Chapter 53---Here's the latest installment of this FF story. I hope you like it and thanks for the comments!


C.J. and Matt looked at each other quickly before focusing their attention back on Daniels who was waving a gun while standing in the diner. Sydney kept quiet standing in the corner but Ray, the owner just threw down his napkin looking ticked off.

"Oh just give it a rest Daniels," he said, "And give yourself up already. You're hurting my business with all this carrying on."

Daniels pointed the gun at Ray.

"Shut up," he said, "I am not handing myself over to this cowboy when I haven't done anything wrong."

Matt saw that Daniels' hand shook as it held his handgun. The man's nerves were frayed and probably had been for some time.

"If you're so innocent of the crimes that have occurred on your watch," he said, "then why did you run away from the federal and state police when they stopped by your office to question you?"

Daniels stammered.

"I didn't…run away," he said, "I was at the diner eating breakfast just like l always do."

Sydney nodded.

"That's true Matt," she said, "but he took off when he saw me arrive."

Daniels made a face.

"Well Sydney, anyone in their right mind would run away from you," he said, "You're too nosy and pushy for your own good."

"I figured you might be thinking that when your guy tried to kill C.J. and me the other day," she said, "Don't tell me you had nothing to do with that."

Matt nodded.

"He can't tell you that because he knew what Nick and his boys were planning but he didn't tell anyone else about it."

Daniels' gun wavered again.

"That's not true," he said, "I had no idea that Nick had planned to kidnap these two women."

Matt didn't believe him.

"You had already known that he had threatened C.J. numerous times and assaulted her in the diner," he said.

Daniels shook his head.

"That was her word against his and I had no reason not to believe him."

"Now why would that be if you were being an objective officer of the law," Matt said.

"Nick was responsible for the car accident that injured Jason and Maggie," C.J. said, "I don't know if it was his truck that hit us but I know he planned it."

"And who obstructed that investigation like all the others involving Nick and Kilroy," Matt said, "but the county sheriff himself."

Daniels grew more agitated.

"Stop with these accusations or I'll shoot you dead," he said.

"If you kill us Daniels, the law is going to catch up with you," Matt said, "and you know what happens to former law enforcement officers even on death row."

"I don't want anyone shooting anyone in my restaurant," Ray said, "Can't you both take it outside?"

Daniels thrust his gun in Ray's direction again.

"I just told you to shut up," he said, "I'm in control here."

"Not in my restaurant," Ray insisted stubbornly, "Now I have a shotgun in here and I can blow you out the door."

"I'll hit you first," Daniels said, "before you can even reach your gun."

Sydney shook her head.

"I'm here on the story of a lifetime and I don't even have a photographer."


Rhonda, Fran and Chris got dressed for the wedding rehearsal.

"Where's C.J.," Rhonda said, looking at her watch, "She was going to meet us here to take a final look at the dresses."

Chris shrugged.

"She'll make it on time," she said, "She promised she would and she doesn't break her promises."

Butterfly buzzed in with her video camera filming everything. Fran looked at her.

"Is that thing turned on?"

"It's always on," Butterfly explained, "because you never can tell when something might happen that you might need to film."

"So are you going to film me trying to get into my dress tomorrow?"

Butterfly nodded.

"Of course," she said, "Why should that bother you? You look really pretty, for having had two babies."

Fran smiled.

"Thank you Butterfly," she said, "I've just been having some cellulite moments."

"Whatever," Butterfly said, "I've got to meet Carter. He's going to be helping me film the wedding rehearsal since I'll be in it and can't run the camera."

Chris's eye brows rose.

"It's okay Butterfly but no more wandering off into barns and kissing," she warned.

Butterfly sighed.

"I'm so over that," she said, "Carter's nice and everything but we're going home in a couple of days and these long-distance relationships, they just never work out."

Chris put her hands on her hips.

"And what do you young woman, know about things like that?"

Butterfly fidgeted with her hands and looked down for a moment.

"Because that's why you sent me to this ranch in the boonies in the first place," she said, "To make me break up with Spike?"

Chris sighed and ran her hand through her hair.

"No, I just thought you needed to spend some time away from him," she said, "I know you're not the little girl that we rescued from those bad men several years ago but you've still got a lot of growing up to do."

"I'm out of here," Butterfly said, before picking up her camera again and leaving the other women who just shook their heads after she closed the door behind her.

"Next week, she'll have a crush on some other boy," Chris said, shaking her head, "At least it will be a while before my own kid gets to be her age. Hopefully I'll have everything figured out by then."

