Chapter 31

SPOV

I think I was in a trance as the car that we were in sped away from the courthouse. Of course I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders with the outcome, but it was what had been said about my mother that seemed to plague me. Of course, I could remember her shouting at me, the scowl on her face and the pointing of her finger in my face. I can remember jumping off the garage roof, a red sheet around my shoulders with each end held out in my outstretched arms. I remember that I wanted to fly, fly away like super woman but why I had felt like that had always eluded me.

There were vague memories of being outside on the roof, alone and a little frightened but I'd never remembered why or how I came to be there. When I was older, I'd made my escape from the house through my bedroom window down onto the porch roof and shimmied down the guttering. Was it how my mother had treated me that fed my need to leave the house, to escape from her?

"Babe?"

I turned to see Ranger watching me suddenly aware of how quiet I had been, wondering if I should tell him what was troubling me. In the end I decided that he knew the truth now so there was probably no point in dwelling on the past. I never wanted to see that woman again.

"What are you thinking Babe?"

"Just running through what happened at the courthouse"

And what I would do with my sister Val. She'd sounded sincere when she'd spoken to me and I loved those girls of hers, so maybe there'd be some peace of mind through reconnecting with her.

"I never saw my Dad there"

Suddenly remembering some of the faces that materialized in front of me as we'd left.

"He wasn't there, Babe. I don't know why not"

I didn't either and at the moment wasn't concerned with his absence. As an adult he'd never been there for me, hell, he hardly said a word to me so maybe he'd be at home watching TV ready to hear what my mother told him. Coming to a stop in the Rangeman garage I was surprised when Hector opened my door and pulled me out into an embrace

"I knew you'd be okay, well done Estefania"

I kissed Hector's cheek over his tear drops not really knowing what to say, hell, it was because of Hanley that I was walking free. We took the elevator in silence with Ranger next to me, his arm around my waist but I was surprised when we stopped on the second floor. This wasn't a floor that I ever came to. I looked at Ranger and was about to ask why we were here but the look he gave me told me that he wasn't going to answer me. Instead, he opened a door into a very large, dark room. Curious I allowed Ranger to guide me through the door and suddenly lights came on and I was greeted with shouts, whistles and faces all aimed at me.

"Congratulations"

"Way to go Beautiful"

"Knew you'd be acquitted"

As people came over to me, I was passed around the men in the room, all of them giving me a hug and words that had me close to crying. I was deposited in front of a smiling Mylo who hugged me around my waist uttering a string of words very carefully.

"I knew you'd be back"

I crouched down to his level and kissed his forehead, damn, I loved this kid.

"I had to come back Mylo, I promised that I'd be here for you until your Dad got better"

That's when I saw him, okay maybe sat in a wheelchair, but there was doubt in my mind that it was Charlie. As he looked at me, I slowly walked over to him and again I was crouching down to be at his level.

"Oh Charlie, I'm so happy that you're here"

As I wrapped my arms around his neck, I was sure that I felt a small movement as his hand rested on my hip. Looking around I saw Bobby watching so giving Charlie a quick kiss on his cheek I left him with Mylo to go talk to Bobby.

"How is he doing Bobby?"

"Better each day. He's going to stay here on four with Mylo. We have someone who'll take care of his basic needs and I've set up physio for him in the gym. The phycologist and speech therapist will work with him so I think he'll do well"

"Will he recover fully?"

"Near as damn it, maybe some memory issues and it will be hard work for him"

I had no doubt about that and having Mylo with him would certainly be an incentive. I felt as Bobby took hold of my shoulders and turned me until I was facing the wall down the side of the room. Food, oh my, Ella had outdone herself with the choices that were spread out on the table.

"We eat after you, so get a move on Steph. We're all hungry"

Laughing I headed to where the plates were and started to place food on one as I walked along the table. Ella was stood at the end when I reached it, her smile contagious.

"Thank you Ella, this looks amazing and the room, it's, I never expected this"

"Nonsense. The boys and I decorated and Mylo helped with the food. I'm so pleased that everything worked out for you. You deserve a break from all that's happened to you"

The room had streamers across the ceiling and balloons floating in the air held down by jars with candles inside. It really was spectacular.

