“Only hers.”
We walked back to his car and sat there for a while. Nothing happened.
“This is boring,” I said.
Ranger looked over at me. “I could fix that.”
“Tempting, but no.”
“Do you have any other leads on him?”
“He’s a big deal in his fraternity. I’m not sure he would chance going there. He’s a biology major, but I can’t see him hiding out in the bio lab. Supposedly he’s been seen on campus late at night.”
“Family?”
“Not local.”
“Friends?”
“Tons.”
“You look young enough to be a college student. Maybe you should go undercover and get cozy with the fraternity brothers.”
“Too late. They’ve already seen me.”
“So what’s your plan?”
“I thought I’d sit here until I needed a bathroom.”
“Is that going to happen anytime soon?”
“Hard to say.”
This wasn’t the first time I’d been on a stakeout with Ranger. Ranger has infinite patience. He goes into a zone, his heart rate slows, and you have to hold a mirror under his nose to see if he’s breathing. He can sit like this for hours, stalking his prey. On the other hand, I have no patience. I’m not the queen of the stakeout. After I’ve checked my email on my phone I have nothing.
Ranger tugged at my ponytail. “How about a burger and fries? Are you hungry?”
“Yes!”
We went to a small dark bar four blocks away and settled into a corner booth. It was far enough from Kiltman that it wasn’t frequented by college kids. There were some people at the bar who looked like regulars, and there was another couple in a booth on the other side of the room.
We ordered burgers, French fries, and onion rings. Ranger is former Special Forces, and he’s maintained his Special Forces level of fitness. He works out. He has only an occasional glass of beer or wine. He eats healthy. When our food was set on the table he removed the bun from his burger and took a single French fry for a test drive. I removed the lettuce and tomato from my burger, saturated the fries with ketchup, and ate all the onion rings.
A guy at the bar stood and walked toward us on his way to the men’s room. My heart skipped a beat when he got close. I was almost positive it was Gobbles.
“Ken?” I asked him. “Ken Globovic?”
He looked at me, and he looked at Ranger, and he looked at me again. His first reaction was confusion, and then panic.
“Um, no,” he said.
Ranger reached out for him, and Globovic jumped away and took off. Ranger and I were out of the booth and on our feet, but Gobbles had a head start. He ran into the narrow galley kitchen, knocked over a cart filled with glasses, and ran out the back door. By the time we maneuvered around the cart, Gobbles was gone, disappeared into the night.
Two line cooks watched the whole thing with wide eyes and open mouths. Ranger apologized in Spanish, and we returned to our booth. Ranger dropped some money on the table, and we left. We drove the neighborhood, covering it in a grid pattern, but didn’t see Gobbles.
“At least we know he’s not in Argentina,” I said to Ranger.
“Have Connie run a check on the fraternity brothers tomorrow, and see if anyone is renting near the bar.”
“Instinct tells you he isn’t living with Julie Ruley?”
“I’m sure he has contact with her, but I doubt he’d be having his dinner in a bar that was four blocks away if he was living with her. He’d be in her apartment eating takeout pizza.”
Personally I thought she looked more like lentils and quinoa, and that could be why Gobbles was in a bar. Ranger might not understand that, since lentils and quinoa would be a step up from the tree bark and desert beetles he probably ate when he was in Special Forces.
•••
It was almost eleven o’clock when Ranger parked in the lot behind my apartment building. He walked me into the small deserted lobby, drew me close against him, and kissed me. The kiss was light at first and then got serious. I felt my fingers curl into his shirt and someone moaned. It might have been me. Ranger pushed the elevator button, the doors opened, and he moved us into the elevator. By the time we got to my apartment door I was thinking he needed to come in to make sure everything was secure. Check under the bed to get rid of any serial rapists or scary, drooly monsters. And while he was checking under the bed I might have to get undressed because I was having a massive hot flash.
We were in the middle of the living room, halfway to the bedroom, when Ranger’s phone rang. He took his hand out from under my shirt, answered his phone, and stared at the floor while he listened. He asked “When?” and “Where?” He disconnected.