Disclaimer: Chuck Norris, Aaron Norris, CBS and others own the characters of "Walker Texas Ranger" and "Sons of Thunder". Any new characters and story lines that come into play are of my own creation and no copyright infringement is intended. This is a fan fiction intended for entertainment purposes only and I am not making any money from it.

Chapter 1: Murder

Carlos Sandoval rapped his knuckles on the door and waited. "Hey, Cruz, it's me." A light frown came to his lips when he didn't receive an answer. He jiggled the handle and discovered it was unlocked. His frown deepened as he reached his hand inside his coat and withdrew his gun.

He wondered if he was being paranoid as he slowly pushed the door open. His training had his senses on high alert. A familiar coppery scent reached his nose and he hoped that particular sense was wrong. While scanning the room, he spotted a familiar figure lying on the floor.

"Cruz!" He knelt down, careful to avoid the large pool of blood that had gathered from the body. There was no pulse, but his body was still warm.

He rose to his feet and did a thorough check of the apartment, which wasn't difficult since it was so small that he would be able to see if there was another person with them. He found it devoid of anyone besides himself and the body of Tony Cruz.

He heard footsteps behind him but wasn't quick enough when a voice yelled out, "Freeze! Dallas PD. Slowly set your weapon down on the ground and turn around."

It clicked in his mind that the voice was female and unfamiliar. He bent down, set his gun on the floor, and turned around slowly. He saw a man and a woman, standing just inside the doorway, both had guns drawn and pointed right at his chest.

"Carlos?" The man said with a surprised look on his face as he lowered his gun.

"Darryl?" He replied, recognizing the man as Darryl Sun, a detective with the Dallas Police Department. He had met Sun when they both started as rookies at DPD. His gaze went to the other cop but she was unknown to him. Her shoulder length blonde hair had hints of red in it and her dark emerald eyes were captivating. He wondered if she was single.

"This is Carlos Sandoval," Darryl said reassuringly. "He used to be a detective at DPD. We can trust him, Lucy."

"Can't," his partner replied as she pulled out her handcuffs and indicated with a hand gesture to Carlos for him to turn around. He complied and she snapped the handcuffs on his wrists.

Darryl sighed as he holstered his gun. "I'm sorry about this, Carlos."

He nodded his head in understanding but he couldn't believe that he had been arrested for a murder he hadn't committed.

The once familiar bustle of the people, the incessant ringing of telephones and the click-clack of fingers on keyboards at the precinct wasn't soothing to Carlos at all. It was embarrassing that he was in his former precinct handcuffed to a chair next to Darryl's desk.

He was glad that Darryl had convinced his partner that he wasn't a danger so he didn't have to be in a holding cell. When he got curious looks from the people he used to work with, he wished he was in an interrogation room, but they were all occupied. He decided that it was better than sitting in a dingy room.

Before his current location in the bullpen, he had been brought to the men's room to change his clothes. His clothes had been bagged, tagged, and sent to the lab for analysis. He now wore a pair of sweatpants and a shirt with DPD written on them. His hands had been swabbed for what he knew was going to be a test for gunshot residue.

He looked at Lucy who was leaning against her own desk in front of him with her arms crossed over her chest. The emerald eyes of the woman standing before him could cut through a diamond.

"Talk," she said in a voice that would have a low-life thug spilling his guts or a Politician speaking the truth.

He turned his head to look at Darryl who was sitting at his desk. "I was running late," he replied quietly knowing that his bad habit had cost a man his life. He tried not to think about the various outcomes if he had been early or on time.

A few days ago, Tony had called him. He had sounded nervous and fearful on the phone and it had taken Carlos a lot to convince his old informant to trust him with whatever was bothering him. Tony didn't want to tell Carlos on the phone so they had decided to meet. He thought that if he had convinced Tony to tell him the first time he had called, he would still be alive. Tony was dead and there was only one thing that he could do about it.

