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“Who’s a good boy?” I said to Bob. “Who’s a good boy?” I gave him a hug and scratched him behind his ears. He snuffled me for food, didn’t find any, and went back to his place on my couch.
“This is a surprise,” I said to Morelli. “I don’t usually see you on a Monday.”
Joe Morelli is six feet of lean muscle. His hair is black and wavy. His eyes are soft brown and expressive when he’s feeling romantic, and they’re laser focused and unreadable when he’s being a cop. He was wearing his usual outfit of running shoes, jeans, and casual cotton knit sweater.
We were standing in the small foyer that led to my kitchen. I flicked a glance into the kitchen and saw a thirty-five-pound bag of dog food resting against a cabinet. This might have suggested that either Bob or Morelli or both were moving in with me.
“Oh boy,” I said.
Morelli grinned. “I’m guessing the ‘Oh boy’ is about the dog food in your kitchen. I need to go out of town for a few days. I was hoping I could leave Bob with you. Last time I left him at home with a dog sitter he knocked her down when she opened the front door, and he ran away. It took half the force to find him.”
“Sure,” I said. “How many days are a few?”
“I don’t know. Police business. I’ve been tagged as a witness in the Wisneski trial.”
“I read about that. It was a drug bust gone bad in Miami.”
“Yeah. I’m not supposed to talk about it. I heard you were babysitting Duncan Dugan this afternoon.”
“He’s FTA. Lula and I were there when he fell. I followed the ambulance to the medical center and waited for him to get out of the OR. I’ll check up on him tomorrow.”
“Dugan was operating above his pay grade when he robbed Plover,” Morelli said. “He’s a quality control inspector for one of the lines at the button factory. No priors. From what I hear, this was totally out of character for Dugan. The gun he was using turned out to be a toy. If bad guys were ranked by skill level, Dugan wouldn’t even make amateur.”
“That could all be true, but if I had to stand around all day making sure buttons were round, I might decide to rob a jewelry store. Were you one of the guys investigating?”
“No,” Morelli said. “I only investigate when there’s a lot of blood. I learned about it from my mom, because Plover also accused Nutsy Manley of stealing a tray of diamonds the same day. She heard about it at bingo. Jonesy is the principal on both thefts.”
“Plover came to the office today. He hired me to find Nutsy.”
Morelli’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No. He hired me to find Nutsy. He said he reported his suspicions about Nutsy to the police, but they haven’t had any luck locating him.”
“Walk away from it,” Morelli said. “Let the police do their thing.”
“I need the money.”
“Do you get paid by the hour or do you only get paid if you find him?”
“I get paid when I find him.”
“Then you’re wasting your time. Chances of you finding him are slim to none,” Morelli said. “The police can’t find him, and Ranger can’t find him.”
Ranger is the other man in my life. Carlos Manoso, a.k.a. Ranger. Former Special Forces. Tall, dark, and dangerous. Moremuscle than Morelli but not so much that he doesn’t look good in or out of clothes. I’ve seen him both ways and he’s not a man you can easily forget. He was my mentor when I first became a bond enforcer. He was a bounty hunter then. Now he’s the owner of a high-end security business.
“Why is Ranger looking for Nutsy?” I asked Morelli.
“Don’t know. It’s street chatter. Nutsy was a private hire, but Rangeman installed and monitored the security equipment for Plover. Maybe Ranger’s just protecting the Rangeman brand. Maybe there’s something more.”
“Plover didn’t share that information with me,” I said.
“This robbery smells bad. The initial robbery was almost a joke. The fake gun. Dropping the bag of jewelry. The prime suspect trying to commit suicide. And then the follow-up of a second robbery that had to have been done by a professional. For sure not Dugan, since he hadn’t been bonded out at the time of the alleged theft.”
“Could Dugan have been working with someone? Maybe even Nutsy?”
“Anything is possible. I’m sure Jonesy looked into it. He’s a good man. I haven’t talked to him lately, but he’s probably digging around, looking for a connection. There could also be a mob connection here since the second theft was so professionally executed. It wouldn’t be good for you to poke the bear if it’s mob. You don’t want to get involved,” Morelli said.
“It’s all good. I can partner with Ranger.”
