"Would you know where Michael might have taken him?" Rollie asked Mira as Angie handed him some coffee. She sat on the couch; her feet tucked up under her, still in her robe.

"No, this is bogus probably, Rollie. You know, even the FBI is a front for him now," Mira replied, taking a breath, "so you see, my problems with him- as far as being around, are still the same."

"Yeah, well- with Dorinda gone and me not being able to get the whole story from him, I don’t know where to start!" Rollie told her, his exasperation and worry now growing.

"That Dorinda! She’s the key. I never liked her much. The way she brought that ring into this country- like a mule."

"Mule? You mean because she swallowed it? She said it was to protect my father from the blokes that had cut off his finger and threatened him," Rollie said and then thinking back to what Mira had said, rolled his eyes, "how could I have been so stupid! Mira- that ring had to get out of Australia without anyone suspecting, not through customs. Why didn’t I think about her being a mule for Skartsonis!"

"Well, that’s why I’m the detective and you and your father are the boobs," she told him, laughing, "still, Michael’s involvement brings up some questions in my mind as well. I’ll call you back after I try some of my feelers out for Michael. Oh, and tell Angie- I need to know the date, you know. I gotta figure out how I’m going to get fitted in that dress she wants me to wear, whether we’re talking size 3 or 16 by the time she gets planning and I’m 9 months pregnant, comprende?"

"Mira, you’re going to make a real cookie of a mum, you know?" Rollie told her, smiling as Angie smiled, hearing him give Mira a compliment about the baby, "I’ll tell Angie."

Mira just finished the conversation with a "get real, Tyler!" and hung up. Rollie looked over to Angie and plopped himself down on the couch at the other end to her, leaning his head back on the armrest. His feet came to rest near her, his knees bent as his tall frame had difficulty with her sitting on one end and he on the other, lying length-wise on the couch.

"So what do you need to tell me?" Angie asked, inquiring about his responses to Mira on the phone.

"She wants to know the date of our nuptials, my dear, so she can make sure the dress fits proper. Seems she’s afraid she be arriving with a basketball in the front, and no room to let out of the dress, waiting for you to set the date."

Angie’s mouth opened as Rollie mirrored her expression in jest. "So, I gather she doesn’t know where Michael is right now?"

"That’s right, but she’s checking some of her sources. She did say that she felt Dorinda was the mule in this Greek deal, that they needed a way to smuggle the ring out and she did it the natural way in order to get by customs."

Angie frowned. She still thought there was something else here not revealed about Dorinda. Dingo had said that the Greek’s men had taken Dorinda. Something didn’t make sense still. Why would Michael’s men arrest Dingo?

"There’s still something not right here, Rol."

"Yeah, I know…still, I would like to know too, just when are we getting married?" He parted his knees so that he could see her face from his position, low on the couch.

"Oh Rollie! You can’t know what you look like right now?" she grimaced, shutting her eyes, feigning her dismay.

"What? Do I have something on my chin or something?" he asked, his right foot touching her lap as she giggled and put her hand down on it. His foot was almost as long as her forearm.

"Uh, no- but obviously, your mother never told you how to sit or lie down like a lady with a dress on, huh?" Angie told him, her eyes showing him the direction of her dismay.

His knees instantly shut together as she laughed hysterically and he sat up, crossing his legs, almost effeminately, "Oh my stars! I forgot my knickers, didn’t I?" he said, his voice raised and girlish. He straightened his robe around his thighs and knees, still acting up as Angie suddenly stopped laughing.

"What? Something else showing that shouldn’t be hanging out in public?" he asked, noting her sudden silence.

"Rol! Let’s go over to Dingo’s hotel room right now!" She blurted out, jumping up.

"What? Why?" he asked, coming out of his act and standing up.

"I just got a feeling about something!" Angie was already racing up the stairs as Rollie raised his eyebrows and shook his head. She was always doing something like this.

They made it over to the hotel in little under an hour. Dingo was still registered but they were getting ready to turn over the room because he hadn’t come down to pay the bill. Once again, Rollie forked over the money for his father as Angie pulled on his arm, her anxiousness still unexplained to him.

Room 524 was a shambles. They had broken in with little difficulty and stood in the room, the mattress to the king size bed gutted, the chairs and sofa the same way. It was very similar to the way Rollie’s place had been searched. Rollie sifted through his father’s suitcase, what was left of it, as Angie went searching for Dorinda’s.

