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2024-09-08
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1293
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All Trick and No Treat

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Disclaimer: All familiar characters belong to Janet Evanovich. I am not making any money from this. Mistakes are mine.October Writing Prompt on the Janet Evanovich Fan Fiction group on FacebookCostume Chaos: Stephanie gets roped into a Halloween bounty where she has to catch a fugitive hiding at a massive Halloween costume party. With everyone in disguise, identifying the fugitive becomes nearly impossible. Ranger is the mysterious masked figure who keeps disappearing, the Merry Men fit right in, and Morelli is dressed as a cop - no surprise there.A/N Also includes the Internet Halloween memes for skeleton on gelatin and titty cookies aka eyeball cookies.All Trick and No Treat by Debra8652Stephanie's POVVinnie, aka my Rat Bastard cousin, bonded out a pickpocket and, knock me over with a feather, he skipped out on his bond hearing. Intel from no less than Harry the Hammer says that the skip will be in attendance at a huge Halloween party held in the Westin Princeton Hotel's first floor ballroom, which has several exits onto a huge outdoor courtyard, complete with a large fountain. This will be a logistical nightmare. And add in the fact that a political fundraiser will be going on at the same time in the smaller ballroom, also on first floor. Chief Juniak will be in attendance there as he's running for Mayor.Ops PlanningRam and Lester are planning the Rangeman op to catch the skip, Grady McBride, who stands all of 5'8" tall and weighs in at a whopping 140 lbs. He is a master pickpocket and is known to make off with men's wallets and wristwatches long before the victim even misses his items. Because Ranger very much wants to see Chief Juniak climb the political ladder, the Core Team will be attending the Halloween party in hopes of furthering the Chief's reputation that he's tough on crime. To that end, Ranger will be the Phantom of the Opera and I will be Christine Daae. Lula will take care of Ranger's makeup mask. I hope the takedown doesn't involve me chasing the perp in my floor length gown.I saw Morelli at the PD yesterday and he told me that he and Eddie will be in uniform as the Chief's bodyguards at the political fundraiser next door to the Halloween bash. I haven't seen Morelli in uniform since he was promoted to Detective. People may mistake him for a member of the Village People.And now for the rest of the Rangeman team: Tank and Hector will be in the comms van and have audio and video monitoring capabilities over the vast amount of space we will be covering. Bobby will be in scrubs - a logical costume for him. Hal, Vince, Woody, and Binkie will have food service duties. Four other MM will be the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Raphael will be Raphael - how appropriate, Lester will be Leonardo, and Ram will be Donatello. Normally, Tank would assign Junior but he is in a walking boot after he jumped off a loading dock during a takedown, so Tank excused himself to check the schedule for that night. Find us a Michelangelo!Even by Rangeman standards, we have been super busy and the time has flown by - tonight is the big Halloween bash! Ranger has already disappeared on me three times since we arrived - once to check the perimeter, once to check in with the Rangeman food service team, and once to check in with Chief Juniak at the political fundraiser next door. It was hard to say who was more shocked - Ranger at seeing Morelli in uniform or Morelli seeing Ranger as The Phantom. Without my Phantom next to me, no one guesses my costume so I decide to check out the buffet tables. No, I am not Scarlett O'Hara, thank you very much, nor Cinderella. Wow - I've just seen the most remarkable Halloween cookies - I saw them on-line and those actually did look like eyeball cookies. These, not so much. They greatly resemble a woman's breast. Please don't let Lester see them.I am intently listening to Hal as he sets out individual cups of red gelatin with a suggestively-posed skeleton on top of them. Yes, a skeleton on gelatin. Hal is from the Midwest and he is educating me as to how to tell if Jell-O is a salad or a dessert. According to Hal, if it's served on a lettuce leaf, it's a salad. If it has whipped cream on top, it's a dessert. And he imparted that wisdom with a straight face. While I am trying to make room in my brain for that knowledge, I hear something that I never wanted to hear but can't ignore. It's Lester's booming voice from the dessert portion of the table, saying "Hey, Beautiful, get a load of these titty cookies." Note to self: It is impossible to dive under a buffet table and hide behind the draped tablecloth while wearing a floor-length gown.It's go-time. We are all wearing ear buds and throat mikes and partaking of flutes of ginger ale as served by our guys. And Lester is gently nibbling on a titty cookie. I'm sure he is wearing a glazed expression behind his blue Leonardo mask.I see a guest who is dressed as a nun and my spidey senses go off the charts. It could be either a little taller than average woman or a man with a slight build. I gently nudge Ranger with my elbow - ouch, it's like nudging a cement pillar. He immediately follows my train of thought and asks, "How sure are you?" I'm feeling pretty good about my instincts. If I'm wrong my mother's telephone will self-combust with phone calls of either me or my coworkers tackling a nun.At virtually the same time, Tank is talking to all of us via our ear buds. He has also picked up on the suspicious guest, noticing his decidedly male gait and how close he is getting to the male guests and "accidentally" bumping into them. Ranger keys his mike and tells the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to move in - ok, he called them by their op name - Alpha Team. No one can imagine Ranger ordering the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to move in. Something tipped off our skip and he started to run. Go, Rangeman! Michelangelo just made an awesome ankle tackle, which caused both him and the skip to fall into the fountain. Raphael, dba Raphael, also got pulled into the fountain in his attempt to cuff the skip. Leonardo and Donatello managed to avoid going into the fountain but, with all the water splashing out, there wasn't much difference anyway.Carl and Big Dog were in the shadows and converged on the scene along with Morelli and Eddie. When the cops searched the skip they found a guest's wristwatch and wallet tucked into a carpenter's apron worn underneath the nun costume. Yep - this is our guy. And, because he's the senior law enforcement official present, Chief Juniak made the arrest and read him his rights.Ranger let us all stay for awhile and enjoy the party except for our Turtles, who were very wet and opted to depart in their SUV, with Lester regrettably leaving the titty cookies behind. When I did get Ranger alone for a moment, I confessed to having been so busy lately that I didn't know who was assigned to be Michelangelo. Ranger smugly looked at me and said, "Babe, that was Rodriguez." ARRRGH - tricked again.A/N I encourage you to read "Trick-or-Treat in the Burg" by Babe0209 for a very funny story about the eyeball cookies. Also, lulupickles story "Halloween Skips" using the above prompt. Your reviews are appreciated!

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