Chapter 11

Hi, here's the next chapter. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing this story. Thanks for your comments!

"So what do we do now?"

Matt and Chris looked at Dan as all three of them stood in the parking garage of Houston Enterprises. True to Matt's prediction, similar GPS devices were discovered in all of their vehicles.

"I think we better keep this discovery under our hats for now," Matt said.

"How can they do this," Chris asked.

"It seems they can do anything," Dan said.

"The best thing to do is let whoever is responsible to believe nothing's changed," Matt said "And to try to use it to our advantage."

"They're way ahead of us," Dan said, "And we don't know much more than when we started."

"That's because we've spent the past few days playing catch up," Matt said, "It's time to step it up a notch."

"Wait a minute Matt, someone just threatened to start killing people if you didn't back off," Dan said.

"They've already started the killing Dan," Matt said, "I think we've stepped right in the middle of it. And it's too late to step back now."

Matt's cell phone rang.

"Hi Hoyt, what'd you find out?"

"I just got a phone call from Houston PD about the initial tests on the explosive device."

"What'd they find?"

Hoyt paused.

"They think they matched the signature of the explosive material to an organization of terrorists."

"Wonderful," Matt said, "Which organization is that?"

"They won't know for sure until they do further testing but they're looking at one that's not been active for quite a while," Hoyt said, "It might take a while before there's any confirmation."

"That's great news, Hoyt," Matt said, "Because someone just called me today and said if I didn't stop looking for C.J., people were going to die."

"Houston, when were you going to share that information," Hoyt said, "Should I even ask."

"I'm telling you right now, Hoyt" Matt said, "I did find out some more information on Piser's connections when he ran the prostitution ring in Bannon County."

"What was that?"

"Piser had an associate, a man in his thirties, well-dressed and with a foreign accent."

"Bannon County hasn't seen too many men of that description," Hoyt asked, "Does he have a name?"

"I haven't been able to find one so far," Matt said, "But he was seen by at least two of the women in the county lockup with both Piser and Sheriff Butz a few times."

"Are you sure he wasn't just another john?"

"The women, Fran and Rhonda, didn't seem to think so."

"So he was a partner in the ring?"

"That's what I'm thinking," Matt said, "or its ringleader."

Kelly listened to the busy signal on the other end. She hung up and stood by the phone, not sure what to do next. She reached into her pocket and found only worn bills. She walked over to the cashier, a young woman reading a paperback novel by the register.

"Hi, could you spare any change," she asked the woman.

"Sure, how much you need?"

Kelly gave her a couple bucks and took the change. She saw that the gentleman had left the diner, his dishes still waiting to be collected by the waitress.

The cashier's gaze followed hers.

"Interesting guy to wander into our little town," she said, "Left a huge tip."

"Does he come here often?"

The woman shook her head.

"Nah, he's been a regular since about yesterday morning," the woman said, and went to clear the table.

Kelly frowned, the man definitely wasn't from these parts. His finger nails looked clean and they'd been recently manicured which meant he wasn't a miner or a rancher, the two major occupations in the valley. And the region didn't attract many tourists who preferred the resort towns miles away.

She walked back to the payphone and dialed again.

"Matt, you can't go running half-cocked around Texas looking under every cacti and rock for C.J," Hoyt said, "Not without getting the authorities involved."

"Hoyt, I'm not going to argue with you about this," Matt said, "What I do need is your help."

Hoyt sighed.

"Okay, what do you need?"

"I need you to talk to some of your contacts to find out if any of them knew where that device came from," Matt said, "I don't think we can wait for the latest round of forensic tests to come back."

Matt looked down and saw "incoming call" light up on his phone.

"Look Houston, I'll do my best, but if these are professional terrorists you're dealing with, you can't handle this by yourself."

"We don't know if it's terrorists at all, Hoyt," Matt said, "Not until we try to find out."

"Maybe I should get your uncle on the phone and he can talk some sense into you."

"He's busy keeping an eye on Scott," Matt said, "I've got a feeling he's involved in this mess somehow or at least knows more than he's saying."

"How so?"

"I'm not sure yet," Matt said, "I'm just thinking it's possible that he was the last person C.J. talked to before she disappeared."

