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When It Rains	By : Illiandyandra Category: S through Z > Stephanie Plum Series Views: 9524 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to this fandom. Stephanie Plum and her world along with any characters there in, belong to Janet Evanovich her publishers and distributors. I make no money from this as stated by the fact that I own none of the rights

Chapter List
- 16
- 17
- 18
WHEN IT RAINS
Illiandyanndra
Stephanie Plum
Pairings: Stephanie/Ranger & Merry Men(Core Team)
Spoilers: Anything & everything up through Sizzling Sixteen is fair game…I can never remember what book what stuff happens in.
^^Thoughts^^
^Spoken Aloud Thoughts^
“Speech”
AN: I have made an Executive Decision. No longer will I force you to read long sections of poorly translated Spanish…from now on if it is spoken by Hector, it will be italicized, and you can automatically assume that it is in Spanish. Google Translate will greatly thank me for this decision, since now they can go back to helping high schoolers pass their foreign language classes (Why was there no Google Translate when I was in High School)…
Please take a moment and Check out My new Community: MORELLI BASHERS ANONYMOUS
AN2: Thank you to all my reviewers. Make me smile; tell me your favorite funny line from this story. Or tell me your favorite moment from it.
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CHAPTER 17
Mary Alice PoV
          He grabbed me from behind. I remembered to kick back and try to run, but I’m too short for my kick to get him where it needed to. Before I could manage to get a look at him he had me tossed over his shoulder.
          “Look Mary Alice, you just stay quiet and I won’t need to do this again.” His voice was kind of familiar. Like maybe I’ve heard it around but not regularly. I try to do all the things Aunt Stephanie says she does when she gets kidnapped, notice any clue I can about the bad guy. But it’s hard. I can tell you that he uses the same cologne that daddy used to back when we lived in California, and that this voice is kinda familiar. But not really anything else.
          “My Aunt Stephanie is going to kick your ass.” I said fearlessly as I felt a pinch in my bottom. “And then Ranger and her Justice League will make you beg for death before they kill you.” Aunt Stephanie’s boyfriends would make sure that he paid for this. They had told me that even if this jerk did somehow manage to get their hands on one of us, they would move heaven and earth to find us and make the mean man pay, dearly. That was my last thought as everything went all fuzzy and then black.
Ranger PoV
          When we got the 911 text from the office, I’m sure that Stephanie’s heart stopped. In fact I can tell you that it was not alone in its’ hesitation to beat. “Abegaile, you Connie and the Stankovics should stay and have fun.”
          “No Carlito…that little girl is Stephanie’s family. Your family…my family. We’re coming too.” Abegaile returned.
          One look at Connie, Mary Lou and Lenny and I knew that this argument was pointless. We quickly made our way out of the club. I stopped to let the man on the door know that Rangeman was now on high alert due to the kidnapping of one of our protectorate. He gave me a quick nod of acknowledgement. A subsequent text would be sent from the Control Room when protocols were established, so the nod was all he could do at this point.
          We made it back to Haywood in no time at all. Albert was there with Angie and Lisa. Angie and her stepfather were glaring at Val where she sat far down the table from the bulk of her family. She sat there, alone, looking harried and tired.
          “Report.” I barked at Blinkie. Somehow I doubted that I would get much information from Babe’s sister right now. And Zero was on scene waiting for the arrival of the Trenton PD.
