An ER’s waiting room isn’t wonderful at the best of times, and this wasn’t the best of anything. In the short time I was there I watched a gunshot victim roll through, a guy get wheeled in with a broken leg and a bloody foot wrapped in a T-shirt, and a very old woman complaining of chest pains being brought in by an equally old man. I was overjoyed when Ranger finally walked through the door.
“You’re looking better,” he said, standing in front of me.
“I’m feeling better.”
“And Kinsey?”
“He seems to be okay, but they’re keeping him overnight as a precaution. What did you find?”
“I spoke to the waiter who served you and Kinsey. The plated meals come up from the kitchen on large three-tier rolling carts. Special diet and allergy plates are marked with a name and a seat number. Kinsey and I had plates with an allergy marker.”
“How did they get an allergy marker?”
“No one knew. I’m guessing someone slipped in and put something in the food, probably the mashed potatoes, and stuck the marker on the plate.”
“And no one noticed?”
“I was in the kitchen. It’s massive and chaotic. Anyone could walk into that kitchen in a chef coat or a waiter’s uniform and have total access to the food, and unless they were seven feet tall and wearing a red clown nose no one would remember them. The food from your plate had already been discarded, but I requested to have someone inspect the kitchen for possible contamination.”
“I’d really like to go home.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“They gave me some stuff to drink and took a blood test. And they told me I was good to go, but to call if I had further problems.”
He pulled me to my feet, wrapped an arm around me, and walked me to the Porsche. I sunk into the passenger seat and closed my eyes for a moment, happy to be going home, relieved that the poisoning episode hadn’t been worse. Ranger got behind the wheel and drove us back to the Expressway. Traffic was light, and the interior of the car was dark and would have felt intimate if I didn’t smell ever so slightly of upchucked meatballs.
“I realize I’m getting paid,” I said, “and I don’t want to seem unappreciative, but this was a sucky date.”
Ranger glanced over at me. “We’ve had better. I’m sorry this happened to you. I didn’t expect poisoning. I just wanted another set of eyes in the room.”
“Have you been in contact with the rest of your unit?”
“There were seven of us. One was killed in the line of duty. Two are out of country. The other two are on the West Coast. Everyone claims not to have told anyone the code. And so far, Kinsey and I are the only ones receiving the messages.”
“Someone’s fibbing.”
“The envelopes were postmarked in Philadelphia and Camden. I ran the four remaining men through the search system and no one has relatives or business ties in the area.”
“So what next?”
“I wait.”
Ranger pulled into my apartment building lot and parked next to Morelli’s green SUV. On the surface Ranger never showed much emotion over my relationship with Morelli. From what I could tell he neither respected it nor resented it. Mostly he ignored it.
“You have company,” Ranger said.
“It seemed like a good idea yesterday when I had to break the date.”
Ranger walked me into the building, escorted me to the elevator, and pushed the button for my floor. “Say hello to Morelli for me.”
I let myself into my apartment, Bob rushed up to me, slammed on the brakes, took a big sniff, and backed off.
Morelli was watching from the couch. “That’s not a good sign,” he said. “Did you fall into the Dumpster again?”
“I got sick. Food poisoning.” I held a plastic bag up for him to see. “I threw up in my evening purse. They bagged it for me at the hospital.”
Morelli got to his feet. “I have to hand it to Ranger. He knows how to show a girl a good time. Is there anything I can do for you? Pepto-Bismol? Tums? French fries?”
“I need a shower.”
Morelli got happy. “I’ll help.”
“No! I don’t need a sexy shower.”
“I can give you a non-sexy shower.”
“No, you can’t. It’s not in your genetic makeup.”
“How are you going to feel after the shower?”
“Tired,” I told him.
“Before I forget, Schmidt thinks something is off with the Cubbin case. He’s watched the security tapes from the hospital, and he can’t figure how Cubbin got out.”
“Grandma said there’ve been budget cuts, and she thought the security cameras might not be working.”