Hot Six

'You know anything about rugs?'

'I know they go on the floor.'

I told him Mooner's story about the million-dollar rug.

'Maybe it wasn't the rug that was worth a million dollars,' Morelli said. 'Maybe there was something inside the rug.'

'Such as?'

Morelli just looked at me.

I did some out-loud questioning. 'What's small enough to fit in a rug? Drugs?'

'I saw a segment of the security tape from the Ramos fire,' Morelli said. 'Homer Ramos was carrying a gym bag when he walked past the hidden camera the night he met Ranger. And Ranger was carrying the bag when he left. Word on the street is that Arturo Stolle is missing a load of money and wants to talk to Ranger. What do you think?'

'I think maybe Stolle gives Ramos drugs. Ramos passes the drugs on to be cut and distributed and ends up with a gym bag filled with money, some or all of which might belong to Stolle. Something happens between Ranger and Homer Ramos, and Ranger gets the bag.'

'And if that's the way it went down, then probably this was an extracurricular activity for Homer Ramos,' Morelli said. 'Drugs, extortion, and numbers go to organized crime. Guns go to the Ramos family. Alexander Ramos has always respected that.'

Except, in Trenton, it was more like disorganized crime. Trenton fell right in the middle of New York and Philadelphia. No one cared a whole lot about Trenton. Mostly Trenton had a bunch of middle-management guys who spent their days running numbers through social clubs. The numbers money helped give stability to the drug trade. And the drugs were distributed by black street gangs that had names like the Corleones. If it wasn't for the Godfather movies and PBS specials on crime, probably no one in Trenton would know how to act or what to call themselves.

So now I was getting a better picture of why Alexander Ramos might be disenchanted with his son. The question still being, Was he disenchanted enough to have him killed? And maybe I had a reason for Arturo Stolle to be looking for Ranger.

'All this is speculation,' Morelli said. 'Just conversation.'

'You never share police information with me. Why are you telling me this?'

'This isn't exactly police information. This is loose change rattling around in my head. I've been watching Stolle for a long time without much luck. Maybe this is the break I've been waiting for. I need to talk to Ranger, but I can't get him to call me back. So I'm passing this on to you, and you can feed it to Ranger.'

I nodded. 'I'll give him the message.'

'No details on the phone.'

'Understood. How'd it go with Gilman?'

Morelli grinned. 'Let me guess. Your finger accidentally hit the redial button on the phone.'

'All right, I admit it, I'm nosy.'

'Crimes R Us is having some organizational problems. I noticed an increase in traffic going in and out of the social clubs, so I expressed some concern to Vito. So Vito sent Terry to assure me the boys weren't stockpiling nuclear arms for World War III.'

'I saw Terry on Wednesday. She delivered a letter to Hannibal Ramos.'

'Crimes R Us and Guns R Us are attempting to reestablish boundaries. Homer Ramos tore down some fences, and now that he's out of the picture, the fences need to be repaired.' Morelli nudged my foot with his. 'Well?'

'Well, what?'

'How about it?'

I was so tired my lips were numb, and Morelli wanted to fool around. 'Sure,' I said. 'Just let me rest my eyes for a minute.'

I closed my eyes, and when I woke up it was morning. Morelli was nowhere to be seen.

'I'm late,' Grandma said, trotting from the bedroom to the kitchen. 'I overslept. It's all those interruptions every night. This place is like Grand Central Station. I got my last driving lesson in a half-hour. And then tomorrow I take my test. I was hoping you could take me for it. First thing in the morning.'

'Sure. I could do that.'

'And then I'm moving out. Nothin' personal, but you live in a loony bin.'

'Where will you go?'

'I'm going back with your mother. Your father deserves to have to put up with me, anyway.'

It was Sunday, and Grandma always went to church on Sunday morning. 'What about church today?'

'No time for church. God's just gonna have to make do without me today. Anyway, your mother will be there representing the family.'

My mother always represented the family, because my father never went to church. My father stayed home and waited for the white bakery bag to arrive. For as long as I can remember, every Sunday morning, my mother went to church and stopped at the bakery on the way home. Every Sunday morning my mother bought jelly doughnuts. Nothing but jelly doughnuts. Cookies, coffee cakes, and cannoli were bought on weekdays. Sunday was jelly doughnut day. It was like taking communion. I'm a Catholic by birth, but in my own personal religion, the Trinity will forever be the Father, the Son, and the Holy Jelly Doughnut.

I clipped the leash onto Bob's collar and took him out for a walk. The air was cool, and the sky was blue. Spring felt like it wasn't too far away. I didn't see Habib and Mitchell in the parking lot. Guess they didn't work on Sunday. I didn't see Joyce Barnhardt, either. That was a relief.

Grandma was gone when I got back, and the apartment was blissfully quiet. I fed Bob. I drank a glass of orange juice. And I crawled under the quilt. I woke up at one o'clock, and I thought about my conversation with Morelli the night before. I'd held out on Morelli. I hadn't told him I'd seen Ranger leaving Hannibal's town house. I wondered if Morelli had kept information from me, too. Chances were good that he had. Our professional relationship had a whole other set of rules from our personal relationship. Morelli had set the tone from the very beginning. There were cop things he just didn't share. The personal rules were still evolving. He had his. And I had mine. Once in a while we agreed. A while ago we'd had a short fling at living together, but Morelli wasn't comfortable with commitment, and I wasn't comfortable with confinement. So we separated.

I heated up a can of chicken noodle soup and called Morelli. 'Sorry about last night,' I said.

'At first I was afraid you'd died.'

'I was tired.'

'I figured that out.'

'Grandma's gone for the day, and I have some work to do. I was wondering if you'd baby-sit Bob for me.'

'For how long?' Morelli asked. 'A day? A year?'

'A couple hours.'

I called Lula next. 'I need to do some breaking and entering. Want to come along?'

'Hell, yes. Nothing I like better than illegal entry.'

I dropped Bob off and gave Morelli instructions. 'Keep your eye on him. He eats everything.'

'Maybe we should make him a cop,' Morelli said. 'What's his liquor capacity?'

Lula was waiting on her stoop when I drove up. She was discreetly dressed in poison green spandex pants and a shocking pink faux-fur jacket. You could stand her on a corner, in a fog, at midnight, and she'd be visible for three miles.

'Nice outfit,' I said.

'I wanted to look hot in case I got arrested. You know how they take your picture, and all.' She buckled herself in and looked over at me. 'You're gonna be sorry you wore that drab-ass shirt. It's not gonna show up. And for that matter, you didn't even mousse your hair. What kind of Jersey hair is that?'

'I'm not planning on getting arrested.'

'You never know. Doesn't hurt to take some precaution and add a little extra eyeliner. Who we breaking in on, anyway?'

'Hannibal Ramos.'

'Say what? You mean like the brother of the dead Homer Ramos? And the number one son of the Gun King, Alexander Ramos? Are you freakin' nuts?'