"Missing"

**Immediately follows "On the Rocks"**

"The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing,
and should be treated with caution."
- J. K. Rowling

CHAPTER 1

The G-550 touched down on the runway at the William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas and taxied to the hangar where ranch foreman Marty Hoffmann waited. In a couple of minutes the engines of the plane were shut down, the steps lowered, and the Houston family emerged. With a big smile on his face the cowboy went to help the group which now included the four week old twin boys that Matt and CJ Houston had welcomed into the world as well as big sister Catey Rose who squealed with delight as she saw Marty. "Go get him, Lady Bug." Houston set his daughter down on the tarmac and reached for a car seat containing one of the boys as CJ stepped out with the other. Nanny Sheila Wentworth followed juggling three diaper bags as Tilly the half Husky – half Blue Heeler ran to catch up with Catey.

Sweeping the now almost twenty month old up in his arms, Marty received a big hug as the assault on his ears began. His boss had warned him the day before that Catey would do her best to talk his ears off.

"Easy now, Catey." Houston rolled his eyes. "I told ya so."

"You weren't lyin'." The foreman laughed. "Lemme get a look at those boys." He leaned over the pair and got a serious look on his face. "CJ, I'm real sorry, hon; they look just like their daddy."

"They act like him, too – especially when they get hungry." The lawyer handed the boys to Matt as he snapped the car seats into place.

"Alright, Lady Bug – your turn." He scooped up the little girl, giving her a kiss as he strapped her into her own seat. "Might have to go back to using a limo."

"Or we could just modify a cattle trailer." Marty winked at Sheila as they began moving luggage from the plane to the SUV. As he and Matt piled the last of it into the back he spoke again. "How's Tomás doing?"

"Real good. I talked to him last night." Houston was proud of their adopted son who was now sixteen years old and away at a private school near San Francisco.

As they drove along, Catey began chattering once again and by the time they reached the ranch all of the adults were tired from laughing as she told her little brothers all about Texas. Once they had a quiet moment alone after getting the kids in the house and situated, Marty spoke to his boss. "I know that you're planning on working cattle while you're here, Houston – but I think you need to talk to Ben and his wife."

A look of surprise crossed Matt's face. "Something wrong?"

"Nothing work related. I think they might need some help."

"Oh, okay." He looked out to where the man was working on finishing up the bunkhouse along with his wife. Going into the den he whispered something to CJ, gave her a kiss, and walked back to Marty. "Let's go." Together they walked down to the bunkhouse that was nearly finished. "Y'all have sure got this place lookin' good." Both of the Devereuxs put down their paint brushes.

"Thanks." Ben wiped his hands on a rag before shaking with his boss. "Houston, this is my wife Marcy."

"Nice to meet ya, Miss Marcy."

"Pleased to meet you." She gave him a shy smile.

"Want to go in and take look around?" Ben put the top on the can of paint.

"Sure." Matt followed them inside and walked through the new structure. All that was lacking on the inside was the finishing touches of paint. "Looks great. Once the inspectors quit dragging their feet this place came together quick."

"Ben, why don't you tell Houston what you told me the other day?" The foreman stepped out onto the front porch with the others.

"Uh..." The man looked down, then at his wife. "Well..."

"Why don't we go up to the house and get a drink?" Matt led the way back up and into the kitchen after settling down at the table with a pot of coffee and a plate of cookies. He looked across at the Devereuxs. "Now – what's going on?"

"I uh...well, I'm not sure where to start."

Taking a cookie off of the plate, the PI pushed it across to Ben and his wife. "The beginning is usually a good place."

"Our daughter Rachel..." Digging out his wallet, the man removed a picture of a beautiful young lady with blonde hair and piercingly blue eyes. Her smile matched that of another girl in the photo who was strawberry blonde and appeared to be a few years younger. "She's the one on the right there."

"Beautiful...both of 'em." Matt continued to look at the picture.

