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“I almost never kill people,” I said to no one in particular.
We sat for another half hour in our own thoughts, until an aide came to find us.
“Pierre is out of surgery and awake,” she said. “You can see him now.”
I looked at Ranger. “Pierre?”
“If you want to live, you'll forget you heard that,”
Ranger said. “Tank isn't overly fond of being named Pierre.”
Lula was already in the room when we got there.
“Hows it going?” I asked her.
“I'm better now,” she said. “I just had a moment, but I had a glass of juice and a pill, and now I'm back to my old self.”
“I thought that was your old self,” I said to Lula.
“Hunh,” Lula said.
Tank had his eyes open, but there wasn't much going on behind them, and he looked like he was down a quart of blood.
“I talked to the doctor, and he said Tank's in good shape,” Lula said. “He's just still dopey from the anesthetic. He might even be able to go home tomorrow.”
Stephanie Plum 13 - Lean Mean Thirteen
“Yo,” Tank said.
“Yo,” we all answered.
“I'm gonna stay with him awhile,” Lula said. “Make sure he don't rip no tubes out chasing nurses down the hall.”
Ranger and Tank did one of those male bonding hand things, and Ranger and Morelli and I filed out of the room and into the hall.
“I'm going back to my apartment,” I said. “Maybe I can find whatever it was Dickie was looking for.”
“If you'll take over my Stephanie watch, I can visit Dave,” Ranger said to Morelli.
“Done,” Morelli said.
I felt my blood pressure raise just a tic. “Excuse me. Time out. Nice to know you're concerned about my welfare, but I'm not excited about getting passed around like luggage.”
Morelli and Ranger looked at each other.
'The ball's in your court," Ranger said to Morelli.
“I have nothing,” Morelli said.
“Terrific/' I told him. ”You have exactly one minute to come up with something. And while you're at it, you can explain this buddy-buddy routine. What happened to the rivalry, the animosity? You used to think Ranger was a nut. What about that?"
They stood hands on hips, counting down.
“It's her time of the month,” Morelli finally said.
“Dude,” Ranger said.
I huffed out of the hospital to the parking garage and realized I had no car. The Porsche was still in my lot.