Fran smiled.

"So you think," she said, "But the time passes a lot quicker than you think."

Rhonda sighed as she looked in the mirror.

"I ate too much of that ice cream since I've been here," she said, looking at her profile.

Chris laughed.

"You look just fine," she said, "You're going to make a beautiful bride."

Fran just rolled her eyes.

"Shut up Rhonda," she said, "If you want to talk about not fitting into your dress, remember I was pregnant at my own wedding."

Rhonda smiled.

"But you still looked great," she said, "I just want to look great on the most important day of my life."

"You will," Chris said, "We'll make sure you're the most beautiful woman there when you walk down the aisle."

Rhonda nodded.

"Yeah, but I wish C.J. would get her butt here," she said, "I called the cabin and no one picked up."

"She's out with Matt wrapping up some loose ends in the rancher's case," Chris said, "She said they shouldn't be gone long."

"Now there's an interesting couple," Rhonda said, "but I can't see either of them with anyone else."

Chris scratched her head.

"I didn't see it coming," she said, "I've known and worked with them a long time but they always were in relationships with other people."

"Yeah but none of them lasted," Rhonda said, "Because they weren't meant to."

Fran snorted.

"So when did you, Rhonda the realist get to be such a romantic?"

Rhonda gave her a pithy look.

"When I fell in love," she said, "but a part of me will be glad when this wedding stuff is over with so Jonathan and I can get back on our road trip."


Daniels waved his gun at all the people in the diner, not able to decide which person posed the biggest threat.

"You might as well give it up Daniels," Matt said, "The outside agencies have men at your station right now just waiting to pick you up for questioning."

"I'm not going to tell them a damn thing," Daniels said, "I didn't commit any crimes."

"Maybe that's true, maybe not in a direct sense," Matt said, "but you facilitated in the commission of crimes including against these two ladies and then you obstructed any attempt at investigation."

"That's your word," Daniels said, "against the world of a recognized long-term law enforcement officer who's never lost a sheriff election."

"I think your streak's in trouble," Matt said, "I don't think the people in the county would elect you dog catcher now. Of course, you might have the politicians' votes but there aren't that many of them."

C.J. sighed.

"You might as well call it a career because you're not getting away with it anymore," she said.

Daniel's eyes blazed in anger.

"That's coming from a woman who got herself arrested and put in one of my jail cells," he said, "Why don't you keep your mouth shut."

She just flashed him a steely gaze.

"You tried to shut it already, didn't you," she said, "And you and your men failed. The ranchers won the lawsuit and Kilroy Development and all its backers in Silver Lode are finished."

Matt nodded.

"They're all being rounded up as we speak," he said, "Of course some of them were arrested already and are on their way to cool their heels in federal custody."

Ray just shook his head.

"Daniels, get out of my establishment," he said, "I got a whole crowd of people that are waiting to try our newest dish."

"It was delicious," Sydney piped up.

Ray smiled at her.

"You going to give me a good writeup in your paper?"

"I will if this ends peacefully," she said, "Multiple murders and hostage taking sells more papers but I have seen enough bloodshed."

Ray sighed and tried to clean some tables before Daniels started waving the gun in his direction again.

"Stop that," he said, "I want you standing where I can see you."

Ray folded his arms.

"And I want you out of my restaurant."

C.J. turned to Matt.

"We've got to get to the wedding rehearsal," she said, "Rhonda's going to kill us if we're late or we miss it."

Matt nodded.

"We'll try to wrap this up quickly."

Daniels grew even more agitated.

"Shut up or I will start shooting," he said.

Matt put his hand up.

"You need to give yourself up and call it a day," he said, "I'm sure that they can arrange to put you protective custody."

Daniels shook his head.

"No, I'll be right with some of the people I put away," he said.

Matt stepped forward and slowly reached out his hand.

"Just hand me the gun," he said.

Daniels looked indecisive. C.J.'s heart stayed in her throat as she watched, hoping that Daniels wouldn't reach for the trigger.

"I can't go to jail," Daniels whispered.

"You can't go on the run either," Matt said, "You'll never get away with it."

Daniels looked around the diner and he lowered his gun slightly. Matt stepped a little closer. Daniels kept looking around.

"We can work something out Daniels," Matt said, "No one has to die."

Daniels continued to stand there and C.J. grew hopeful that he might surrender and end this whole episode. Then she saw movement out of the corner of her eye and so did Daniels. Parker had disobeyed Matt's order to sit tight and had wandered out into the main room of the diner.

