'Vinnie's house in Point Pleasant.'
'Who knows about this?'
'Connie, Lula, and me.'
He reached across, unzipped my sweatshirt, and released the Velcro tabs on the vest. 'This isn't going to help you, Babe,' he said.
'Junkman shot his last two victims in the head.'
I removed the sweatshirt and the vest and put the sweatshirt back on. It had stopped raining, but it had gotten cooler.
Ranger dialed Ella and told her we were leaving. He got a utility belt and sweatshirt from the dressing room. The black nylon web belt carried a gun, a stun gun, pepper spray, cuffs, and a Maglite, plus ammo. We left the apartment, locked up, and took the elevator. There were two men waiting in the garage. I knew them both. Tank and Hal. They took a black Ford Explorer, and Ranger and I took the Porsche Turbo. Ranger was wearing the sweatshirt.
The belt was in the back.
We rolled out of the garage and cut over to Broad. It was a dark, moonless night. The cloud cover was low, threatening more rain.
The SUV's headlights stayed constant behind us. Ranger was silent, driving relaxed, his sweatshirt sleeves pushed halfway up his forearms, his watch catching the occasional light from overhead streetlights.
I wasn't nearly so relaxed. I was worried that Anton Ward might have escaped. And I was worried that he might still be there. 'You aren't going to hurt him, are you?' I asked Ranger.
Ranger flicked a glance at me via the rear-view mirror. 'Babe,' he said.
'I know he probably killed a couple people,' I said. 'But I'm sort of responsible for his safety.'
'You want to explain that?'
I told Ranger how we bonded Ward out and then kidnapped him.
'Nice,' Ranger said.
Vinnie's street was totally black, not a single light burning. Ranger tucked the Porsche into the driveway, and Tank pulled the SUV in behind him.
'I can leave you in the car with Hal,' Ranger said, getting the belt from the back. 'Would you feel more comfortable with that?'
'No. I'm coming in.'
The house was quiet, but I could feel Ward's sullen presence.
He was in the bathroom, just as we left him, shackled to the toilet and sink pipe. He didn't look happy to see Ranger.
'Do you know who I am?' Ranger asked him quietly.
Ward nodded his head, checking out the belt with the gun and the Maglite. 'Yeah, I know who you are.'
'I'm going to ask you some questions,' Ranger said. 'And you need to give me the right answers.'
Ward's eyes darted from me to Ranger and beyond Ranger to Tank.
'If you don't give me the right answers, I'm going to leave you alone in the house with Tank and Hal,' Ranger said. 'Do you understand?'
'Yeah, I understand.'
'Tell me about Junkman.'
'Nothing to tell. He's from out of town. LA. Nobody even knows his name. Just Junkman.'
'Where does he live?'
'Moves around, livin' with the bitches. Always got a new bitch. We're not exactly best friends, you know? Like I don't know his bitches.'
'What's the deal with the killing? What's the list about?'
'Hey, man, I can't talk to you about these things. I'm a brother.'
Ranger whacked Ward in the knee with the Maglite, and Ward went down like a sack of sand.
'Anybody finds out I talked to you, I'm a dead man,' Ward said, holding his knee.
'You don't talk to me and you're going to wish you were dead,' Ranger said.
'It's about being Five Star General. Junkman was a lieutenant in the organization out in LA. He got sent here to take over on account of Trenton's had some leadership problems. Power vacuum after our
????
'Are you okay?' he asked.
'I'm fine. It was getting boring, so I thought I'd take a nap.'
This got me the almost-smile. 'We're done with Anton Ward. Do you have plans for him?'
'I was going to revoke his bond and put him back in jail.'
'And the reason for this?'
'He agreed to wear a PTU and then refused when we got him released, escaping out the bonds office bathroom window before we could install the unit.'
'I'll have Tank take care of it. Well hold him over until tomorrow morning, so we can get the paperwork straight. Did you bring him in blindfolded?'
'He was wrapped in a blanket. It was dark and I doubt he saw much.'
It took forty minutes to get back to Trenton and neither of us spoke. Normal for Ranger. Not normal for me. I had a lot of thoughts in my head, but almost none of them were thoughts I wanted to say out loud. Ranger parked the car, and we got out together. When we got in the elevator, he touched the number four button.
'What's on the fourth floor?' I asked.
'Studio apartments that are available to Range Man employees. I moved one of the men out so you could have your own place until it's safe for you to leave.' The doors opened to the fourth floor and Ranger wrapped my hand around a key. 'Don't expect me to always be this civilized.'
'I'm undone. I don't know what to say.'
Ranger took the key back, crossed the hall, and opened the door to 4B. He flipped the light on, gave me the key, and shoved me inside.
'Lock the door before I change my mind,' he said. 'Hit seven if you need me.'
I closed and locked the door and looked around. Kitchenette against one wall. Queen-size bed in an alcove. Writing desk and chair. Comfy-looking leather couch. Coffee table and television. All done in earth tones. Clean and tasteful. The bed was made with fresh sheets. The bathroom had clean towels and a basket of toiletries.
My clothes were freshly washed and folded in a wicker basket at the edge of the sleeping alcove.
I took a shower and got dressed in a clean T-shirt and boxer shorts. The boxers weren't black and silky and sexy like Ranger's.
They were soft cotton. Pink with little yellow daisies. Seemed just right for spending an evening alone, pretending life was safe and happy.
It was a couple minutes after ten, so I called Morelli at home.
No answer. Painful contraction around my heart, resulting from irrational stab of jealous insecurity. If I was having a hard time keeping my hands off Ranger, Morelli could be having a similar problem. Women followed him down the street and committed crimes, hoping to meet him, Morelli wouldn't have a problem finding a sympathetic body to sleep beside.
Morelli with another woman wasn't an appealing thought, so I sunk into the couch and did some channel surfing, looking for a diversion. I settled on a West Coast ball game. I watched for ten minutes but couldn't get involved. I channel-surfed some more. I looked up at the ceiling. Ranger was three floors above me. It was more comfortable to think about Ranger than to think about Morelli. Thinking about Ranger got me overheated and frustrated.
Thinking about Morelli got me sad.
I shut the television off, crawled into bed, and ordered myself to go to sleep. A half hour later I was still awake. The little room felt sterile. It was safe, but it gave no comfort. The pillow didn't smell like Ranger. And Anton Ward's words kept cycling through my brain. A tear slid out of my eye. Jeez. What was the deal with the tears! It wasn't even that time of the month. Maybe it was my diet.
Not enough Tastykakes. Too many vegetables.
I got out of bed, grabbed all my keys, and took the elevator to the seventh floor. I marched across the foyer
