Disclaimer: Chuck Norris, Aaron Norris, CBS and others own the characters of "Walker Texas Ranger" and "Sons of Thunder". Any new characters and story lines that come into play are of my own creation and no copyright infringement is intended. This is a fan fiction intended for entertainment purposes only and I am not making any money from it.
Chapter 4: The Girlfriend
She closed the driver's door of her car and looked up. Her eyes squinted against the bright sun and sweat to appear on her forehead. She wiped her brow with the back of her arm. She took a couple of deep breaths of the humid air and squared her shoulders. She wasn't going to play any games and she certainly wasn't going to allow him to give her the run around. She climbed the stairs and before she opened the door, she took another deep breath.
She stepped inside and was glad to feel the cool air being maintained by the ancient air conditioner. She looked around and saw that there was a little seating area on the left and on the right was a large desk with a computer, fax machine and the office manager, Kim. She saw two doors across the room and figured one of those had to be the offices of Trent Malloy and Carlos Sandoval.
There was a counter that began at the edge of the doorway on the right which she saw had a toaster, a bag of bagels and a nearly full coffee pot. At the far end of the counter was a mini-fridge. The aroma of freshly ground coffee reached her nostrils and she could tell that the coffee would taste nearly as good as the cup she had had when she had first woken up.
"Good morning, Detective Silver," Kim greeted cheerfully, unable to hide the suspicion in her eyes.
She looked away from the coffee to look at Kim. "Morning, Ms. Sutter," she replied, her voice neutral. "I need to speak to Mr. Sandoval."
Before Kim could answer, the door on the right opened and Carlos stepped out. Trent walked into the room from behind him, went, and stood next to Kim. Lucy noticed the blonde haired private detective raise his right eyebrow questionably at Kim but she just gave him a gentle shrug of her shoulders. They both turned their attention back to Lucy and Carlos.
Carlos grinned broadly. "Good morning, Detective Silver."
She maintained a neutral expression on her face as she looked at him. She ignored the unexpected audience but couldn't ignore a strange feeling in her stomach. She attributed it to needing another cup of coffee. "I have a few questions for you, Mr. Sandoval."
His gaze swept the room before landing back onto her. "Darryl didn't come with you?"
She ignored his question. "Cruz called you three days before he was killed. What did you two talk about?"
"The Cowboys," he answered quickly.
She didn't break eye contact with him and refused to let those coffee colored eyes affect her in any way.
He crossed his arms over his chest and cleared his throat. "No, he never said anything to me. He was clearly nervous and didn't want to talk about it over the phone but it took awhile for me to convince him to talk to me. That's why we were meeting."
She was starting to regret coming to Thunder Investigations but she knew that Sandoval had information or if he didn't, he would be able to get it. "You didn't know what he wanted to talk to you about?" She asked, threateningly.
A frown started to appear on his face. "Are you saying that I am withholding information?"
"Yes." She nodded her head firmly. She locked her eyes onto his and refused to be the first to look away.
Kim stood up and stood between them. "Ok, I think the staring contest needs to stop. Especially since neither of you have blinked in the last couple of minutes and it's kind of freaking me out."
Carlos shook his head at Kim and turned back to Lucy. "I want in on the investigation."
Anger filled her and her eyes revealed it. "This isn't a negotiation, it's a murder investigation. You are withholding information. And I can charge you for obstruction of justice."
Trent entered the ring. "But you won't."
"No," she whispered, letting the anger abate. Knowing that it wouldn't help in this situation.
"Why is that?" Carlos asked as he cocked his head slightly, his eyes studying her.
"I want any information that you have, Mr. Sandoval."
"When I have some information, I'll be glad to tell you and maybe you can keep me in the loop."
She gave the slightest nod of her head in response.
He smiled. "You can call me Carlos."
"Have a nice day, Mr. Sandoval." She said firmly. "Have a good day, Ms. Sutter. Mr. Malloy," she said nodding her head toward Trent and Kim. He gave a nod of his head in response.
Lucy saw Carlos grin and out of the corner of her eyes, she saw the office manager was shaking her head.
She turned around and walked out the door. She was surprised when she could start feeling her mouth go from a straight line, to a small smile.
"She's interesting," Trent remarked as he picked up a fresh cup of coffee and handed it to Kim, who added the amount of sugar and milk she preferred.
"Yup," Carlos replied as he leaned back in Kim's chair, putting his hands behind his head and sighed. "She certainly is interesting. And feisty. And hot."
Kim rolled her eyes as she walked over to her desk and set her coffee down. "That's great, Carlos. Anyway, I have something for you."
"Oh yeah," Carlos replied with both of his eyebrows raised. "You ordered lunch from that Chinese place that I like?"
