After they’d further secured Floyd, who was just beginning to stir, and after Robert stated he was awaiting another crew to tie up things at the garage, Bonaparte and Angela started walking.
“Now what?” Bonaparte asked.
“We’ll be a couple more hours here,” she said, rotating her neck and head. “Plus there’s about a million reports to write up.”
“I think the sheriff needs a day off,” he said.
“Well, it won’t happen any time soon,” she said.
“Can you work from home tomorrow?”
She thought about it. “Maybe,” she said. “I’m sure my office will still be a crime scene for the forensic team to process, regarding this whole mess with my prisoners.”
“That’s fine,” he said. “We can still cook the ribs when we’re done.”
“Yeah, what about Stone?”
“We can invite him, if you want. We’ll cook the steaks too, if we need more food.”
“That’d be nice,” she said.
Pulling out his phone, Bonaparte punched in a number and said, “Stone, we’re pretty well in the clear. How are you doing?”
Stone laughed and said, “It’s been quiet here.”
“Well, that’s good,” he said. “We’ve seen enough action for quite a while. I’m trying to drag her back home again, but it’s gonna be a few hours before we’re free and clear. Are you up for ribs tomorrow, or are you leaving right away?”
“I’m heading into town with the evidence,” he said.
“Right, I forgot about that. You sticking around town for long, or will you be done?”
“I’ll need to come back tomorrow,” Stone said.
“Good, come for a barbecue then.”
“Those ribs?”
Yeah,” he said, “the ribs.”
“I’ll be there,” he said enthusiastically.
Pocketing his phone, Bonaparte said, “Ribs it is, with Stone tomorrow.”
“Perfect,” Angela said.
“I promised, and I mean to deliver too,” he said. With a grin, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and said, “Let’s head back to the station, leave these guys to their work.”
“I don’t know if we should leave Robert alone to handle this,” she said. “We still don’t know who all is involved in this scheme.”
Bonaparte nodded, then pulled her away from the scene behind him, and said, “Absolutely. I spoke with Levi, and he’s got tracking on all known associates of Ronnie and Johnny. Oh, and our Hummer guy, he has ties to another mob family, as well as to the evil brothers and their own Gapone mob family. Maybe the Gapones got their seed money from for these real estate ventures from the other family. Anyway, Levi gave me the all clear. So Robert will take care of cleaning up this mess here at the garage.”
“Oh, good,” she said. “If we can leave then, that would be lovely.”
When they arrived at the station, she realized it was still full as well. She looked at everybody working away. “You know what? Stone told me to relax, that it would be a while. So I may as well just go home.”
“You do that,” the coroner said. “I think you’ve been involved in enough chaos today.”
“Yeah, about that,” she said. “You probably don’t know yet that you’ve got another crime scene.”
He looked at her. “How many bodies?”
She winced and said, “Four, that I know of.”
He just stared at her, his jaw dropping.
“I only took out one,” she said, her hands up, palms showing.
And Bonaparte chimed in, “And one for me. But seems the bad guys took out the other two.”
Shaking his head, the coroner finally closed his mouth, then said, “Well, I was hoping to get some sleep tonight, but I guess that will have to wait.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“Go,” he said, “both of you. Get the hell out of my world,” the doc said. “You make too much work for me. I’m trying to retire. Remember?”
“And here I thought you came as a special deal anyway,” Angela teased.
“I did,” he snapped in mock anger. “But that doesn’t mean I wanted to push my retirement back twenty years. Do you have any idea how much paperwork this involves?”
She smiled and said, “Yeah, I have a fair amount backlogged myself. May I just say that your participation is really appreciated.”
“Get lost, you two,” he said, with a muffled chuckle.
“Will do.”
And, with that, Bonaparte realized it was finally time for them to leave. “It’s also dark,” he said, “and it’s been a shit show all day. Let’s go home and recharge.”
“I can get behind that,” she said.
Chapter 13
Outside, Angela hopped into the vehicle and stared at the steering wheel in front of her.
He opened the door, looked at her, and said, “Move over.”
She protested immediately. “I can drive.”
“Doesn’t matter if you can or not,” he said, “I’m driving.”
She glared at him but didn’t have enough energy to fight him on this. The farther away from the action they got, the more she had shock setting in.
Pulling out of the parking lot at the sheriff’s office and pointing the truck toward her place, Bonaparte said, “Let’s go home.”
“Yeah,” she said, “that’s a great idea. At least it’s home for me.”
“You’ve got a hell of a place out there,” he said.
“Well, if you’d stick around,” she murmured, “you could spend some time there.”
“And that’s very tempting,” he said.
“Ha,” she said. “Everybody is after me for my property.”
“Hell no,” he said, “I’m after you for your body.”
Totally caught off guard, she burst out laughing.
He grinned at her. “See? You’re feeling much better already.”
“Oh, my God,” she said, “you can’t say things like that to me.”
“Why not?”
She just shook her head, the mirth still bubbling up. “I think I’m too exhausted,” she said. “Suddenly everything is making me laugh, even when it’s not funny.”
“Hey, that was very funny,” he said in an injured tone.
She rolled her eyes. “You’re such a comedian.”
“I can be,” he said. “But don’t forget that I’m also loyal and true and trustworthy.”
“So are puppies.”
At that, he burst out laughing too.
By the time they made it to her place, she knew, by the way she was feeling, that she must look