"Houston, you be careful," Hoyt said, "I don't want to be reading about you in the paper."

"Sure thing…I got another incoming call…I'll get back to you."

Kelly listened to the phone ring and then heard his voice.

"You've reached the number of Matt Houston, I can't come to the phone right now…"

Damn, she reached his voice mail. Should she leave a message for him? No, she couldn't do that, she had to talk to him directly. She almost hung up again. Should she?

Suddenly, the voice changed.

"Hi, this is Matt Houston."

She wrapped the phone cord around her hand and listened to a voice she hadn't heard in six months. A voice she believed for a long time she would never hear again.

"Hey, who is this speaking," Matt said.

Her legs grew weak and she sunk to the floor where she sat, with the phone cradled in her hands.

"Hello…. How may I help you?"

She didn't answer.

Matt looked at the Caller ID and saw that it showed a phone number that wasn't Texan. At first, he wondered if it was the same caller who had threatened him earlier but dropped that thought. It didn't seem menacing, just strange. As if the silence were a bridge or a barrier depending on what he said next.

"Matt, what is it?"

Matt turned to see Chris standing next to him, looking at him.

"Who is this…..", Matt asked, then an image popped into his head.

A snapshot of a woman with cascading brown hair dressed in jeans sitting on the grass with him and two of Matt's ranch hands. In her hands, she held a giant bullfrog dressed in a pretty bow that she had pulled out of a bag after calling Matt the winner of a frog jumping competition. The two ranch hands, Bo and Lamar, had accused her of cheating, but Matt had just looked and saw a woman who appreciated frogs just as much as he did.

"You've got to kiss a lot of frogs before you meet up with your prince," C.J. had said, smiling.

He had kissed her impulsively as a joke between the closest of friends. At least that's what he had thought at first and what he told himself afterward, as the taste of her lingered on his mouth. But in between, feelings inundated him that he didn't expect. After their lips parted, he sat back, lost in thought. Until C.J. gave him a serious look and his humor kicked back in as it often did to rein in his heart.

"Gribbit," he had said.

As he held the phone a couple of years later, he wondered why this memory had flashed in front of him, out of nowhere. Then he knew why.

"Is that you…C.J.?"

She froze when she heard her name. Her eyes stung even before the tears left them. She brushed them back with her hands then she dropped the phone. When she heard his voice on the other end of the line, she knew then she couldn't say anything. Looking down at her scarred hands, she remembered why.

Houston looked at his cell phone.

"What's wrong, Matt," Chris asked, "Who was it on the phone?"

"I don't know, Chris," Matt said, "But I had the strangest feeling…"

"You think it was C.J.," Dan said, "after all this time?"

"I don't know who was it was," Matt said, "They didn't say anything."

"Where'd the call come from," Dan said.

"Not from Texas," Matt said, "I think it was out of state."

"Could have been a wrong number," Dan said, "If it were C.J., I think she would have said something."

"Maybe, unless she couldn't."

Chris and Dan looked at each other, then back at Matt.

"What did Hoyt say about the latest forensics on the explosive device," Dan said.

"Its signature might tie to a terrorist organization that hasn't been active in a while."

"If so, it seems like they're pretty active now."

"But why is that," Matt said, "Why now?"

Kelly walked away from the phone, through the diner to where she parked the Rover. The sky began to darken and she pulled her coat closer around her to ward off the chilled air. She climbed into the vehicle and turned on the heater. She drove back to the ranch.

"There she is," C.J. said, pointing out Julia.

"Who's that with her," Jonathon said, looking at the two men who stood on each side of her.

C.J. shook her head.

"I don't know either of them," C.J. "Unless they're friends of her boyfriend. He's been hanging out with a different crowd lately."

"Where's her boyfriend," Jonathon said as he parked the car underneath the wide branches of a tree. The street was lit, but still held pockets of darkness.

"She said something about him going on a beer run."

"Why didn't she go with him," Jonathon said.

C.J. shrugged.

"They're kind of on and off actually," she said, "They just got back together."

"I have a strange feeling about this," Jonathon said as he removed his keys from the ignition.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one," C.J. said as she opened the door to step out.

Both of them walked across the street to where Julia stood with the two men.

