AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He isn’t here,” she said. “He was gone when I got up this morning.”
“He wasn’t supposed to leave the house.”
“He never listens. He does what he wants. He’s probably panhandling somewhere. He’s a bum but he’s got a work ethic. He gets that from his father, God rest his soul.”
“Mr. Beedle has passed?” I asked.
“Ten years ago. Mowing the lawn and had a heart attack. I told him to get a power lawn mower, but he wouldn’t listen. Used a push mower. Can you imagine? Like father, like son. Don’t listen.”
I looked sidewise at Ranger and saw a smile beginning to twitch at the corner of his mouth. He was liking Mrs. Beedle.
“Does Carpenter have a car?” Ranger asked her.
“Yes,” she said. “He drives a Sentra.”
We returned to the Porsche, and Ranger called the control room and got the plate number on the Sentra.
“Do you know where he usually hangs?” Ranger asked me.
“He tried to rob the armored car on State Street. There’s a bank on the corner of State and Third. That’s probably a good place to start.”
Ranger put the car in gear, drove two blocks, and got a call from his control room. One of his clients had been shot and robbed during a home invasion. A Rangeman car was on the scene with police and medical.
Ranger made a U-turn. “Change in plans. This is a new account in Yardley. We installed security cameras two weeks ago.”
We crossed the Delaware River into Pennsylvania and minutes later Ranger turned off the main road into a neighborhood of million-dollar houses and hundred-year-old trees.
“It’s really pretty here,” I said.
“Until recently it had zero crime. I have several clients here, and I’ve had to increase patrol car presence. This is the fourth armed home invasion in this neighborhood in the past two months. It’s the first time it’s my account.”
“Always the same MO?”
“Yes. The victim is an older woman driving an expensive car. They follow her home to an empty house and force her to let them in. Then they rob it. Something obviously went wrong this time because someone got shot.”
We saw the lights flashing a block away. A fire truck, a couple cop cars, an EMT transport, two Rangeman cars. The house was a large, rambling two-story white clapboard with black shutters and lots of professional landscaping. A woman was on a stretcher. The back of the stretcher was elevated to allow her to sit. Two med techs were with her.
Ranger parked by the Rangeman SUVs, and we joined the cluster of responders. Two Rangemen were at the open front door to the house. Two more Rangemen, Hal and Jose, were with the woman on the stretcher.
Ranger approached Hal.
“She was carrying groceries into the house when four men came up behind her with guns drawn,” Hal said. “They told her to get on the floor facedown and stay there, and she told them to go fuck themselves. And then she swung a six-pack of beer she was carrying at one of them and smashed him in the face. Then she got shot.”
Ranger looked over at the woman. “How bad is it?”
“Could be worse,” Hal said. “She got shot in the arm. Looks like they panicked when they shot her and took off. She was able to hit the alarm by the door. We were the first on the scene.”
“I’m going to be here for a while,” Ranger said to me. “I know you want to look for Beedle, so take my car. I’ll catch up with you later.”
I glanced at the gleaming black Porsche turbo. “Are you sureyou want me to take your car? I have a history of accidents with your cars.”
Ranger handed me the keys. “Keep it interesting.”
I crossed the bridge to New Jersey and went straight to the office. “Anything new?” I asked Lula.
“Vinnie is at the courthouse bonding out some moron. And we got a notice that the charges were dropped on Brad Winter. I guess the ladies got enough satisfaction out of tattooing him. That’s about it. What’s with you? Where’s Connie?”
“She’s still with the kidnapper. He said I didn’t have the right coin.”
