around to begin eating. Between bites, Carlos and Bobby translated into Spanish and I cautiously added a couple of words in my fledgling Spanish to add a detail or two. Hector grinned at me when I spoke Spanish to him. He was still helping Tricia and me with our practice sessions on Saturdays and my skills were improving. Slowly. I certainly couldn't hold much of a conversation yet, but if Hector spoke slowly enough, I was beginning to get the gist of what he said. My smattering of Italian seemed to help me a bit; the languages had a lot in common.

Carlos and Hector looked very pleased that we had managed to track down Morelli's hideout. And we had also identified the car he was using. I told Carlos we had dropped the photos off to a one-hour processing lab and could collect them after lunch. He looked mildly frustrated that we had to wait. "I wish digital cameras were more advanced," he grumbled, "I'd like to be able to load it onto the computer and just look immediately."

Hector said something in Spanish, too quickly for me to understand, but I caught the word 'Apple'. Carlos translated for me, "Hector says Apple released a model called the QuickTake last year. The image quality is nowhere near as good as film, but he thinks it might be useful for surveillance. I'll have to look into it." I nodded interestedly.

Carlos added, "Congratulations to both of you for the way you handled everything this morning. It sounds like your surveillance methods were perfect and you did everything right."

I felt a small flush of guilt at how I had almost blown it charging in to try and grab Morelli. I glanced at Bobby and saw he was not going to rat me out. I simply said, "Bobby's a good partner. He kept us on track." He smiled at me gently.

After lunch, Hector and Bobby went to pick up the photos and some other equipment they wanted for surveillance on Morelli's hideout. Carlos and I worked on some correspondence about the Haywood Street renovation and chatted casually. I asked him about the morning they had spent on Stark Street.

"It was a bust, Babe. Nobody is willing to talk about anything to do with Ramirez. We basically chased our tails for three hours."

"Nobody talking or nobody knows anything?" I asked.

"Nobody talking. I suspect the hookers at least know more about Carmen and Morelli than they're willing to say. And some people might have information about Ramirez that would help us, but they're too scared to talk. His reputation is violent, and he is venerated as 'The Champ' among his cronies."

I thought for a couple of minutes, "Maybe I could go and talk to the hookers? They might be more willing to talk to a woman than a man?"

Carlos shook his head, "No way, Steph. We are not putting you anywhere near Ramirez. If he is involved, it might get back to him and that's the last thing we want."

I understood Carlos's concerns, but I was not quite willing to give up yet. "We could come up with something though," I tried to stay calm and logical, "If we could get eyes on what Ramirez is doing, we could wait until he is working out at the gym or something. He must work out, he's a boxer. When we know he's busy, I could go in to talk to the women. Just the women. I can make up a story; I'll tell them I was dating Morelli, and I kicked him out when I heard he was involved with Carmen Sanchez, but now he knocked me up and I need to find him or Carmen. If they think I'm just a disgruntled ex-girlfriend, they might talk to me."

Carlos looked at me thoughtfully, "I suppose it might work. But why though? Because of your morning, we know where Morelli is hiding out. We can just do some more surveillance and go in to pick him up. We don't really need the intel from Stark anymore."

He took me aback with his questions. He was right. But there was something… just something niggling at me. "You're right. We can get Morelli. But… I can't really explain," I continued sheepishly, "I just feel like something is… off… with this whole case. You said yourself that Ramirez talked like he had beaten and raped Carmen Sanchez. And she's missing, you know? Nobody's seen her. There was no evidence at all she was staying with Morelli. And Morelli… I can't stand him as a person, but I know he's fought his whole adult life to be respectable; to not be like his father. I just don't think he would have shot someone in a jealous rage. He's a detective. It just feels… off." I shrugged helplessly.

Carlos came over beside me and took me into his arms. I snuggled into his comforting embrace. He was silent for a few minutes. Eventually he said, "I'll make you a deal, ok?" I looked up at him and he met my eyes, "We pick up Morelli and see what he has to say. We can find a way to hold him for twenty-four hours before we take him in. Depending what his story is, and if, and I do mean if Steph, we can find a way to keep you completely off Ramirez' radar, we'll set it up for you to talk to the girls on Stark. We'll work on your cover story and add whatever context Morelli tells us and you only talk to the girls about Morelli and Carmen. You don't even mention or hint about anything to do with Ramirez. If they bring up Ramirez, you act uninterested. Like you don't know anything about him, and you don't care, got it?"

I nodded. It was a good plan, and since Morelli really was trying not to be brought in, he might even cooperate with us. "Promise me, Steph. I need your promise."

"I promise Carlos," I agreed solemnly. "I promise I'll do everything by the book, and I won't take risks." He hugged me and kissed me fiercely.

Two days later, we were ready. At least, I hoped we were ready.

We were ready to pick Morelli up. Hector and Bobby had watched the warehouse and when Morelli had left, Hector had entered to install some tiny, discrete cameras in the room where he was staying, the corridor outside, and the main floor, pointing at the stairs. He had put monitors in Carlos' office, and we had watched Morelli's activities to establish his activities. We now basically knew when Morelli would be in the warehouse, and we had a plan to pick him up. Tank was on his way up and would be with Ranger, Hector, and Bobby when they picked up Morelli early tomorrow morning. I was on surveillance, similar to the role I had played with Morrison and Turnbull.

We were ready to hold him too. Carlos had rented a small bungalow for six months on the outskirts of Trenton, and I had stocked it with food and a bare minimum of furniture. Hector had installed cameras in the house and set up monitors for it. Carlos had spoken with Zain Sanchez, known as Zip, and he was going to come on board in about a month as a contract worker. Zip had retired from the police force and had planned a long holiday with his long-term girlfriend before getting back to work. But Manuel (Manny) Ramos was willing to come on board immediately and he would be assisting Bobby in holding Morelli at the safe house.