          “Earlier today, roughly sixteen thirty, Mrs. Kloughn left her home with all three of her daughters in her Caravan. Not long after we left, following them our vehicle was stopped by Officer Morelli. Rather than pull over with us as Zero signaled her to do, Mrs. Kloughn kept driving. Suffice it to say we lost her. After being released by Officer Morelli, with a warning ticket for failure to signal a lane change…a lane change we did not make until after he turned on his blue lights, by the way; we separated. Zero dropped me here to get a vehicle and I returned to the Kloughn home in the hopes that Mrs. Kloughn had returned there with the girls.” Every time Blinkie said Mrs. Kloughn his voice, despite all his training, shook with anger and affront. “Zero drove through the ‘burg. Before I could call Steph to see what she wanted me to do, Zero radioed back to let me know that he had located Val’s van at Mrs. Arabella Morelli’s home. He placed eyes on each of them, including Mrs. Kloughn, who he believed was trying to take a nap. He returned to his vehicle to wait for the visit to be over. He says that at no time did he see anyone enter or leave the house through the front door, or the detached garage. Ranger…he kept eyes on that house for the entire time he was there.”
Connie spoke up. “Bella Morelli’s house has a blind alley behind it. There is a gate into it, and the damn thing doesn’t come out onto Market or Emrick, but that little side street, Dunn. There’d be no way for Zero to see if anyone came in through that gate. Old Anthony built his yard that way on purpose; he used to run some stuff for my granddad back in the day.”
          “Damn.” Blinkie said. “That increases our time table. She was there for almost 2 hours. MA could have been taken any time after seventeen hundred hours. That’s when Zero returned to his vehicle. Mrs. Kloughn left the Morelli home at eighteen twenty eight in a major hurry. Angie was fussing at her the whole time about something according to Zero. He didn’t have eyes on MA, but when he asked Mrs. Kloughn, she simply gave him a crude hand gesture, and drove off.”
                              “This is all Heffie Stephie’s fault.” Val whined. “I needed Mom to watch the girls, but she wasn’t home. She went on some stupid spa day with Stephanie.” She snarled. “I just had to get some sleep. Albert won’t sleep with me anymore. The baby is so restless. And Albert was always so good at getting Lisa to quiet down in there. But no Albert has to sleep downstairs. I can’t sleep at night; I have to watch Lisa during the day. I just wanted to take a nap.”
          Stephanie gave her sister a look that could have peeled paint off a car, “Okay so why are we here?” Why aren’t we over at Bella’s with the cops looking for MA?” she asked exasperatedly.
          “Because your genius of a sister loaded two out of three girls in the car and came home. I got home to find the house empty, Val pulled up maybe five minutes later with Angie and Lisa. Angie was in tears. She was trying to get her mother to go back. She kept yelling that they needed to find MA. Val was yelling at her to shut up. That Angie was making more noise than Mary Alice for the first time in her life. Supposedly she didn’t realize that she was one daughter short until I asked where the hell MA was.” Albert said his voice hard and cold, his usually warm eyes looking like flint.
          “I swear…I’m so tired I didn’t notice that she wasn’t in the car.” Val whined again. Her voice is really starting to grate on my nerves.
          Blinkie spoke back up. “Zero returned to Bella Morelli’s house when it was confirmed that MA was not in the vehicle. He couldn’t see her anywhere on the first floor of the house. So he knocked and asked Mrs. Morelli where she was. The old lady got extremely belligerent and ordered him off her property. He moved off and called the TPD. He would have stayed, but he was too close to losing it. I came here rather than go over there because Zero is much better at handling his temper than I am. I’d have killed the old bat. I like MA, she’s pretty much Bomber Junior. That old biddie doesn’t even seem to care that a little girl is missing.”
          Angie spoke up. “I tried to tell you Mom. I kept trying to tell you. You just told me to shut up because you had a headache. You wouldn’t listen. Just like you wouldn’t listen when I said that if Gramom couldn’t watch us you should just get Mr. Blinkie or Mr. Zero to come inside and sit with us. I could have taken care of Lisa and MA would have had someone to play her horse games with. I don’t like Mrs. Morelli. She’s always talking bad about Aunt Steph and Grandma Edna. And she smells funny.” Angie yelled before running over, hugging Stephanie hard and bursting into heart wrenching sobs. “I tried Aunt Steph, I really, really tried.”