Julia didn't say one word which struck C.J. as odd, but just watched as both she and Jonathon walked up the front stairs to the veranda that encircled the house.

"Julia, is everything okay," she asked.

Julia just bit her lip. C.J. studied her face, which was pale except for traces of mascara beneath her eyes.

"You came," she said, her voice quivering.

"You asked me to," C.J. said, puzzled.

"This guy gave you a ride?"

"What happened," C.J. asked, "Who are these men?"

"Ah, you must be Ms Parsons, Julia's friend."

"That's none of your business," C.J. said, "I've come to pick up my friend."

"She won't be leaving, until her boyfriend returns," one of the men said. Both were men with jet-black hair and dressed in dark suits. Two more men walked up to join them.

"You don't tell her what she can and cannot do."

"C.J.," Julia said, "Be quiet and listen to him."

C.J. looked at Jonathon.

"You heard the lady," he said, "You have no right to prevent this woman from leaving if she wants to go."

"That's where you're wrong," the man said, "I hold all the rights in this situation. Her boyfriend has something that belongs to me."

"Belongs to you," C.J. said, "What could that possibly be? He doesn't even know you."

Julia shook her head slightly.

"On the contrary," the man said, "we're…business associates."

"What kind of business associates," Jonathon asked.

"Now that's none of your concern," the man said, "It's wiser for you if you stay out of our affairs. Our interest is only in her friend."

C.J. looked at Julia, who turned her head away.

"I think both of the ladies need to step inside so we can discuss this matter privately?"

"I don't think I can let you do that," Jonathon said.

The man gestured with his head to two other men standing nearby. One of them stepped in between Jonathon and the man who spoke.

"You have no voice in this situation," the man said, "My guards can keep you company, until we're finished."

Jonathon stood there, and watched as the two men who weren't guarding him led the women inside the house.

C.J. turned around to look at him just once before they walked inside. She looked at him, immediately sorry she had brought him there. He shook his head slightly in response and smiled back at her.

Kelly turned up the driveway into the ranch and pulled to a stop. She ran her hand through her hair.

She saw Jed walking back into the house with Reed and got out of the Rover to follow them. The warmth of the ranch house greeted them, as they removed their coats.

"So how did the vaccinating go," Kelly asked.

"We got 40 head done today," Reed said, "Hopefully, we'll get more done tomorrow."

"It looks like the weather's going to turn," Jed said, "So how did your day go?"

Kelly shrugged.

"I got some errands done in town," she said.

Thea came out to meet them.

"Hurry in here," she said, "I've got some new stew that will chase the chill right out of your stomachs."

"None for me," Kelly said, rubbing her stomach, "I'm not hungry."

Thea's eyes studied her.

"You're not coming down with something, are you?"

Kelly shook her head.

"No, I think I'm just tired."

"Run along upstairs then, get warm and I'll bring you up some tea."

"That'd be nice, thanks," Kelly said, then walked up the stairs.

Thea shook her head.

"How are you two guys doing?"

Both men put their hands in their pockets and shuffled their feet.

"Fine, Ma'am," Reed said, "We should be finished with that herd by the end of the week."

"Good job," Thea said, "Now let's get you warm food."

"Excuse me for a minute," Jed said, then left them.

"Matt, I know she'll be found," Chris said, sitting down beside him in her living room.

"I just hope it will be in time," he said.

Chris took a deep breath.

"Matt, I think Dan's right. I think it's time to contact the FBI and bring them up to date with what's been going on."

"Chris, they had six months to find her and she's still missing," Matt said.

"Maybe if we work with them," Chris said, "Between all of us, we can get to the bottom of what's going on here and bring C.J. home."

"Maybe," Matt said, "But it seems to me that they're part of the problem."

Chris sighed.

"What if I could bring you someone from inside a federal agency to come and talk to you?"

Matt looked up.

"FBI?"

Chris shook her head.

"No, it's someone from another branch of the Department of Justice."

"Who is…."

Dan came into the living room.

"Barbecue's ready on the back porch."

Matt and Chris got up to join him.

"Matt, Fran just called," Dan said, "She wants you and Chris to come out to the center tomorrow."

"Did she say why," he asked.