Manny was a sweet guy, a little shy, but friendly and competent. Carlos had brought him into the office to talk with him, and he was excited to come on board with Rangeman. He had worked his way up in the Navy to the rank of Chief Warrant Officer level 4 and had served two tours deployed in the Persian Gulf. He had seen combat and was very experienced. Then he decided he didn't want to spend his thirties and forties at sea and was not really suited to working a desk in Washington or on a naval base, so he had decided to retire from the Navy. Carlos was happy with his background and had received a glowing report from his last Navy supervisor. His family was from Wilmington in Delaware, and he had wanted to live nearby. He had chosen Atlantic City since he figured he could work casino security, but he said it was mind numbingly boring. Manny was happy to move to Trenton from Atlantic City, but for now he was going to stay in the safe house as a caretaker, even after we took Morelli into the TPD.

Finally, we were ready to go back to surveillance on Stark Street. Hector and Carlos had done some entering into the gym where Ramirez worked out, I didn't want to know how, and we had another monitor with two cameras that showed the gym boxing ring and the corridor next to the changing rooms. If I was going to talk to the hookers, we would know when Ramirez was occupied.

I knew Morelli's bond was only one hundred thousand, which meant only fifteen thousand for Rangeman, and I had fretted that we were spending too much money to capture him. But Carlos assured me that having a safe house in Trenton was a longer-term investment and that the equipment they were buying was reusable in other jobs. Additionally, we would need staff on board when we opened the office if we were to attract clients. We had to be able to offer sufficient monitoring and patrols straight away, as well as installing systems and cameras. Carlos assured me it was all worthwhile for the longer term. I hoped so.

So, we were ready. Ready to pick Morelli up, ready to hold him for up to forty-eight hours, and ready to follow up if he seemed legitimately framed.

Tomorrow morning, we would get him!

I struggled to concentrate in our Spanish class that evening. We were practising ordering in a restaurant and had to take turns being a server and a customer, while ordering dinner, asking for special requests for cooking, seeking the restrooms, and paying the check. At one point, I asked for my meal to be burnt! And then I told Tricia her special request was twenty thousand dollars, instead of twenty dollars! When I told Tricia, as the customer, that I needed the men's room, Tricia laughed at me uproariously, but I knew she understood my distraction. She knew something big was underway, and as usual, she worried for Bobby as much as I worried for Carlos and everyone else.

Tricia and I had tried to speak Spanish to each other as much as we could, whenever we were together. Carlos helped me out, speaking Spanish to me slowly whenever we were alone together. And we still practiced with Hector every Saturday as we usually ate lunch after Tricia's shift finished at the library. I had signed up for the intermediate class, which would start in two weeks. We were being tested next week for the beginner class. Tricia had hesitated at first about taking the intermediate class. She had struggled a little; Tricia had less practice than me, as I was around Carlos and Hector much more, but eventually she decided to persist with the class. She was enjoying it, and she was definitely as good as, or better than, most of the others in the beginner class.

I pulled myself together, as we moved onto our next exercise; this time taking turns to ask for directions. I had to find a restaurant, a movie theatre, and a car rental store. Tricia had to find an office building, a bank, and a hotel. We were practising a lot of what we had learned over the last five weeks, as we were preparing for the exam. I took a deep breath.

"Disculpe, ¿podría decirme cómo encontrar el Teatro Maxim?" I asked Tricia.

Tricia looked at her script, in English, and mentally prepared herself to answer, "Son dos cuadras más allá, a mano derecha." She replied.

Our scripts were different; we didn't know what each other's said, so I had to work out what she had told me. Our tutor, Lucia, paused and listened to me as I said, haltingly, "Gracias, caminaré dos cuadras y está a la derecha."

"Si, eso es correcto," Tricia responded after a minute of thought.

Lucia smiled at us and said, "Bueno," as she moved on to the next pair.

Tricia grinned at me and took her own deep breath before continuing, "¿Puedes decirme cómo caminar hasta el hotel Royal?"

I consulted my script. I had to tell Tricia to turn left, then continue for three blocks, before turning left again. I struggled a bit to figure this out. "Gira a la izquierda, camina tres cuadras de la ciudad y camina hacia la izquierda... otra vez también." I stammered.

Tricia looked completely lost and we giggled as we tried to figure out how to explain to each other what we were trying to say.

We're nearly there and we'll see how this will play out. Thanks for your suggestions on Morelli, Lula, and Ramirez. I have had my own ideas, but your thoughts have changed a couple of details for me, so your reviews are really helping!

Remember, Steph and Tricia are learning Spanish. They make mistakes and use strange expressions.

Translations from Google:

"Disculpe, ¿podría decirme cómo encontrar el Teatro Maxim?"

Excuse me, can you please tell me how to find the Maxim Theater?

"Son dos cuadras más allá, a mano derecha."

It is two blocks that way, on the right hand side.

"Gracias, caminaré dos cuadras y está a la derecha."

Thank you, I will walk two blocks and it is on the right?

"Si, eso es correcto,"

Yes, that is correct.

"¿Puedes decirme cómo caminar hasta el hotel Royal?"

Can you please tell me how to walk to the Royal hotel?

"Gira a la izquierda, camina tres cuadras de la ciudad y camina hacia la izquierda... otra vez también."

Turn left, walk three city blocks and go walking left... again, as well.

And yes, the translations are formal and stilted. That's what happens when you are learning a new language! And I tried to make some deliberate mistakes, so they might be mine, or they might be Google's! :)