"These came for you Steph"

I turned to see Ram holding some envelopes in his hand so took them from him wondering who would have sent them. I'd look at them once back upstairs on seven when I could appreciate reading them better. Seeing the door open I spied Hanley as he came in. He was dressed in jeans and a thin sweater, so looked totally different to how I was used to seeing him. I needed to speak to him so made my way across the room toward him.

"Thank you. I really owe you"

Did he just frown at me before he smiled?

"Nonsense. I enjoyed doing it for you. I'm sorry that I had to inflict what I found out about your mother but there was no way I was going to let her try and be derogatory about you"

"I didn't remember everything, except trying to fly and landing hard breaking my arm"

"You were just a young kid, so it was probably how you coped by forgetting. I had so many witnesses that were prepared to speak up for you, how good you were at your job and always had a kind word to say to them. There are a lot of people out there who love you Steph, for who you are"

I just nodded my head not realizing that the people on the stand had been the prosecutors witnesses. I would need to reconnect with a lot of those people and actually felt ready to do that now.

Two hours later people began to drift away, no doubt they had work to get to. As Ranger came to me, I smiled up at him. he'd allowed me the space to talk to people but whenever I'd looked for him, he was watching me.

Once in the elevator I felt calm and at ease for the first time in ages and as Ranger exited on five, to check in with the guys and make sure any work he had was done, I continued up to seven, the envelopes still in my hand. When I had a fresh coffee in my hand I sat on the couch and began to open the envelopes. A congratulations card from Lula and Connie, telling me I had to fill them in on what had been going on in my life. A short letter from Mary Lou saying how she'd missed seeing me. I even had a card from Dougie and Mooner saying they were looking forward to seeing me soon. That had me worrying if Dougie knew that it was me who had stolen that car from outside of his house.

There were cards from people who I assumed were from the Burg, just a signature, though I had no idea who they were. The next envelope didn't seem as though it was a card, so I opened it carefully curious as to who it was from. In the back of my head, I was really hoping that it might be from my Dad, a letter to explain his absence from my life. As I unfolded the paper, I was suddenly very focused on the content, a cold shiver running through me. I was struggling to understand what it was saying and ended up reading it several times to fully comprehend what I needed to do next.

Congratulations on your freedom. Open the newest App on your phone and point it at the mountains to read a special message just for you.

I found my phone on the counter in the kitchen and opened it looking through the apps. I didn't have many on the phone and had not used it since Hector had given it to me. Maybe the card was from Hector, though I wasn't convinced of that. The usual apps were there that came with a new phone but as I scrolled to the second page, I noticed that the last app was one that I didn't recognize. I opened the app thinking that it seemed to be a camera and held it in front of the picture of the mountains.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting but as the picture of the mountains came into view what I was seeing on the phone slowly started to change until writing filled the screen.

Dear Stephanie.

I'm pleased that the court decided in your favor because I have plans for you. How is your hip, a bit bruised no doubt, but that is nothing compared to how you will be feeling in several hours.

The bruise is the site of an injection, lethal without the antidote and only I have the antidote. To receive that you have to come to me and be assured I will be very annoyed if you don't. Maybe those men in black would be easy targets, but those nieces of yours are delightful little girls, it would a shame for me to have to arrange a similar fate for them. All five of you would die then and not pleasantly.

I know your immediate reaction is to tell someone about this, but I will know, I still have eyes and ears inside Rangeman. No one is to find out about our little secret or as I said others will suffer.

Tomorrow you will go with one of those Rangeman bufones to the bonds office. At exactly 10.30 you will excuse yourself and walk out through the back door. A vehicle will be there to collect you and bring you to me.

When you feel feverish and tired that is when you'll know that I am telling you the truth and remember only I have the antidote. The choice is yours. Ensure that no one finds out or others will die.

With the paper and my phone in my hand I rushed through to the bedroom and pulled the dress that I was wearing over my head. The stockings came off next for me to look at my hip. I remembered someone banging into me on the way into the courthouse, but could they have injected me?

Standing in front of the mirror I turned sideways to inspect my hip and there at the top of my thigh was a swollen red area that felt hot to touch. As I stood right up against the mirror and twisted my body around, I could maybe make out a small redder area that was tender when I touched it. I reread the writing again, sitting on the side of the bed before I fell down. I felt like screaming and crying but knew that neither of those would do me any good. I couldn't put the girls at risk because of me, I loved those kids. Hell, Angie, Mary Alice, Lisa and the baby were precious to me, I'd do anything to keep them safe even it meant that I wouldn't survive.

