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“Too bad. I like this.”
“Me too, but my nose is running. I need a tissue.”
I got a tissue and followed Ranger into the bedroom.
“I don’t see a knife,” Ranger said. “What kind of knife did he have?”
“It was big. The sort of knife you’d use to stab someone.”
He went to the window and looked out. “I assume this is how he left.”
“I wasn’t here at the time, but that makes sense. The window was closed and locked when I went to bed
.”
Ranger closed and locked the window again. “Do you have any idea who was in the clown suit?”
“No. It was dark, and everything happened fast. He didn’t say anything.”
Ranger picked my lamp up from the floor, set it on my nightstand, and plugged it in. It had a smear of blood on it. I soaked a paper towel with rubbing alcohol and wiped the blood off.
“New bathrobe?” Ranger asked.
I looked down at myself. “It belongs to Mrs. Delgado. I left my apartment in a rush.”
“We need to talk.”
“Can we talk over breakfast? When I was scared I thought about breakfast.”
“That’s what you think about when you’re scared?”
“It was a distraction. Pancakes, eggs, hash browns.”
Ranger smiled. I’d amused him again.
He dismissed his men, and I took a fast shower. I got dressed in my usual uniform of jeans and a stretchy, girly T-shirt. I was at my front door, ready to leave my apartment, and Ranger stopped me.
“What have you forgotten?” he asked.
I looked at myself. Shoes, check. Jeans, check. Shirt, check. Underwear, check. Messenger bag on my shoulder, check. Keys, cuffs, pepper spray, hairbrush, hairspray, gum, mints, extra hair scrunchy, lipstick, lip balm, mascara in my messenger bag, check.
“I don’t know,” I said. “What have I forgotten?”
“Your gun. Someone just broke into your apartment and tried to kill you. It might be a good idea to carry a gun.”
“I don’t like guns.”
“Do you like dead?”
“No, I don’t like that either.”
Ranger went to my brown bear cookie jar and retrieved the small semiautomatic he’d given me.
“Do you have anything to put in this?”
“You mean like bullets? No. I keep meaning to buy some.”
He dropped the gun into my messenger bag, we stepped out of my apartment, and he watched me lock my door.
