Thank you everyone who's been reading and reviewing. I'm not sure who's still reading this. I always finish my stories with or without comments but it helps me with the direction of the story. I was a little hesitant to write the scene with Caesar and Six. When I thought it up, I thought it was hysterical. But the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if it's a little too OOC. Oh well, let me know what you think.
I do not own the show.
Beverly felt the sensation of nothingness in front of her as she started falling over the edge. The feeling of free fall was not unpleasant but as one comedian put it... "It's not the fall that gets you it's the landings."
Then as luck would have it one of her flailing arms caught an edge of something and she managed to hang onto it. She stopped screaming. Adjusting her eyes to the darkness she looked to see what was around her. Looking up she realized that she had not fallen that far down. If her luck held she may be able to climb out. Beverly knew she was not an expert climber by any means but she knew a little about rock climbing. She pulled herself onto the ledge. It was larger than she thought. As she dragged her dangling legs up, her hand brushed against something soft. Startled she pulled back immediately, almost losing her balance. She quickly righted herself before she adjusted her position. She crawled over thinking perhaps it was just moss or an animal. But on closer inspection she realized it wasn't fur but fabric. It looked like a rolled up carpet. She gave it a little push and the bundle turned over. To her horror it was Gnomo and he was dead.
0o0
Caesar scrolled through his cell phone. He found the number he wanted and pressed the call button.
"Six here." He picked up after the third ring. Darn, too late to turn back now.
"Hello, Six." Caesar began hesitantly.
"Caesar? Is anything wrong?" He could hear a slight infliction in his usual monotone voice.
"No, everyone's fine." Caesar wondered if he could make something up and then hang up. But he screwed up his courage and asked, "Actually, I was wondering if you have time to answer a question for me."
"I'm busy right now." Six was back to his usual flat tone.
"It'll just take a minute." At least he hoped it would only take a minute. "How do you know if you like, like a girl and what should you do about it?"
There was a pause, "That's two questions. Wouldn't Holiday be better at this type of…thing?"
"I can't really talk to her about that. But if you can't answer them…" Caesar tried a tactful retreat.
"I think only you can answer the first question. Do you like spending time with her? Do you admire and respect her? Then you need to find out if the girl feels the same about you. Then you need to talk and figure out if you want the same things." Six finished.
"Huh, that makes sense. I appreciate the talk. I guess I know why Rex looks up to you now." Caesar hung up.
Six looked at the phone. Calan walked in with some files.
"Calan, has hell frozen over?" Six asked abruptly.
Startled Calan looked at Six wondering where the question had come from. "Not that I know of."
"Have boars learn to navigate aerially?" Six continued.
"Not unless they've gone EVO." Calan looked at Six with concern. "Are you feeling alright?"
Six hung up the phone and looked under his desk. "Pants are still on, so I'm awake. There're no cameras around." Six muttered to himself. He got up and started walking out the office.
"Wait, what do you want me to do with the files?" Calan asked.
"Leave them on my desk. I want to make sure I haven't been sucked into an alternate reality." The door slid closed behind him.
Calan looked at the closed door and shook his head. Six definitely needed a vacation.
0o0
Detective Ricardo came back with Rex and Circe. He wanted to talk to Beverly after hearing about the ladies' little excursion.
"Where's Bev?" Circe asked.
"I don't know. I thought she'd be back by now." Caesar replied.
"I haven't seen her since this afternoon." Rex looked at his brother who avoided his gaze.
"We should probably go look for her. It's getting dark and she doesn't know her way around." Ricardo noted.
"Ok, but where do we even start?" Rex asked.
"I think I know where." Circe replied.
Beverly looked sadly at the body. It was so cold down in the ravine that there was actual frost on the body. He must have killed by his cave and the body dumped here. Tears came unbidden to her eyes. Why must she be the one to discover two bodies? She suppressed a sob. She knew she had to get out of here or she'd freeze. She blinked away the tears and tried to climb out. It was then she realized there was no way she could climb out without assistance. The side of the gorge, although it was rough, had no crevices to hold on to. Great, she was stuck with a dead body. She slid down onto the ground and buried her face in her knees. She tried not to cry but the feelings of helplessness and failure began to set in. She had tried to find the killer of Señora Martinez. Instead she now had an accident happen to one of the tenants and another murder on her hands with suspects up the wahzoo. Some detective she was turning out to be.
She looked up. The air was colder down here, where the sunlight couldn't reach. She shivered. Looking over at the body she crawled over. Overcoming her revulsion she took the poncho off Gnomo and wrapped it around herself.
"I'm sorry I wasn't able to find the killer and that you paid the price for that. I'm so sorry." Now Beverly did cry. Between her sobs she managed to say, "Thanks for your poncho."
When Beverly finished crying, she felt better. She berated herself for her stupidity. She should have told someone where she was going. They have no idea where she is. Her fight with Caesar also seemed stupid now. He was right. She should have let the police handle it.
She wiped her eyes and sunk deeper into the poncho.
There was a faint, familiar odor that she tried not to think about. It was sickeningly sweet.
"Beverly!"
She heard her name. She straightened up. Alert, she scrambled onto her feet. "I'm here! Down here!"
"I hear something. Over here!" Beverly looked up as shadows appeared above her.
Beverly waved her hands excitedly. One of the figures sprouted wings and flew down.
"Hey," Rex smiled at her.
"Hey, " She'd never been so glad to see him. She grabbed his neck and his arm went around her waist.
Rex flew them back up to the top. Caesar walked to Beverly.
"Are you okay?" He asked hesitantly.