I wanted to tell Ranger, he would know what to do, but then the words from the phone came back to me. This person had eyes and ears inside Rangeman. Was that true? I knew that Hector was vigilant about maintaining the systems from any hacking or viruses. Then again, I had always had the feeling that we still weren't secure, but somehow someone had put that app on my phone, who or how, I had no idea.

I panicked at the thought that Ranger might be here soon. He could read me like a book, and he'd know that something was wrong. I couldn't afford for him to find out about this though I knew he would be very pissed at me, annoyed even, that I was keeping him in the dark, but what other option did I have?

I walked into the bathroom with the intention of tearing up the letter and flushing it down the toilet but stopped myself. Showering calmed me slightly and once dried and dressed in nightwear I laid on the bed in my thinking position. I wanted to read that message again but when I opened my phone the app wasn't there, it had totally disappeared. I had to come up with a plan.

I must have fallen asleep thinking because when I woke up it was light outside. I'd been aware of Ranger coming to bed, an apology for working so long, but to be honest I was glad that had happened. It meant that I wouldn't have to lie to him, and he wouldn't see that something was worrying me.

I dressed in jeans with a T-shirt underneath a sweater and put on my cat boots. I found a bag in the bottom of the closet and made sure that my phone and the paper that I'd received were in it but then struggled with what else to put inside. I didn't think that there were any trackers in the clothes that I was wearing and there was no evidence of any in the bag. I couldn't very well go to Hector and ask for some because then he'd get suspicious.

Hell, I normally hated trackers but could really do with some now. I had a jacket on as I headed down to five in the elevator going through in my head what I was going to say. First I needed to find out who would be going to the bonds office to pick up the files for Rangeman. I noticed Miguel in the monitoring room so went over to him hoping that he would know.

"Hi Miguel"

As he turned around and looked at me, I could tell that he was a bit puzzled about something.

"You going out Steph?"

"Yes. I wanted to catch up with Lula and Connie, it's been an age since I spoke with them. Do you know who's going down there?"

Miguel turned to the computer next to him and brought up the rotas for the morning, there underneath the heading Bonds office for this morning was Cal's name.

"Do you know where Cal is now?"

"Try the breakroom"

Came from Miguel as he went back to watching the screens. I was so pleased to find Cal sat drinking in the breakroom though I had no idea what it was that he was drinking. He looked up as I went in placing his drink onto the table.

"What is that Cal?"

Because it had a really icky color to it, a shade of green.

"Smoothie, do want some?"

"Err, no thanks"

No way was I going to put that anywhere near to my mouth.

"Cal, can I go to the bonds office with you this morning?"

I saw him looking at me and I suppose he was trying to figure out why.

"Are you going back to bounty hunting?"

I wasn't even thinking about going back to my job in fact I hadn't thought what I was going to do. Hell, first I had the threat of being sent to prison and now I had an impending rendezvous with someone threatening to kill me.

"No. I wanted to catch up with Lula and Connie"

If I didn't know better, then I'd say that Cal was hesitant about me going with him and I couldn't afford for me not to be at the office at 10.30.

"I'll let Ranger know, okay?"

As Cal nodded his head, I was back on the corridor walking toward Ranger's office. I took a few deep breaths before knocking and going in, knowing that I had to face him without giving anything away. I was surprised to see Tank sat in front of Ranger's desk and smiled at him as he turned to see who had walked through the door. Okay, maybe this was something that I could use as an advantage. Ranger was watching me and leant back in his chair raising an eyebrow as way of greeting.

"Sorry, I didn't realize you were busy. I'm popping down to the bonds office with Cal for a quick chat with Lula and Connie"

As I finished telling him what I was going to be doing I was already turning to make a quick exit when the inevitable happened.

"Babe"

Shit, why couldn't he just accept what I'd said and leave it at that?

"Yeah?"

"If you want to stay longer let me know and I'll pick you up"

I hated what I was going to be doing and him saying that nearly had me confessing everything. Instead, I walked around the desk and kissed his cheek, looking into those beautiful chocolate, brown eyes.

"Thanks, I will if I need to"

Ranger must have been busy because he was picking up papers from his desk before I'd even left the room, but it didn't make me feel any better for tricking him.

