Page 72 of Now or Never

“Nothing,” he said. “Good luck finding the real Robin Hoodie.”

I drove back to Zach’s house and gave him the envelope.

“It’s so quiet,” I said.

“Everyone’s taking a nap. Even the dogs. It won’t last long. It’s almost time for them to get up.”

“If I take you in now, you’ll be stuck in jail until Monday,” Isaid. “You can’t get bonded out until you have an arraignment and a judge sets bail. And judges don’t work on the weekend. If you can get Ed to drop the charges on Monday, this will all go away.”

“I’ll do my best.”

I went back to the car and got behind the wheel.

“How’d it go?” Lula asked.

“Zach said he’s going to do his best to get the charges dropped.”

“If it was me, I’d rather go to jail than babysit those kids.”

“I thought you wanted to be an auntie.”

“Yeah, but I’m resigning if it turns out you have a poop eater.”

“Fair enough.”

“Now what?” Lula asked.

“Now we go home. I’m done for the day.”

A fruit basket and a bottle of wine had been left in front of my door. No note attached. None was necessary. The basket was now sitting on my kitchen counter. The wine was in the fridge.

I was in the kitchen, pawing through the fruit basket, reviewing my possible excuses for not sleeping with Morelli or Ranger tonight. It was Saturday. They were going to want to spend the night with me and I was going to have to beg off.

I bypassed the apples and oranges and found a packet of caramel popcorn. I opened the packet, and a text came in from Morelli. His brother had tickets to a fight at the Garden and had invited him to go along. They were on their way into the city and wouldn’t be home until late, so maybe we could get together tomorrow. What the hell! I just got dumped for a New York City prizefight. Okay, so I’d dodged a bullet, and I should have been grateful, but I didn’t feel grateful. I felt pissed off that Morelliwould rather see two idiots beat the crap out of each other than get me naked.

I ate the caramel popcorn and talked myself into feeling grateful.

Ranger called. “The camera is going up tonight,” he said. “Once it’s live I’ll send you an app so you can access it. My control room will also be monitoring it. Do you need anything else?”

“No. Just the camera.”

“Are you sure?”

Loaded question. “I think the camera will be great.”

“Babe,” Ranger said.

The line went dead.

I was feeling a little pissy again. He could have tried harder. It was like he was relieved not to have to tear himself away from his stupid work. I needed a glass of wine, but there was the possible baby, so I hunted through the basket and found some cookies. I was cracking under the pressure of a potential pregnancy. I was making mountains out of molehills. I was pathetic.

A text message popped up on my phone.We met once very briefly. The next time we meet will be more enjoyable. I know you’ve been looking for me. Soon enough.

I was breathless. I literally couldn’t breathe. I put my hand out to the counter to steady myself, and I had a flashback of the woman in the laundromat, bleeding on the floor. I blinked the vision away and sucked in air. That wasn’t going to be me. I wasn’t going to be this monster’s victim. I was going to be vigilant. I was going to put bullets in my gun. First, I would have to buy some. Mental note: Buy bullets. Second mental note: Screw negative thinking. Embrace positive thinking. Shake it off. Be the woman in charge.

So, where do I go from here? I cut my eyes to the refrigerator. The woman in charge should make dinner. I went to the refrigerator and spied a package of ground meat. This was a good beginning.

I called Grandma. “I want to make meatloaf,” I said. “I made it once before, but I can’t remember the recipe.”

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