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 7: New Information

They had watched more than half of the video from Joe Smith's electronics store. No one had stood out until the second to last tape.

"Wait, pause it right there," Lucy said to Trivette. "Recognize her, Darryl?"

He leaned in. The picture was a little fuzzy, but he did see Pilar Hernandez standing inside Joe Smith's electronics store. "Yup, Cruz' girlfriend." He looked at the date of the video. "Two days before he was murdered."

"Well, now we have something we can ask Ms. Hernandez," Lucy said.

"Right," Darryl agreed as he stood up straight.

"Uh, it might be better if Lucy and I go," Sydney suggested, as she stood up from her desk.

"Why?" Gage questioned, his head poking out from his computer screen.

"She's afraid and she might feel more comfortable around women," Walker pointed out, agreeing with Sydney.

"All right," Trivette said. "I'll send you an image of her to your phone, Sydney."

"Thanks, Trivette," she responded with a wave as she followed Lucy out the door.

A few moments after Sydney and Lucy had left; Darryl cleared his throat and looked at the remaining Rangers. "There's something that I forgot to mention."

"Ok," Trivette responded, with a hesitant tone of voice mixed with curiosity.

"There was someone that found Cruz dead and was a suspect. Well, actually, Lucy suspected him, but I knew he didn't kill him." He hesitated, wondering how the Rangers were going to react to the news.

"Where are you going with this, Darryl?" Walker motioned for him to continue.

"Well, Walker. Carlos Sandoval found Cruz dead. Cruz was once Carlos' informant."

"Ok, why was that hard to say? He has been cleared and he is a friend of ours. You could've told us that." Walker answered,

"Well…."

"Are you going to get to the point or not?" Gage asked impatiently.

He ran a hand through his hair before answering. "Lucy doesn't know that you guys are friends with Carlos."

"Why are you making sound like a bad thing?" Trivette questioned.

"Because it is a bad thing. Lucy despises Carlos." When they gave him a questioning look, he sighed. "She arrested him, since he was at the scene of the crime. She feels that he may still be involved, but I think what really irked her was the fact that he found Cruz' girlfriend before we did."

Trivette laughed and slapped his desk with his hand. "Are you serious? This is going to be the best case."

"Why do you say that?" Darryl asked, surprised at the Ranger's reaction and at the large smiles on Walker and Gage's faces.

"It's going to be very entertaining," Trivette explained. "You know that we are going to have Thunder Investigations in on the case with us, right?"

Walker chuckled while Gage nearly doubled-up with laughter.

He looked at them and began to chuckle. "You're right," he agreed that it would be entertaining to see the bickering between Carlos and his partner, as long as they decided not to pull the spectators into the ring with them.

Lucy put the car in park and unbuckled her seatbelt. She hoped that this time, Pilar would give them something useful. She wasn't going to be holding back. She questioned why she had held back last time and a disturbing image entered her brain. The image that busted into her mind was of coffee-colored eyes and a fabulous grin. She shook her head, clearing the image from her mind.

"Not a bad place to live," Sydney commented.

She hoped that Sydney hadn't noticed anything. "No, but I would rather have better neighbors," she said with a groan, seeing Trent heading towards them as they got out of the car.

Her gaze lingered on Trent's Stingray Convertible and admired it for a moment before the PI reached them. She was about to open her mouth to speak when Trent smiled and looked at Sydney.

"Hi, Sydney. How are you?"

"Hi, Trent," she greeted with a large smile on her face.

She looked from Sydney to Trent and back again. "You two know each other?"

"Yes," the Ranger responded with a laugh.

The PI nodded his head. "I've known Sydney for awhile. Hello, Detective Silver."

She nodded her head in greeting, still in minor shock as she looked at Sydney.

Sydney grinned. "Yeah, all of us know Trent. Actually, we know him because Trent and Walker have known each other for a long time."

He nodded his head. "I've known him since I was a kid. He taught me Karate."

She nodded her head, holding back the scream that wanted to escape. "We should get going," she said to Sydney as she turned and headed to Pilar's building.

"Ok, nice seeing you again, Detective Silver," Trent called out.

"What was that about?" Sydney questioned as she followed Lucy into the building.

"It's a long story," she answered as she started up the stairs. "She's in 4B"

"Ok."