Cal was quiet as we drove to the bonds office and to be honest, I was as well. I was actually trying to gage how I was feeling. Stupid really because I knew I was feeling scared shitless but that wasn't what had my attention right now. I'd investigated the bruise on my leg again this morning and yeah it was now a small blue and black circle but the swelling had gone down and it wasn't tender when I touched it. I didn't think that I was hot, or running a fever so what if that message was a lie, what if there was no lethal injection? I couldn't think that because there was always that saying. What if.

All too soon we were parking outside of the bonds office, Cal being no exception to the good parking karma of a Rangeman. I could see Lula and Connie inside with Lula stood in front of Connie's desk. As we walked in, I think they only saw Cal to start with, which had Lula turning to go back to the couch. It gave me a moment to inhale the atmosphere that I realized I had missed. Lula with her stretched spandex of bright pink and matching hair and Connie leaning forward exposing her girls as she spoke to Cal. Yeah in some ways it was nice being here.

"White Girl"

Brought me out of the trance and I prepared myself for Lula rushing toward me. As she wrapped herself around me Connie joined in, the three way hug being so welcome.

"I knew you'd beat that wrap, they shouldn't have thought that you would shoot anyone. Hell, you never have your gun with you"

I smiled at that, remembering exactly who did always have a gun in her bag.

"Are you here to get back to work?"

I suppose it was a question that everyone would be asking me now but until I sorted out the latest dilemma in my life then the future would have to go on hold, again.

"No, not yet. Let me catch my breath first and then I'll let you know"

"It's been pretty quiet with Rangeman bringing in the skips. I think people are less inclined to miss their court date"

I knew that had been happening but also knew that it couldn't last forever. It wasn't financially viable for Ranger to use his men doing it which meant that Vinnie would have to get a new bounty hunter if I didn't come back. No, I had to believe that everything would work out okay. It had to, I hated the idea of losing Ranger when I'd only just found him.

A look at the clock on the wall told me that I only had five minutes before I had to leave. I was sat next to Lula listening as Cal was telling us about how he'd brought in Eula when Lula leaned into me.

"Something's wrong, what is it?"

"Nothing"

"You aint kidding me girl, you're pale and quiet. Aint Batman treating you right?"

"He treats me just fine Lula. It's been a hard few weeks and I suppose the stress of it all is catching up on me"

"Maybe, but now you got the time, how about we organize a girls night out?"

I looked over to Lula thinking how well she knew me and how she would always try to support me. A look at the time and I knew that I had to make my move so standing up I said in a voice loud enough to be heard by everyone.

"I need to visit the bathroom, be back in a mo"

I left the bag next to Lula and walked through to the small hallway where the bathroom was. Beyond that was the back door that led out onto a lane that ran behind the buildings. I unlatched the lock on the door and opened it slightly, looking out ahead of me. A quick look behind me showed that no one was missing me yet so opening the door further I stepped through the door. To my right I could see a dark van and wondered if that was where I was meant to be. Then I had a sudden idea that maybe the whole damn message had been a hoax, a trick that I'd fallen for. I was only maybe ten feet from the door when I heard someone behind me and spun around to see who it was.

Garner was stood there, a smile on his face as he roughly turned me back to face the van and pushed me forward. The door slid open and before I could even say anything Garner had lifted me up and pushed me through the door. As the door slid closed, I heard the engine starting and struggled to keep my balance as the van started to move.

"Just sit down Stephanie"

I turned toward the voice squinting to see anything within the darkness of the van, but I was sure that I recognized the voice.

"Undress and put these on"

I sat down on the seat along the side of the van, adamant that I wasn't going to do what she'd asked.

"Look, you do it yourself or I taser you and cut them off you myself. Your choice"

I saw the taser as she waved it in front of me and decided that I wanted to be conscious for anything that happened. As I leant forward to pick up the hoodie from the floor the van must have gone around a corner fast because I was suddenly off balance and ended up on my hands and knees on the floor. Underneath the hoodie was a T-shirt but no bra. I looked across to Tali glaring at her to impress on her that I was not impressed.

Deciding that being on the floor was safer than trying to stand up I started to remove my clothes. I was the master at removing clothes without revealing anything. My sweater came off followed by my bra and then I pulled the new T-shirt under the neck of mine and pulled it down. By the time I removed my own T-shirt I was covered up so put on the extra long hoodie. My cat boots were next along with my socks before pulling down my jeans and replacing them with black leggings. I sat back on the seat waiting to see what would happen next.

