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 8: Martin and Snyder

Carlos and Kim entered the offices of the Rangers. He saw that all of the Rangers were there as well as Darryl and Detective Silver. He nodded his head in greeting to Darryl, who gave him and Kim a welcoming smile while his partner's face was stone.

Gage jokingly asked if Kim if Trent was hanging out at Uppercuts catching a college football game, but she replied that he was looking after Pilar Hernandez.

Sydney hit Gage on the arm and asked them if they wanted a drink. Carlos declined while Kim asked for a diet soda. Once the Ranger handed Kim her drink, Carlos and Kim took a seat in some chairs that someone had most likely fetched from another room.

He saw that Lucy was ignoring him but he could see her eyes flutter towards him on occasion. He held back a smirk, knowing that would just infuriate the pretty blonde detective even more. He smirked anyway and was glad to see her eyes narrow. He turned his attention to Trivette, who had been researching Donny Oswald.

Trivette cleared his throat and began once everyone had either settled in a chair or leaning against a wall. "I checked Oswald's record and he's cleaner than a freshly laundered football jersey. I called some of my contacts in some other branches of law enforcement and they have nothing on Donny Oswald."

"What does he do for a living?" Sydney asked.

"He's a handyman."

"That's it?" Kim exclaimed as she looked around the room. "How is he connected to this Parker guy?"

"We don't know yet." Trivette answered with a frown. "This guy is a mystery."

"So, we should go have a chat with him?" Gage suggested, not sounding particularly confident.

"No, that might tip the guy off," Darryl pointed out. "Not that we have anything on him we could use."

"He might also figure out that we got his name from Pilar," Lucy said. "Pilar was terrified when she mentioned Oswald."

"She knows something. Too bad we can't get her to talk," Sydney said squeezing an empty bottle of water, which made a loud crunching noise.

"We could bring her in and interrogate her, but I don't think that would help," Carlos said with a frown. We'll need to find some sort of in." His forehead furrowed in thought. "Maybe, someone needs to go undercover."

Lucy leaned forward, looking intently at him and started to shake her head forcefully. "No. No way."

His eyebrows rose. "You're worried about me going undercover, Detective?"

She casually leaned back in her chair. "Only about how much paperwork I would have to do when you get yourself killed."

"We'll keep the undercover idea on the backburner." Walker interrupted before the two could start fighting and giving the detective and the PI a warning look.

"All right," Carlos agreed. He decided not to push, at least not right now. "I might know someone who could have some useful information on Oswald, maybe even Parker."

"Why didn't you mention this before?" Lucy asked, her eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"Well," he said leaning forward and placing his elbows on his knees. "I don't know if he'll help. He tends to be a bit timid, so it tends to get difficult asking for information."

"How will you get him to help?" Kim asked with a bewildered look on her face.

"Well," he said he leaned back and rubbed his chin while giving Lucy a mischievous smile. "I think having Detective Silver along would be useful."

"All right, you two should head out," Walker said while nodding his head. "Let's hope that your friend will give us some information that we could actually use."

Lucy and Carlos rose from their seats. He did a sweeping bow, allowing her to go first. It looked like she was going roll her eyes, but she held back. She walked past him and out the door.

He smiled when Gage shot him a wink. He saw that Sydney and Kim had matching frowns on each of their faces, but the two older Rangers were holding back grins.

He caught up to Lucy at the elevator, where she was waiting for it to arrive.

"So, who's your friend?" She asked, not even looking at him.

"I'd rather not mention names or details. Maybe I should blindfold you." When he glanced at her and saw her eyes getting darker he laughed. "I was joking. Anyway, he tends to get anxious around…"

"Cops?"

"I was going to say women but he doesn't care for cops either. We probably shouldn't mention to him that you're a cop. He won't figure you out for one anyway."

"You used to be one."

"Yes, but I was a special cop."

She didn't respond as the elevator dinged and the doors opened.

He tried to get a read on the detective as they got on the elevator. As they headed to the parking garage, he couldn't decipher her mood. He could only tell when she was angry. Her eyes would become a dark green. She would get a small tinge of red on her cheeks and on the tips of her ears, which he thought was interesting and cute.

Carlos had driven to his contact's house. Lucy had headed to the front but Carlos waved at her to follow him. He went around the right side of the house. Opened the gate and went into the backyard. He headed toward the outbuilding that looked like a rather large, ramshackle shed but he knew appearances could be deceiving.

He knocked on the door three times. Waited for three seconds, and then knocked three more times.

"A coded knock?" Lucy asked looking at the door.

"Yup. It gets better." He heard the door unlock and he reached out, and pushed open the door.

He motioned for Lucy to go first. He followed her and closed the door behind them. After allowing his eyes to adjust to the gloom, his gaze lingered on the three large computer screens, illuminating the posters on the walls. The posters consisted mostly of various sci-fi movies and television series, but here and there were images of gorgeous blonde haired women with seductive smiles and green eyes.

Lucy stopped and looked over her shoulder, sending him an annoyed and knowing glance. He replied with a shrug and a grin.

The man, sitting in the chair in front of the screens, spun around and looked at them. Even though he was sitting down, he was a tall man, but he was heavyset, like a wrestler.

He clapped his hands and a light turned on overhead. He leaned forward, his eyes looking intently at Lucy. He turned to Carlos with a frown. "You brought a cop, here? Are you out of your mind, Carlos?"

"Yeah, but I thought you knew that I was out of mind," he joked but then he cleared his throat. "Look, Martin, she's cool."

Martin took his glasses off his round face and cleaned them with a cloth that he pulled from his shirt pocket. He had a deep frown on his face as he put his glasses back on and studied Lucy once more before shrugging his shoulders. "Well, if you say so. Give me a second." He spun around, hands flying over the keyboard and several screens changed.

