I'm sorry that this chapter has taken so long. I sort of lost inspiration for a few days. That and some family from out of the country was visiting and occupying my time. I am struggling to keep up a regular posting schedule, so I'll post when I have enough to submit. Thanks for your patience and your support.

Lula's POV

There was something about the whole Paradis thing that was annoying me. I decided to pull out a map and look at the last known address where he lived in San Diego. The first thought that passed my mind was that Mexico was very close to where he lived. In fact, it was less than 20 miles to a Tijuana. I thought for a moment and wondered if Henry might have disappeared across the border to Mexico for those 5 years. It wasn't a crazy idea, but I somehow didn't think so.

I must have thought for a long time because Brett looked over at me a few times and finally said, "Lula, are you OK? You've been sitting there staring off into the distance for a long time."

I was dragged out of my thoughts and looked at Brett and said, "I'm just thinking. I was wondering if something happened to Paradis that forced him to go into hiding. I was just trying to figure out what that thing was, and why he decided to come back out of hiding, if that's what he was doing in the first place."

Brett looked at me and shrugged and said, "Where do you think he might have gone?"

I shook my head and said, "I'm not sure, but he lived within 20 miles of the Mexico border in California. Maybe he went there?"

Brett scrunched his nose up, as if he had been there and didn't have fond memories. He looked off into the distance and then said, "What if something happened while he was there? What if he saw something and was forced to go underground?"

"I was having similar thoughts, but it was 8 years ago, so I have no idea if or how we'd find out that information?"

Brett grinned and said, "My brother-in-law is a cop in San Diego. He works very closely with the police in Tijuana. Maybe he can give us some insight. I'll give him a call now."

I listened as Brett spoke so someone. Most of their conversation was in Spanish, which I thought was odd. Brett has strawberry blonde hair and very blue eyes. He doesn't look like he grew up speaking Spanish, but he may have learned in school or the Army. Who am I to judge really?

I watched the facial expressions on Brett's face. It was obvious that he liked the man he was talking with. I didn't have any siblings, but I wasn't sure how fond I'd be of the man who married my baby sister, but Brett seemed to like him. I watched as his face turned serious. I assumed he asked about incidents around 8 years ago. Brett looked up at me and asked, "When was the last time we knew Paradis to be in San Diego?"

I dug around in his records and said, "August 23rd."

Brett returned to his conversation, and 5 minutes later, he was off the phone and looking at me. He sat there in silence, just staring at me. After about 3 minutes, he broke the silence and said, "Can you give me the timeline of the incidents we think are related to this whole thing?"

I thought for a moment and said, "Up until 8 years ago, Henry Paradis was living in San Diego. He disappeared for 5 years and turned up 3 years ago in Washington D.C. Around the same time, Paula Escobar, now known as Gina Matthews, arrived on the scene.

"Five years ago, Ranger led a special forces team into Columbia and killed Enrique Escobar. Paula was left destitute. She illegally immigrated and changed her name, married the General and is now dead."

Brett thought for a moment and said, "OK, I think Paradis witnessed something while he was in Mexico. On August 20th, a huge gang war erupted in Tijuana. One of the suspected cartels involved was Escobar's. My brother-in-law thinks that Paradis fits the description of a witness that was supposed to have seen Escobar kill a man and his wife in cold blood. Paula was also there, so she may have met Paradis at that time."

I looked at Brett and wondered if that was true. Did Paradis go into hiding because of Escobar? If so, how did he know that Escobar was dead 5 years later? Why did he come out of hiding? I looked at Brett and voiced those questions. Brett didn't have a definitive answer, but he suggested that perhaps Paradis and Paula were in contact after Enrique's death.

I knew that it would be next to impossible to prove that there was any connection between Paula and Paradis. That was because we had no idea where he was during his 5 year break. We also had no idea where Paula was during the time after her husband's death. The only thing we could track were the phone records for both the house and Paula's phone before Enrique was killed.

"Do we have access to the phone records from the Escobar house before Ranger's mission was completed? What about cellular records for that time?"

Brett shrugged and pulled out his phone. This time, he called Lester. He put it on speakerphone and asked if Lester knew about the phone records. Lester informed us that this information was classified, but he could get his hands on it. He'd make a few phone calls and email it to me as soon as he could.

Brett hung up and grinned at me. I said, "You know Brett, we make a pretty good team. You have the contacts and I have the brains."

Brett chuckled and said, "Normally I'm just the muscle. I like to be helpful, so if my contacts prove useful, they're all yours Lula."

