“Funny,” he said. “Put your hands down before someone calls your mother and tells her you’ve been busted.”
“What’s up?”
“I saw you drive by, and I thought you would be interested in a ballistics report I just got back. The bullets extracted from Doug Linken and his partner, Harry Getz, are a match. They were fired from the same gun.”
“So we’ve got one shooter. Do you have the gun?”
“No.”
“Have you locked on to a motive?”
“The obvious is a disgruntled investor, but I’m having a hard time buying it.”
“There are the wives.”
“Do you think they’re capable of murder?” Morelli asked.
“I wouldn’t discount them, given the right circumstances.”
“I agree, but I’m not sold on them, either.”
“What are you sold on?”
“Nothing right now. The autopsy didn’t tell me anything interesting. I’m waiting on some crime scene lab reports. I’m telling you this because it’s my understanding that Ranger has been retained to provide security for the widow Linken. I’m assuming you’ll be part of that party.”
“You assume correct.”
“I wouldn’t mind if you snitched for me. I’ll be attending both events, but I won’t have the access you’ll have.”
“I thought you were handing over your gun and your badge.”
“It’s a process. There are things I have to set in place first.”
“Another job?”
“Yeah. In the meantime I’m doing the one I have as best as I can.”
“Gee, that’s freakin’ noble of you.”
“Yep. That’s me. Mr. Noble.”
“I don’t get it. So you have heartburn. Big deal. Everyone has heartburn. That’s not a good enough reason to stop being a cop. What are you going to do? Sell insurance? Manage a minimart?”
“Maybe.”
“You never talked about this with me. We were practically living together, and you never said anything about this.”
“It’s something I have to figure out on my own.”
I did an eye roll. “Men.”
He leaned closer and I thought he was going to kiss me, but it turned out he was looking at my pimple.
“Is this it?” he asked.
“It’s better than it was yesterday.”
“And it’s all my fault?”
“Yes!”
He rocked back on his heels and grinned. “Sorry about that.”
“You don’t look sorry.”
“I am. I swear. Would you like a donut? Coffee?”
“No, but thanks. I need to go. Things to do.”
I slid behind the wheel, and he looked in at me. “Nice seeing you,” he said.
I did another eye roll. I couldn’t help myself. I watched Morelli drive out of the lot, and then I backtracked a block from the bakery to the office and parked behind Lula’s Firebird.
Connie looked up when I walked in. “Where’s Lula?”
“She’s with Hal. I think they’re going to check out some onion rings.”
“Rangeman Hal?”
“Yep. It’s been one of those days. Zeta is trying to discourage us from looking for Gobbles. They bombed Lula with a beer balloon, and then they filled the Mercedes with geese.”
“Real geese?” Connie asked.
“Yeah. It wasn’t pretty. Anyway, long story short, Ranger dropped me off at my parents’ house so I could get Big Blue, and Lula went with Hal.”
“I ran all the fraternity brothers through the system and didn’t get any hits around M and Hawthorne,” Connie said.
The front door to the office burst open and Lula swung in.
“Holy bejeezus,” Connie said, staring at Lula. “What happened to you?”
“Geese,” Lula said. “Ungrateful sons-a-bitches.”
“You have some goose feathers stuck in your hair,” I told her.
“I know. I’m gonna have to go to the beauty salon and have Ayesha work her magic. I was thinking I needed a color change anyways. Lavender is pretty with my brown skin but it’s limiting, you see what I’m saying? I might need to be a blonde on account of then I can move into the red section of my closet. I’m feeling in a red mood.”
“Did you get Hal to take you for onion rings?” I asked.
“He didn’t have time. We waited until the car got loaded onto the flatbed, and then he had to do a patrol run after he dropped me here. It’s just as well since I’m thinking I’m going straight to Ayesha. And then after I’m all beautified I might go out for the onion rings. You all could go with me. It could be a girls’ night out, and we could even look for Gobbles. I’ve been thinking about it, and I bet he comes out of his hidey-hole at night.”