"The other one is our youngest – Cassie. She's a staff sergeant in the Air Force now. Anyway..." He paused and looked at his wife who nodded her encouragement. "Well, back in 2005 Rachel was finishing up her senior year at Southern University in New Orleans. She was a smart girl – always had good grades, never in trouble..." Taking a sip of his coffee he seemed to be gathering his thoughts. "See, she was graduating early. When she was in high school she had what they call a dual enrollment."

"Taking high school and college classes at the same time." Houston nodded.

"Yeah, well she was due to graduate in December. Some friends of ours went to New Orleans for a wedding and the men...well, the bachelor party ended up in a strip club. And our friend saw Rachel there." He stopped.

"She was working there?" Matt watched as the couple exchanged a look and then nodded.

"Mr. Houston, she wasn't raised like that." Marcy had tears in her eyes.

"First off – just call me Houston, okay?" He watched as she nodded. "And second..." He paused. "A lot of kids work their way through school like that."

"Rachel was on a scholarship." Ben looked across at his boss. "It paid tuition, books, and board."

"But she had other expenses." He looked up as CJ entered followed by Sheila, each carrying one of the boys.

"Sorry to interrupt." She headed for the refrigerator. "These guys are hungry – again."

"Here..." Taking Vinnie from Sheila he looked at Marcy. "Miss Marcy, this is my wife CJ." The two smiled and shook hands and then he introduced the nanny. Just then Catey could be heard. "Sheila, we're in the middle of something – think you can head her off at the pass?"

"Sure thing." She disappeared.

"I don't know what Marty has told you, but CJ and I work as a team." The couple looked uncertain. "What's said here stays here."

"But..."Ben shook his head. "We can't hire you, Houston. We hired a private investigator before. There's just no money for it."

"You're not hiring me." As CJ handed him a bottle that had just been warmed she sat down next to Marty. Matt began feeding the baby who almost attacked the bottle. "Vinnie, calm down, boy."

"Mike isn't any better. I swear." CJ shook her head.

"Anyway..." Matt settled back in the chair with his left ankle propped on his right knee as he supported the baby in his left arm. "You're not hiring me."

"See – I told ya." Marty punched the man in the shoulder.

Finally Marcy found her voice. "But that isn't right."

"I started my agency for the very reason that Marty brought you here. I want to help. Now, she was working as a dancer and..."

"We had a disagreement." Ben looked at the picture. "I told her no daughter of mine was gonna take her clothes off for a living. She uh..." His eyes clouded with tears. "She said that I didn't understand. Anyway, she was going to come home for a visit and we were going to talk. That was August 26th."

"Three days before Katrina hit." CJ wiped Mike's chin.

"We were glad she was coming home but with the hurricane on the way it was even more of a relief." Ben took up the story again. "We heard from her on the 27th; she was going to be leaving later than planned. That was the last time..." He choked up.

"And you don't know what happened to her." Houston shook his head. "I'm sure sorry to hear that. Well..." He looked down at the baby. "Marty, would you hand me a towel, please? I swear feeding these two is about like slopping hogs. Thanks." Wiping the baby's face he looked back up at them. "We'll need to get some information from you to get started."

"I just..." Marcy reached for her husband's hand. "We just need to know."

"We understand." CJ gave her a sad smile. "Not knowing can drive you crazy."

"Vinnie, ease off now." Matt removed the bottle from his son's mouth causing a sucking noise as the air went back inside. As he started to wipe his chin, the cowboy received a mouthful of formula in the face and then a smile from the four week old, causing Marty to start laughing. "Keep on – I'll give him to you for the next diaper change."

"Can't be any worse than shoveling out a barn." The foreman chuckled.

Houston spoke to the Devereuxs again. "I do want y'all to understand something: I can't make any promises."

"We know." Ben watched as his boss put the baby up on his shoulder and gently began patting his back. In a few seconds there was a loud burp.

"That's my boy." Matt smiled then immediately grimaced as Vinnie gave a grunt and proceeded to fill up his diaper. "Okay, Marty."

