Grandma's eyes lit. 'Paratroopers! Wouldn't that be something.'
'I'll try to get back later,' I told everyone. I stopped in front of the hall mirror to pick the branches out of my hair and to take a close look at the cut. I'd never before thought of myself as cute. Sometimes I felt sexy. And sometimes I felt downright fat and stupid. Cute was a new one.
I opened the front door and waved at Ranger. 'Visit's over.'
'That was fast.'
'The woman who lives across the street thinks you're a terrorist. She said she was calling the army.'
'You have plenty of time then,' Ranger said. 'It'll take the army a while to mobilize.'
Ranger drove me back to Morelli's house. We clipped Bob to his leash, I stuffed a couple plastic sandwich bags into my jeans pocket, and we ambled down the street after Bob. Me and the terrorist out for a stroll with the dog.
'I feel like I should be doing something to find the carnation killer,' I said.
'You have state and local police working on it now. They have a lot of resources and they have some good stuff to trace back. The photos, the emails, the flowers. And now they have interrelated murders. They can reexamine them and look for commonality. And they'll go back through case histories to see if they can find other victims of the game. Your job right now is to stay alive.'
I glanced over at Ranger. He'd gone through three of the victims' apartments. Plus Bart's townhouse. 'Have you been through Klein's house?'
'I went through last night while the police were there.'
'The police allowed you access?'
'I have friends.'
'Morelli?'
'Juniak.'
Joe Juniak used to be police chief. He was elected mayor of Trenton and now was running for governor.
'Klein lived with his parents,' Ranger said. 'His room was a typical kid's room. Messy, posters of rock bands, small arsenal under his bed, and a personal stash of pot in his underwear drawer.'
'You think that's a typical kid's room?'
'It was in my neighborhood.'
'What about a computer?'
'Klein had a laptop. His parents said he took it everywhere with him. It wasn't in his room and it wasn't in his truck.
Probably the webmaster took the computer after he shot Klein. Paressi's computer was missing. Rosen's computer was missing. By the time the police got to Howie's apartment, his computer was missing.'
'Klein slipped up somehow when he took out Singh. He didn't get Singh's computer,' I said.
'He was probably waiting for Lu to leave, but you and Connie and Lula were in place by then.'
Bob stopped, hunched in front of old Mr. Galucci's house, and conversation was momentarily suspended while we watched Bob poop. How embarrassing is this? Poop is not something I feel comfortable sharing with Ranger. Actually, I'm not comfortable sharing poop with anyone. I'm not even comfortable with it when I'm alone.
When Bob was done I scooped the poop up in a sandwich bag. And now the horror continued because I had a bag of poop and no place to put it.
'Babe,' Ranger said.
Hard to tell if he was horrified or impressed by my poop scooping. 'I don't suppose you have a dog in the Bat Cave?' I asked him.
'The Bat Cave is dog free.'
Bob pulled at the leash and we continued walking.
'Everyone involved had a laptop,' I said. 'Did they have anything else in common?'
'Singh, Howie, Rosen, and Klein were all computer geeks and loners. Paressi doesn't entirely fit the profile, but she became a computer junkie when she broke up with Scrugs. Probably there's a connection between her and Rosen. Maybe Paressi talked to Rosen about the game and Rosen came on board after Paressi was killed. They were all between the ages of nineteen and twenty-seven. Rosen was the oldest. None were especially successful.'
'Bart Cone doesn't fit the profile, does he?'
Ranger was looking ahead at houses and cars. 'Not entirely, but he fits better than Andrew.' Ranger turned at the sound of a car a block behind us, traveling in our direction. He had his hand resting on his gun and his eyes stayed steady on the car. The car passed without incident and Ranger dropped his hand off the gun.
'Andrew lives in a nice midrange house with his wife. It's a stable relationship. They like to cook. They vacation at the Jersey shore. They have two kids.
'Clyde lives in a rental house on State Street. He shares the house with two other guys. I'm guessing he's known them forever. I found a photo of the three of them when they were in high school. The house is pretty much a wreck inside and out. Thrift shop furniture, broken blinds, refrigerator filled with beer and take-out boxes.'
'So Andrew and Clyde aren't loner computer geeks.'
