I do not own any of the characters.

"Why would you destroy Gnomo's home?" Beverly demanded angrily.

"No, you have it wrong. I would never hurt Gnomo." Manuel held up his hands to emphasize his innocence.

"And why should we believe you?" Circe looked at him skeptically.

His eyes nervously darted around. "He's my brother." He finally answered.

"Wait what?" Rex asked dumbfounded. "You're kidding."

"No he is my older brother. His real name is Enrique. He was ashamed of his appearance and disappeared from home when I was little. I never figured out what happened to him until my parents died and I inherited their ranch. Then I heard from the other ranchers that a deformed vagrant was living on the Salazar's land. When I investigated I realized he was my long lost brother. After that I visited him when I could. He didn't want anyone to know we were related."

"Why not?" Beverly was curious.

"He was afraid that his condition would make it difficult for me to marry or conduct business. Some people see him as an omen against the family." Manuel admitted.

"What are you doing here?" Circe wasn't interested in his life story.

He didn't answer.

"Do you think Gnomo pushed Sebastian into the grain tank?" Beverly asked quietly.

"No he would never do that!" Manuel cried angrily.

"Then what are you doing here?" Ricardo shot a warning glance at all present. He was the one doing the questioning.

"I came to warn him." He acknowledged.

"About what?" Ricardo snapped.

"That the policía is looking for him." He glared at the detective. "I know he wouldn't harm a fly but because of the way he looks no one would believe it. See how you come here to arrest him."

Ricardo sighed. " We are not here to arrest anyone. We are here to talk, to get answers."

"He isn't here anyway. When I came, the place was destroyed. I went off to see if I can find him. Sometimes he likes to go to other parts of the cave."

"Well let's all look." Ricardo said firmly.

0o0

After several hours of searching, they didn't find anything.

"Where could he have gone?" Circe asked frustrated.

"Well maybe he was scared away." Beverly answered.

"Either way, we need to head back. I need to be there when the doctor shows up to take the body. I will call up someone to stay here in case Gnomo comes back." Ricardo said tiredly.

"I'll stay." Manuel volunteered.

Ricardo glared at him. "I am sure you will understand when I way you can not be trusted. I still need to know your whereabouts this morning."

Manuel looked defiantly at him, "Jose was there with me the whole time this morning and I was with my wife all last night. I did nothing wrong."

Ricardo rolled his eyes, "Of course. It's always that way isn't it?"

"I am telling the truth." Manuel declared angrily.

"We'll see. Meanwhile we need to be getting back." Ricardo said stiffly.

The little group walked back to the ranch. When they arrived, Ricardo sent Manuel into the house to wait for him. The coroner was already there with other men.

"Hola, I brought some men to help me with exhuming the body from the ground. I figured you would be busy with the incident this morning." The doctor informed him.

"Gracias, I appreciate it. It also saves me the trouble of calling someone to stake out the cave." Ricardo said.

"Perdóneme?" The doctor asked puzzled.

"Nothing for you to worry about." Ricardo walked over to the back of the house.

The doctor looked questioningly at the rest.

They shrugged not wanting to get into details with him.

The doctor sighed, "I suppose I will go and see where the men are up to." He then walked to the back of the house.

As soon as he turned the corner, Circe whirled around on the group.

"Rex, can you lure Durango from his ranch?" She looked at him.

"I guess. Why?" He looked at her curiously.

"I think it's time Beverly and I had a talk with Chiquito." Circe said with a determined look in her eyes.

"Okay, but you better take Caesar along." Rex said glancing at his brother.

"What? Why?" Caesar protested. "I don't want to be involved."

"To protect Beverly." Rex hissed at him.

Beverly's eyes narrowed. "I can take care of myself, thank you very much. Besides there isn't much Circe and I can't handle."

Circe smiled. "Besides I have a job for Caesar."

Caesar groaned. "Don't I have a say in this?"

"Of course not." Circe said sweetly.

