Vinnie was lounging in the doorway to his inner office. “Who’s this clown?” Vinnie asked.
“Albert Kloughn,” Ranger said. “He’s an attorney.”
I stopped short of asking how Ranger knew Kloughn. The answer was obvious. Ranger knew everything.
“Let me guess,” Vinnie said to me. “You need another pair of cuffs.”
“Wrong. I need an address. I need to talk to Dotty Palowski.”
Connie fed the name to the search system. A minute later the information started coming in. “She’s Dotty Rheinhold now. And she’s living in South River.” Connie printed the page and handed it over to me. “She’s divorced with two kids, and she works for the Turnpike Authority in East Brunswick.”
Ordinarily I’d stay to chat, but I was afraid someone would ask about Kloughn’s nose.
“Gotta run,” I said. “Things to do.”
I paused just outside the office door. I was sheltered by a small overhead awning. Beyond the awning, the rain fell in a relentless drizzle that didn’t measure up to downpour status but was enough to ruin my hair and soak into my jeans.
Ranger followed me out. “It might be good to keep more than one bullet in your gun, babe.”
“You heard about the snakes?”
“I ran into Costanza. He was looking at life through the bottom of a beer glass.”
“I’m not having much luck finding Annie Soder.”
“You’re not the only one.”
“Jeanne Ellen can’t find her, either?”
“Not yet.”
Our eyes held for a moment. “Which team are you on?” I asked.
He tucked my hair behind my ear, his fingertips brushing feather light across my temple, his thumb at the line of my jaw. “I have my own team.”
“Tell me about Jeanne Ellen.”
Ranger smiled. “The information would have a price.”
“And the price would be what?”
The smile widened. “Try not to get too wet today,” he said. And he was gone. Damn. What’s with the men in my life? Why do they always leave first? Why don’t
**********************
I PICKED KLOUGHN up at the Laundromat. He was dressed in a black T-shirt and black jeans, wearing his new bond enforcement hat. And he had brown tassel loafers on his feet. The pepper spray was clipped to his belt. The cuffs had been shoved into his back pocket. His eyes and nose were an alarming shade of black, blue, and green.
“Wow,” I said. “You look awful.”
“It’s the tassels, right? I wasn’t sure if the tassels went with the outfit. I could go home and change. I could have worn black shoes, but I thought they were too dressy.”
“It’s not the tassels, it’s your eyes and nose.” Okay, and it’s the tassels. Kloughn got in and buckled his seat belt. “I guess that’s all part of the job. Gotta get physical sometimes, right? Goes with the territory, you know what I mean?”
“Your territory is law.”
“Yeah, but I’m an assistant bond enforcer, too, right? I’m walking the mean streets with you, right?”