Tali approached me and looked at my hands and wrists and then pulled down the neck of the sweater.

"Jewelry?"

I shook my head.

"No I don't have any on"

It dawned on me then why I'd had to go through the rigmarole of changing clothes. They thought that I had trackers on me. After Tali pushed my head back and fingered my ears I felt her pull the tie out of my hair.

"Okay, she's done"

I hadn't even noticed that she was wearing a mic and earbud which probably connected to Garner. I'd been aware of the van travelling, stopping and starting as though for lights or junctions. Now though I felt that we were definitely slowing down and wasn't surprised when the van jerked to a stop. There was a clicking sound just before the van door began to slide open with Tali waiting by it with my clothes in a bundle in her hands. I started to move forward but was too slow, the door closing before I even got there. No sooner had it closed then the van started to move again. Oh shit. what had I done? Garner hadn't even mentioned anything about an antidote. Was he wanting me to die, or had he been tricking me?

RPOV

As Tank left my office, I felt that we had actually managed to accomplish something. We'd worked through rewriting the protocols for hiring men and how we vetted new clients. Both of the new protocols would need someone to carry out the necessary research, but they would also be involved one on one with the people concerned. I had one person in mind for that role, a person who had amazing instincts when it came to people. I only hoped that Steph wasn't thinking of going back to work for Vinnie. Not that she couldn't do it, but she was better than that job allowed her to be. Hell, she could still bring in skips for Vinnie under Rangeman but maybe introducing her to a partner would make me feel so much better. I 'd put off having a serious conversation with Steph, mainly because I wanted her to be free of the charge hanging over her.

Steph would need to understand the life that I led, yeah she knew most of it, but I didn't think that would acknowledge the threats that still plagued me, old enemies who would love nothing better than to hurt me by hurting her. If this relationship that we had was to survive then I needed to know that she was safe and what better way than having her working here.

I was brought from my thoughts by my door opening and looked up surprised to see Tali walking into my office, what the hell was she doing here?

"I had to come and talk to you"

I watched as she started to pace the office, my anger rising inside of me by the minute.

"It's Jayce. She's gone"

"A phone call would have covered that"

I intended to be sarcastic because I really wasn't interested in the goings on between those two.

"I think, I'm almost sure that she's been seeing a man called Garner"

Okay that left me lost for words, though if I remembered correctly Hector did have his concerns after the safe house was compromised.

"Do you have any proof?"

"Not really, she was acting odd and she was keeping away from me, on the phone all of the time. That's when I saw the name Garner, on an email that she shut down quickly when she realized that I was there. I need to talk to Hector, he'd be able to find out"

I sat back in my chair to think through what Tali was saying. It might make sense though I wasn't aware of a connection between her and Garner, not that we'd looked at Jayce. Damn why hadn't I asked Steph to do that. As I sat there, I heard my phone recognizing that an alert had been sounded, as it sat on my desk and was immediately on my feet.

"I have an emergency to deal with. I'll talk to you when I get back"

"I can help"

I shook my head as I opened the door and waited for her to leave my office.

"Find Hector and get him to look into Jayce"

That would be a better use of her time. As I reached Tank's office he was on his way out so probably knew what the alert was about.

"Cal's panic button just went off"

"Where?"

Because I knew that Steph had been with him and was dreading what Tank was going to say.

"Bonds office"

That feeling of dread came through me as I thought of Steph and all sorts of ideas went through my mind as to what could have happened.

"Bravo and Charlie are on route"

Was what I heard as we left the stairwell and ran over to one of the cars. It was another drive of moving fast, my heart panicking slightly the closer that we got to the bonds office. We arrived at the same time as Santos to find Cal inside the office with Lula and Connie. Lula was crying but at least Cal seemed to have a handle on keeping her calm. One look from Cal and I knew that something had happened to Steph.

"She told us that she was going to the bathroom"

Was what Cal reported to me but it was Lula who had my attention.

"I followed her, I knew something weren't right with her"

I bent down in front of Lula with my hand on her shoulder, waiting for her to look at me.

"What did you see Lula?"

"She just walked out of the door. I caught it before it slammed shut and there was a man there waiting for her. He pushed her into this big black van"

I needed more than that if we were to find that van so tried to be as patient as possible with Lula.