I smiled back at Brett and sat there wondering how long we'd have to wait to get the information Lester promised. I looked at my watch and saw that it was noon. I wasn't really hungry, but I knew that I'd get the munchies for unhealthy food if I didn't eat something now. I got up from my desk and said to Brett, "I'm going to grab a sandwich from the fridge. Did you want something?"

Brett nodded and said, "I do, but I'll come with you. I need to stretch my legs and it will take my mind off the fact that we're waiting on Lester for potentially monumental information."

Brett and I met Bobby and Woody in the tiny little kitchen. There wasn't really enough room for 2 men in the room, so they got out of the way so Brett and I could get to the fridge. As soon as we had our sandwiches in hand, we looked around and realised that there wasn't really anywhere suitable in the new office building to sit together and enjoy our lunch break.

I suggested that we go sit in the park across the road and pretty much anyone in the office who was ready for a lunch break joined us. In addition to Bobby and Woody, Brett and I were also joined by Hal, Zip, Zero, Hector, Manny and Cal. Everyone else was either off-duty, on patrol, or stuck on monitor duty.

We had an enjoyable lunch, and by the time we returned to the office an hour later, an email was sitting in my inbox from Lester. I told Brett about the email and he scooted over and we looked at the mail together.

There were two attachments. One was a PDF of the incoming and outgoing calls to the Escobar house. The other was the same, but for Paula's cell phone. We skimmed through the list and a few numbers jumped out as us. These were numbers with a 305 and 786 area codes. I didn't recognise the code straight away, but the country code was for the US.

Brett looked them up to confirm his hunch. "Those are both Miami area codes. Whoever was communicating with Paula was in the Miami area."

I printed out the 2 pages of Paula's cell phone bill that had several calls from those numbers. I highlighted them and then gave Brett a page while I took the other. I said, "Let's do a reverse directory lookup to see if we can figure out who these numbers belong to."

Brett happily took his numbers and went to his computer that was only a few feet from mine. He and I spent the next 30 minutes typing in numbers and performing searches. After I was done with my list, I had a bunch of discontinued pay phones and phones in public places such as restaurants and hotels.

Brett came over and shared his results. Most of his were the same as mine. I looked at the list and one name jumped out at me. It was like there were bells and whistles going off with a neon sign pointing at the page. My heart rate sped up and my breathing caught in my throat. That number was one that I didn't expect to find on that list.

Tank's POV

My phone buzzed. I looked down and saw that Lula was calling me. If she had called me before she started working for RangeMan, I'd have probably let the call go to voice mail. Since starting at RangeMan, she no longer calls me unless it's important or work related.

"Hey Belle, what can I do for you?"

"Tank, we found out something about Paradis. I don't want to inform Ranger if it's nothing. I need your opinion on this information before we take it to Ranger. When will you be back in the office?"

I looked at my watch and at the skip passed out in the back of my SUV. I said, "I'm on my way to TPD to drop off a skip now. I'm guessing I'll be back in the office within the next hour. It depends on how busy they are at the station. Is it urgent?"

I could tell from the silence that Lula wasn't sure if it was urgent or not. I looked over at Junior and asked, "If I drop you off at TPD, can you deal with the skip? Something has come up that needs my attention."

Junior nodded so I said, "I'll send someone to pick you up as soon as I get to the office."

Junior agreed and I spoke to Lula and said, "I'll be there in about 15 minutes. Have everything ready for me when I get there."

Lula agreed and I dropped Junior and the now semi-conscious skip off at the police station. I hurried to the office and as soon as I walked in, Lula and Brett followed me into my office.

I looked at them and said, "Start from the beginning."

Lula looked a little shy, but she started talking and said, "I was thinking about Paradis this morning and those missing 5 years. I was wondering what might have changed in Paradis' life to disappear. I thought about the kinds of things that would make me want to disappear and I had an idea that Paradis might have gone into hiding for some reason or another.

"I looked at where Paradis lived and noticed how close it was to the Mexican border. I used Brett as a sound board and we discussed my thoughts. Brett's sister married a cop in San Diego so he called him."

Lula motioned for Brett to continue so he started his part of the story. "I called my brother-in-law. He works very closely with the Mexican authorities in Tijuana. About 8 years ago, there was a very brutal gang war in Tijuana. There were no witnesses that came forward, but there were reports of a white American being present. My brother-in-law gave us the description and it matched Paradis."

Lula continued saying, "This murder of a man and his wife happened 3 days before Paradis vanished from San Diego. Brett and I came to the conclusion that he witnessed this murder and fled for his life. The missing 5 years were because he was in hiding. Somehow, he found out that Escobar was dead and returned to his normal life. Instead of teaching, he became an aide in the government."