          “I know Baby, I know.” Stephanie said squatting down to hug her niece. “No one else knows better than me exactly how stubborn your mom. You know one day when we were little I was trying to tell her that her skirt was on fire, and she wouldn’t pay me any attention until it was all alight.”
          “You set my skirt on fire on purpose.” Val Yelled. “You know you did.”
          Babe rolled her eyes with a sigh. “Yeah, Val, I set your skirt on fire with a Sparkler on purpose.” Sarcasm was dripping off every word. “Who the hell wears a dress to a Fourth of July picnic in the first place?” She yelled back before turning back to the girl in her arms. She hugged Angie tightly, “You see, stubborn.” She said gently.
          I turned to Tank. “Do we have eyes on Mrs. Mazur and the Plums?”
          “Eyes and ears. Edna’s enroute. Frank and Mrs. Plum will be within the next twenty minutes.” He apprised me.
          “What’s the hold up?” I couldn’t imagine anything keeping the Night Fox from being here with one of his girls missing. Neither Plum would appreciate the delay.
          Tank flushed visible. “Apparently Frank really, really likes Mrs. Plum’s new look. Neither of the guards is willing to interrupt before they finish. Though both of them say they want to be Frank when they grow up. Oh and we intercepted the neighbor’s call to 911 about the screaming.”
          For a moment no one knew what to say. I watched as emotions flew across Babe’s beautifully expressive face. I knew she had a major part of her mother’s new hairdo and her parent’s date tonight, so the pride was expected. I suppose I should have expected the slightly disgusted look, but I will never understand the mentality of children, especially adult children, who assume that their parents aren’t sexual creatures. How else would the world have reached this large a population. Her mild disgust amused me a bit. Finally I said the only thing I could think to say, “He’s a Ranger.”
          Edna entered the room in a fury. Her hair was all over the place and a remarkable new color. She was still in her nightclothes. She marched directly to her oldest granddaughter and slapped the shit out of Val. I couldn’t help but like Edna even more as she spoke, her voice deadly calm, and more pissed off than I’d ever heard anyone her age sound. “If anything has happened to that little girl because of your selfishness and stupidity, I will give you until you delver that Morelli spawn in your belly and I will kill you myself.”
          “This is Albert’s baby.” Val said steadfastly.
          “Bullshit. It’s written in the bags under your eyes and the tense lines in your face. You haven’t slept in a while. I hear Angie and Bella are having the same problem, but they’re home alone all day, they can nap. Eddie said that Joe’s been falling asleep at his desk. He wakes up seconds later screaming and fighting the air. Kenny Mancuso took a vacation just yesterday because he kept falling asleep at the job. I heard from Daphne Cole, she works at the elementary school…Anthony’s boys, hell all the Morelli kids are the same way. Your mom got them good-not’s a moment’s rest, she said. Your baby can’t sleep-so you can’t sleep.” Edna crowed. She turned to me. “Ranger, please, find my great grandbaby before that scum sucking bastard can hurt her.”
          “You all heard the lady.” I growled. “Tank, I want Trenton PD informed. See if they can keep Morelli from the scene; I will shoot him if I need to get past him to interrogate the grandmother. Everyone else, we need to get changed and ‘dressed’ and meet in the garage in five.” I turned to Stephanie, “Babe.” I knew she wouldn’t stay here, but I need her to be focused and most importantly ‘dressed’.
          “Lula and I will be ready in five. Mary Lou, I need you and Lenny to head home and keep the grapevine misdirected.” Stephanie commanded her troops. ‘Connie, can you,”
          Connie had her cellphone out and was texting madly. “Uncle Jimmy and the boys are headed to Bella’s now. She will answer him, trust me, and the boys will help with the canvassing.”
          Abegaile looked up from her cell. “Mama and the family are on their way. They want to help with the search. Your secret will not survive the night hermano.” She looked to Stephanie. “Is there something I can change into? I will help as well.”
