“The fire?”
“Not me.”
“Do you know who killed Ramos?”
Ranger stared at me for a moment. “I have some ideas.”
“The police think you did it. They have you on video.”
“The police hope I did it. Hard to believe they'd actually think I did it. I don't have a reputation for being stupid.”
“No, but you do have a reputation for . . . um, killing people.”
Ranger grinned down at me. “Street talk.” He looked at the keys in my hand. “Going somewhere?”
?
?Grandma's moved in with me for a couple days. She wanted a paper, so I was going to run out to the 7-Eleven.”
The grin spread to his eyes. “You haven't got a car, babe.”
Damn! “I forgot.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “How did you know?”
“It's not in the lot.”
Well, duh.
“What happened to it?” he asked.
“It's gone to car heaven.”
He pressed the button for the third floor. The doors opened, he hit the hold, stepped out and grabbed the paper lying on the floor in front of 3C.
“That's Mr. Kline's paper,” I said.
Ranger handed the paper over to me and pushed the button for the second floor. “You owe Mr. Kline a favor.”
“Why did you skip on your court date?”
“Bad timing. I need to find someone, and I can't find him if I'm detained.”
“Or dead.”
“Yeah,” Ranger said, “that, too. I didn't think a scheduled public appearance right now was in my best interest.”
“I was approached by two Mob-type guys yesterday. Mitchell and Habib. Their plan is to follow me around until I lead them to you.”
“They work for Arturo Stolle.”
“Arturo Stolle, the carpet king? What's his connection in this?”
“You don't want to know.”
“Like if you told me, you'd have to kill me?”
“If I told you, someone else might want to kill you.”
“No love lost between Mitchell and Alexander Ramos.”