“Exactly,” Lula said, “but today you got dressed special. This here’s your unconscious telling you to get sexed up for Mr. Tall, Dark, and Totally Edible. Let’s face it. You’re hot for him.”
“Of course I’m hot for him,” I said. “You’d have to be dead not to be hot for him. That doesn’t mean I’m setting out to seduce him.”
“Well, I’m just saying you got seduction cleavage going on,” Lula said. “And I’m thinking your unconscious has plans.”
“As long as those plans stay in my unconscious,” I said. I tossed my empty coffee cup into the trash. “I’m off to Rangeman.”
•••
I texted Ranger from the car to make sure he had time to talk to me, and he texted back Babe. I took that to mean he had time.
I parked in the underground garage and took the elevator to the third-floor control room where Ranger had an office. When Ranger got out of the military he worked as a bounty hunter with a vacant lot for an address. In a relatively short amount of time he went from a vacant lot to a slick office building, an exclusive client base, and a fleet of new cars. He has a silent partner who remains very silent. The control room is state of the art. The décor is minimalist. The attitude is calm and quiet.
I walked through the control room to Ranger’s office. The door was open, and Ranger was working at his computer. I closed the door and took a seat across the desk from him.
“Catching up on Facebook?” I asked him.
“Designing a security system.”
“I had an interesting chat with Ken Globovic last night. Long story short is that Gobbles and his friend Becker were building fireworks in the basement of Zeta house. Professor Pooka came on board to help and totally took over. He has the basement door locked, and he has the only key. No one gets in the basement but Pooka. I’m told Pooka lives in an apartment like the Unabomber, and that it has an alarm system. And Becker has been missing for over a week. Gobbles has been FTA because he’s trying to find Becker.”
“No police involvement?”
“Becker called his parents and assured them that he was fine.”
“But Gobbles doesn’t think Becker is fine.”
“Right.”
“Why do we care?”
“I don’t know. I just care.”
Ranger looked at me for a beat. “I like your shirt.”
“It’s working, right?”
“Not as good as the red dress, but it’s close. What do you want me to do?”
“I want to see what’s in the Zeta cellar and Pooka’s apartment.”
“I’m assuming we don’t want Pooka in his apartment when we look at it.”
“Correct. I can arrange to have him out when we’re going in, but there’s the alarm.”
“I can manage the alarm. Just give me the address.”
“You’re going to hack his alarm?”
“Not me personally.”
I texted Gobbles and told him to get Pooka out of his apartment and to send me the address. I got an answer back in less than five minutes. Gobbles was meeting Pooka at a Starbucks in a half hour. The address he gave me for Pooka’s apartment was close to Kiltman.
Ranger made a phone call and passed the address on, asking for a two-hour window. I assumed this was to his hacker, who for all I knew could be in China.
“Let’s roll,” Ranger said. “I have afternoon client meetings.”
I stood and he gave me a slow full-body scan, taking in the skinny jeans.
“Babe, you must want more than two simple break-ins.”
I smiled at him. “Maybe.”
Holy cats. Was I flirting with Ranger? This was all Lula’s fault.
We took the elevator to the garage, and Ranger chose to drive my Macan. The Macan was like a stealth Porsche. It flew under the radar and didn’t draw the attention of Ranger’s 911 Turbo.
Pooka lived in a large house that had been subdivided into four apartments. His apartment was on the second floor and ran front to back. He had his own outside entrance at the rear of the house, plus an interior entrance that opened off the front door. He was two blocks from the Kiltman campus and three blocks from the Starbucks where he was going to meet Gobbles. It was a Saturday morning and traffic was minimal.
Ranger parked across the street and one house down. Julie was going to call us when Pooka walked into the Starbucks, but it wasn’t necessary because we saw Pooka leave his house. He exited through the front door and turned left. We watched him walk a block and turn left again.
We crossed the street, walked into the house as if we owned it, and took the stairs to Pooka’s apartment. Ranger tried the door. Locked. He took a slim pick from his pocket and opened the door. No alarm.