“Some damage in the dining room and living room. Mostly rugs and curtains. The couch is gone. Some water damage and smoke damage. You should be able to get in tomorrow to look around, but you’re not going to want to live in it until a cleaning crew goes through.”
“What about the bathroom?”
“It didn’t reach the bathroom.”
I’d been hoping the bathroom was destroyed. I really needed a bathroom remodel.
It was another hour before the fire trucks rumbled out of my lot and I was able to move the Buick. Hal was still at curbside. I rolled my window down and told him he could go back to Rangeman.
“I’m going to spend the night at my parents’ house,” I said.
“Do you want me to follow?”
“No. I’ll be fine on my own.”
I drove down Hamilton, cut into the Burg, and parked in front of my parents’ house. The house was dark. No lights shining anywhere. Everyone had turned in for the night.
There are three small bedrooms and one bath on the second floor. My parents share a room, Grandma has a room, and the third room was mine when I lived at home. It hasn’t changed much over the years. A new bedspread and new curtains that look exactly like the old ones. I quietly crept up the stairs, carefully opened the door to my room, and had a couple beats of utter confusion. Someone was in my bed. Someone huge. Someone snoring! It was like Goldilocks, but reversed. The mountain of quilt-covered flesh turned and faced me. It was Lula!
I was dumbstruck.
When she said she’d find a place to stay, it never occurred to me it would be with my parents, in my bed. I was torn between hauling her out of my room and silently skulking away into the night. I debated it for a moment, took a step back, and closed the door. Let’s face facts, there was no way I could haul Lula anywhere. I tiptoed out of the house, got into the Buick, and drove to Rangeman.
RANGER WAS IN his apartment when I walked in. He was in the kitchen, standing at the counter and eating a sandwich.
“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to barge in on you. I didn’t realize you were here.”
“I wouldn’t have given you a key if I felt I needed privacy,” Ranger said. “You can come and go as you please.”
“Any more sandwiches?”
“In the refrigerator.”
I took a sandwich, unwrapped it, and bit into it. “It’s been a long night.”
“I can see that,” Ranger said. “You look like you’ve been dragged through a swamp fire.”
My sneakers were soaked, my jeans had wicked water up to my knees, and I was head-to-toe soot.
“The Chipotle killers firebombed my apartment. I saw them in the parking lot. I think they were after Lula.”
“Is Morelli making any progress?”
“He’s got a name for one of them.” I went to the fridge and found a beer. “I thought you’d be on patrol.”
“My route took me through town, so I decided to take a break and get something to eat.” Ranger finished his sandwich and washed it down with a bottle of water. “I’m going back out.”
I walked him to the door and watched him take a key from the silver server on the breakfront. Ranger always kept three cars for his personal use. The Porsche Turbo, a Mercedes sedan, and a Porsche Cayenne. He used to have a truck that he loved, but it went to truck heaven and was never replaced. The key he chose tonight was for a Cayenne.
“Replaced already?” I asked him.
“It would have been here sooner, but they had to install the lockbox under the seat.”
“I guess you’re all about instant gratification.”
Ranger grabbed me and kissed me. “If I was all about instant gratification, you’d be naked and in bed.”
And he left.
FIFTEEN
I OPENED MY eyes and looked at the bedside clock. Almost six in the morning. I heard keys clink onto the silver server in the hall, and I knew Ranger was home. I vacated the bed and sleepwalked into the dressing room. Not a lot of variety to my clothing choices. Black everything. Life was simple at Rangeman, and this was a good thing at this hour because I wasn’t capable of complicated thoughts, such as red shirt or blue shirt.
I grabbed some clothes and hustled into the bathroom. When I came out, Ranger was eating breakfast at the small dining room table.
“It looks like Ella’s been here,” I said to him.
“She brought you coffee and an omelet.”
There was also a breadbasket, plus a fresh fruit platter with raspberries, blackberries, and kiwi. Ranger had a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon.
“How was your night?” I asked him.
“Uneventful. And yours?”
“Uneventful once I got here,” I said.
Ranger pushed back from the table and stood.
“What are your plans for today?”
“I want to take another stab at capturing Myron Kaplan. I’m hoping to get into my apartment to at least look around. And we have to sign in for the barbecue cook-off this afternoon. Tomorrow is the big day.”
“I hate to point out the obvious, but so far as I know, you can’t cook.”
“It’s about barbecue sauce,” I said. “You take some ketchup and add pepper, and you’ve got sauce.”
Ranger grinned down at me. “And this is why I love you.” He kissed me on the top of my head. “I need to get some sleep. Take whatever car you want.”
I finished my omelet, had a second cup of coffee, and headed out, grabbing the keys to the new Cayenne. It would be fun to drive the Turbo, but it wasn’t practical for hauling felons back to jail. I stepped into the elevator, pushed the button for garage level, and waved at the little camera in the corner up by the ceiling, knowing someone was manning a monitor, looking at me. And that’s when it hit me. The camera.
I got to the garage and hit the button to go back to the seventh floor. I let myself into Ranger’s apartment and yelled out to him. “I’ve got it!”
“I’m in the bedroom,” Ranger said.
“Are you naked?”
“Do you want me to be?”
“No.” That was a total lie, but I was too chicken to say yes. Even if a woman was sworn off men for life, she’d still want to see Ranger naked. And I was only sworn off men for the time being.
He walked out to see me. “What do you have?”
“Suppose our man gets into the house under some pretext. Like maybe he’s checking phone lines or cable lines. And then he plants a small camera in such a way that it gets a video of the owner punching in the code. And then a couple days later, he comes back and gets the camera. Or maybe the camera sends the video out to an exterior location and then he gets the camera when he commits the robbery. Could he do that?”
“I suppose it could be done, but there’ve been a lot of break-ins, and no one has noticed a camera.”
“Yeah, but these cameras are small. And maybe they get placed alongside other devices like smoke detectors or motion sensors.”
“I like it,” Ranger said. “Run with it.”
“Would you mind if I went to some of your accounts and did a fast check of the areas where touch pads have been installed?”
“Make sure you show them your Rangeman ID and tell them you’re a tech.”
I ROLLED OUT of the garage and realized it was barely seven o’clock. What on earth is a person supposed to do at this hour? I could go to breakfast at the diner, but I’d just eaten. My parents would be getting up around now,