"What in blazes is going on here," Parker said, taking in the sight.

Daniels spun around and without thinking fired his gun. The bullet struck Parker knocking him on the ground. Matt looked at Daniels who suddenly started panicking again and took off in a sprint towards the door. Matt chased after him but Daniels ran like a bat out of hell towards his car, got inside and while Matt jumped onto the hood of it, he started the engine and put the car in reverse. Matt struggled to hang on but he couldn't get a good grip on the car. A windshield wiper broke in his hand and when Daniels shifted the gear forward, he felt himself sliding off. He knew from experience that falling into the path of a moving car never worked out well so he concentrated on shifting his balance so that he landed to the side of the sedan as it sped off.

C.J. came running out of the diner and saw Matt on the ground. She helped him up onto his feet.

"How's Parker," he asked.

She looked back at the diner.

"He just got nicked in the shoulder," she said, "The owner's calling 911."

"They're going to have to put out another APD on Daniels," Matt said, brushing his pants off.

"I suppose so," she said, "They'll catch up with him. We've got to get back to the ranch after we give the information to the police."

He nodded.

Sydney came out of the diner.

"That Parker is rambling something awful," she said, "He's ready to confess to the whole thing."

Matt put his arm around C.J.'s shoulder.

"We'd better go in and listen to what he's got to say before he passes out from blood loss," he said.

Parker indeed was lying on the floor of Ray's restaurant ready to spill out his life story including several sordid chapters to anyone willing to listen.

"Someone write this all down before he passes out," Matt said.

"I'm already on it," Sydney said, "This will be our front page story…well second to the wedding of the year of course."

Matt nodded, as he heard the squad cars begin to pull up and he recognized several state police officers who walked into the diner. One officer took it all in.

"Call an ambulance for this guy," he said.

"It's Mayor Parker to you," he said, as indignantly as he could under the circumstances.

Another officer looked at Matt and C.J.

"I need to get statements from both of you and the cook too…"

Ray crossed his arms again.

"I'm not the cook," he said, "I own this fine establishment."

The officer nodded and then gestured to Sydney.

"Who's taking his statement over there?"

"That's Sydney," C.J. said, "She's a reporter for the local newspaper."

The officer blanched.

"Get her away from him," he said, "This is an official investigation not a press conference."

Matt looked at Parker and then back at the officer.

"Nice of you to finally arrive," he said, "You missed the main event."

The officer nodded.

"I know, Sheriff Daniels won't get far," he said, "We've got a dragnet out looking for him right now."

Matt wished he could believe him.


Rhonda returned from the kitchen.

"I just heard from C.J.," she said, "She and Matt had a run-in with Sheriff Daniels and he held everyone in some diner at gunpoint for a while but the police are there to take care of it."

Chris shook her head.

"Never a dull moment," she said, "So what is their ETA for the rehearsal?"

"They should be leaving soon and they'll be here in about an hour."

"That's cutting it pretty close," Fran said, "I hope everything's okay."

Rhonda sighed.

"She did mention something about the mayor being shot," he said, "but he's going to the hospital and will have a police guard over him because he's facing corruption charges."

"Oh dear," Chris said, putting her hands over her face.

"Jonathan's going to keep in touch with his friends who are feds to get more information," Rhonda said, "I guess you can take a guy out of the feds but not the fed out of the guy."

Chris narrowed her eyes.

"Would it bother you if he took those job offers?"

Rhonda paused then shook her head.

"I just want him to be happy with what he does," she said, "and it didn't seem like he was as fulfilled by his job with the U.S. Marshal's office as he was when he started."

"So when does he have to decide?"

"Not until after we're finished traveling," Rhonda said, "He's pretty sure he'll have his mind made up by then."


Matt and C.J. gave their statements to the police and then took off back towards to the ranch. Sydney told them she would finish interviewing all the key players and then get a ride back into town with her photographer.

"I think we might just make it," C.J. said, looking at her watch as they turned onto the main highway.

"I wonder where Daniels is heading," Matt said.

C.J. shrugged.

"Probably out of town," she said, "but I doubt he'll make it out of the state."

"He's an ex-cop," Matt said, "He probably has a few tricks up his sleeve."

C.J. smiled.

"What about you?"

He looked at her.

"What do you mean?"

Her eyes glimmered mischievously.

"Do you have some tricks up your sleeve?"

He smiled.

"That's for me to know and you to find out."

Suddenly Matt slowed down his car as he saw the roadblock ahead.