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. No copyright infringement is intended. This is a fanfiction intended for entertainment purposes only and I am not making any money from it.
Chapter 12: Flash
The fountain of coffee smelled wonderful. Carlos leaned forward, taking in the aroma and filled his golden cup. He tilted the cup to his lips and tried to drink the alluring elixir but it remained in the golden cup.
He grunted in frustration as he continuously tried to drink the aromatic beverage. Suddenly, he felt some pressure on his shoulder and heard a familiar voice speaking in his ear.
"Hey. Wake up, Sandoval."
"Go away," he mumbled, still trying to drink the coffee.
"If I do, I'm taking the coffee with me."
He groaned as he rubbed his face with his hands. He realized he was sitting in a chair. He opened his eyes and saw that he was in his office at Thunder Investigations. He looked across the desk and saw Lucy standing with two cups of coffee in her hands and she was currently drinking from one of them.
He leaned back into a stretch, trying to get his stiff muscles warmed up. "How did you get in here?"
She brought the coffee cup down from her lips and looked at him over the rim of the cup. "You really should get better locks, Sandoval. It also would be wise if you actually turned on your alarm."
He raised his eyebrows. "You," he pointed at her, "a respectable Detective, breaking and entering?"
She shrugged her shoulders. "I knocked. No answer."
He rolled his eyes and stood up. He excused himself and went into the bathroom. After doing some business, he washed his hands, and then he splashed ice-cold water on his face. As he dried off his face with a worn towel, he looked in the mirror. His eyes were surrounded with dark circles. He shook his head, trying to clear away the memories, but his heart still felt as though someone had punched it a few times.
He remembered Trent filling him in as they ate the Chinese food that Trent had brought. His fair-haired partner had told him that Connie, from forensics, had discovered no trace of hair or fibers belonging to Pilar's killer. The forensic scientist had also confirmed that the scarf wound around Pilar's neck had been the murder weapon.
Once his friend had left, Carlos had tried to sleep, but he couldn't because he felt guilty for letting Tony and Pilar down. He decided that he had to get out of his apartment and he had ended up at Thunder Investigations. He had been trying to organize the muddled thoughts and ideas he had on the entire case, but he had fallen into an exhausted sleep.
He stretched out the kinks in his neck that he had gotten from sleeping in his office chair. He left the bathroom and entered the main area of the office. He accepted the cup of coffee that Lucy handed him and sat down on the couch. He took a long, deep drink of the aromatic coffee. He saw that there was a coffee carrier with two more cups of coffee.
She seemed to notice his questioning look and answered, "Trent and Darryl."
He nodded his head, leaned back and sighed. An intense flash of guilt went through him like a bolt of lightning. He looked down at his coffee cup and saw the faces of two people he had failed.
"Carlos, she made her choice."
He raised his head and looked into her eyes. Her eyes were firm with a hint of sympathy that he was a little surprised to see since she usually kept her face a mask. It didn't assuage his guilt. "She would be alive if I had been able to prevent her from running. Tony would still be alive if I had been there."
"Or you could have been killed too," she pointed out, her face becoming firm and serious. "I've learned that playing what-ifs is a dangerous game."
He met her strong gaze. "Are you concerned about me?" He asked, his infamous grin appearing on his face, but he was secretly hoping that it were true.
"No," she responded as she casually took a sip of her coffee. "I just don't want to fill out all the paperwork when you do something idiotic."
"Right," he said, shaking his head as a small chuckle escaped.
She tossed the empty coffee container into the trash, her emerald eyes hardening once again. "Look, we can't protect people who don't want our help."
His grin vanished as he twirled the coffee cup in his hands. "Tony wanted my help."
She slowly nodded her head. "Yes, but you also can't save everyone. You understand that because you used to be a cop."
"I learned that before I became a cop." He wasn't surprised when Lucy didn't ask him to elaborate.
He was trying to figure out why Detective Silver was being kind and sympathetic and then he realized that she felt guilty about Pilar's death too.
"Look," Lucy said as she placed her hands on her knees, "I was thinking about it last night. Pilar hadn't been tortured."
Carlos looked up at Lucy over his coffee cup. "What do you mean?"
"We know that Parker sent Oswald to kill Pilar as well as to find the evidence that Pilar had on him. Why wouldn't Oswald torture her first to tell him where she hid the evidence?"
"The room was torn apart," he pointed out.
"Yes, but he just killed her. I think he knew she didn't have the evidence, but he wanted to make it look as though she did. Somehow, they knew she didn't have it anymore."
Carlos set his coffee cup on the table and brought his hands together. His eyebrow furrowed in thought. "So, that means Joe Smith might have had it or Tony."
Carlos ran a hand through his hair, thinking about the words that Tony had said before he died. He was going to tell Lucy, wondering if there was something he might have missed when there was a knock at the door. He set his coffee on the table as he got up, went to the door and opened it. There he saw a deliveryman holding a package.
"Sandoval?" The sandy-haired man asked, looking down at the screen of a tablet.
"Yes?"
"I have a delivery for you," the man answered, without looking up and lifted the tablet in Carlos' direction. "Sign here please."
Carlos bit his tongue before he pointed out to the man that it was obvious that he had a package as he accepted the tablet. He hated signing on those things since it always made it look as though his signature had been done by a little kid. He returned the tablet after he signed his name, accepted the package, thanked the man and closed the door.
