Nancy took the lead and punched the elevator button. The doors opened, we stepped in, and Brenda moved close to Ranger. "So, Hot Cakes, are you with me for the night?"

"Stephanie and I will be with you until you return to your hotel room," Ranger said.

"Sometimes I need my bodyguards to spend the entire night with me," Brenda said to Ranger.

This produced more eye-rolling from Nancy and me and more passive pleasantness from Ranger. The doors opened, and we moved into the crush of people in the lobby. Nancy led the way, and I followed Nancy, with Brenda sandwiched between Ranger and me. We cut a swath through the crowd to the meet-and-greet room. Once we were inside the room and the door was closed behind us, the atmosphere became much more calm. These were patrons of the charity, and they'd paid a huge amount of money to have a private audience with Brenda. She accepted a champagne flute, drained it, and reached for a second.

"This isn't so bad," I said to Ranger. "It's not like someone is shooting at her. And so far, she hasn't totally exposed herself. You got groped in the elevator, but you're probably used to that."

"Yeah," Ranger said. "It happens a lot."

A forty-something woman approached Brenda. "What is this?" the woman asked, pointing to Brenda's jacket.

"A jacket?"

"What kind of jacket?"

"What kind do you think it is?"

"I think it's mink."

"Bingo," Brenda said.

"You have a lot of nerve," the woman said. "Was this done as a deliberate insult?"

"Sweetheart," Brenda said, "when I insult someone they know they've been insulted."

Nancy's eyes went to the size of goose eggs, and she frantically thumbed through her event schedule. "Oh crap!" she said. "Oh shit."

I looked over her shoulder and read down the clipboard. Thursday's event will benefit the humane treatment of animals.

The woman narrowed her eyes at Brenda. "Take that offensive jacket off immediately."

Bite me," Brenda said. "And what's your problem, anyway?"

"Do you have any idea how many little minks it took to make that jacket?"

"Oh puhleeze," Brenda said. "Don't give me that treehugger crap. Look, if it's an issue for you, just think of it as Russian weasel."

The woman snatched a glass of red wine from a waiter, dumped it on Brenda's jacket, and Brenda tossed her champagne in the woman's face. Ranger reached for Brenda, but Brenda already had her hands around the woman's throat. There was a lot of kicking and shrieking of obscenities, and by the time Ranger got the women separated, Brenda's boobs had popped out of her dress and the skirt had ridden up to her waist. Ranger dispassionately yanked the dress up over Brenda's breasts and pulled the skirt down over her ass, apologized to the other woman, and dragged Brenda out of the room and into the lobby. Nancy and I rushed after Ranger and Brenda, and we all jumped into the elevator.

Nancy crossed meet and greet off her schedule. "One down," she said. "We have ten minutes before the dinner." Ranger and I elected not to sit at the head table with Brenda. We took a position on the wall toward the front of the room, so we could better see if anyone was rushing at Brenda with a glass of red wine.

Brenda had changed into a black satin bustier, tight jeans studded with rhinestones, and she had an animalfriendly black cashmere wrap draped over her shoulders. My cell phone vibrated, and I looked at the screen. It was Morelli calling. "I need to take this," I said to Ranger. "I'm going to step outside for a moment."

I found a quiet corridor and dialed Morelli.

"How's it going?" I asked Morelli.

"I don't know. He hasn't stopped playing since I got home. He can play and eat at the same time. I think he took the computer into the bathroom with him. It's kind of creepy. You're coming back here tonight, right?"

"Um . . ."

"Let me rephrase that. What time are you coming back here?"

"Hard to say. I'm running security for Brenda."

"The Brenda?"

"Yeah. I'm working with Ranger."

There was a full sixty seconds of silence where I suspected Morelli was staring down at his shoe, getting a grip. Morelli thought Ranger was a dangerous guy from multiple points of view. And Morelli was right.

"Don't you want to hear about Brenda?" I asked him.

"No. I don't care about Brenda. I care about you. I don't like you working with Ranger."

"It's just for a couple days."

"I'm out of the house at six tomorrow morning. You need to be here to make sure Picasso doesn't spray paint the dog again."

"Zook painted Bob?"

"He did it before I got home. He said he had to protect Bob from the griefer. He pulls anything like that again, and I'm going to make the griefer look like the Tooth Fairy."

Ranger was leaning against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, calmly watching the room when I returned. "Did I miss anything fun?" I asked him.

He made a small side-to-side movement with his head.

"No."

"Brenda is waving her glass around."

"I told the wait staff not to give her a refill, and she's feeling neglected."

"Hey!" Brenda called to a passing waiter. "Hell-O!"

The waiter scurried away, and Brenda waved the glass at another guy. Brenda lapped at the empty glass and waggled her tongue at the waiter. A red scald rose from his collar to the roots of his hair, and he ran for the kitchen.

A waiter carrying plates of food passed behind Brenda, and in the blink of an eye, Brenda had the guy by his nuts. The waiter stopped in mid-stride, tray aloft, mouth open. I couldn't hear Brenda from where I stood, but I could read her lips.

"I need a drinky-poo," Brenda said to the waiter. "Nod your head if you understand."

The waiter nodded his head, and Brenda released him.

"I have to give her credit," I said to Ranger. "She knows how to get a man's attention."

An hour later, we escorted Brenda to her room.

"I want to party," Brenda said in the elevator. "Isn't there a party somewhere?"

Ranger stayed stoic, saying nothing, and I followed his lead. If Brenda had been sober, she would have been hard to control. As it was, her eyes were unfocused, and her attention span was short. The elevator doors opened, Brenda lurched out, walked into a potted plant, and got knocked on her ass.

"Whoops," Brenda said. "Where'd that come from?"

Ranger scooped her up and pointed her in the right direction. She tried to grab him, and he jumped away.

"You need to take point on this," Ranger said to me. "If she grabs me one more time, I'm going to have to shoot her."

I linked arms with Brenda and walked her down the hall to her suite. I opened the door and maneuvered her inside. I herded her into the bedroom, and she crawled into bed fully clothed.

I turned the light off in the bedroom and joined Ranger in the living room. He locked the liquor cabinet, pocketed the key, and we left the suite.

"Tank has the night off, and Hal doesn't come on until midnight," Ranger said. "I'll stand guard until then."

"I'll stand with you," I said. "Just in case Brenda comes out and attacks you and you're tempted to shoot her."

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