Briggs selected a cookie. “I put the wine in the car and sat down in the passenger seat, and then I decided to see if you were finding everything okay in the store. So I got out of the car and next thing I hear WHOOOSH! and KABBAM! and I was flying through the air.”
What was left of the car had been hosed down, and the fire truck was packing up. I’d given the police a preliminary report.
Ranger called on my cellphone.
“The tracking mechanism on my Porsche went dead,” Ranger said. “Is there a problem?”
“There are some mechanical difficulties,” I said. “It would be great if you could send someone to pick me up.”
Fifteen minutes later, Briggs had eaten the entire bag of cookies, and Ranger arrived in a black SUV. He got out and stood looking at the smoldering lump of melted, mangled Porsche.
“I assume this is my car,” he said.
“Yep,” I replied.
“No one was hurt?”
“Nope. Briggs was a little rattled, but he’s okay.”
He wrapped an arm around me. “How about you? Were you rattled?”
“I’m always rattled.”
“Do we know who did this?”
“No. I was in the grocery store, and Briggs was sitting in the car. He decided to come get me, got out of the car, heard a WHOOSH, and next thing he was flying through the air. He didn’t see anything, but I think it sounds like the rocket guy.”
“So this is the fourth attempt to kill him?”
“Yes. Three firebombs shot from some sort of rocket launcher, and one car bomb.”
“Any suspects?”
“Several.”
“We have two options,” Ranger said. “We find the inept amateur who’s doing this, or I put a bullet in Briggs’s brain and we get on with our lives.”
I was pretty sure Ranger wasn’t serious about shooting Briggs, but then again, he had a point.
We looked back at Briggs. He was sitting on a bench with a blanket wrapped around him, and his feet didn’t touch the ground.
“Your call,” Ranger said.
“Boy, this is a tough decision.”
A smile twitched at the corner of Ranger’s mouth, and he kissed me just above my ear. “I suppose we should take him home. Where is he living?”
“In my apartment.”
“Babe.”
“I’m letting him stay there while it’s under construction.”
“And you?”
“I’m rooming with Morelli.”