"I thought you said he wouldn't figure out that I was a cop," she whispered, once Martin turned back to his collection of screens.

"You need to learn to tone down that deathly interrogation stare. I'm just surprised he didn't wet his pants, and I don't mean that because of the stare." He pointed at a poster of a woman that looked like the detective, but she had a sexy pout rather than a scowl.

He saw her open her mouth to argue, but Martin spun back to face them. "All right, Carlos, what do you want?"

"Well, Martin, you know everything that goes on in Dallas."

"Not just Dallas," he remarked with cautious tone and a slight frown.

Carlos ignored that and continued. "I'm sure that you've heard of Eli Parker and Donny Oswald."

He saw that Martin's face turned to a faint green and then became pale.

"Why are you mentioning those two?" The man hissed looking around as though mentioning those two would summon them to that very spot.

Carlos nodded his head, glad that he was right. "We need some information on them and I know you are the one to have it." He leveled his gaze, knowing not to back down.

Martin shuffled his feet. "No, no way. Those two are bad news."

"How do you know about them?" Lucy asked, her tone a mixture of annoyance and anger. "Everything we know Parker is suspicions and rumors. Nothing sticks on him. Oswald seems like the perfect citizen."

Martin turned his eyes to Lucy, his cheeks suddenly changing from pasty white to a humble pink. "I am wired into all of the happenings in this city. From the mundane to the darkest secrets of those who believe that their secrets are safe."

Carlos saw Lucy's frown deepen and disbelief reflect in her eyes.

He leaned forward and whispered, as though there were ears on the walls. "Everyone leaves a trace of what they do or don't do. Sometimes, not doing or saying something, means something as long as you have the eyes and the ears to see beyond the walls people have put up."

He turned away, wheeling his chair over to a file cabinet. He stood up, opened a drawer and pulled something out. He sat back down and pushed his chair to his keyboard. He leaned toward to his computer and put the object, which happened to be a flash drive, into the USB slot on the computer. He fiddled with the mouse and keyboard for a few moments.

Carlos had known Lucy's presence would help, he was just surprised at how easy Martin was handing over the information he had collected.

"This won't take long." Martin said turning and looking at them. His computer beeped once the information had been copied onto the flash drive. "This is all I have on Oswald and Parker." He handed the flash drive to Carlos.

He pocketed the drive. "Thanks, Martin." He motioned toward Lucy to head towards the door and took one-step before Martin cleared his throat.

"Carlos?"

"Martin?" He responded.

"Don't come here again. Without her."

"Of course not, Martin."

He saw Martin purse his lips, but didn't saw anything as Carlos and Lucy left his sanctuary.

Once they had returned to the car and pulled out of the driveway, he looked over at Lucy. "Well, that was easy."

"Yeah, let's just hope that information helps," she said as she pointed towards Carlos' pocket that held the flash drive.

"Even with the deathly interrogation stare, you helped because he has a thing for pretty blondes with green eyes."

Her eyes drilled into him. "I noticed."

"Hey, he likes blonde women with green eyes. Don't you have a type?"

"No," she responded firmly as she focused ahead while Carlos took a left turn.

"Come on. Everyone has a type. Even if it's a little thing. Some people like blondes and some people prefer red heads. It's not a big deal."

"Carlos?"

He wondered if he had her interested in the conversation. He was curious what she was going to say. "Yeah?"

"We're being followed. Blue car, two cars back."

He frowned with disappointment but was curious as to who was following them. He casually looked in the rear view mirror. "Ok, I have an idea."

"Of course you do," she sighed as she braced herself.

He grinned as he made a sharp right turn and gunned it.

He made a sharp turn down an alley and waited. He saw the car drive past. "Yup, definitely following us," he commented.

He waited a second and then backed out of the alley. He hit the gas, passed the car and then he hit the brakes.

The driver had good reflexes because the blue car had slammed on its brakes coming to a complete stop.

Lucy opened the door and held her gun at the driver. "Dallas PD. Shut off the engine and step out of the car."

The driver turned out to be an African-American man. He shut off the car and stepped out of the car, his hands raised slightly in the air. He had a classic Van Dyke facial hair and his hair was neatly trimmed.

"Who are you?" Lucy commanded.

"I'm Jake Snyder. A reporter with the Dallas Gazette." The man's smile seemed to disarm the detective, since she lowered her gun. A little.

Carlos studied Snyder noting that the reporter was about six-foot-two. He had noticed that the man's stride was like he were a runner but the way he carried himself, had the PI thinking that the reporter had done some boxing or marital arts.

"Why were you following us?" Carlos asked, his eyes narrowing, seeing that Snyder's eyes hadn't left Lucy.

He shrugged and smiled. "No reason."

"Fine. Let's go, Sandoval," Lucy said as she holstered her gun and turned back towards the car.

"Wait, wait," Snyder pleaded, a serious look on his face replacing the smile. "I have a few questions for you."

The detective turned around. "I suggest that you leave now before I decide to arrest you."

Carlos was surprised and impressed that the man didn't flinch at her tone.

"What cause do you have for arresting me?" Snyder asked.

"Reckless driving and endangerment," she responded as she turned away from Snyder and got into the car, not seeing the surprised and somewhat amused look from the reporter. It looked as though the reporter was going to make a comment about Carlos' driving but he seemed to have decided against it.

Carlos chuckled softly as he got into the car, but he had a feeling that Snyder wasn't going to give up. He had a feeling that Lucy thought the same thing. He wondered what Lucy would do to Snyder if he continued to follow this investigation.

He glanced at the detective wondering what she would have done to him if she didn't need him on this case. He decided it was best that he didn't know, but he was looking forward to see what would happen to Snyder once Lucy decided he was interfering with the case.