"Lula, close your eyes"

She did as I asked of her so started to tell her what to do next.

"Picture yourself at that door, looking at the van. Can you see it Lula?"

"Yeah"

"Okay, keep the picture in your head, now look at the plate, what does it read?"

"It were a Ford with two black windows and the side door slid closed"

"Was it tall or short?"

"Tall, New Jersey plate. It were a new van. STF, I think, because I remember thinking that it somehow said Steph"

"Tank check outside for anything, I need to know if Steph had a tracker on her"

I felt something being pushed into my hand and recognized a bag that Steph had with her when she called into the office earlier this morning.

"Santos with me, Cal get Charlie to follow us"

I needed to talk to Hector so got into the passenger side allowing Santos to drive.

"Hector, has Steph got a tracker on her?"

"Si. Sending link to you now. Has something happened to her?"

I didn't answer because I was too busy loading up the map with the information on the tracker. As soon as it was on the display Santos started the car heading toward where the blue circle was lit up. I redialed Hector again as I remembered about the information on the transit surprised when he took a few moments to answer, that wasn't like Hector.

"Are you alone?"

"No"

Damn it, Tali was probably there.

"Hector we need to find a Ford Transit Cargo Van, High Roof with STF in the plates"

"On it"

We were quickly approaching the site where the tracker was and looking around, I wasn't feeling too hopeful. We were down by the river driving past derelict buildings when Santos pulled off the road and between two of them. My heart stopped as I took in the scene in front of me. I was out of the car before it had even stopped. On the ground, maybe fifteen feet in front of us was a body, the blood glistening on the earth like the lava from a mountain top.

"It's not her"

Was something that I chose to ignore or didn't hear. Running to the body I could tell straight away that it wasn't my Babe. The hair was layered and short, probably a light brown. It was Santos who rolled her over onto her back and that was when I recognized who it was, releasing the air that I was holding in my lungs. It wasn't Steph.

"Jayce, why the hell is she here?"

I looked away from the ragged cut across her neck to Santos, remembering what Tali had just said to me.

"Tali came down to Trenton, concerned that Jayce had up and left. She thought that maybe Jayce was communicating with Garner"

"Shit.

Yeah, my thoughts as well. I started to look at the clothes that were in a pile next to her, recognizing them as what Steph had been wearing this morning.

"They made her change her clothes. How the hell did they know that there was a tracker in these clothes?"

"Maybe because it's SOP with Steph. Hell, Ella just keeps putting them into everything"

As I looked again at Jayce, I was finding it very hard to understand why she'd got involved with Garner. She was a quiet woman very solitary and always aware of her surroundings.

"She would never have allowed anyone to be behind her unless she knew them"

But what was also obvious to me was that it was the same method of killing that was used on Manning and that both Jayce and Manning had allowed it to happen suggested to me that they both knew their killer. Was this someone tying up loose ends, getting rid of any witnesses? Had Jayce allied herself to Garner only for him to murder her when her work was done?

I gathered Stephs clothes from the ground and carried them back to the car. Once there I found a plastic bag for them to go in. Maybe Ram could find something on them that might give us a clue, though I doubted it. Once back in the car I saw Charlie team at the end of the of the lane and gave the signal to return to Rangeman.

"Call an anonymous tip to the police"

Because that was as much as we could do for the moment.

Back at Rangeman the atmosphere on five was tense, it seemed that everyone knew that Steph was missing, again. Hell, it had become a full time job keeping track of her and finding her. I sent a message to the core team to meet me up on seven, more out of habit than anything else, but the worry that Jayce had enabled access into our systems might mean that Garner now had some way in to it.

The men were prompt, and we were soon sat around the table, all of us I think shocked at what had happened. Bobby, for some reason had Steph's bag and was pulling her phone and a piece of paper from it.

"What the hell is this?"

We all looked at the paper that Brown set on the table, each of us reading what was written. I remembered that Steph had received several envelopes yesterday when she returned to Rangeman, I'd looked at them when I'd eventually finished working before showering and going to bed.

Congratulations on your freedom. Open the newest App on your phone and point it at the mountains to read a special message just for you.

I looked to Hector who was studying it and as he opened her phone, using a passcode.

"Hector?"

"Gone. The app is gone"

I had no idea what he was talking about and it seemed the others were also in the dark.

