“What are you doing here?” Bogart asked. “What’s going on?”
“Two people have been killed, the Jolly truck was blown up, and this morning someone tried to kill Stephanie,” Ranger said.
“I don’t know anything about any of that,” Bogart said. “I swear.”
“You went to the plant in the middle of the night in your pajama top. You walked into your office, and after a few minutes you left the building, abandoned your car, and disappeared.”
“I felt like getting away. I can do that. I own the company. I can do whatever I want.”
“I can do whatever I want too,” Ranger said. “And I might feel like pitching you off the third-floor balcony.”
Bogart narrowed his eyes. “Don’t threaten me. The tough-guy act doesn’t work.”
I could see where Bogart might think this was an idle threat, but I’ve seen Ranger in action and he doesn’t make threats he isn’t capable of carrying out. I saw him throw a man out a second-floor window once. He was a really bad guy, and no one much cared what shape he was in when he hit the ground . . . but still.
“I need answers,” Ranger said.
Bogart blew out a sigh. “I’m in a mess. I thought I could handle it, but it keeps getting worse and worse.”
He removed a piece of paper from a computer case on the small writing desk.
“This is what it’s come to,” he said, handing the paper to Ranger.
Ranger read it aloud. “ ‘Your time is up.’ ”
“It was on my desk. Either I hand my company over to them or else I’m next in the freezer,” Bogart said. “I got a phone call from some man. I didn’t recognize the voice. He said he’d just visited my office and left me a message. He said he was sure that I knew now what they were capable of doing. He said a lawyer would present papers to me first thing in the morning, and I needed to sign them. I got off the phone and I was angry, and I guess I was scared. I don’t even know what I felt. I wasn’t thinking. I pulled on some pants and drove to the plant and went to my office.” Bogart’s face was flushed, and he was breathing heavy. “It was like that scene in the Godfather movie where he finds the horse head in his bed. Horror. Panic. I was sick with it.” Bogart took a beat to get it together. “I ran. I didn’t know what else to do. I knew if I signed the plant over to them it wouldn’t end there. They’d have to kill me. I’d disappear like Jimmy Hoffa. So I left the car in a parking lot and called a friend I trusted to pick me up. I went back to the house, got some clothes and my computer, and had my friend drive me to the airport. I just wanted to get far away from them. I thought I needed to go someplace where I could figure it out. My wife was already here, and I thought it was a good place to hide. I mean, who would think to look for me at Disney, right?”
“Who’s ‘them’?” Ranger asked.
“I don’t know. I needed money, and Soon appeared. He represents a businessman who invests in growth companies. That’s what I was trying to do. I wanted to expand. It seemed like a sure thing. Short-term loan. Almost immediately bad things started to happen. Tainted ice cream. Freezer malfunctions. Jeff Soon moved in to help get things back on track. I was so stupid. Na?ve. I couldn’t make my loan payments, so I gave them a piece of the company. Now they’re making impossible demands. And people are dying. First Zigler. I have no proof, but I think they made an example of him because he was suspicious of Soon. And then Gus. I don’t know why Gus was killed, but he worked the loading dock and maybe he saw something. Or maybe he was just convenient because he was usually the last man in the freezer. Soon wasn’t happy when I hired Rangeman. I suppose Gus was another warning to me.”
“Why did you hire Rangeman?” Ranger asked.
“You have a reputation for being the best and for taking on special security issues. I hoped you might scare them off. That they would decide it wasn’t worth the risk with you on board. I thought by bringing you in I might get some control back. Maybe they wouldn’t want to deal with you, and they would move on and ruin someone else. And if that wasn’t enough, I was hoping to get something on them with the security cameras.”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?” I asked.
“I can’t. I’m in the middle of it. I’ll go to jail. I’ll lose my company. My God, I’m practically an accomplice to two murders. How do you explain something like this?”
“I want to see whatever documents you signed,” Ranger said to Bogart. “Do you have them with you?”
“No. They’re in a safety-deposit box in Trenton.”
“You’re going back with me,” Ranger said. “And you’re going to get the documents for me.”
“They’ll find me and kill me,” Bogart said.
“I can keep you safe.”
“And the rest of my family. My wife and daughter.”
“I can put you all in a safe house. I’ll straighten this out as best as I can, but eventually you’re going to have to deal with the police.”
“I don’t see where I have much choice,” Bogart said. “I need a little time to explain this to my wife and my daughter. They know something is wrong, but they don’t know the extent of it.”
“You don’t want to tell them everything,” Ranger said. “Tell them only enough to make them cooperate. We’ll fly out at nine o’clock tomorrow morning. I’ll make the arrangements.”
We left Bogart and went back to the lobby.
“Do you think he’ll still be here in the morning?” I asked Ranger. “Or do you think he’ll run?”
“If he runs I can find him. We can find his wife’s and his daughter’s phones, and I dropped a GPS locator into his computer case when I returned the note.”
TWENTY-EIGHT
WE GOT A room, and we went to the Magic Kingdom.
“You owe me big,” Ranger said. “This is worth a lot more than one night of fun at the Contemporary Resort.”
“This is the happiest place on earth,” I said. “I heard it on television, so it has to be true.”
We were on Main Street with shops on either side of us.
“I need a T-shirt,” I said, going into a store. “I don’t have any clothes with me.”
“Babe, everything has the mouse on it.”
“Not true. There are Disney Princess T-shirts and Tinker Bell T-shirts. And I need some undies. Don’t you need undies?”
“I’ll go commando.”
“I think it might be illegal to go commando at Disney.” I pulled some boxers off a shelf. “Buzz Lightyear.”
“I don’t think so.”
“I could take you to infinity and beyond if you were wearing these briefs.”
“You’re going to take me there anyway.”
I got a hot flash. “I’m a little flustered,” I said.
“Maybe this is the happiest place on earth,” Ranger said. “I’m starting to feel happy.”
I bought Tinker Bell panties and a pink Tinker Bell T-shirt with glitter on it.
“We should go back to the hotel so you can put the panties on,” Ranger said.
“Not now.”
“When?”
“You have to wait for it.”
He wrapped an arm around me. “Tinker Bell brings out the best in you.”
I wasn’t sure if that was true, but the physical distance currently between me and my life in Jersey gave me a sense of freedom. Jersey seemed very far away, in more than just miles.
“Instead of going back to the hotel, I think we should have ice cream and go on rides.”
“Don’t even think about the tea cups,” Ranger said.
We watched the fireworks from Main Street and took the water taxi back to our hotel. Ranger called his control room to check on Bogart.
“He’s still here,” Ranger said to me. “I’ll get a text if either of them moves.”