SPOV

For the tenth time tonight I have tried to get comfortable on my couch. I swear this thing could be used as a form of torture in a third world country! I'm at home early in the morning because no one seems to want to be FTA right now, and without someone to chase I really don't have anything to do but sit at home and watch TV or go to my parents and field all of the questions and comments from my Mother. I'll take my torture device, oops I mean couch, any day of the week.

My love life is non existent as of right now. Joe Morelli, my on again/off again boyfriend is off to see the wizard or in this case he's off to see another woman. Speaking of the Wizard, I don't really even want to think about the one person that I automatically think of anytime the word wizard is uttered in my presence. Ranger Manoso, the wizard…the wonderful wizard, has not really been coming around lately. I don't know if it's the fact that he doesn't really want to be around me or he's been too busy saving the world one city at a time. Either way, that makes my love life pretty boring and unsatisfying. Luckily sugar has been a good friend to me and has not abandoned me so far.

As I sat there and pondered my life I heard my phone ring.

"Hello" I say.

"Babe," speak of the devil, it's Ranger.

"What's up? You back in town? Is the world safe once again?" I ask.

"I am, I'll be at your place in 30. I need some help with an account, a female point of view."

"Sure, anytime. See you soon."

I swear he hung up before I even finished my sentence. Part of me wonders if he does the same thing to his Mom when he talks to her. My mother would try to wash my mouth out with soap if I did that to her. Nah, the more I think about it I really believe Mom would continue to talk (harp) for the next 20 minutes before she realized she was talking to dead air. I have actually had conversations where I have put my phone down and gone back and said "Yeah" or "Good" every 10 minutes and she never noticed I was gone.

I go to the bathroom and freshen myself up before Ranger arrives. I change into a pair of jeans and a black t shirt. No sooner do I walk out of my bedroom do I hear the locks tumble on my front door. When Ranger walks in I have to check myself for drool, he's dressed in a pair of black slacks that are hugging every muscle in his legs and a white button up shirt that I swear is custom made just for him.

"What account do you need my help with?" I asked as I crossed the room and made my way back to the couch.

"You know that new laundromat that opened up near Hamilton Township?"

"Yeah, it's really nice. It's almost too nice for Trenton. It's only been open for about two months. Are they getting cameras put in?"

"One of the things is cameras, but they are having issues. A couple of the employees and the owner all feel like they are being watched. We're going to do some security on the place as well. I wanted to get your feel on the cameras and see if your spidey sense picked up on anything. Just throw on your shoes, we're meeting with the owner in 25 minutes."

I began to open my mouth to protest. To tell him he couldn't just tell me to throw on shoes and expect me to be okay with going to meet this lady without putting on more makeup and changing into nicer clothing, but I knew it would be pointless and probably make us late for the meeting so I just went and threw on my shoes. Sometimes you've just got to pick your battles.

S&RS&RS&RS&R

Within 20 minutes we were pulling into the parking lot at the laundromat. I did a quick stroll around the building looking at the entrances and what might be considered blind spots on the outside of the building. Everything looked pretty normal. No doors on either side of the building, a small parking lot in the back with an entrance for employees. Nothing out of the norm.

As I came back around the corner I heard a woman scream and started running into the building right behind Ranger. When we got into the building we saw a lady, 30 years old, just holding her hand over her mouth. Once we got closer we saw what made her scream, in the big industrial washer there was a dead body. The body was twisted and mangled to fit into the machine and had a note pinned to the shirt that said:

Two things in life are certain - taxes and dirty laundry. I'm just trying to help you clean up your dirty laundry.

When I saw her start to get unsteady on her feet I lead Megan back to the office area to help her calm down while Ranger called the team in to process the information and properly move the body. Megan was 30 years old, black hair, brown eyes, about 5'3", 110lbs, and the owner of Folding Fantasy laundromat. I spent the better part of ten minutes just trying to get her to breathe and calm down enough so I get her to talk to me. Once this happened Ranger strolled into the office.

"They tried dusting the washer for fingerprints but there were about 20 different sets total." He said.

"Yeah, we use a chemical that cleans, disinfects, and takes the fingerprints off. I was cleaning the machines when I found Brandon's body." Megan said.

"Who is Brandon?" I asked

"Brandon is my husband, or should I say was my husband?" as she finished her sentence she broke out in tears.

"It's only 9:30 in the morning. Where was Brandon heading today? Did you see him this morning?" Ranger asked.

"Yes, he left about the same time as I did. He took our son, well he's actually my stepson, to school then he was going to come up here and take the deposit to the bank. It doesn't look like the safe has been opened up this morning so I don't know if he ever made it here." Megan said but a lot of it was muffled by sobbing.

"Well Megan, you need to close the store for the day. If you have family in the area I would go suggest that you stay with them until we get some of this sorted out. You need to check on your stepson, and keep us informed if anything else is happening. Our team will be here the better part of the day, and will be running surveillance 24/7 until this is taken care of. The Trenton PD just arrived on the scene, but I will tell them that they can contact you tomorrow for a statement." Ranger said.

"I am going to go to the school to get Justin and head to my parent's house. Thank you for all of your help Mr. Manoso," she turned towards me, "Oh I'm sorry I never got your name." Megan said.

"Stephanie, Stephanie Plum. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you." I said.

With that Megan gathered up her purse and headed out the door. This left us alone in the office with a lot of unanswered questions to try to answer.

What do you think? My husband and I actually own a laundromat and I thought it would be a different setting for a mystery (don't worry my husband is not in one of our large washers lol) Should I continue? -Nicole