She was glad when the Ranger decided not to ask any questions while they made their way up the stairs. Once they reached the fourth floor, she went to Pilar's apartment and knocked. "Dallas PD and Texas Rangers. We need to speak to you Ms. Hernandez," she spoke firmly. She wasn't going to leave until she helped them.

Pilar opened the door and peered out. "What do you want?"

After Sydney showed Pilar her badge, she held up her phone, showing Pilar the image they had of her inside the electronics store. "We have evidence that you visited a man by the name of Joe Smith. He was recently murdered and we believe his death is connected to the death of your boyfriend."

Her eyes widened. She licked her lips. "So, I went to a store," she shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know a Joe Smith."

Lucy could tell she was lying by the way Pilar was avoiding eye contact with them.

Sydney slowly nodded her head. "I see," she said as she returned her phone to her pocket. "Joe Smith is a common name, but you must have met one at one time in your life. I have a feeling it's the one that's sitting in the morgue right now."

"How about the name, Eli Parker?" Lucy prodded and when Pilar's face drained of all color, Lucy knew she was on to something.

The terrified woman shook her head. "Look, Tony's dead because he was nosing into things he shouldn't have. I don't want to end up dead too."

"You do have a PI guarding you downstairs." Lucy reminded her.

"Yeah, and those two nosy PI's are definitely going to get me killed."

She decided not to address how the woman knew Parker. She had a feeling that it wouldn't get them anywhere. "We want a name of the man who killed Tony," Lucy declared, locking her gaze with Pilar. She could see the woman wavering, but she held on, knowing that if she did, she would get a name.

Pilar broke eye contact with her. "Go see a man named Donny Oswald." She firmly closed the door.

Lucy heard the sound of several locks clicking into place. She looked at Sydney. "You know the name?"

"It was a possibility, but with Pilar mentioning his name. It's the best lead we've had in awhile."

She nodded her head, sensing that Sydney had left something out about Oswald. Of course, the fear in the woman's eyes when she brought up Oswald gave her some indication at the man's personality. She was more interested at the look at Eli Parker's name. She filed information that for later when it could be useful.

She looked at the Ranger. "You want to make the call?"

"Yup."

Lucy followed Sydney down the stairs. She blocked out Sydney's side of the conversation as she thought about what she had learned today and she wasn't thinking about Donny Oswald.

The door opened to the office. Darryl turned his head and watched as Sydney and his partner entered. He saw his partner look at him, green eyes flashing.

"Darryl," she said, "may I speak with you for a moment? Out here." She motioned towards the hallway with a tilt of her head.

He sighed and saw Walker, Trivette and Gage give him a look of pity before he stood up. He heard them quietly chuckling behind him as he walked past a baffled Sydney.

As he stepped out into the hall, he closed the door behind him. "So, what's up?" He asked his partner, who was standing on the other side of the hallway, smiling darkly at him.

Before she could speak, two Rangers passed by them, one of them took a long, sly look at Lucy, but she didn't seem to notice. Darryl was glad that she didn't because he knew that she was ready to rumble with anyone that crossed her. On second thought, he wished that she had noticed, so he wouldn't be taking the worst of it.

"You didn't tell me that Carlos Sandoval knows the Rangers. Actually, he's friends with the Rangers as is Trent Malloy. For a long time."

He scratched above his left ear. "I knew I forgot to tell you something."

"Uh-huh," she said, crossing her arms and glaring at her partner.

"I didn't believe it was relevant."

"Really?" She exclaimed as she took two steps towards him. "You didn't want to tell me because you know that Sandoval will become a part of this investigation even more than the way he has already burrowed himself into it."

"Ok," he said, holding up his hands in surrender, which he seemed to be doing a lot of lately. "I knew that was going to happen once we met with the Rangers. So, why don't we go back inside, invite Thunder Investigations here so we can all work together to solve two murders and take down Eli Parker and his businesses?"

He watched her closely, trying to judge her reaction before she spoke or threw a punch at him. She was harder to read than a tax book.

"Fine. Make the call." She went past him and returned to the Rangers' offices.

He took a deep breath before he pulled his cell out of his pocket. A grin spread across his face as he called Carlos. He couldn't wait to see what would happen next.