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Bob was on his feet on the bed. He gave himself an ear-flapping shake and jumped down.
I gathered my clothes up. “Take Bob for a walk while I get dressed. His leash is on the hook by the door.”
I took a five-minute shower, towel-dried my hair, and didn’t waste time with makeup. I was in the kitchen when Ranger returned with Bob. I had coffee already poured into a travel mug. I grabbed a couple protein bars and shoved them into my sweatshirt pocket.
“Okay,” I said. “We’re ready to go.”
“There’s nowe,” Ranger said. “Bob is going to sit this one out.”
“If I leave him here alone, he’ll eat my couch.”
“I’ll buy you a new couch.”
It was difficult to argue against the offer of a new couch. I scooped some dog kibble into Bob’s bowl, gave him fresh water, and followed Ranger out of the building to his Porsche Cayenne.
“Were there any other interesting stories on the flash drive?” I asked him.
“?‘Big Below’ was about a subterranean civilization of devil worshippers that was being threatened by fracking.”
I buckled myself in beside Ranger and unwrapped my protein bar. “I like the devil-worshipper part, but fracking is kind of yesterday.”
“Other than ‘Big Below,’ the stories and screenplays all featured the button-factory worker, Dwayne Dreary.”
“Jeez.”
“His jewel-thief pseudonym was Duncan Dare.”
“I went through ‘Duncan Dare’s’ house yesterday. He’s very neat. The opposite of Nutsy. The one thing their places have in common is the complete absence of electronic devices. It’s hard to imagine these two guys being friends, they are such polar opposites. But they must know each other pretty well if Nutsy is writing stories with Duncan as the lead.”
“Unfortunately for Duncan Dugan, he doesn’t seem to have the skills of the fictional Duncan Dare. Duncan Dare succeeded at everything. He got the jewels. He got the beautiful women. His true identity was never revealed.”
“And he never fell off a ledge and broke all his bones.”
“Not in the material I read,” Ranger said. “While we’re on the subject of Nutsy Manley, someone blew up his parents’ car last night. We picked it up on the police band. No one was hurt.”
“Do you know who exploded the car?”
“No. And the police don’t seem to know either.”
Ranger drove down Faucet Street. Lights were on in a few houses. Early risers getting ready for work. No activity on the street. Seventy-two Faucet was dark. Ranger turned at the corner and drove down the alley so we could see Dugan’s house from the back. No cars parked in his yard. No lights on in his house. Ranger pulled to the side of the alley several houses away and we walked back to Dugan’s house.
“What exactly are you hoping to find here?” I asked Ranger.
“A more solid connection between the two men. A lead on their locations. Motivation for the robbery.”
The back door was closed but the lock hadn’t been repairedafter Lula’s whack with the hammer. I opened the door and shouted, “Bond enforcement,” and we did a fast walk-through to make sure no one was in the house.
“Stay in the kitchen and watch the back door while I look around,” Ranger said. “If someone approaches, don’t let them get away.”
I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to accomplish this, but I gave him a thumbs-up.
The sun wasn’t visible, but the sky was getting brighter. I had no idea where Ranger was in the house. He moved like a cat. Silent and stealthy. I could imagine his value in Special Forces. He didn’t speak a lot about those years or why he left. One of Ranger’s many secrets.
I prowled through the kitchen in the morning light, imagining Duncan Dreary coming home after a day of examining buttons, making his dinner, wondering if there was more to life than buttons.
Headlights appeared in the kitchen window and were immediately extinguished. Moments later, I heard a car door slam shut. Someone had parked in Dugan’s small yard. I flattened myself against the wall beside the back door. If someone entered, I’d kick the door closed behind them and yell for Ranger. I heard someone fumbling with a key and then the doorknob turned. The door opened and a man walked in. I let him get halfway into the kitchen, I kicked the door closed, and I shouted for Ranger. The man turned and rushed at me. He shoved me away from the door and was about to run out. I didn’t have a gun, and I don’t have a lot of muscle, but I have boobs. So, I picked my T-shirt up and flashed my lacy pink bra at him.
“Hey!” I yelled. “Look at this!”