          Stephanie went to Abegaile and gave her a very rare, for Stephanie, hug. “Thank you. You can come upstairs. Lula and I always keep a few changes of clothes here. You’ll probably be in a Rangeman uniform.”
          “That’s fine.” She said as the three women left to change.
          As we left to go change ourselves, Helen and Frank Plum arrived on five. “Report.” He barked. We all snapped to attention.
          “Mary Alice has been missing for at least two and a half hours, Sir. She went missing from Bella Morelli’s home where Val apparently went to take a nap.” I said before further summarizing the situation.
“When are we rolling out?” he asked.
“Everyone has five minutes to get changed, we roll out momentarily.” I answered.
Frank nodded and turned to his wife. “Helen, I want to see Angie and Lisa. Send them out to me please. If I go in that room and your daughter is still singing the Morellis' praises, I will not be able to hold my temper.”
Helen PoV
          I walked in and for a moment I was struck by the fact that it looked like everyone was against my eldest daughter. She looked so tired and worn out I almost went to her. Instead I turned to Angie and said calmly. “Angie, take Lisa out to see Granddad. I’d like to talk to your mother.”
          “Yes Ma’am.” She said taking her sister from her stepfather. “Gramom, you look very pretty. Your hair is really nice and you look all glowy.”
          “Thank you, dear.” I replied and blushed. The ability for everyone and their grandmother to tell when you’ve had a really good night is something Stephanie inherited from me. Just like I had inherited it from my father. “Valerie, I would like to know why you would take the girls out of the house for no reason, when they are in such danger. I understand that you lost your guards. Were you behind them getting pulled over?” I had a horrible thought, “are you helping your sister’s stalker?”
          “No, of course not. I just wanted some sleep. And I was just so tired. And you weren’t home. Come to find you were too busy going for a spa day with Heffie Stephie” she complained. ‘Well Nona Bella is always home. I went over and when the cops stopped those Rangemen, I knew that if I just kept going, no one would know where I went. So I just kept going. And Nona Bella she took one look at me and told me to go lay down, she would watch the girls. Well I was in and out because the baby just wouldn’t let me rest. When Angie came in and woke me up, I realized that it was time for Albert to come home and I didn’t have anything ready for dinner. So I just told her to shut up and come on. I don’t know how I didn’t realize that Mary Alice wasn’t with us I just…Angie was being so loud and Lisa was crying and I was so happy that Mary Alice was being quiet for once in her life.”
          “I was trying to tell you that Mrs. Morelli had made MA go gallop in the back yard.” Angie yelled as she came back into the conference room. “I was trying to tell you that she made me look after Lisa while she took a nap too. I was trying to tell you that when I went to call MA back inside when Mrs. Morelli went upstairs, she was gone. I tried to watch her from the kitchen windows but I couldn’t watch Lisa and MA at the same time.” Angie screamed at her mother. ‘I told you if you wanted sleep, we could stay home and I could get Mr. Blinkie and Mr. Zero to come inside. They would have watched us. They are really nice and MA would still be safe.”
          Val looked aghast. “I couldn’t have had those thugs come into the house, what would the neighbors think? They could have molested or raped you.”
          Mother stood from where she has been sitting talking to Connie. She crossed the room angrily and slapped the hell out of Valerie. Judging from the handprint on Val’s other cheek, this wasn’t the first time. “Those boys are good, honorable and decent men. They would cut off their own packages with a rusty spoon before touching a child. They are worth a hundred of a fool like you. Your head is so far up Joe Morelli’s ass you can’t see anything but the shit he’s feeding you.”
Stephanie PoV
          I have never in my life changed as quickly as I did in those two minutes. I left my hair and face alone not wanting to waste the time to redo them. For the first ever I donned this uniform with the full intent to do harm. I’m really hoping that Joe didn’t have anything to do with this. That he was just being a dick when he pulled the guys over today. But everything in me was screaming that all this comes back to the Morelli’s. And if this stalker was a Morelli, I will end that entire family, not including the baby Val is carrying, if he hurts MA.