Rollie came up with nothing as he checked out the drawers and felt for taped objects or anything else that could be hidden. Angie had gone into the bathroom. She was sifting through Dorinda’s things in there as Rollie entered.

"What are we looking for?" Rollie asked her, frowning.

"Something! I don’t know- maybe out of place…" Angie told him, as she pulled out makeup and toiletries form the case in the bathroom.

"Hey, look at that!" Rollie said, pointing to the razor and case she pulled out, digging deeper into the pouch.

"Yeah, so?"

"That’s quite a relic," Rollie replied, picking up the heavy straight razor and opening it up, banishing it like a samurai sword in front of him.

Angie took it from him, fuming. She just knew she was going to find something in the hotel room that would give her a clue. Her intuition had told her she would. She pulled out a tube of lipstick, opening it up and frowned as she saw how wasteful Dorinda was apparently while applying it for it was flattened in the middle and not tapered at all.

"Ange? Hey, there’s nothing here…come on- we tried but they obviously got what they wanted when they took Dorinda. Let’s go," Rollie told her, and she took a deep breath, surrendering her own nagging intuitions and started out the door with him.

An arm came up, gloved and dark and Rollie was punched in the face, knocking him down in the frame of the bathroom door. Angie stood behind him at first, sinking with him as he crumpled. She heard men, their language foreign to her as she winced under Rollie’s unconscious weight. They didn’t approach the bathroom again and she took a deep breath and waited until she heard them leave.

Once gone, she pulled herself out from behind Rollie’s slumped body and laid his head gently in her lap, "Rollie? Hey!" she yelled to him and tapped his cheeks with her hand as he started to come to consciousness.

"Awww, Bloody hell! I got sucker punched!" he said, moaning as he started to sit up, seeing her worried face and smiling, "you okay?"

"Yeah, I was a coward and hid behind you, you know, like those yellow bellies hiding under their dead horses in the westerns," she told him, grinning.

"Good, you did great!" he told her, trying to stand up, shaking his head and adjusting his jaw with his hand, "did you hear what they said or see what they were doing here?"

"No, just looking around, like us, I guess. They didn’t speak English though…" she told him as she looked around the room again. Nothing else had been taken.

"Okay, so obviously- someone still is not happy here!" Rollie said, his curiosity still getting the best of him, "come on, let’s get out of here before someone else decides to come in and clobber me."

They reached the door to the room, when it suddenly was kicked inward, forcing them to jump back and Rollie pushed Angie behind him. But it was Dingo! He stepped in, saw his son, with Angie peering out from behind him and smiled.

"Rollie!"

"Great…now- what’s next?" Rollie said to him, as Angie came out from behind him and grabbed Dingo’s arm. He looked so bad, his face still swollen and contused. The eye was even more swollen than that early morning.

"You need to go to the emergency room!" she said, her mouth twisting as she inspected his face.

"Rol! I know you got questions. I just can’t answer right now," Dingo told him, sitting down on the corner of the bed.

"Dingo! You’re not getting another bloody dollar from me or a helping hand until you tell me what is really going on here!" Rollie shouted at him as Angie frowned at Rollie, sending him a warning. Rollie ran his hand through his hair in exasperation.

"Okay, okay…" Rollie said, relenting and sat down on a chair, backwards facing Dingo, "just tell me- you and Michael Sanchez, you both are in something together, right?"

"Sanchez? You mean Lopez, don’t you?" Dingo asked him, confused.

"I don’t know anymore! Whatever his last name is today, you and he are in something together, right?" Rollie was trying to be calm but his voice was agitated and Dingo was affected by it.

"The guy, Michael, yeah- okay. He is pretending to be with the FBI but he is really working for someone else, I can tell you that," Dingo said, flatly.

"No kidding, I know that much. Where did he take you? Why?" Rollie asked him, gripping the edge of the chair back with his hands. Angie saw how white the knuckles were in Rollie’s hands as he gripped the chair and she placed her hand on top of one of his and looked at him, taking a deep breath.

"Ange! You don’t understand. I am so tired of the mess he causes and the pain and suffering that always follows. This old man…" Rollie began, looking at her, his voice hoarse and his emotions raw.

