I felt something tug inside me for the dog. The black button eyes reminded me of my hamster, Rex. I remembered the times when I’d been worried about Rex, and I felt the same sharp stab of concern for the little dog.

“Do you get along okay with your neighbors?” Vinnie asked. “Have you asked any of them if they’ve seen the dog?”

“No one has seen Boo.”

“We must leave now,” Mrs. Apusenja said, glancing at her watch. “Nonnie needs to get back to work.”

Vinnie saw them to the door and watched them cross the street to their car. “There they go,” Vinnie said. “Hell’s message bearers.” He shook his head. “I was having such a good day. Everyone was saying how good I looked in the picture. Everyone was congratulating me because I was doing something about visa enforcement. Okay, so I took a few comments when I dragged a naked, greased-up fat guy into the station, but I could handle that.” He gave his head another shake. “This I can’t handle. This has to get fixed. I can’t afford to lose this guy. Either we find this guy, dead or alive, or we’re all unemployed. If I can’t enforce this visa bond after all the publicity, I’m going to have to change my name, move to Scottsdale, Arizona, and sell used cars.” Vinnie focused on Ranger. “You can find him, right?”

The corners of Ranger’s mouth tipped up a fraction of an inch. This was the Ranger equivalent of a smile.

“I’m gonna take that as a yes,” Vinnie said.

“I’ll need help,” Ranger told him. “And we’ll need to work out the fee.”

“Fine. Whatever. You can have Stephanie.”

Ranger cut his eyes to me and the smile widened ever so slightly—the sort of smile you see on a man when he’s presented with an unexpected piece of pie.

TWO

CONNIE HANDED A stack of papers over to Ranger. “Here’s everything we have,” she said. “A copy of the bond agreement, photo, background information. I’ll check the hospitals and the morgue, and I’ll run a full investigative report. I should have some of it tomorrow.”

This was the information age. Sign up with a service, tap a few keys on the computer, and within seconds facts start pouring in . . . all the names on the family tree, employment records, credit history, a chronology of home addresses. If you pay enough and search hard enough it’s possible to access medical secrets and marital infidelities.

Ranger read through the Singh file and then looked at me. “Are you available?”

Connie fanned herself and Lula bit into her lower lip.

I blew out a sigh. This apprehension was going to create problems. My involvement with Trenton cop Joe Morelli was on the fast track again. Joe and I had a long, strange history and we probably loved each other. Neither of us felt marriage was the answer right now. It was one of the few things we agreed on. Morelli hated my job and I wasn’t crazy about his grandmother. And Morelli and I had clashing views on Ranger’s acceptability as a partner. We both agreed Ranger was dangerous and a shade off normal. Morelli wanted me to stay far away from Ranger. I thought six to ten inches was sufficient.