Extraits

(Stéphanie et Ranger)

- Personne n'est à mes trousses. J'ai juste manqué de bol.

- Baby, tu as détruit une bagnole, incendié deux bâtiments, agrafé les couilles d'un type et on a dû te coudre seize points de suture dans la jambe. Prends une nuit de congé. Sers-toi un verre de vin, regarde la télé et couche-toi tôt.

"I used to be such a badass," Ranger said. "Everyone was afraid of me. Everyone wanted to kill me. I needed Tank walking behind me to keep the paid assassins under control. And now look at me. I'm followed by a woman in a rented Taurus." He made a vague gesture with his hand. "And I can't remember the last time someone tried to kill me."

"It wasn't long ago," I said. "It was in my apartment, and you got shot a bunch of times, and it wasn't all that much fun."

J'ai appelé ma mère en route, pour la rassurer.

- Mamie a eu un petit accident, mais elle va bien. Elle a juste quelques morceaux de marmotte collés sur le corps. Je pense que si tu la frottes avec du détergent, ça devrait aller. Tu devrais peut-être aussi appeler le salon de coiffure pour voir si Dolly a de la place pour un shampooing, un brushing... et peut-être une coupe.

Il y a eu un long silence pendant lequel je me suis représenté ma mère faisant le signe de croix et lorgnant vers l'armoire à alcool. J'ai raccroché et nous sommes arrivés dans le Bourg.

We sat for another half hour in our own thoughts, until an aide came to find us.

"Pierre is out of surgery and awake," she said. "You can see him now."

I looked at Ranger. "Pierre ?"

"If you want to live, you'll forget you heard that," Ranger said. "Tank isn't overly fond of being named Pierre."

"What are you doing in RangeMan clothes ? You were head-to-toe RangeMan this morning."

"I ran out of clean clothes and these were avaible."

"Avaible ? Where were they avaible ?"

"In Ranger's closet."

"Are you fucking kidding me ? I'm holed up here with the witness from hell and you've moved in with Ranger ?"

"You told him to take care of me.'

"Not that way !"

"There's no way going on. It's no different from what you've got here. You've got Dick-head in protective custody. Does that mean you're sleeping with him ?"

The color was rising in Morelli's face. "I'll kill him."

I hung up and looked at Ranger.

"No," Ranger said.

"You don't even know what I was going to ask."

"You were going to sak me to fill in for Morelli at dinner."

"Roast chicken."

"You'll have to come up with something better than roast chicken."

"Do you have dinner plans ?"

"Are you going to nag me on this ?"

"Yes."

"What happened to the Stephanie who thought I was mysterious and scary ?"

"Gone."

Actually, that wasn't entirely true. Ranger was still mysterious and scary at times - just not today, just not compared to my mother and grandmother.

Ranger parked in the driveway behind my father's Buick. "We need to be out of here at seven-thirty. If you tell Tank I did this, I'll chain you naked to the traffic light on Hamilton and Broad. And I'll shoot your grandmother if she grabs me."

"I lost my cuffs"

"Again ? Honest to goodness, I've never seen anybody lose things like you."

"You usually have cuffs," I said to Lula.

"They're sort of attached to my bed. Tank was over, and we got playful."

it was raining harder and the ground was getting slick underfoot.

"Slow down", I said to Lula. "You can't see where you are going".

"I got X-ray vision. I'm like a cat. Don't worry about me. I just gotta get this coat out of the rain. I can see there's a tent ahead."

A tent ? And then I saw it. The grounds crew had rejected a tarp over a hole dug for morning burial.

"I'm just waiting under this tent until the rain lets up." Lula said, rushing forward.

"No!"

Too late.

"Whoops," Lula said, disappearing from view, landing with a loud 'whump'.

"Help !" she yelled. "The mummy got me."

I looked down at her. "Are you okay?"

"I think I broke my ass."

"This is good," Ranger said, examining the cough drop. "Super small. Well disguised. How did you discover it ?"

"I tried to eat it".

"Did you hear about the fire at the warehouse on Stark ?" (Stephanie)

"No. I don't hear anything. I'm locked away, babysitting a moron, and I'm looking at an episode of Raymond that I've seen forty-two times."

"Dickie and his partners owned a warehouse on Stark and-"

"Oh, Christ," Morelli said. "Don't tell me."

"It burned down...just now."

"Are you okay ?"

"yeah. Ranger took me to get stitches."

There was a silence on the other end, and I imagined Morelli was staring down at his shoe with his lips pressed tightly together.

(...)

"Hello ?" I said.

"Give me moment," Morelli said. "I've almost got myself under control."