0o0

Caesar had no idea how he ended up where he was. He was an expert on nanites for crying out loud not some assistant to a coroner. But Circe had suggested that he offer his help to the doctor so he could get the inside scoop of how the victim died. Circe was sure that the doctor would not turn down help especially from someone as famous as him. Unfortunately, Circe was right. When the doctor learned that he was the Doctor Salazar working on nanite technology, he immediately allowed him into the autopsy. The doctor also happened to have known Caesar's parents and was talking about them.

"Rafael and Violeta eran inteligentes." He said enthusiastically as he gathered his instruments.

"Uh-huh." Caesar eyed the operating table uneasily.

"I'm sorry I never had a chance to meet their children."

"Well, you're meeting them now. " Caesar edged away from the table as the doctor produced a hack saw.

"Ha, ha, sí, you are just like your father. Same sense of humor." Doctor Garcia pulled back the blanket from the face. Caesar could see that there was a hole in the middle of the forehead. He also could tell that it was a woman. " So sad. I knew her and her husband in happier times." The doctor put down the hack saw and picked up the scalpel. He pulled the sheet further down. Caesar averted his eyes as the doctor made an incision in her chest. " So young and to have this cruel end happen. It's not fair." Doctor Garcia kept talking.

"Uh-huh." Caesar avoided looking at the body. "Very unfair." Caesar listened to the sickening sound of cracking bone as well as other disgusting unidentifiable sounds.

"Hmmm, body is strangely preserved, probably because of the lime from the foundation where she was buried. There doesn't seem to be any internal injuries. Organs all look normal."

Caesar wished the doctor would stop doing a play by play of all the details. But despite the goriness he listened intently to the coroner.

"Well, let's check out the head. Although by the size of the hole it looks like that's what killed her."

"Bullet?" He tried not to cringe as the hack saw appeared at the corner of his eye. He swallowed hard and shifted his eyes to the jars of specimen floating in formaldehyde in the doctor's lab. His stomach turned as he heard the saw working.

"No, it's too big for a bullet. It looks more like it was made by an arrow."

"Arrow?" Startled Caesar swung his head to look at the doctor. That was a mistake. Caesar now saw the corpse and all the work that was done. His eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell to the floor in a dead faint.

0o0

"Ok Rex, you know what to do?" Circe looked at her boyfriend.

"Yup." Rex confirmed.

"Once Durango leaves Bev and I will sneak in and question Chiquito. I'll follow Durango and when he's coming back you give the signal." Circe reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah I know. I'm not an idiot." Rex rolled his eyes.

"No, just a nitwit." She teased.

"Hey! And no one uses nitwit anymore." Rex replied in jest.

"There he goes." Beverly interrupted them.

They watched as Durango drive out alone in his pick up truck. Rex gave him some distance and then formed his rex ride to follow the truck.

Beverly and Circe immediately snuck into the compound. It seemed deserted.

"Everyone must be taking a siesta." Beverly murmured.

"Perfect." Circe motioned Beverly to follow.

They easily made it to the main house. Once there, Circe tried the door. It wasn't locked. They pushed their way in. The long narrow hallway was dim as if the thought of light was too much for the interior.

"Where is he?" Beverly asked in frustration.

"I don't know." Circe shrugged, and then paused. "Wait, I hear something coming from over there."

The two girls snuck down the hallway toward the room.

Circe and Beverly poked their heads in. Chiquito was sitting in a large armchair watching TV. His back was towards them. Every so often he would laugh.

Circe motioned with her head to Beverly who nodded. Together they walked toward the armchair.

"Hello, Chiquito." Circe purred.

Chiquito practically jumped out of his skin.

He relaxed when he saw it was just two teenage girls.

"W…w…what do you want?" He stammered nervously.

'We just want to talk." Circe said sweetly.

"Well, I don't feel like talking." Chiquito said petulantly.

"That's too bad because we're feeling chatty." Circe's voice started to harden.

"I'm busy. Go away!" He went back to watching his show.

Beverly walked over and shut off the set.

"Hey!" He bolted up. Circe gripped his shoulder and pushed him down.

"Now, now don't want you to be distracted. You don't want to make us angry." She growled.

"What if I do?" Chiquito tried to sound tough.

Circe blasted the vase on the end table. It shattered.