He shook his head so he could return to the present. "When I arrived, I knocked, discovered the door was unlocked and went in. I saw him on the floor and went to check for a pulse. I was about to call the DPD, but you two showed up."

"Where were you this morning before you arrived at his apartment?" Lucy asked.

"I was at my apartment this morning and I left at seven. I was at Uppercuts at about seven fifteen or so to meet some friends of mine. I left there at 9:30 to meet up with Tony and I got there at 9:45," he paused for a moment. "I was supposed to be there at nine."

"Did you go anywhere else?" the fierce detective questioned.

He shook his head. "No."

"All right," she said as she turned to Darryl. "I'm going to go check out a few things."

He nodded his head as his partner turned and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket as she walked away.

Carlos didn't take his eyes off the detective until she entered the old elevator, which he lost sight of her once the doors had closed.

"I appreciate not being thrown into a cell," he said as he turned his attention back to Darryl.

The detective turned and looked at him with an encouraging smile. "Well, you are lucky that I could convince my partner not to throw you into a cell. If you had hit on her, she might have personally thrown you in one and she would have made certain that you never left."

"Funny," he replied as Darryl chuckled. He pointed toward the female detective's desk. "What's her story, Darryl?"

He responded with a raised eyebrow and the shaking of his head. He set the folder down and turned his chair to look at him. "She's new to Dallas and she's a great detective. Her work is her life."

"Okay." He bit his lip and then he looked at his old friend. "Her work is her life? So, that means she's single then?"

Darryl shook his head again and chuckled, while Carlos had his famous or probably more infamous, wide grin on his face.

Half an hour later, Lucy returned with coffee carrier with three coffees in it, which she placed on Darryl's desk. She had her cell up to her ear and after disconnecting the call, she looked at her partner, which Carlos recognized as a silent communication between the two detectives. Then she turned her attention to him.

"The ME and Forensics have finished with the scene. Seems he was killed forty-five minutes before you arrived," she said and elaborated when his eyebrows rose at the exact time of death. "With some probing, a neighbor had heard a gunshot at that time, but didn't report it. Your alibi covers you for that time." She paused. "There is also the fact that you and your weapon are both clean from gun-shot residue."

Darryl leaned forward and unlocked the cuffs, freeing Carlos from the chair.

"Well, seeing as this is all a misunderstanding I won't sue for a false arrest," Carlos said with a grin as he rubbed his formerly imprisoned wrist.

Her face remained impassive but the look in her eyes could stop a rampaging bull.

He cleared his throat, noted the glance from Darryl, and decided that he would rather talk than upset this hot, but serious woman.

"Have a nice day, Mr. Sandoval," she said as she pulled a cup of coffee out of the coffee carrier and handed it to him, in which he had a surprised look on his face. She pulled out a second cup of coffee and set it in front of Darryl.

"Thank you, Detective Silver," Carlos said as he took a sip and realized it was a perfect cup of coffee. He said goodbye to them and walked away, happily sipping his coffee.

Darryl waited for Carlos to leave before he turned to his partner. "He's innocent."

She didn't bother to answer as she grabbed her coffee, took a sip then sat down at her desk. She opened a folder on her desk and began to write some notes.

"We got an anonymous call about a homicide," he reminded her. "The killer could have known about the meeting between Carlos and the victim. It was an opportunity to throw suspicion onto someone else. He was almost an hour late and that could have made the killer anxious so he decided to kill Cruz anyway."

"It's a possibility but Sandoval could still be involved." She pointed at as she looked up at her partner. "We'll take a look at that call."

He recognized that look in his partner's eyes. "Look, Lucy, I've known Carlos a long time," he began but then stopped when the look she sent his way told him that he shouldn't even bother.

He took a sip from his fresh coffee and turned to his computer. He started to search for the victim's family and known associates to see who had motive to kill Tony Cruz. He knew that his partner wouldn't drop Carlos off the suspect list quite yet, just as he knew that Carlos wouldn't forget about Lucy being single.