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I suspected he wasn’t referring to the kidnapper’s phone call.
He crossed the tracks, turned onto Hamilton Avenue, and cruised past the bail bonds office. He hung a left into the alley and parked in the small lot.
The back room in the office was pitch-black when we entered. Ranger has vision like a cat, but I was stumbling, blind in the dark without the aid of my cell phone flashlight. I crashed into a file cabinet and Ranger grabbed me from behind and moved me away from the files.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “Anything broken? Concussion?”
“I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?” He was standing very close, and his voice was soft, his words whispered against my ear. “I’m good at kissing things and making them feel better.”
There was a flutter of panic in my chest and heat in body parts farther south. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was speaking the truth. “It wasn’t my fault,” I said. “The cabinet jumped out at me.”
He reached across me and flipped the light switch. “You don’t want to miss too many opportunities. You never know when they might go away forever.”
“Do you have plans?”
He brushed a light kiss across my lips. “Yes, but they don’t involve going away.”
I followed Ranger into the front room. It felt strange being there at this time of night. The overhead lighting was harsh without the addition of sunlight, and Connie’s desk was a stark reminder that she was being held hostage somewhere. The windows were black glass. Never a good look. A single set of headlights slid past the windows. The headlights disappeared and the blackness returned.
I swiped a piece of paper from the printer and wrote on it with black marker,I’VE GOT IT.I taped the paper up on the front window and transferred the office phone to my cell phone, and I was ready to leave.
Ranger drove me home and walked me to my door. We stepped inside and he pulled me close and kissed me. The kiss deepened and when we came up for air, I realized I had two fistfuls of his shirt in my tightly curled hands. I think my toes were also curledin my shoes, but that was my secret. I released the shirt and smoothed out the wrinkles.
“You’ll be the first to know,” I said, repeating my earlier promise. I hadn’t actually meant it when I’d originally said it, but I was closer to meaning it at the moment.
“Babe,” Ranger said.
And he left.
CHAPTER SEVEN
It was another early morning for me. My first thought was of Connie when I awoke, and there was no going back to sleep after that. I took a fast shower and made coffee while I gave my super hamster and best bud, Rex, fresh water and filled his food dish. I put the coffee in a to-go mug and headed to the office. I hadn’t received any calls overnight, and I was anxious to make sure that the sign was still taped to the window.
The sky was light, approaching sunrise, and the roads were mostly empty. I cruised past the office and saw that the sign was still in place. I made a U-turn and stopped at Tasty Pastry Bakery.
Walking into the bakery at this time of the morning is like returning to the womb. It’s warm. It’s cozy. It’s welcoming. I don’t know what the womb smells like but at dawn the bakery wraps you in a scent blanket of powdered sugar and dough rising. JennyWisnowski was bringing out fresh baked bread and transferring the warm loaves to the shelves. I went to school with Jenny. She was married now and had four kids. Her husband worked at the button factory.
“Hey,” Jenny said when she saw me. “What brings you here at this hour of the morning?”
“I thought I’d get an early start on my day. Lots to do.”
“I hear you,” Jenny said. “It must be hard without Connie. From what I hear she hasn’t shown up yet. I’m thinking she went on vacation without telling anybody. Lord knows, she deserves it after all those years with Vinnie.”
“Have you heard anything else interesting about Connie?”
“No. People have sort of moved off Connie disappearing. Mostly the big topic of conversation is Paul Mori getting shot.”
“Who do you think did it?”
“I’m going with a random drugged-up nut job. Trenton has a lot of them,” Jenny said.
I got eleven Boston creams and one jelly doughnut with powdered sugar and raspberry filling. The jelly doughnut was for Connie in case she showed up. She wasn’t a Boston cream girl.
I parked at the curb in front of the bail bonds office and did a fast assessment of the area. No suspicious-looking individuals skulking around. No cars stopping to read the sign in the window. I didn’t need the key under the rock by the dumpster. I had my own now. I unlocked the office and walked in. It wasn’t nearly so creepy this morning. Light streamed in and traffic hummed on the other side of the plate-glass window.
I sat at Connie’s desk, helped myself to a doughnut, and scrolled through her email. No new FTAs. That was bad news for me. I onlymade money when I captured someone. As it was right now, the only outstanding FTA was Morelli’s grandmother. The thought of approaching her caused a chunk of doughnut to stick in my throat.
