“Oh boy.”
We were standing in the hallway that led to the manufacturing plant. Ranger pushed me against the wall and leaned in. “Would you like to know the details?”
There was no space between us. I could feel him pressed into me. His lips skimmed the rim of my ear when he asked the question, and I felt the rush of heat buzz in my brain and flash through every part of me. The heat curled into my hoo-ha with a spasm that was a blink away from an orgasm.
He kissed me, and our tongues touched. The kiss deepened, his hand caressed my breast, and my hand went south on him in search of the bonus.
Somewhere far off a door opened and closed, and we both paused. It was the night guard making one of his rounds.
I guess I should be grateful. I might have been condemned to hell if it had gone any further. It was one thing to have a relationship with two men. It was a totally other thing to have them simultaneously.
I looked around. “So is there anything else to see?”
“Not tonight,” Ranger said.
EIGHT
IT WAS AFTER one o’clock when I crawled into bed with mixed emotions about the next day. I wanted to rush in and root out the killer, and at the same time I felt completely incompetent at doing the job. I set my alarm for seven o’clock, giving me a half hour to shower and whatever, and a half hour to drive to the ice creamery.
• • •
The alarm went off, and I hit the snooze button and pulled the pillow over my head. Five minutes later the alarm went off again, and I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower.
I wasn’t sure what one wore to work in an ice cream factory, so I dressed in my standard uniform of jeans, a red short-sleeved V-neck jersey, and running shoes. I scarfed down a cold meatball sandwich for breakfast and poured my coffee into a to-go mug. As I chugged out of the parking lot, I got a phone call from Lula.
“Are you there yet?” she asked. “What kind of job did you get?”
“I just got on the road. I don’t have to be there until eight o’clock.”
“Well, you better hurry. You don’t want to be late on your first day. People hate that.”
“Are you at the office?”
“Hell, no. I’m in my closet deciding on who I want to be today. I mean, I’m always Lula, but I got a multifaceted personality.”
“Talk to you later,” I said. And I hung up.
I drove two blocks, and I got a call from Morelli.
“Big day today,” he said.
“How so?”
“You have a new job. Are you on your way to the ice cream factory?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you excited?”
“Are you?”
“Not at the moment,” Morelli said.
“Do you have any news on the Bogart Bar man?”
“Nothing interesting. It would help if we could find Virgil. Maybe you could keep your eyes open for him.”
“In my spare time.”