Author's Note: I realize that it may be a bit confusing as to how Hooker could accept the suggestion that he and Romano are quite possibly related, and I thought late that I maybe should include a little extended bit of last chapter, which was not included because I didn't see how to fit it in and keep it from looking funny. So here's the dialogue I had for when they exited the building:

Hooker paused. "Now that you mention it, I vaguely remember knowing someone once whose last name was Romano."

"Was his first name James?" Romano asked.

"No. Vince." Hooker grinned at his younger partner. The joking tone was replaced by a thoughtful one as he continued. "Could have been. I don't remember."

"Hey you two," Stacy called. "We have a case to work on!" The smile traveled with her voice through the darkness, and Hooker and Romano picked up their pace towards the parking lot.

Disclaimer: I do not own T.J. Hooker or any of the characters. I do own Jessica/Jessie Ethan and Ginger.

Several beams of golden light pushed back the darkness around the group of trees. Several tire tracks and four shallow ditches by the side of the dirt road, in the grass, could be seen, as well as more than a dozen branches that littered the ground.

"These were definitely cut recently," Hooker said, rising from his crouching position and sending his flashlight's beam dancing around the other fallen branches that sat here and there on the ground.

Romano flicked his own light to the trees above. "You can still see where some of them were cut," he commented. "They don't look like they were cut for any reason. Some of the cuts are less than a foot from the tip of the branch, and it's not for any telephone lines; it's all over in random places on the trees..."

"I've heard of attention to detail, but this takes the cake," Jessie said, sweeping the beam of her light around the area.

Hooker nodded slowly. "Were fingerprints found on the car?"

"Clean," Corrigan said. "They really tried to cover their tracks, that's for sure."

"Yeah," Hooker murmured, rubbing his chin. "Did any of the people who went missing have anything in common?"

"That's one of the strangest things. None of them looked similar," Stacy said. "One was a female redhead with green eyes in her early twenties. One was a male teenager with black hair and almost black eyes. This one was a male 39-year-old with brown hair and blue eyes. One looked like Jessie, but a few inches shorter - about 4 feet and 7 inches, I think her sister said - and lighter hair."

Hooker studied Stacy's expression. His hand went over his lower jaw, his forehead wrinkled, and he squinted. "Anything other than appearances? Anything to go on?"

Stacy tilted her head. "I think Lieutenant O'Brien mentioned something about the families being pretty well off, and that it could be to get a ransom," she said. "None of the families have gotten calls or letters asking for money in exchange for their family member, though. At least, not that they've reported."

"Ah, there we go. We-"

Hooker was cut off as a voice, slightly interrupted by a bit of static, called from the black and whites. "4-Adam-30, Captain Sheridan wants to see you both immediately."

Hooker stared at the car, which shone in the reflected light from the flashlights.

"We can check up on the families tomorrow to see if they've gotten any calls or letters," Jessica said. "But for now, is there much else we can do but keep an eye out?"

Hooker nodded at Jessica, then turned to Romano and jerked his head towards the cars. Both were soon gone, with a cloud of dust in their wake after failing to get traction on the dry road, pale and drooping lower and lower as if sick and close to collapsing. The other three officers headed back to their own black and whites, and in Jessica's case, Ginger as well, to leave their own sickly clouds of dirt behind.

"Care to elaborate on this?" Captain Sheridan slid a note, scrawled on a yellowed, creased, and slightly torn paper, across the table. Hooker picked it up and read it out loud.

"Captain Sheridan. I heard that Officer Romano and Sergeant Hooker are related. You should look into this. You don't want personal involvement and connections like this clouding their judgement."

"That's ridiculous!" Romano said. It was clear he was trying to keep his voice at a reasonable volume. Unfortunately, he was losing the battle. "I never told anybody else - and nobody could have overheard us in the hall! It was empty!"

"Somebody must have," Hooker answered quietly.

"So you can confirm this is true?" Captain Sheridan asked, raising an eyebrow and crossing his arms.

Romano started to speak, but was cut off by Hooker. "All we can confirm is what we think, and we could be." Hooker looked up. "We don't know."

Sheridan took a deep breath. "We had a similar case like this before. Two officers were found to be uncle and nephew. Their quality of work dipped down because they were so determined to keep each other safe. Two people were killed because of it. I'd rather not have that happen again." Hooker and Romano both tried to say something, but the captain cut them off. "You two are good officers. I don't want this clouding your judgement or distracting you. Romano, you once asked me what the process of changing partners would be. When Officer Canelli was tried for cowardess, I believe, and I still have the files from when I searched for partners you both could work with, and two officers stand out for both of you. They should-"

A hollow knock at the door sounded. "Come in," Captain Sheridan said, and two officers entered the room. The taller of the two had short, dark red hair, bordering on brown, and dark grayish-green eyes that seemed to taunt them. The shorter of the two officers, by about five inches, had medium brown hair, slightly longer than the taller officer, and curious blue eyes. "Sergeant Hooker, Officer Romano, meet officers Jason Marten and Michael Henderson."

The taller of the two, with two stripes on his arm showing ten years as an officer, gave Romano a strange grin, one that didn't quite settle right with the younger officer. "I'm Jason. I heard we'd be working together?"

The other, Michael, had no stripes on his arm and a sparkle in his eye as he met Hooker's gaze.

"You're new, aren't you?" Hooker inquired in a low voice, to which Henderson nodded. The bright blue eyes that stared back at the sergeant held something of a mystery. It gave him am odd feeling.

Hooker and Romano exchanged looks, and their expressions could be nicely summarized in two words. Oh no.