"I suspect the app was a decoder. Open it and point the viewfinder at that picture of the mountains"

"What does it do?"

At least Brown was the one to ask the question that we all needed answering.

"It's an app that contains a viewfinder and decodes what the picture has stored in it. I think maybe the app was programed to erase after one use"

"Can you work out what the message said?"

Because I had an awful feeling that the message that Steph read was why she'd walked out of the back door of the bonds office.

"Maybe"

Why wouldn't she tell me about it, why had she gone ahead on her own? Was this Steph chasing clues on her own thinking that she wouldn't end up in danger? Somehow that just didn't sit comfortably with me, she'd just been through hell so I was sure that she would have been more careful or even talked to me.

"I bet there was a threat, walk out of the bonds office or else. Beautiful has been through too much to blindly run after a clue. Hell she's spent the last few weeks being scared to death"

He had a point, and I was doing exactly what I hated other people did to her, and that was judging her before I had all of the facts or heard her side of the story.

"Anything on the van Hector?"

"I managed to find it as it travelled through Trenton onto route 30, heading north, but it must have turned off that route"

It was difficult to think of where the van might have been travelling to and I was pleased when Hector pulled up a map of the area showing the route that the van had taken. There could be isolated properties out there but to be honest if the van was parked inside a barn or garage then it would be almost impossible to find it. Once again, we were at a dead end unless we uncovered something through Jayce.

"Tank ask Reg to search the apartment where Jayce lived"

"Wouldn't it be easier for Tali to do that?"

With everything that had happened informing the men that Tali was in the building had been the last thing on my mind.

"Tali is here. She was worried because Jayce had disappeared, and Tali thought that Jayce was communicating with Garner"

"Shit, no wonder Beautiful was paranoid about using our systems. Jayce would have had access to everything"

"Hector have you and Tali found anything?"

I looked again when Hector didn't answer me, wondering why he was stalling and what he was thinking.

"I am looking. I won't have that woman, Tali, in my office. She's arrogant and bossy and thinks that she can move where she wants to in our systems"

I know that Santos looked shocked at that but to be honest I wasn't. She could be a very manipulative woman and I'd had a few occasions when she'd tried to push me into something that I wasn't happy with. The meeting that resulted in Steph leaving the building being a prime example. The problem was what to do with Tali, her turning up here just as Steph went missing and just before we found Jayce didn't sit well with me.

"Brown can you inform Tali that the body of a woman matching Jayce's description was found and ask her to go down to the morgue and identify her"

"Are you wanting Tali out of the way?"

I looked at Santos as he asked that not really sure how close he had gotten to Tali and that worried me on another level. I didn't want Santos to have to divide his loyalty between me and Tali.

"No. I think that as her and Jayce were so close, that Tali would be the best person to deal with this. She'll be upset and not working at full capacity"

Hopefully my answer was enough to mollify Santos's outburst and I was relieved when he nodded his head in response to what I had said. The meeting finished at an anticlimax with no real leads to follow up on. Hector was going to see if he could work out what app had been uploaded onto Steph's phone, but I was sure that it wouldn't give us any answers as to where she was or who with. That had me wondering how the hell someone had uploaded the app onto her phone, but it also gave me another idea. I picked up my phone to call Hector.

"Jeffe?"

"The laptop that you gave to Steph, is it connected to her phone?"

"Soy un idiota, por qué no pensé en eso? Voy en camino"

At least he hadn't called me an idiot and for once I felt that I'd outsmarted Hector. I found Steph's laptop on the dining table and connected it to mains adapter to be sure that it would be fully charged. I wasn't going to do anything with it until Hector arrived.

Once he had arrived, he opened the laptop and used a password to open the screen. There were several programs minimized at the bottom of the screen, probably something that Steph had been working on when I was down in Miami, but there in launchpad was an app that I didn't recognize.

"Let's hope this works but now I know which app was used"

As Hector opened the app the screen showed the image of the kitchen in front of us. He placed the paper with the picture of mountains into the view which immediately unrolled like a scroll to show a short printed paragraph. I had my phone out ready to photograph it knowing that once the app was closed that it might disappear. We were both silent as we read through what was there.

Dear Stephanie.

I'm pleased that the court decided in your favor because I have plans for you. How is your hip, a bit bruised no doubt, but that is nothing compared to how you will be feeling in several hours.