"No," she replied as she motioned for him to get out of her chair, which he readily complied. "I got the name and address of Tony Cruz's girlfriend."
His eyebrows rose even higher. "How did you manage that?"
A knowing smiled replaced the annoyed frown. "If I told you that, you wouldn't need to keep me around."
"Kim, we keep you around for more than your ability to ferret out information. We keep you around because you make coffee every morning."
"You're so going to get it, Carlos."
"Ok. Kim, how come you didn't mention this when Detective Silver was here?" Trent asked. "Aren't we supposed to be sharing information with her and Detective Sun?"
Before Kim could respond, Carlos spoke first. "Well, we can check it out and if the girlfriend has anything, we'll call them. We don't want to waste the homicide detectives' time, do we?"
Trent didn't answer but the frown on his face was easy to understand.
Carlos cleared his throat. "Let's just check it out. What harm would it do?"
"All right, Carlos. If we find something out, we are going to call them. They are decent detectives and it is their case too."
He jumped out of Kim's chair and followed his partner to the door.
"Oh, Carlos?" Kim said before he closed the door.
He popped his head back in. "Yeah?"
"Trent is the one that makes the coffee."
He nodded his head. "Makes sense." He grinned and avoided the stress relief ball that Kim threw at his head. He hoped that Tony's girlfriend would have some useful information. He wanted to solve his old friend's murder and he didn't mind having to solve it with a detective that got underneath his skin.
"This is the place," Carlos said as he pulled his Dodge Durango into a shady parking spot. He was surprised that there was a shady parking spot available with the intense sun ready to fry an egg on the sidewalk. "What apartment is she in?"
"Uh," Trent looked at Kim's text on his phone. "4E."
Carlos sighed as he looked at the building. "I think it's a walk up."
Trent smiled as he opened the door. "It's good exercise."
"Yeah, I guess." He replied, once he had gotten out of the Durango and closed the door.
As they headed to the apartment building, he worried about the grieving girlfriend. He didn't like to deal with crying women but he felt that it would help to balance out the guilt he felt about of Tony's death.
Trent looked at him once they stepped inside and saw that there wasn't an elevator. "It's not like you have to climb up four stories everyday."
He nodded his head as he waved his hand for his partner to go up the stairs first. "Good point."
A few minutes later, Trent stopped and looked at him over his shoulder. "The way you are huffing and puffing though, maybe you should."
Carlos paused and caught his breath. "Funny. Keep going, we have one more floor."
His partner was still chuckling when they arrived at the door that had 4B on the outside. Trent knocked on the door while Carlos took a few more deep breaths.
The door opened a crack, just enough for them to see an eye peering out and a chain lock above the person's head.
"Are you Pilar Hernandez?" Trent asked.
"Who are you?" The woman asked, her eyes darting from Trent to Carlos.
"I'm Trent Malloy." He said with a disarming smile and then pointed at Carlos. "This is Carlos Sandoval."
Carlos put on his best smile but he had a feeling it wouldn't work this time. "Miss Hernandez, we would just like to ask you a few questions. We won't take up more than a few minutes of your time." He reassured her.
She shook her head. "I am quite busy and I can't spare even a few minutes." She started to close the door when Carlos stuck his foot out. He winced as his foot got pinched.
He locked his eyes on Pilar's dark, fearful ones. "Pilar, what was Tony involved in? Did you know that I was supposed to meet him that day?"
"So?"
"He was going to tell me something."
"Yes, that something is probably what got him killed." She forcefully shook her head. "I am staying out of it. I don't know anything, anyway."
"If you don't know anything, why are you afraid to speak with us?" Trent asked.
"Go away or I will call the police," she said as she pushed on the door causing Carlos to pull his foot out of the way. She slammed the door shut.
Carlos flexed his foot to make sure nothing was broken. "Why is it that people slam their doors in our faces?"
Trent looked at him with a frown on his face. "We should probably keep an eye on her."
Carlos turned around and headed to the stairs. "Are you thinking about a protective detail?"
"Yeah. Just to be certain someone isn't after her," Trent replied, following behind him. "I'll take the first shift."
"Okay. I'll talk to Kim and see if she has found anything else about Tony that may be useful to us."
They walked down the four flights of stairs in silence until they reached the door to the outside.
"Are you going to talk to Detective Silver?" Trent asked, shutting the door to the building gently.
Carlos shook his head. "Not yet. I want to see if Ms. Hernandez has something."
"She's afraid of something. Or of someone." Trent pointed out.
"Yeah. Well, see you in a bit," Carlos said as he stepped into his car.
As Carlos drove off, he wondered if he shouldn't give the detective a call. He shook the thought out of his head. He decided that it would be best to wait. He hoped Kim would be able to give them something before the situation got worse.