Disclaimer: Chuck Norris, Aaron Norris, CBS and others own the characters of "Walker Texas Ranger". 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 10: Bullets

It seemed as though they always ended up back at Ranger headquarters. Lucy hoped that when she and Darryl met with the rest of the team, they would have something useful. When she and Darryl walked into the Rangers' offices, she saw Trivette and Gage each sitting at his desk, eating a slice of pizza from one of the three boxes of pizza on the table that usually held the coffee machine, mugs and an occasional box of doughnuts.

"Hey, feel free to grab a slice or have a soda from the fridge," Gage said after he finished swallowing a bit of pizza.

"When are Walker and Sydney getting back?" Darryl asked as but before he could get an answer, Sydney walked in the door with Walker coming in behind her. "Never mind."

"Anything useful from the crime scene techs?" Sydney asked.

Gage swallowed the piece of pizza before answering. "The place had been wiped clean of fingerprints. No unknown fibers or hairs."

Sydney's eyebrows rose. "Whoever killed her knows about forensics."

Darryl closed the door to the fridge and popped open the can of soda. "What about her next of kin?"

Trivette shook his head as he took a slice of pizza from one of the three pizza boxes sitting on the desk and set it on a paper plate. "She didn't have any family. Her parents were killed when she was nineteen. Only child. No other family."

"We'll have to speak to her friends," Sydney said as she walked over to the pizza boxes. Lucy could see that Sydney was trying to decide which kind she wanted.

"She didn't have any friends. I spoke to her coworkers and she kept to herself," Lucy replied as she accepted the cup of coffee Walker offered to her.

"What about that possible hidden passageway between the two floors?" Walker asked as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

"The manager had no idea that it was there," Darryl replied thanking Gage for the pizza as he grabbed a slice and took a bite.

"Well, someone had to know that it was there," Sydney said as she sat down at her desk and started to eat her pizza.

"Someone knew it was there," Lucy pointed out. "Probably Ana Welles."

The phone in Walker's office rang, he set down his coffee and went to answer the phone. When he returned, he had a frown on his face. "That was Alex. She couldn't get the warrant. The judge doesn't believe that there is a viable connection between the Welles murder and the bank situation."

Lucy sighed. "We will have to find something else. We tried to get it open from the bank side, but it didn't work. The bank manager refused to let us break it."

"So, we're stuck," Sydney said.

"Maybe Kingly and Ana knew each other. I mean, they worked in the same building. They were bound to bump into each other," Gage pointed out.

"Great idea," Sydney replied.

"We need to track Kingly and Ana's movements for the past six months. See if they crossed paths somewhere," Walker replied.

Ideas and possible motives started to thrive again, but Lucy couldn't help but worry that it was going to lead to another dead end.

Lucy closed the door to Darryl's car and gave him a wave. She walked up to her house and put her key in the lock.

"Hey, you forgot some of your notes," Darryl said as he came up behind her, brandishing the notes that Lucy had taken during the information gathering at Ranger headquarters.

She turned the key in the lock and pushed open the door before she turned toward her partner. A car caught her eye and when she saw the window roll down, she saw a gun aimed right at them.

"Get down!" she yelled as she grabbed her partner's arm and pulled him inside her house. She pushed him down onto the floor away from the door, just as the bullets began fly. She jumped to the other side of the doorway, and covered her head with her hands.

Once the barrage of bullets had ceased, she heard tires squealing as she jumped up and went to the window. She saw taillights on a dark car turn sharply around the corner.

"You okay?"

She nodded, her hand gripping the doorway so tightly that her knuckles were turning white. "You?"

"I'm good, thanks to you. I'll call it in."

When Darryl returned, he looked at her with a firm look in his eyes. "You can stay at my place. Malha won't mind."

"Someone's trying to kill me. I don't think that's a good idea."

"They might have been after you or they could have been after me. Or both of us."

"We're making someone nervous. We had better warn the Rangers to be careful. You might want to send Malha away for a little while. Just to be on the safe side."

"Already thinking about that, but the hard part is convincing her."

They waited for forensics to come to take the slugs, take pictures, and see if they could match the tracks left from the car. She doubted that it would lead to anything though and she was beginning to get frustrated with the case. She sighed knowing that the bullets may lead to something.

Darryl's phone rang and when he answered, she could hear an excited voice on the other end. She only heard Darryl's response that didn't explain what the call was about or who was on the other end. When he hung up, he had a smile on his face.

"That was Connie. She has some information for us about Welles' murder."

"Sounds like something good."

"Yeah, she went back over everything with a fine-toothed comb. She hates it when she doesn't find anything. She wants to see us as soon as possible."

"She already knew about what happened here and knows we won't make it to her office until the morning."

"Yeah, you guessed right." He sighed as he hit a button on his cell and brought it to his ear. "I have to call Malha."

"I'll leave you to it. I see the forensics team is here. I'll go meet them."

Lucy walked to the van just as the head of the team ran up to meet her. She knew it was going to be a long night and she wished she had a large coffee in her hand but she was thankful that her partner was still by her side so the lack of coffee wasn't a big deal.