"This man is your father, Rollie. Stop and look at yourself. You’re badgering him. Let him tell you what he can, okay?" Angie said to him, her voice somewhat pleading but at the same time, calming.

"Rol, they cracked the mold when he made this one…" Dingo commented, smiling as he cupped his hand under Angie’s chin, "and I don’t blame you son, for being angry with me. Believe me, I’ve been the worse fool. If it hadn’t been for Michael Lopez, I wouldn’t even be alive to even have come to this country and seen you."

Angie smiled as Rollie’s anger dissipated and father and son sat face to face. She could see the love, so blatant from father to son and Rollie’s love for his father so raw and tentative. No wonder Mangela was so deep in Rollie’s heart for he had substituted for Dingo when Dingo hadn’t been there.

"Okay, start at the beginning…" Rollie told Dingo, his voice calm and low.

"Alright- what I can tell you is this, I was going to be hauled to the local clink, for issuing, you know when this man, Michael Lopez- he came in and stood by me in the court. Next thing I know, he was taking me to a room and telling me, he was not a lawyer really but a guy who was working for the United States government."

"You were issuing again?" Rollie asked, his voice starting to rise, but Angie put her hand on his leg as a warning and he stopped.

"Yeah well, needed the money, okay?" Dingo shrugged his shoulders and went on, "anyway, he said he had tracking this guy- a Nick Kapis and that he was in Australia- Sydney to be the fact of the matter. He said that he was working for the old Greek- Skartsonis. They knew about the ring, Rollie! He told me that they had been following old Skartsonis for some time and that the Kapis guy was their opportunity to nail the old bugger with some sort of other crime- drug smuggling or something. Anyway, they lost Kapis in Sydney. They felt that he was coming for me, due to the ad in the papers about my ring."

Angie was enthralled. Rollie was shaking his head. Only Dingo could get into this much complicated international trouble.

"So, I tell him what can I do? And the guy says, you can give us the word when Kapis contacts you, that’s all. And I said, no problem. So, that was it."

"What do you mean, that was it?" Rollie asked, standing up then.

"I mean, I didn’t see that Lopez or Sanchez guy as you call him again until the other day at your loft. He acted like he didn’t even know me. He never contacted me again in Sydney."

"Okay, wait just a bloody minute! What did Michael want with you today? Where have you been?" Rollie asked, sitting back down.

"Oh, there’s the kick in the arse, Rol," Dingo said, shaking his head, "they asked me about the men that came into this room, what happened, how well did I know Dorinda, and then made me look at books and books of pictures- you know, mug shots."

"Did they want you to pick out the guys from earlier this morning?" Angie asked, interjecting her own question.

"Not really, they wanted me to pick out Nick Kapis for them. Seems he busted in your place, Rollie the other evening when Dorie was here and tied her up. They got that information from that Detective Salsa, you know, Mira. I did hear that Michael guy say that much."

"But, you said that Nick Kapis never made contact with you?"

"Right and they just were insisting that I looked through these books, so I did. Do you know how bloody tired I am?" Dingo looked up at him, his one good eye, bloodshot with a darkened circle under it.

"So, Michael let you go?" Rollie asked, shaking his head again.

"Dropped me off, right here at the door to the hotel. He was in a hurry, you know. Said that he might see me again soon. I told him, not in this lifetime, if I had anything to do with I," Dingo said, grimacing.

"Oh, this just gets stranger and stranger," Rollie said as Dingo looked down at his feet, dejected.

"I wonder what they’ve done to Dorie…" Dingo said softly.

"Maybe you should worry what Dorie has done to them!" Rollie remarked, then knew he had been wrong in saying it. Dingo looked up at him and Rollie let out a deep breath, "sorry, that was rude and wrong."

Angie smiled at him. The conversation between the two men was starting to shape up into a family thing after all.

"She’s very special to me, Rol. With the Greek’s men having her, no telling what they will do. I thought they would just take the ring but they took her too. My God, we were getting married in two days. Got the blood work done yesterday." Dingo shook his head and Rollie thought he saw a tear in his father’s good eye.

"Come on, let’s get you to hospital, Dingo. You need both your eyes so you can keep out of trouble, eh?" Rollie told him, standing up and patting him on the back.

