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“Yeah. As long as we’re home in time for the game.”
* * *
¦ ¦ ¦
Shopping with Morelli is a whole different experience from shopping with Ranger. Morelli shops for a few staples for the week and for game food. Chips, dip, beer, M&M’s, hot spicy wings, pepperoni pizza rolls.
“That’s a lot of snacks,” I said.
“Anthony, Big Wanger, and Mooch always come over for the Giants’ game. It’s tradition.”
So here are some of the reasons I’m not married to Morelli. His job. His family. His friends. And the remaining reason is my inability to commit. The reason I’m not married to Ranger is much simpler. His life path doesn’t include marriage. End of story.
We took the groceries back to Morelli’s house, let Bob out to tinkle, and picked up Grandma Bella.
Grandma Bella squinted at me from the back seat. “What she doing here?” she said to Morelli.
“We’re spending the afternoon together,” Morelli said.
“You could do better,” Bella said. “I don’t like this one. I might give her the eye.”
“You give her the eye, and I’ll tell my mother on you.”
“I’ll give her the eye too.”
“You can’t give the eye to your daughter,” Morelli said.
“I do what I want,” Bella said.
Morelli was smiling. He thought this was amusing. He was the only one who was never threatened with the eye. He was Bella’s favorite.
“What kind of cake are you bringing?” Morelli asked Bella.
“Chocolate. If you come to church you get some.”
“I’ll have to see how the day goes,” Morelli said.
“You going to hell,” Bella said. “You never go to church, and you got this slut in your car. Her grandma cheats at bingo. God don’t like bingo cheats and sluts.”
Morelli pulled up to the church and helped Bella into the building. She carried the cake, and he carried the fifteen-pound lasagna. He walked back to the car and got behind the wheel.
“That wasn’t so bad,” he said.
“She called me a slut.”
“You made out better than I did. She said I was going to hell.”
“Are you worried?” I asked him.
“Maybe a little,” Morelli said. “Is Pino’s okay for lunch?”
“Pino’s is perfect. Were you able to learn anything from the apartment last night?”
“I don’t have anything back from CSI,” Morelli said. “There were a lot of prints. I’m sure some of them belonged to Ranger. I’ll get a report on them today. The DNA stuff takes longer. The shoes were all men’s. The apartment was rented to Robert Smith. The information on his rental form was bogus. All transactions were by mail. The owner of the building didn’t care. He was happy to rent the unit. He collected six months’ rent in advance.”
“It’s like these people are professional kidnappers. They plan ahead, and they don’t leave any evidence behind.”
“They leave evidence,” Morelli said. “Everyone leaves evidence. We haven’t found the evidence yet, but it’s there.”
