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“Forget it,” I said. “I’m not commenting on that one.”
Hal flushed red, and Ramon gave a bark of laughter.
I finished my sandwich and pushed back from the table. “I’m going for a walk around the building. Is there anyplace off-limits for us worker people?”
“Only the seventh floor. No one would mind if you went into the men’s locker room, but there could be a lot of wood if you stayed too long. And then Ranger would probably fire us all,” Ramon said.
“I don’t want to get anyone fired.”
“That’s good,” Hal said, “because everyone here wants to keep their job.”
“Not everyone,” Ramon said.
I cut my eyes to him.
“You were on the job last night,” he said to me. “I’m sure you know the problem. Everyone in the building knows the problem.”
“Then why isn’t the problem solved?” I asked him.
Ramon did palms-up. “Good question. If I knew, I would tell immediately. And so would Hal. And before this happened, I would say every man in the building would tell and would lay down their life for Ranger.”
“Maybe it’s not in the building,” I said to Ramon.
“I would like to believe that.”
I glanced at Hal. “What do you think?”
Hal shook his head. “I don’t know what to think. It used to be we were a team here, and now we’re all pulled up inside ourselves. It’s creepy working with people who are looking at you funny.”
I stood and gathered my trash off the table. “I’m sure Ranger has it under control. He doesn’t seem overly worried.”
“I saw Ranger jump off a bridge into the Delaware River in January once. He was going after a skip, and he didn’t seem overly worried,” Ramon said. “He handed me his gun, and he did about a sixty-foot free fall into black water.”
“Did he get the skip?” I asked him.
“Yeah. He dragged the guy out and cuffed him.”
“So he was right not to be worried.”
“Anyone else would have fuckin’ died. Ex
cuse the language.”
I wandered out of the kitchen, walked past my cubicle and down the hall to Ranger’s office.
“Knock, knock,” I said at his open door.
He looked up from his computer. “Babe.”
“Do you have a minute?”
“I’ve got as much time as you need.”
I knew he wasn’t just talking about conversation, and there was a quality to his voice that gave me a rush. And then, for some inexplicable reason, I thought about Morelli. Morelli didn’t flirt like Ranger. Morelli would say sure and then he’d look down my shirt to try to see some boob. It was actually very playful, and it felt affectionate when Morelli did it.
Ranger relaxed back in his chair. “I’m pretty sure I lost you for a couple beats.”
“My mind wandered.”