The bruise is the site of an injection, lethal without the antidote and only I have the antidote. To receive that you have to come to me and be assured I will be very annoyed if you don't. Maybe those men in black would be easy targets, but those nieces of yours are delightful little girls, it would a shame for me to have to arrange a similar fate for them. All five of you would die then and not pleasantly.

I know your immediate reaction is to tell someone about this, but I will know, I still have eyes and ears inside Rangeman. No one is to find out about our little secret or as I said others will suffer.

Tomorrow you will go with one of those Rangeman bufones to the bonds office. At exactly 10.30 you will excuse yourself and walk out through the back door. A vehicle will be there to collect you and bring you to me.

When you feel feverish and tired that is when you'll know that I am telling you the truth and remember only I have the antidote. The choice is yours. Ensure that no one finds out or others will die.

I closed my eyes, now understanding why Steph had left the bonds office. Anyone who knew her would know that she would do anything to protect her nieces and my men, even it meant putting herself at risk. Looking again at the message it could very well have been a stalker who had become obsessed with her, nothing new with that.

Finding Jayce's body next to Steph's clothes threw a different light on who was responsible and maybe something would come from knowing where that van had disappeared to.

"Spanish"

I looked to where Hector was pointing to on the screen, recognizing the spelling of bufone as the Spanish word for buffoon, realizing that this was important. Neither Garner nor McCann were Spanish so wouldn't have used that word by mistake so who else could it be?

"Jeffe, I'll be working in my office"

I knew that meant he'd be there all night digging deep into our systems because he would see this whole issue of someone knowing what was going on here at Rangeman as personal. I closed down the viewer app and was about to close the computer lid when I decided to see what Steph had been up to. I was more than surprised when a deep search came up on Tali. I knew that Steph didn't really like her and who could blame her. Steph had experienced too many issues with Tali for her to trust her and let's not forget the fact that I was sure that Steph thought that there was something going on between Tali and me. I'd seen a report like this when we'd first employed Tali so as I skimmed through it there were no surprises.

The second tab, that had me looking closer. Steph had been running a program that searched through newspaper reports on a woman called Atonella Cordoba. I assumed that was the name of the woman who McCann had accidently shot on that mission down in Colombia. Having a better understanding of how Steph's mind worked I suppose she was looking for something that might tie back to McCann, so I started to read through the articles that had been highlighted. I smiled to myself when I realized a lot were written in Spanish knowing how Steph would have struggled to translate it.

Not really wanting to go through every article I went to the last entry with the intention of working back from the newest article. Some of the information I actually remembered from when we'd done that job because it gave us routines and habits in order to establish when Cordoba would be at his compound. What I wasn't aware of as I read the articles was that the daughter, Antonella, was medically trained and spent a lot of time supporting local families.

The sixth article had my attention at the announcement of her engagement to a man who the papers only referred to as Lucas. That had alarm bells ringing for me as I tried to remember where the hell I'd read the name Lucas. Then it came to me and I was soon reopening the search on Tali. Tali Leneghan had an older brother named Lucas.

A search on Lucas Leneghan had him leaving home for university and never returning. He'd studied botany and used his degree to work for a company, Remedio, based in Colombia which I presume was where he met Antonella. His latest employment showed him as CEO of a company called Ecolet. That went into another search that told me that their focus was on medicines derived from plants and that they were based in Guamuchil, Mexico.

I messaged Silvio to do a deeper search on the financials of the company and Lucas Leneghan with the possibility that it led him to the account from where the money had come from to finance the purchase of properties here in Trenton. Or at least to tie him to Lewis.

I'd followed tenuous leads that Steph had begun to follow and as I sat back in my chair, I played back everything that I knew. Was I seeing connections because I wanted to, was I looking at this logically? In some ways it made sense. If Lucas was the third boss and it was his factory that had synthesized the additive found in the white powder, then he could well be extremely upset with Steph if he saw her as the one who had destroyed his plans. Garner had known that Steph was being held at the museum so maybe he assumed that she'd started the fire. Was it a coincidence that I'd been on that mission when his fiancé had been killed? I didn't think so but then why was he working with McCann, the man who had killed her?

I needed to get the team together to have the others look at what I'd found and hopefully they'd agree that we needed to make a trip to Mexico because I was pretty sure that was where we would find Steph.