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“In bed with me,” I said.
“How long is he going to be here?”
“I don’t know. Until Morelli returns.”
“Babe,” Ranger said. And he left.
Maybe Morelli knew exactly what he was doing when he left Bob with me.
CHAPTER FIVE
It took me a couple beats to wake up enough to realize my phone was ringing. I snatched it off my nightstand and squinted at the caller ID. Ranger.
“Yuh,” I said.
“I’m coming in,” Ranger said. “I didn’t want to startle you.”
“Wait. What?”
I looked at the time. It was five thirty… in the morning. It was dark out. Bob was still asleep. And the man of mystery was breaking into my apartment. I had a bump-proof lock, a dead bolt, and a chain. None of this stopped Ranger from popping in. It was as if he could slide under the door like smoke.
My bedroom light switched on and Ranger walked in. He was in black Rangeman fatigues and wide awake. I was snuggledunder the covers in a T-shirt and pajama bottoms and barely awake. Bob half opened his eyes and went back to sleep.
“Not now,” I said, sliding farther under the covers.
Ranger was standing alongside the bed. “We can do this the easy, more politically correct way where you get out of bed on your own, or we can do it the fun way where I drag you out.”
“My lips are still sealed,” I said.
“I didn’t come to unseal your lips,” Ranger said. “I want to check out Dugan’s house and you have a legal right to enter.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“It’s the middle of the night. It’s still dark out. Bob isn’t even awake.”
“It’s the perfect time to do an enter and search.”
“Why are you interested in Dugan? I thought you were looking for Nutsy.”
“Did you read the stories and screenplays on Nutsy’s hard drive?”
“No, not yet.”
“One of them is about a man who worked in a button factory for twenty years. He has an epiphany that he’s boring and cowardly, running away from having a full life.”
I sat up in bed. “So, he robs a jewelry store?”
“Yes.”
“You’re kidding. Does it end well?”
“He turns into a suave, professional jewel thief—like David Niven in the oldPink Panthermovies.”
“I didn’t know you were aPink Pantherfan.”
Ranger pulled a T-shirt and a pair of jeans out of my dresser and tossed them at me. “It’s mentioned as a footnote. I googled it.” Underwear followed the T-shirt and jeans. Pink lace. No doubt Ranger thought this was daytime wear.