Beverly didn't answer. She just wrapped her arm around him and buried her face in his chest. Caesar didn't hesitate to hold her tight against him. He realized that even with the poncho she was shivering. He gently let go of her and took off his jacket. He draped it around her shoulder and embraced her again.
"You're a very lucky young lady. Your friend suggested that we look for you here. When we found Jorge knocked out, we searched for you." Ricardo was explaining but Beverly wasn't really listening. She was taking in the warmth from Caesar's jacket and body.
"Bev, where did you get the poncho?" Circe asked quietly. She recognized the colorful garment.
Beverly shut her eyes tighter. A lump grew in her throat. She freed one hand and pointed down the ravine.
Ricardo scowled. This was starting to get out of hand.
0o0
Ricardo called his office and they sent some men to help pull the body up. Doctor Garcia was there as well. Beverly had insisted that they stay. As the body was pulled up in a makeshift stretcher, she looked sadly at it. Tears pricked her eyes again but she blinked them away. A blanket covered his body but one of his hands had fallen to the side. She glanced at his hand. It was streaked with red. With a pang of regret she thought of all the paintings he will never make now. The body was placed in a black bag and loaded onto the back of the station wagon. Dr. Garcia wordlessly gave Detective Ricardo a nod before getting into the car and driving back to his office. Ricardo stopped to talk to the men before they too departed. Ricardo turned to look at the foursome.
"It is clear that the murderer of Señora Martinez is still at large and is willing to kill to keep their secrets. Now will you please leave the investigating to me?" He asked wearily.
"No way!" Rex exclaimed. "He almost killed Beverly. We're not going to just sit here and let him get away with it."
"No, Rex. It's all right. I'm done playing detective." Beverly stopped Rex. Rex turned and looked at her in surprise.
"But Bev…" He began.
"No, Rex. It's over. We… I haven't helped and I might have gotten someone killed." Beverly said firmly. "I'm done."
Circe looked disappointedly at Beverly but said nothing. It was her call.
Ricardo and Caesar was the only one who looked relieved.
"Good decision." Ricardo approved. "Now I want you to go back and let me handle the rest." After a pause Ricardo looked at Beverly, "But senorita, you have helped me quite a bit but this is getting dangerous. Please let me do the rest."
"I already said I would." Beverly was now starting to get agitated.
Ricardo sensing her annoyance let the matter drop. He silently dismissed them as he turned to check out the crime scene.
"Let's go home." Beverly muttered eyes on the ground. The others accompanied her wordlessly back home.
0o0
The walk back was tense until Rex broke it with a suggestion that they finally watch the home movies of him and his family.
Beverly glad for the distraction agreed.
When they got back to the ranch, Rex ran to his room to get the tapes. He was excited.
"I've been dying to show you this." He popped the tape into the VCR.
Everyone settled onto the couch. The tape started running. On the screen Rafael appeared; he was pushing Rex on a bike. Rex wobbled around before straightening.
"I'm doing it papi! I'm doing it!" Then Rex rode into a bush.
The camera bounced as Violeta cried out, "Is he all right?"
The camera then swung to look at a young Caesar who was fiddling with an engine of a tractor.
"Caesar come and help."
"Coming mami."
Caesar ran over and picked up the bike.
Checking it over, he gave the camera a thumbs up. "The bike's fine."
Rex was left on the floor.
"Caesar! " Violeta yelled exasperated.
"What?" Caesar asked confused.
Rafael ran over and picked Rex out of the bush. He brushed the debris from his hair.
There was static and then the next scene.
"Mami, look!" Caesar yelled. The camera passed through the hallway and a mirror where Violeta was seen briefly holding the camera. Finally, the camera came to a stop in front of a bedroom.
Rex was perched on top of the dresser putting on Violeta's lipstick. He already had eye shadow and blush on. On his feet, he had on her stilettos.
"Oh my gosh!" Violeta gasped trying not to laugh. "What did you do Rex?"
"Mami I'm pretty."
Rex then jumped off the dresser and landed on the plush ottoman he had used to reach the dresser. One of the heels embedded itself into the cushion. Now imbalanced Rex fell flat on his back. Caesar looked over at Rex. He was red faced. Obviously, he did not realize that this was on the tape.
Circe laughed hysterically.
"You are pretty Rex. But I didn't know you were an autumn." Circe gasped still laughing.
"Hey, not everyone can pull off autumn and in heels." Rex retorted. Circe continued to rib him and Rex answered back. Beverly and Caesar just watched.
Caesar gauged whether this was a good time to talk to Beverly but noticed that although she was smiling it didn't reach her eyes.
The rest of the night passed pleasantly. They made sandwiches for dinner with whatever was in the fridge. They watched more movies before getting ready for bed.
As Beverly was walking into her room, Caesar grabbed her arm.
"Beverly, you're not happy are you?"
"What are you talking about?" Beverly mumbled averting her eyes.
"I know you." He hoped that was true. "You want to solve this not out of morbid curiosity but because you really want to help."
Beverly kept her eyes on the ground.
Caesar couldn't believe he was about to say the next part. "Beverly, if you need to do this, I'll help you in whatever way I can."
Beverly's head snapped up and she gawked at him. When she realized he was serious, the troubled look faded from her eyes. She finally smiled that beautiful smile he had missed all night. She hugged him. "Thank you. You don't know what that means to me but I'm serious when I said I'm done." She let go and smiled into his face. His throat tightened and he tried to smile back hoping it didn't look like a grimace. Beverly let go and walked to her room. She smiled at him one more time before closing the door. For some reason Caesar wanted to jump and click his heels. But he settled for a dignified walk back to his room with a huge grin plastered to his face.