He grabbed my hand and yanked me to my feet. 'Sometimes you try my patience.'
'You don't like it? You can leave.'
He slammed me into the wall and kissed me. 'I didn't say I didn't like it.'
'Okay, good to get that straightened out,' I said. 'Are we going to get muffins, or what?'
He walked to the lot with me, stuffed me into the passenger seat on the Mini and got behind the wheel.
'I thought you were supposed to be secretly following me. I thought I was supposed to be luring Scrog into action.'
'This morning we're both luring him into action. Where do you want to go for muffins?'
'Tasty Pastry. And then Italian Bakery. And then Prizolli's. And then Cluck-in-a-Bucket for a breakfast muffin. And then the convenience store on Hamilton for a paper.'
'Trying to get yourself kidnapped?'
'Do you have a better idea?'
Ranger drove out of the lot and headed for Hamilton. 'Nice to know you're going proactive.'
By the time we got to the convenience store we had the Mini filled with muffin bags. 'Get coffee and a couple papers,' Ranger said. 'We'll have a picnic.'
Ten minutes later, we were on a bench in front of a used bookstore on Hamilton, next to the bonds office. The only way we'd have higher visibility would be to stand in the middle of the road.
'Anybody following us?' I asked Ranger.
'Three cars. Tank in the green SUV, a grey Taurus, and a mini-van.'
'Aren't you afraid you'll get arrested?'
'I'm more afraid I'll get shot by some good Samaritan citizen who saw my picture on America's Most Wanted.' He took a coffee and called Tank. 'Do you have a fix on the Taurus and minivan?'
I chose a carrot cake muffin and waited through a couple beats of silence while Ranger took in the information.
'Amateur bounty hunters,' Ranger finally said to me. 'Disable them,' Ranger said to Tank. 'I don't want Stephanie dragging that clutter around with her.' He disconnected, and we sat there for a half hour eating our muffins, drinking our coffee and reading the paper. We were ready to leave for greener pastures when Morelli drove by, came to a screeching halt, and pulled to the curb. He got out of his SUV and walked over to us.
'You want to explain this to me?'
I told him about Edward Scrog and the scrapbook and the computer blogs.
'So you're sitting here trying to provoke him into making a move?'
'Yep.'
'This is a dangerous stupid idea. He shot his wife and there's no reason to think he won't shoot you.'
'Yeah,' I said. 'But I don't think he'll shoot me right away.'
'That makes me feel a lot better,' Morelli said. 'I'll tell that to my acid reflux.'
'I'll be fine. I swear!' I told him.
Morelli made a disgusted hand gesture. 'I didn't see this,' Morelli said. 'But I want to be kept appraised of the evidence you gather. And if you overstep boundaries with Stephanie and move in on me,' he said, turning to Ranger, 'I'll find you, and it won't be good.'
Morelli took a blueberry muffin out of a bag, jogged back to his car, and took off.
Ranger smiled at me. 'Just so you know, that's not going to stop me from trying to move in on him.'