—
Morelli had me tucked in on his couch. I had a new dressing on my arm, and I’d popped a couple Tylenol. I’d had leftover lasagna for dinner. Ice cream for dessert. Bob and Morelli were snuggled next to me. Life was good again.
“We got an ID on Red Air Jordans,” Morelli said. “Sylvester Lucca. He was a trainer at the fancy gym on State Street.”
“The one with the statues of naked Roman gods out front?”
“Yep. He has no priors. A couple traffic violations. Originally from Newark. Twenty-nine years old. I couldn’t find any ties to the La-Z-Boys or Jimmy’s relatives, but it’s early. We’re still digging.”
“I expected the La-Z-Boys to make a move on Grandma by now.”
“Hard to say what’s going on with them. Maybe they’re being careful, waiting for the right time. Ranger’s men are watching the front of the house, and Ranger probably has some cameras operating in the back. Grandma hasn’t been going out alone, and when she does the Rangeman guys follow her.”
“The Boys are patient.”
“They have lots of years of experience,” Morelli said. “They know when to wait and when to move.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
IT WAS A little after seven A.M. by the time I rolled out of Morelli’s bed, showered, and got dressed. I’d assumed Morelli was already at work, but I got to the stairs and heard men’s voices coming from the kitchen. The voices belonged to Morelli and Ranger.
I considered turning around and hiding in the bedroom, but the two men were standing between me and my breakfast waffle.
“Good morning,” I said, edging my way into the kitchen. “What’s going on?”
“Ranger brought you a car,” Morelli said. “It’ll be easier for you to drive with your arm.”
“And I can track it,” Ranger said. “There’s so much heavy metal in the Buick it interferes with my electronics.”
“Anything else?” I asked.
Ranger held out a necklace with a silver medallion engraved with a cross. “Panic button. Press it and we can find you above or belowground.”
“I suspect you could find me even if I don’t press it,” I said.
Ranger almost smiled. “I have an identical necklace for Grandma Mazur.”
“We decided that he should pull his men back and replace them with surveillance equipment,” Morelli said. “After you and I talked last night it occurred to me that we were just prolonging the inevitable. Better to have them make their move so we can react.”
I put the medallion on, got a waffle out of the freezer, and dropped it into the toaster. “I guess that sounds reasonable, but I’m terrified that something awful is going to happen to Grandma. I’m trying to fix things, but I’m failing. I talk to people and I look under beds and nothing comes of it. But at least she’s relatively safe while I’m bumbling around. You want to change that. You essentially want to set Grandma up to get kidnapped. I know I’m not alone in this. I know you’re going to be there. I know you’re smarter and bigger and braver than I am. But this is my grandma.”
I heard my voice crack when I said “grandma,” and I tried to swallow back the emotion that sat hard and painful in my throat. Both men were watching me. Their eyes were dark and serious. They understood my problem. It was their problem too.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do it.”
Ranger gave me the keys to a black Porsche Macan. “This car has front and rear cameras that send to my control room. It has a lockbox containing a loaded nine-millimeter under the driver’s seat. The box isn’t locked. If you want to lock it, the key is on your key ring.”
“Thanks,” I said. “It’s been difficult driving the Buick with my sore arm. It steers like a tank.”
“The medallion will go a long way toward keeping Grandma safe,” Morelli said to me. “But it’s only effective if she’s wearing it. You have to make sure she never takes it off.”
“It’s waterproof,” Ranger said. “She can wear it in the shower.”
I poured myself a cup of coffee. “I’ll take it over to her as soon as I’m done with my waffle.”
“Babe,” Ranger said.
Ranger doesn’t pollute his body with sugar and additives. He has salmon from Scotland and half an organic multigrain bagel for breakfast.