Ranger walked to the edge of the grave and jumped in. He lifted me up into the arms of one of his men, and I was back on solid ground. The man gave Ranger a hand up, and Ranger was next to me, cutting the tape off my wrists.
“This is getting to be a bad habit,” Ranger said. “This is the second time I’ve had to cut you out of tape today.”
“Morelli?” I asked him.
“He’s fine. Getting locked in a freezer is a good way to stop bleeding from gunshot. Tank and Eugene got him out and took him to St. Francis.”
“I love this watch,” I told him.
“Remember to shut it off when you go into the bathroom. I don’t want my men in the control room getting distracted.”
A second car drove up, and Hal got out.
“I’m going to have Hal take you home,” Ranger said. “I have some cleanup to do here.”
“Are you just going to shovel dirt on them?”
“I’d like to. That would be much easier. Unfortunately the police will have to get involved.”
Morelli, I found out, was still in surgery when we got to Trenton, so Hal dropped me off at St. Francis. I thanked him and told him it wasn’t necessary for him to wait. He said the Buick was parked in the garage, and Morelli had the key.
I waved Hal away and walked into the ER reception area. Briggs was there huddled in a blanket, looking tired. He jumped to his feet the instant he saw me and rushed over, suddenly all smiles.
“We heard you were okay! What happened?” he asked.
“I got pushed into an open grave. It was awful.” I felt myself choke up and I swiped at tears. “Sorry,” I said. “It’s been a long day.?
?
“Tell me about it. I was bawling like a baby in the meat locker. The tears were all frozen on my face when the Rangeman guy broke in.”
“How’d they get the door open?”
“The little guy, Eugene, had an electronic gizmo that figured out the combination. The whole operation was freakin’ impressive. Rangeman had an EMT truck and medics waiting for us when we got out.”
“Thanks for staying with Morelli.”
“No problem. I guess you’ll take over now.”
I nodded. “I’ll wait here.”
“That would be great. I think I pissed my pants when I got shoved into the freezer. I wouldn’t mind going home and throwing these clothes away. I don’t want anything that reminds me of tonight.”
It was a couple more hours before I got to take Morelli home. We went to his house because Rex and Bob were there and so I didn’t have to worry about finding leftover pieces of Orin. Morelli was zonked out on painkillers, and I was so fatigued I was vibrating.
TWENTY-SEVEN
LULA AND CONNIE were already at the office when I rolled in Monday morning. Connie had a birthday cake on her desk.
“Whose birthday?” I asked.
“No one’s,” Connie said. “We’re celebrating that you’re not dead.”
“It was touch and go,” I said. “Saturday isn’t going down as one of my better days.”
“Yeah, but you got a lot accomplished,” Lula said. “You got a whole shitload of bad guys killed.”
I scooped some icing off with my finger and ate it. “True. And I found Cubbin and Pitch.”