My cell phone rang and was so startling in the silent apartment, it had me out of my seat.
'I'm still at work,' Morelli said. 'This is going to be a late night.'
'That's okay,' I said. 'I'm at work, too. Maybe I'll see you tomorrow.'
I didn't have a name, but I had a picture. And I knew Ranger was on top of it all. I shut his computer down, shut the lights off, and locked up behind myself. I rode the elevator to the garage, waved good-bye at the security camera, and drove away.
I stopped at Pino's on the way home and picked up a pizza and a six-pack. Then I rode past the bonds office out of morbid curiosity. Not much to see, thank heaven. The car had been removed.
I carted the pizza and beer upstairs, opened my door, and realised the lights were on in my apartment. I experienced a nanosecond of terror until I saw Ranger sitting in my living room.
'Jeez!' I said. 'You scared the crap out of me. I thought you were in Florida.'
Ranger unfolded himself and closed the space between us. 'I just got back.'
He took the pizza box and the beer and carried them to the kitchen. We each took a beer and a slice of pizza and ate standing at the counter.
'Did you water my plants?' Ranger wanted to know.
'Ella waters your plants.'
He went to my shoulder bag, rummaged around in it, and pulled out the two pieces of paper with the Un-Ranger pictures.
'I'm impressed. Where did you find them?' he asked.
'In a file in your hard drive. I couldn't get anything else because I couldn't decode your name. If I'd been really desperate I would have called Silvio.'
'Tank wasn't helpful?'
'Tank's entire vocabulary consists of seven words. Ten, tops. You could have returned a phone call and saved me a lot of trouble,' I said.
'People can listen in on phone calls.'
Ranger took an unheard-of third piece of pizza.
'Wow,' I said. 'You must be hungry.'
His eyes were dark when he looked at me. 'Babe, you don't want to go there.'
My heart skipped a beat. 'Probably not,' I said. I picked the Un-Ranger picture off the counter. 'Do you know who this is?'
'No name. Just this photo. It was taken two days before the kidnapping. We thought it was simple identity theft and didn't have him under twenty-four-hour surveillance. Big mistake, because he checked out of his motel in the middle of the night and the next day he kidnapped Julie. We've been two steps behind him ever since.'
'Everyone thinks you kidnapped Julie.'
'Not everyone. Rachel and Ron know I didn't take her. I have a good relationship with them. And the lead agency man knows. We made a decision to go this route and hope the kidnapper feels comfortable enough to get sloppy. The downside is my picture's been all over the media and now my movement is limited. So I could use some help.'
'Why don't you just go blond?'
'I've been blond. When I go blond I look like I should be singing with the Village People.'
I burst out laughing. The visual was so perfect.
'You have a sense of humor,' I said to him. 'Who would have thought?'
'There are lots of things you don't know about me.'
'Just about everything.' I gave Rex a piece of pizza crust. 'Your cars were all parked at RangeMan.'