fanaticagenrex: Gracias por sus comentarios. Estoy feliz de que te gusta la historia.
GeneratorRexIsAwesome: I'm glad you like it. I'll try to finish it in a timely manner. Thank you for your reviews to my other stories too.
I do not own anything.
Beverly wasn't sure what happened next. At some point she must have stopped screaming but she couldn't be sure when. Soon she felt strong arms wrap around her and lift her off the floor. Then someone seemed to be asking her something. She didn't know what because all she could do was stare at the gruesome sight. Finally, a hand touched her face and forced her eyes away. She came face to face with Caesar. He looked at her with concern. Then Beverly fainted dead away.
0o0
When she woke up, she was on the couch with some blankets around her.
"Hey, sleeping beauty is up. How ya feeling?" Rex's face appeared in her line of vision.
Beverly groaned and pushed herself up.
"What happened?" She groaned rubbing her head.
"You fainted." Circe stated.
"What? I've never fainted before." Beverly said startled.
"I'm not surprised. You had quite a shock." An unfamiliar voice chimed in.
Beverly looked at the new person. "Who are you?"
"I'm the detective of the town. Me llamo Señor Ricardo. Judge Muchado called me. Dead bodies usually mean a crime has been committed, no?" The man said with a touch of sarcasm. "If the señorita is well enough perhaps you can tell me how you were so fortunate to stumble upon the deceased."
Beverly closed her eyes and suppressed a shudder. "I was just leaving the ship when I saw the face from last night…."
"Un momento, what face?" "Detective Ricardo frowned.
Beverly explained about hearing noises and seeing the face in the window last night.
"So you followed this strange hombre to an isolated area of the hacienda?" Ricardo raised an eyebrow.
"I know, it was stupid but I was more curious than afraid." Beverly didn't like the man's tone. She wanted to add that she did not feel threatened at all by the little man. He seemed to be trying to tell her something.
"Hmm," the man thoughtfully rubbed his chin. "Can you show me where you saw this face and then where you saw the face prior to discovering the body?"
Beverly swallowed and nodded. She pushed the blankets off herself and got up a little unsteadily. A hand grabbed her arm to support her. She looked to thank the person and found herself looking at Caesar. He slipped his arm around her.
"Are you going to be okay? You don't have to go if you're not up to it." He said quietly.
Beverly wasn't sure why her stomach immediately filled with butterflies. She never heard Caesar speak to her with so much… concern.
She gave him a wavy smile. "I'll be okay." She assured him.
Caesar looked like he didn't believe her. But Beverly straightened herself up and tried to look confident. "Here, I'll show you," she addressed the officer.
0o0
Detective Ricardo examined the area around the window carefully, pulling out a magnifying glass. He used tweezers to pull the fabric from the splinter and dropped them into a plastic baggie. He then dusted for prints. He was a one man CSI team. "We are a small town. We do not have the luxury of extra help." He explained as the others watched him curiously.
Then they walked back to the area where the body was found. The area was roped off with yellow caution tape. Someone had respectfully draped a blanket over the arm to obscure it from view.
"The coroner will be coming tomorrow to pick it up. It will take him a while since he is from one town over." Detective Ricardo explained. "He will tell me the cause of death and I will continue the investigation from there. Meanwhile the area is off limits. Comprendes?"
The four American nodded.
"Now, I would like to talk to the tenants of the farm of this incident." Ricardo said.
"Please, señor." Circe interrupted him. "May we sit in on the interview?"
The man looked surprised. "Why would you want to do that?"
"Well, this land does belong to Rex and Caesar and if there is anything wrong I think they have a right to know." Circe said thinking fast.
Rex played along. "Yeah, I'd like to find out what's going on."
Caesar kept his mouth shut after he caught Circe's glare.
"Well, it is a little unconventional but I can't see why not. Just stay out of my way and do not interrupt." He warned them.
"We'll be as quiet as mice." Circe promised. She turned her head to Beverly and winked.
Beverly nodded slightly to show Circe that she understood.
The game was afoot.
0o0
The three couples nervously sat around in the living area.
The detective tried to put them at ease by exchanging some pleasantries in their native language.
Rex could only catch a few phrases here and there since they were speaking so fast. But he was mostly able to follow the conversation. Beverly, like Rex, was only able to understand a few words and sentences during the conversation but was lost in some parts. Circe was totally lost. Caesar, of course, understood perfectly.
Finally after the small talk was finished the detective switched to English and became stern.
"The señorita here tells me that she heard some noises last night. Any of you hear anything?" The detective began.
All three couples shook their head. "We were asleep." Jose said.