Chiquito yelped, "You're an EVO!"

"And Rex said you weren't smart." Circe slipped back into her sweet voice.

"What do you want?" He whimpered.

"I want to know what you did with Señora Martinez." Circe said sternly.

Chiquito turned pale. "I don't know what you are talking about."

"Really? So right after you and your brother threaten the Martinezes she goes missing. Seems... suspicious to me. " Circe said incredulously.

"We had nothing to do with it." Chiquito protested.

"So who did?"Circe slammed her hands down on either side of the armrest and pushed her face close to the man. He flinched.

"I…I…I don't know!" He stuttered.

"I think it was you. Your brother would never get his hands dirty. He would send you to take care of them and you will take the fall." Circe snarled.

"No, he wouldn't do that." But he didn't sound so confident.

"Oh no? Durango's always berating you and telling you what a disappointment you are." Circe scoffed.

"He cares about me." He insisted.

"He only cares about himself. He wouldn't think twice letting you take the blame." Circe said in a low dramatic voice.

"No no no. He wouldn't." He yelled. Then he broke down into sobs. "He cares, he cares."

Circe looked and Beverly and gave a slight nod.

Beverly sprung into action.

"Chiquito I am sure you think your brother cares and he may very well. But if you did anything you should say something. We just want to know if you've done anything to Señora Martinez. She's dead and we found the body. If you did anything to her there's going to be evidence on the body."

Sobbing he muttered, "We didn't hurt her we just wanted to scare her. We were going to release her after he agreed to give us the land. Then she escaped. We don't know how." Chiquito looked so forlorn that Beverly felt sorry for him. "I didn't do anything to her. We were just going to hold her a little while to talk to her but when I wasn't... She got away. We never heard from her again. We thought she just went away." He was now babbling.

It looked like he was about to say more but suddenly Circe's phone went off

It was the signal! Durango was coming back.

"Quick! Bev we need to get out of here." Circe looked at her partner.

Bev and Circe left the younger brother sobbing on the living room floor. They ran back to the door. Durango's truck was rounding the corner. Circe grabbed Beverly's hand and pulled her around the back of the house. "Come on!"

They heard Durango's angry yell. Running into the barn to hide they climbed up onto the rafters and hid under the loose hay there.

Beverly heard pounding footsteps enter the barn. The men were speaking in rapid fire Spanish. She could make out a few sentences

"They came in here. Where are they? Check everywhere."

Beverly held her breath as she heard steps climbing up to the rafters. Suddenly a pitchfork came awfully close to her head. A few more inches and you could have used her head as a sieve. She debated whether it was worth letting them know she was there just so they didn't accidently spear her. Then she realized that if they were using pitchforks they were aiming to hurt her anyway. The pitchfork now just missed her arm. She was about to give up when another voice calling from below stopped the movements from around her.

"The boss needs help!"

Everyone immediately left. When all was quiet and she was sure there was no one around she tentatively lifted her head up. A hand came close to her face. She gasped and rolled back.

"Relax it's just me." Circe said.

"Come on they're gone let's get out before they come back." Beverly didn't have to be told twice. They quickly left the ranch.

Circe and Beverly met Rex at the appointed place. When they got there Rex was pacing.

As they got closer Rex was relieved to see them. "Thank goodness. When Durango unexpectedly turned around I thought you guys would get caught for sure. "

"Well we almost did but then they left suddenly." Circe said

"They said the boss needed them." Beverly added.

Rex smirked.

"Was that you?" Circe asked wide-eyed.

"Well, I wanted to create a diversion in case you were trapped." Rex said smugly.

"What did you do?" Beverly asked starting to smile.

"Let's just say the bull on our ranch isn't the only one that likes my backside." Rex said proudly.

"You released the bull?" Beverly grinned.

"Uh no, I released all the bulls. They're probably dealing with a stampede right about now." Rex laughed.

Circe walked over to Rex. "That was quick thinking." To his surprise she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

"I did good?" He smirked when she pulled back.

"You did very good." They grinned at each other.

Beverly cleared her throat, "So now what?"

Without releasing Rex, Circe answered. "Now we go see what Caesar found out."