"Oops! Just remembered I gotta do that thing I didn't do earlier. See ya!" In a flash he was out of the house and headed down the steps, leaving everyone in the kitchen laughing.

"Tell you what..." Houston stood up. "Let me get Vinnie squared away and ..."

"Let's switch." CJ handed over Mike who was still eating. "I'll take care of Vinnie's diaper and then come back for Mike and y'all can work on getting information together."

"Okay." Matt went back to feeding. "I'll need everything you can give me on her: birthday, physical description, Social Security number, address, phone, any roommates or friends that you now about..." He thought for a minute. "And where she worked."

"I've got it in the truck." Ben excused himself and went outside to retrieve the information leaving Marcy alone with Matt.

"If I can ask – who else did you get to investigate?" Setting the bottle on the table he put a drowsy Mike up on his shoulder and began burping him.

"George McSwain."

Nodding, Houston took a sip of the coffee as Ben came back into the kitchen holding a file folder.

"This is everything we've got. It's from the other private investigator that looked into it."

"Miss Marcy told me you hired McSwain."

"Not sure how good he was but it was all we could afford."

"I know him – he's good."

CJ came back in with Sheila who took the now sleeping baby upstairs as she handed Matt a laptop. The PI took the folder that was passed across to him and began reading through it. McSwain had been hired in the fall of 2006 – right at a year after Rachel went missing. The private investigator had traveled to New Orleans and tried to track the young woman down. He had documented each interview and source that he had used in his search but had returned without the Devereuxs' daughter. Matt absentmindedly rubbed at the stubble on his chin. Tapping on the file he looked across at the grief-stricken parents. "McSwain did a thorough job." He saw their faces fall. "But..." Opening the laptop he pulled up a program that he and CJ had put together to organize and analyze information collected during an investigation. "That was in August of 2006. Things were far from back to normal in New Orleans. As much as they have recovered there are still things that will never be the same."

"No offense, Houston – but what can you do that he couldn't?"

"Part of it has to do with the city itself. There is more information available now than then."

"Because the government is back up and running." Marcy looked between CJ and Matt.

"Yes ma'am. Plus more of the people have returned. It could be that someone he needed to contact is there now." He began transferring the information into his system. "But you hired a good man. He did a good job." The group fell silent as he continued to work the keyboard. "One of the first things I'm going to do is talk to him." After entering all of the information into the system, Matt picked up his coffee cup. "Now, on to other things. Y'all have done one heck of a job on the bunkhouse and I want you to know how much I appreciate it."

"We had a good crew to work with, Houston."

"CJ tells me that you've lined out the work on the other ranch house."

"That's going to take a while longer." Devereux had a serious look on his face.

CJ spoke up. "It's needed a lot of work for a long time. But after the work on the house is finished we'll still have the barn to deal with, plus we'll need some pens put up and I've been looking at plans for a training arena. Matt tells me that you grew up on a horse ranch."

"Yes ma'am."

"I did some checking around and it jogged my memory. I remember your dad." She smiled. "Everybody called him Red."

"Yes ma'am." Devereux smiled sadly.

"Y'all had a really good reputation. Now..." Taking a sip of her coffee she continued. "I realize that you're going to be busy with the repairs for a while, but what are your plans after that?"

"I don't have any."

"Would you consider coming to work with us? Now from time to time Marty may need some help over here, too. We've been talking it over and Matt and I have agreed with Marty and Ollie that cooperation between the two ranches is going to be key to our success. We need people who are willing to work both places as needed."

"That's ..." He looked to his wife who seemed as shocked as he did. "Wow! That's the best news we've had in a long time. I'd be more than happy to join you."

"Good!" Looking over at Matt she smiled. "This is really starting to come together." As the words came from her mouth, all four heard a nearby toilet flush and then the sound of cascading water followed by a loud "uh-oh" from Catey. Matt took off down the hallway while CJ cringed and ran after him, leaving the Devereuxs to snicker over their coffee.