Brett looked at Lula and said, "Don't forget about the phone records."

"Oh right. Because Escobar was rumoured to be in Tijuana when the murders happened, it was reasonable to believe that Paula was there as well. I figured that it might be possible that Paradis ran into Paula and that they may have stayed in touch.

"I thought that it might be possible that there would be a phone record of Paula talking to someone in the US so we got a hold of the phone records for the last year of Escobar's life. We had the house phone and Paula's cell phone records. It wasn't until 2 months before Escobar was killed that the calls started.

"Every Tuesday and Thursday, a call was made from somewhere in Miami to Paula's cell phone. The locations of the calls changed each time, but one location in particular concerns me."

I looked at Lula, wondering what would worry her. Was the call made from a RangeMan phone? Was the call made from another of the players in this whole fiasco? My mind was racing with the possibilities, so I put it to rest and asked, "What concerned you? Where was this call made?"

Lula looked at me and spoke in a quiet voice. "The last call came from the Benjamin School in Miami."

I looked blankly at Lula for a few moments. I had obviously not drawn the same conclusion she had and my confusion must have shown on my face.

"Tank, that's the school that Julie, Diego and Emma attended."

Did that mean that Rachel was involved? I shook my head and asked, "What does this mean?"

Lula shrugged and said, "I'm not really sure. The time of the last call was mid-morning. At first, I thought that maybe Rachel made the call, but then I had another thought."

I looked up at Brett and it was clear that he wasn't following either. I had no idea where Lula was going so I decided to let her continue without interrupting her with questions.

"What did Paradis do when he was in San Diego?"

I thought for a few moments, but couldn't remember. Brett must have because he said, "Ohhhhh."

I looked at him and said, "Care to inform the rest of the class?"

Brett blushed a little and said, "He was a teacher. He taught elementary school. Third and fourth grades in San Diego."

That's when it hit me. Paradis relocated to Miami and somehow convinced a very exclusive and security conscious private school to employ him with a different name. "Can we prove this? Do you think the school will cooperate?"

Lula smiled and said, "I bet there's an easier way. Why don't we show Julie a picture of Paradis and ask her if she knows him?"

I said, "We need to bring Ranger in on this now. I'll call him and ask him to stop by after his meeting. If he decides to ask Julie about Paradis, he'll want to do that himself. Either that or get Bomber to do it."

Lula and Brett nodded and turned to leave the room. I said, "Nice work you two. I want you to stick around. Ranger may have some questions for you."

Both nodded and disappeared out the door, leaving me to call Ranger.

"Yo."

"Hey, when will you be done your meeting this afternoon?"

"We just finished now. Steph charmed old man Brown. Lester has been trying to convince him to put in a fingerprint entry system for over a year because he keeps forgetting his arming code. Steph demonstrated how easy it was today and he was eating out of her hands. He even decided to add a few dozen sensors to his installation, increasing our annual maintenance revenue. Why? Did you need something?"

"Actually, could you stop by the office? We have some potentially important information. You need to decide how to proceed with this information."

"Why do I need to decide? What kind of information?"

"Lula and Brett may have a possible location for Paradis during those 5 years. You need to hear it from them. I can't really explain it adequately. I had a hard time following some of their conclusions at first. Now I know how they got there, but the journey is one you'll have to hear from them yourself."

"OK. Steph and I will come by after I stop by Haywood. The foreman who is in charge of the demolition called me today and requested that I stop by the site."

Ranger agreed to come by after and I called Lula to inform her that she needed some sort of presentation for Ranger. She and Brett hurried to put a PowerPoint presentation together with all the bits of information they had gathered.

Ranger's POV

The building site was chaos. I looked around for the foreman and found him issuing orders over near the entrance to the old parking garage. He saw me and rushed over, reaching out his hand. I took it and shook his hand as he grinned at me. "Mr. Manoso, I'm happy to report that we're ahead of schedule. I think we'll be done within 3 weeks. We'll have the sight completely cleared and ready for foundations to be laid on the sight of the old building."

I looked around and said, "That's great news. I'll have to get our architect to get the building plans ready. Do you have to build one tower first and then work on the 2nd tower?"

The foreman looked around and then said, "I suppose not. If your plans are not ready within three weeks, we can start digging in preparation for the foundations of the second tower at that time."

"Please plan to do that. We'll send the engineers and our architect around with the specific locations of the two towers so you clear the correct area."

