Lean Mean Thirteen (Stephanie Plum 13)

meet with Smullen the night he disappeared."

Ranger hooked a U-turn on Broad. "Lets see what Smullen s girlfriend has to say about all

this."

We passed Joyce, who was now going in the wrong direction in her rented white Taurus. “I used to be such a badass,” Ranger said. "Everyone was afraid of me. Everyone wanted to

kill me. I needed Tank walking behind me to keep the paid assassins under control. And now

look at me. I'm followed by a woman in a rented Taurus." He made a vague gesture with his

hand. “And I can't remember the last time someone tried to kill me.”

“It wasn't that long ago,” I said. "It was in my apartment, and you got shot a bunch of times,

and it wasn't all that much fun.

"Not to change the subject, but if I understood the conversation back there, Victor Gorvich

is supplying Rufus with drugs."

Ranger turned off Broad and drove toward the projects. "Not only is he supplying drugs,

he's laundering the money through the firm. He's billing Rufus for legal advice when Rufus is

actually paying him for inventory. If you look at the client list you lifted, it's a shopping cart

filled with the World s Most Wanted. Not just drug dealers, but gunrunners and agents for

dictators. One or more of the partners is shuffling drugs around and washing the money as

billable hours."

“Gorvich, for sure.”

“Looks that way.”

Ranger parked curbside at the law firms slum apartment building, and we both got out.

Ranger took a remote gizmo, aimed it at the Porsche, and the Porsche chirped. We hoofed it up to the top floor and rang the bell. No answer. We rang it again, and Uncle

Mickey stuck his head out his door.

“She isn't there,” Uncle Mickey said. “She went shopping.” He looked at Ranger and

retreated into his apartment.

Ranger took his little tool out of a pocket on his cargo pants and opened the apartment

door.

Smullen s apartment had been freshly painted and carpeted. The furniture was new. The

kitchen appliances were new. The countertop was Corian. The building was a slum, but

Smullens apartment was not. Smullens toilet worked.

Smullen s clothes were hanging in the closet and neatly folded in bureau drawers. His