Dingo looked so pitiful and alone. Angie hugged him then as he held on to her and whispered in her ear, "You are the best, love. You take care of him, now. Give him the love that he needs."

She nodded to him as Rollie led him out the door. Angie called out that she would be right there and ran back into the bathroom. She grabbed the straight razor that she had found in Dorinda’s makeup pouch and then ran out after them, locking the door.

Dingo was kept for observation, due to the eye injury and the blows to his head. Angie and Rollie stopped at the movie location once again, to repair damages with Ben Poe. They worked for the rest of the day, doing ten different sequences and spent the evening in the van, going over the next day’s shoot.

"God, this is going to be a stinker!" Rollie said, after seeing the dailies, coming back into the van. Angie was looking at the computer, and he could see a calendar on the screen.

"What, planning how long we got to do this miserable movie?" he asked, dropping into the chair beside her and putting his elbows on the work station, holding his head in his hands.

"Nope."

"Okay, what then?"

"Wedding…"

Rollie nearly dropped out of his chair, "What?"

"Oh, you heard me!" Angie said, her eyes still fixed to the screen and punching up days and then checking their appointments on a pull-up window. She was biting her lip and his face got within an inch of hers as she turned, their noses touching, "what?" she asked, grinning.

His lips brushed hers softly, his eyes never leaving hers and she smiled and began to laugh, breaking the kiss as he grinned as well.

"Okay, how’s the sixth sound? It’s a Saturday, the shoot is over for the week and we have until the following Tuesday before we are due back," she asked him as his eyes went to the screen.

"Don’t you want to plan it, like get your friends’ schedules, your dresses, all that stuff. Hey, I don’t know much about weddings but there is all that fluff and stuff?" he asked, and then added, "you know, that’s only a week from tomorrow."

"Yeah, I know. I told you Rollie, I’d marry you in a burlap sack and I meant it. That dream was just a dream. I was thinking small, you know."

"You don’t have to, Angie. If you’re worried about money, don’t. I have it on high authority that there will be no problem there."

"Tio Guillarmo?" she asked, and he nodded, "well, we get him here, then that’s a start but the money and a big wedding, I don’t know."

"I thought that was every girl’s fantasy?" he asked, as she looked back at him, seeing the curiosity in his eyes.

Angie smiled at his handsome face. She had never once, thought of herself as a bride- never in her entire life. She knew that was strange but she also knew that her wedding would be different. "Rollie, as long as you show up and go through with it, I will be happy."

He put his hand over his heart and crossed it, "Word of honor, Angela Ramirez. I will not skip town and go out on the first banana boat."

"Good," she said, "because we can go and get our blood work tomorrow. I know how you hate needles!"

He made a face, but rolled up his sleeve to expose his vein, "I’m ready…" and she blushed, his eagerness endearing him to her even more, as well as his comical stunts.

"Now- how do I get in touch with Mangela?" she asked him as he rolled his eyes and took a deep breath in.

"That’s tricky, but I think I can reach him. What say, we get out of here and get back to the loft?"

"Excellent idea," she said, in agreement. She shut off the computer, grabbing her printout and together, they left. They arrived a short while later at the loft and Angie walked in first, seeing candlelight and hearing music coming from the sound system. She turned as Rollie smiled, "the cat that ate the canary," she commented then, "so that car that I saw turn the corner and thought I saw Luce in the window, that was mere coincidence?"

"Mere…" Rollie remarked, grinning. He walked over to the kitchen and saw the champagne in the bucket, already chilled. That Lucinda was a true romantic, he thought to himself, as he recalled their earlier conversation that day while Angie was out getting their lunch. He had asked her for some help on a few things. He hadn’t anticipated that Angie would jump the gun on him and start the plans. It was like a coordinated effort of kismet, he thought.

"Okay…Luce and you cooked this up sometime today…" Angie said, her voice accusing him of trickery and deceit.

"Umm, have some champagne," he told her and handed her a fluted glass.

She looked in the bottom of the glass, expected a ring floating at the bottom but it was clear. Somewhat disappointed at the expected, she took a sip and let the bubbly sensation go down to her stomach and lightly warm it. Rollie had started climbing the stairs and motioned for her to follow.

"Okay, I’ll bite…" Angie told him, and followed. She expected the bedroom was where he would lead her but instead, he walked into his chamber and she followed.

"Oh my God!" she exclaimed.