"Well, when the señorita went to see she encountered a face in the window." The detective continued. Would any of you know who it could be?"
Manuel cleared his throat, "Perhaps she is mistaken?"
The detective looked at him thoughtfully. "Once in the dark, the eyes may play tricks. But another in the daylight? That is too much of a coincidence, don't you think?"
Manuel blanched.
"What did this face look like?" Maria spoke up.
The detective looked at Beverly who felt uncomfortable at being put on the spot. She tried to put her thoughts into words, hopefully non-offensive words.
When she had finished describing the deformed man, she noticed Manuel's face had gotten paler.
The others also seemed to recognize the description.
"That sounds like Gnomo." Sebastian noted.
"Who is Gnomo?" Ricardo asked.
"He is the vagrant who lived on the edge of the Salazar's hacienda. The man was born with deformities and the Salazar's allowed him to stay since he had no where else to go. But he left when Durango and Chiquito started taking over the land." Juanita explained.
Caesar looked startled. "I never heard of that before."
The detective looked at him sharply as if to tell him to be quiet.
"I'm sure your parents would not have exposed him to you. His appearance would frighten the children so he only came out at night." Sofia said.
"How do you know this?" Ricardo asked.
"His presence is common knowledge among the ranchers. We didn't know he came back, however." Maria said.
"Interesting," the detective mused. He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "It seems I will need to speak to Gnomo."
"He doesn't speak. At least we've never heard him. "Sebastian interjected.
"Well, he must know some way to communicate. I will find a way." Ricardo said confidently as he stood up. "One final pregunta… do you know who the body is?"
The couples looked at each other. Finally, Juanita said, "Several years ago Señorita Martinez disappeared. Señor Martinez was one of the last ranchers that would not give up his land to Durango. When his wife disappeared he left his farm a broken man. Perhaps…." Juanita trailed off with a shrug.
"Hmm, "the detective nodded. "You may go."
The three couples got up and left.
Detective Ricardo waited till they left the room before turning to Rex and company.
"Well, find anything interesting?" He asked with a knowing look.
"I have never heard of Gnomo before." Caesar repeated. "But…" He stopped unwilling to continue.
"Poor Señor Martinez. I hope that isn't his wife." Beverly said sadly.
"I actually have a feeling it may be. I was on this case 6 or 7 years ago. It happened after the first nanite event when Durango and Chiquito became EVO's. They started snatching up land. At first the ranchers resisted but they intimidated most of them to giving up. Señor and Señorita Martinez were one of the last hold outs." Ricardo told them.
"You think that maybe Durango had something to do with her disappearance?" Rex's eyebrows rose to his hairline.
"Durango is too smart to get his hands dirty but I know he can get Chiquito to carry out his wishes." Ricardo said darkly.
"Aren't the brothers gone?" Circe inquired, remembering what Rex had told them.
"Yes and no. They have their own land originally. But Durango was greedy and wanted more. When he became an EVO he just went to the other ranchers and asked them for their land. Most were intimidated enough to just give it to him. The others who didn't had accidents happen. Most were too afraid to speak up. In the eyes of the law he didn't technically do anything wrong. When you broke the brothers' hold, they just returned to their own land." Ricardo explained.
"What about our tenants? Why didn't they return to their land?" Rex asked frowning. He didn't like the idea that the brothers were not punished for their actions.
"Ah, sí, your tenants were special cases. Chiquito is not a smart man and in the beginning of their acquisitions was a little more ruthless in his actions. He ended up destroying some of the ranches so that they were uninhabitable. Durango was very displeased. But even then charges were not pressed." Ricardo shook his head.
"Well, that's just not right!" Rex fumed. "We should go pay them a visit!"
"I will pay them a visit." Ricardo said firmly.
"But Señor Ricardo, Rex has dealt with them before. Maybe it would be a good idea to bring us so that Durango won't cause any problems." Circe suggested.
Ricardo looked at Circe curiously. "You may have a point. Although Durango is no longer an EVO, he is still a formidable foe. He may come but the rest of you must stay here."
Circe looked crestfallen.
"Don't worry chica, I'll let you know what happened." Rex gave Circe a kiss on the forehead and a wink.
Rex and Señor Ricardo walked off.
Beverly put a hand on Circe's shoulder. "I guess that didn't work," she whispered.
"Hey, there's other things we can do." Circe replied softly.
"Like what?" Beverly asked.
"Like look for Gnomo. Come on let's go."
Me llamo Señor Ricardo=My name is Mr. Ricardo.
Un momento= one moment
Comprendes?= Understand?
pregunta=question
chica=girl