"She wants you to meet someone," Dan said, "Someone who might be able to lead you to Piser's associate."

Kelly laid back in the claw foot tub, soaking in the warm water. She wiped her hand over her face, before any tears came.

"Did you ever have a best friend when you were growing up, Matt?"

C.J. asked that while Matt tried to comfort her on the news that Julia had finally succumbed to the illness which filled even if it didn't define the last years of her life. She had received the news while she and Matt were trying to expose corruption in a dying town.

"Yes," Matt said, "then I found a better one."

She had smiled through her tears then. She smiled again, remembering that moment.

She reached for a sponge, dipped it in the water then ran it over her shoulders, over the puckered burn scar.

"Hi, this is Jed, have you had any luck yet?"

"I just got started this afternoon," the man said, "I had to unpack some of the equipment I'll be using."

"So how successful do you think you'll be," Jed said.

"That depends on a variety of factors, not the least being the condition of the disk."

"The water damage couldn't be helped," Jed said, "We're probably lucky the disk survived at all."

"How'd you get it," the man asked.

"The woman I told you about had it on her when she arrived at the ranch about six months ago."

"Did she give it to you," the man said.

Jed didn't respond.

"Does she even know you have it?"

"No, she was very sick when she first arrived," Jed said, "She had a serious infection and the doctor didn't think she'd even survive."

"That's a shame," the man said, "But it seems that she's looking much better now."

"What do you mean," Jed said.

"I saw her today, in the diner."

"How do you know it was her," Jed said.

"It's a small town and I've traveled through many similar towns," the man said, "It's always easy to see who's not from them. She looked as much out of place in Silver Lode as I feel."

"She's not the villain here," Jed said, "She's the one who got hurt."

"She was making a couple of phone calls on a pay phone," the man said, "Phone calls she obviously couldn't make back at the ranch."

"Maybe, it's to her contact."

"Maybe," the man said, "She did drop a picture of a fellow and I gave it back to her. Young looking guy, dark hair, looks like he came from money."

"She doesn't really talk about anyone specifically."

"It must be someone from her past, someone personal." the man said, "and if she's trying to contact him, she's already forgotten lesson number one in starting over which is to walk away from your old life and never look back."

"That's easier said than done," Jed said, "I'm talking from personal experience."

"I'm talking from spending years scraping up after people who broke that rule and paid with their lives," the man said, "I hated that job, but the retirement package's nice."

"I'm glad I stuck to just being a city cop," Jed said, "Most of the time it was less complicated except when I had to come to you."

"I'll be in touch," the man said before hanging up.

Kelly laid back in her bed, stroking the cat's fur. Someone knocked on her door.

"Come in," she said.

In walked Thea with the promised tea.

"It's a mixture of chamomile and hops to help you sleep," she said.

"Thanks," Kelly said as she reached for the cup.

"I see Granville found you," Thea said, sitting on the edge of Kelly's bed.

"I feel a lot better, thank you," Kelly said, "I was just tired."

"Are you sure it's not homesickness that you're feeling?"

"I guess I can't fool you," Kelly said, "Jonathon warned me about that."

Thea took Kelly's hands and looked straight at her.

"You'll see him again, I'm sure of it."

"Who, who will I see again?"

"The one who you hold in your heart," Thea said.

Kelly shook her head.

"I don't think so, Thea," Kelly said, "I don't think I ever felt as far away from him as I did today."

"My son is the best at his job," Thea said, "He'll help you get your life back."

"Even if a grand jury convenes and I do testify, that's not necessarily the end. I might have to go into permanent relocation."

"I think whoever did this to you will be found and brought to justice," Thea said, "I think you'll play your role in that then you'll go home and this man will be there waiting."

Tears brimmed Kelly's eyes and Thea reached out and hugged the younger woman close.

Another place miles and miles away, another man made a phone call.

"I don't think that Mr. Houston is going to back off," the man said, "I think it's time to up the stakes."

"Patience," the other man said, "There's still a chance he'll change his mind. In the meantime, how do things look on the other front?"

"Going right on schedule," the first man said, "We'll be able to make a definitive move in the next day or so."

"And the target?"

"Will never see what's coming," the first man said, "And certainly not, where it's coming from."