          A look shared with Lula tells me she is thinking along the same line. “There are too many Morellis in this mess, skinny white girl. I’m thinking Bella set Mini-You up. You can’t tell me she had nothing to do with this. Either she’s an accessory, or she criminally negligent. Whichever, if she tries to give me the eye, I’m shooting her…little old lady or not.”
          Abegaile joined us. She had pulled her long very dark hair into a ponytail. She had removed her jewelry and looked ready to go. “My Abuela, she will deal with this little old lady’s eye. Her father was a Brujo. She has enough magic to take on a crazy bitch who would help harm a child. I need to get strapped.”
          “Let’s hit the armory…Lula and my Kevlar is down there anyway.” I answered.
          Ranger appeared in the doorway. “Babe, your and Lula’s vest are on the couch. I brought up Hector’s extra for Abegaile. Abe, I have you a .22 on the coffee table, Hector’s loaned you a butterfly, and there’s a stun gun there for you as well. I want you ‘dressed’.
          Minutes later, we were all fully dressed and heading to the garage. Looking around I saw my dad looking more like, well, ranger, than I ever thought possible. He was in dark pants, and a dark shirt and a Kevlar. He had his own large gun in a thigh holster, and what looked like a double barrel pump action shot gun strapped on across his back. He gave me a grim smile as we all loaded into the SUVs and headed to the burg. Hang on MA, we’re coming.
Stalker PoV
So far so good. I never would have thought it would be so easy. My mother was on the phone with Nona Bella when Valerie showed up there with the girls. I heard her yell at poor little Mary Alice to take that racket to the back yard. After that it was nothing to it. I’d been preparing for this I just didn’t think I’d be able to get to her this soon. I was gone and back in under an hour.
I’ve got my computer set up to make the call. The recording is less than two minutes long, and the VOIP is set to bounce it so it looks like it’s coming from halfway down the coast. My leg hurts like a son of a bitch where the little hellion kicked me. Maybe I’ll get a little payback before the trade.
Tank PoV
Little Girl’s phone ringing startled all of us in the Cayenne, though she was the only one who jumped. She grabbed it and, as per Rangeman protocols in this situation, put it immediately on Speakerphone. A digitized voice came through. “Bombshell, Babe, Cupcake…I love Stephanie, it’s such a beautiful name. Why can’t everyone just call you by your name? Well, my dear, Stephanie I believe I have someone here your family would like back. She’s very much like you, more so than I’d ever imagined. She has your fighter’s spirit. It would be a shame to see that broken. So here is the deal…her for you. Even trade you can spend the night in my bed…or well, I’m sure you get the point. You have one hour to decide.” CLICK.
“DAMN IT. Son of a Bitch.” She yelled. “It was too short. That wasn’t two minutes was it?”
Ranger shook his head. “No, Babe. It wasn’t.” he pressed the call button on the console. “Control Room, You get that?”
“Yes sir, Call came from a VOIP service. Number registered in Virginia. But it was a fully digital recording. This guy just made his first mistake. He recorded it to his PC and then used digitizing software. Give us ten to fifteen and we’ll have the real voice for you.” Rogers, one of the semi-permanent contract workers said determinedly. If I remember correctly he has two little girls himself. He’ll move heaven and hell to make sure this guy is found.
We pulled up in front of Arabella Morelli’s house to find Zero going toe to toe with the last person we wanted to see at this crime scene, Joe Morelli. “I don’t give a damn who you think you are, you are not interrogating my grandmother.” Joe yelled.
Zero looked at him contemptuously. He pulled himself up to his full six foot two inches, “There is a little girl who got snatched out of your grandmother’s gated and locked backyard. Get the fuck out of my way so I can speak to her and figure out if she’s an accomplice or a fucking dupe because I guaren-damn-tee she know more than she’s saying.”