I shook hands with the builder and complimented him on his good work. I looked around and tried to picture what the new buildings would look like, but I wasn't able to. There were too many things going on with RangeMan, Rachel, the wedding and the unknowns that were keeping me from enjoying the moment.

I returned to the car where my Babe was waiting. I climbed in and she anxiously asked, "How are things going?"

"Actually, it was good news. They're 2 or 3 weeks ahead of schedule. I have to get Ron to sit down so we can finalise the building plans within the next 3 weeks. Things are so hectic. It's all happening now and it's all a bit overwhelming."

My Babe smiled and squeezed my hand. "It'll be fine Carlos. There are a lot of people who are willing to help in any way they can. Just remember that I love you and to take one step at a time. Just because it's all happening at once, you don't have to rush to get things done."

"Thanks Babe."

I smiled at the woman I loved and drove towards the temporary RangeMan office. I helped Steph out of the car and we went inside. We found Tank in his office. He was concentrating on something on his computer screen so he didn't see us when we first walked into the room. He looked up a few moments later and said, "Lula and Brett are already in the largest meeting room. I think there's room enough for us in there."

Tank stood and we followed him to the meeting room. In addition to Lula and Brett, Lester was also inside. He greeted me and hugged Stephanie before Tank took command of the meeting and said, "Lula and Brett have some information that they would like to share. I'll hand it over to them."

Lula stood and explained what she was thinking about Paradis and how she and Brett went through a brainstorming session and came out with a possible scenario that accounted for the missing 5 years. I followed their logic and conclusions, not really agreeing with or denying their validity.

I could see Stephanie out of the corner of my eye. Something that Lula said set her on edge. I could tell by her body language that her spidey sense was making itself known. When Lula handed me the list of phone numbers and their corresponding addresses, Stephanie was the one that pointed out the number that caught Lula's attention.

I looked up at Lula and she simply nodded. I looked at Stephanie and she said, "You're thinking that Paradis was working at this school under a pseudonym?"

Lula nodded and then said, "There are no photos of teachers online. There is no year book online either. We looked. The only thing we know for sure is that a call was made from that school to Paula Escobar's cell phone.

"Since we found this out, we pulled the school's phone records. After the death of Paula's husband, several other calls were made to an unregistered cell phone in Columbia and then in Mexico from the school. It appears that Paradis and Paula may have stayed in contact during that time. It wasn't long after they started to communicate regularly that Paradis showed up in D.C. and Gina stepped into the General's life."

I was shell shocked. Did this mean that Paradis and Gina were in on this whole thing? Gina wanted revenge on me because she blamed me for the loss of her fortune. Paradis was involved simply because he knew Gina? It sounded so contrived. I almost couldn't bring myself to believe it.

I heard Steph take a breath and say, "Do we have a recent photo of Paradis?"

Tank handed her a press photo of him and the General that was taken a few years ago. She looked down at it and then she looked at me. "I think we need to ask Julie if she knows Paradis. We need to know what his name was when he was living in Miami. It may lead us to further information. I think there's more to this that we still don't know. It doesn't make sense for Paradis to get involved if he met Gina when he witnessed Enrique commit murder. My spidey sense is telling me that we're missing something or that this is just the beginning."

I nodded and said, "We can show the photo to Julie, but I want to make sure she's OK before we do. I don't want to traumatise her so soon after losing her mother."

"I'll handle it Carlos. I will be gentle and I won't reveal that he might be the one responsible for her mother's death. I'll simply say that he is a man who worked for the General and that we think he has a connection to Miami."

"OK Babe. I trust that you'll do what's best for Julie."

I looked up at Lula and said, "That fishy factor of yours has really benefited me and RangeMan. I'm very grateful for your continued efforts."

I turned and looked at Brett and said, "You and Lula make a good team. Keep up the good work. I think the two of you should remain partners for the time being, at least until Steph is back to full strength."

Brett looked at Lula and smiled. He seemed genuinely happy to be paired with Lula. I was happy about that but I could tell that Tank was less than thrilled. I decided to ignore Tank's feelings for the moment and looked at Lester.

"Santos, what was your involvement here?"

Lester looked around and said, "I provided the phone records. I got them from our old case file and passed them on. I am here simply because I was curious."

"OK. Thanks for your contribution."

I looked at each person in the room and then said, "We'll go see Julie this evening. We'll let you know what we find out."

I stood and helped my Babe to her feet. She hugged everyone in the room and we made our way out to the car. I was holding the photo in one hand and helping Steph with the other.

More will follow, hopefully within the next 7 days, but I can't guarantee that. I'll do my best.

L.