We unloaded from our vehicle. Distracted by wondering who was going to pull their sidearm first Morelli or Zero; I almost missed seeing an older Italian man, who screamed FAMILY, walk right past them and kick in the door. He entered the house without a backward glance. Morelli turned to go and protect his grandmother only to be stopped by three younger Italian men. They created a solid wall of muscle and when Morelli tried to brush past them, they laughed. “Look Morelli, we don’t give a damn about your badge. Uncle Jimmy’s gonna ask your Nona a few questions so we can find that little girl. If you got a problem with that we can settle that problem for you permanently.”
Before he could reply ‘Uncle Jimmy’ came back outside and walked out and directly to Morelli. “Where the hell was your ass this afternoon when the kid got snatched?”
“What the hell? I was at Work. Why are you asking me? It was probably one of those friggin’ Rangemen. No ‘burg man would do this kind of shit.” He retorted.
“Yeah cause Ranger and his men have been in this town long enough to have pictures for my daughter in her tasty pastry uniforms.” Frank said walking up to the men. “James. What did the old battleax have to say?”
Uncle Jimmy gave Morelli a hard look. “Frank. She said that the only people with a key to that lock are Morellis.” He said to Frank without ever taking his eyes off of Joe. “So I’ll ask again, and you will answer or my boys here and I will make you answer. Where were you this afternoon while Mrs. Kloughn and her girls were here?”
I heard more than saw Stephanie’s reaction. Before I could blink she was across the lawn. She took Morelli to the ground and started to pummel him. “This is all your fucking fault. You tell me where MA is. You tell me where she is.”
Her daddy just let her go, until Morelli decided to hit back. Then we could all only smile as we heard his shotgun ratchet. “Joseph Anthony Morelli, get your hands off my daughter. If I shoot you it will not be to wound.” He warned. His wasn’t the only gun aimed at Morelli right now. He was joined by each and every Rangeman as well as the Rosolli men. “We will shoot you and we will find my granddaughter. I’m fairly sure that with you dead we can convince any judge in this town that you and your grandmother were both accomplices in the disappearance of my granddaughter. Now start telling us who you, as a police officer, feel is the most likely suspect, other than yourself.”
I looked over at Ram. “Take a team and search Officer Morelli’s house. Look for any sign of his involvement.” Ram left the scene with Woody, Lula and Manny. I approached Morelli cautiously. “Who else Morelli…who else in your family have access to keys to that gate. Males ages 30 to sixty.”
“I don’t know, every branch has one. When you move out on your own, you get one to keep in your kitchen or on your key chain.” Morelli finally answered. “Hell even Leo can get his hands on Aunt Loretta’s.
Ranger’s phone rang. He grabbed it and sent it to speaker phone. “Report.”
“We tracked the Voice over internet phone’s service provider; the ISP that was used to purchase it is here in Trenton. Benny was able to find a pattern to all the free internet purchases. But I need someone who can give us an identity on the voice Silvio pulled from the recording.”
“Silvio?” Ranger barked. He wondered why Silvio was contacted down in Miami.
“The new system, sir. When we go on high alert here, everything is automatically backed up in Miami. Their control room heard the call to, Silvio called us less than five minutes later with the voice returned to normal. He said to tell Bomber hello and to shoot the mutherfucker once for him.” Rogers reported.
He played the recording and it wasn’t Morelli, but I had heard that voice before. “What are you guys playing here? How did you get his voice? Are you trying to say that my cousin is doing this?”
“Which Cousin?” Frank asked. When Morelli didn’t answer right away, Frank slid his Shotgun onto his back, pulled his bowie, from somewhere, even I didn’t see. He stepped behind Morelli, grabbed the asshole by the hair and held the knife to the arched throat. “Which of your fucking cousins, Morelli?”
“Leo.” Stephanie answered for the still silent cop.
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