The dark-haired detective didn't see a return address on the package and he got excited. He looked over at Lucy who raised an eyebrow. He raised both of his eyebrows and walked over to the table and set the package down. He pulled out his pocket knife and opened the box. A deafening bang went off and a bright light filled the room.
The P.I. closed his eyes that felt as though he had started at the sun. All he could see were a million bright spots swimming in his vision. It began to throb behind his eyes. He heard a door open and was about to call out to Lucy, but then he heard the sounds of several pairs of feet rush into the room.
Carlos heard her cry out in anger just as he felt a punch to his gut, which knocked the breath out of him and sent him down onto his knees.
"Give me the drive," a hard and muffled voice ordered.
He took a few deep breaths while rapidly blinking his eyes, trying to see but all he could see were spots. "I don't know what drive you are looking for." He listened for any sign of Lucy but he was suddenly distracted when the person that spoke to him punched him in the face. He tasted blood in his mouth.
"I know that you can't see your little girlfriend right now, but my associate has a gun pointed at her head. I suggest you cooperate unless you want her brains scattered around your office."
He knew he had to think quickly. He didn't have the drive that the guy was asking him for but maybe he could pretend he had it somewhere until help arrived. Unfortunately, he didn't know when the cavalry would arrive and he didn't know how many assailants were in the room. He decided it was better to drag it out than to attack since he couldn't see a damn thing.
"I hid it," he answered the voice while he silently prayed that Lucy wouldn't try anything. He hoped that she understood that he was trying to buy time for Trent and Darryl to arrive and hopefully, a few of their Ranger friends had decided to come for the ride.
The guy pulled grabbed his hair and pulled his head back. Carlos could feel something cold pressing against his throat. He didn't need to see it to know that it was a knife.
"Where is it?" The man hissed giving a sharp tug on the P.I.'s hair, while adding a little pressure on the blade.
Carlos winced and wondered if he was going to have a bald spot when his attacker pressed harder and he felt the tip of the blade pierce the skin on his exposed throat.
He licked his lips, refraining from throwing a punch at the guy. "I put it in a safe deposit box."
"You're lying," the man said as he applied a little more pressure on the blade just enough for Carlos to feel some blood trickling down. "As you can tell, my knife is nice and sharp. Just imagine it cutting into your girlfriend's skin."
He hesitated trying to think of something to say when he heard the sound of struggling. The pressure of the blade disappeared as well as the rough grip on his hair. He blinked his eyes, trying to see but all he could hear were the sounds of fighting. Unfortunately, he couldn't jump in with his fists when he couldn't see and he didn't want to hit one of his friends. He was getting impatient and he secretly wanted to get in on the fight, especially with the guy that had threatened Lucy.
"Carlos! Watch out!" Trent called out.
He heard Trent but he was unable to prevent his attacker from striking him on the back of the head. He felt himself falling forward and then everything went black.
After what felt like a century, he began to hear voices far away, but he couldn't make out the words. His felt several aches in his body and the worse was the large bump on the back of his head.
He felt something on his upper arm and he tried to push whatever had a hold of him away. He groaned loudly when a sharp pain went through his head.
A firm hand grabbed him, but it was gentle, not rough. "Carlos, its Trent. Are you ok?"
He nodded his head and regretted doing that since it made him woozy. He remembered the flash of light and the attackers. An image of sharp emerald eyes flashed through his mind. "Lucy," he mumbled as he tried to open his eyes. When he succeeded he saw that his eyesight was getting better since he was able to make out Trent but everything behind his partner was blurry. "Where's Lucy? Is she all right?"
"She's fine," Trent answered, helping Carlos to stand on his feet. "Darryl's with her."
"The guy…"Carlos asked, indicating with his hand of the man that had held a knife to his throat.
"He got away, but we have a couple of others." Trent led him over to the couch where Carlos plopped down rather hard, which made his gut hurt and caused him to wince in pain.
He saw that Lucy was sitting in the chair on the other end of the couch and was glad to see that she was all right.
"Do you need to go to the hospital?" Trent asked, concern written all over his face and his eyes studying Carlos.
"I'm fine," he answered, waving away his friend's concern. He could see his friend's eyes go to the wound on his neck. He was about to say that it was a scratch when Lucy spoke up.
"I would have shot him," she growled.
He realized that she hadn't risked firing her gun in case the bullet would've hit him instead of their attacker.
"Don't worry, Lucy, I'm still in one piece," he said with a grin.
She scowled at him. "Barely," she answered. "I cannot believe that he and his lackeys got the drop on us."
"Kind of difficult when he used a flash bomb on you," Darryl reminded her as he handed Lucy a glass of water.
She looked down at the bottle but didn't take a drink. "I still should've known that Oswald would pull something like this."
"How could you have known?" Darryl asked
When Lucy didn't answer right away, Carlos decided to change the subject. "We are definitely making someone nervous."
"We need to find the drive and that will give us enough to take them down," Trent said as punched his own palm.
"Yes," Lucy agreed as she jumped to her feet, "We need to look back at Pilar and Tony's apartments. Maybe we missed something."
"Let's hope so," Darryl said as he followed Lucy out the door.
"Are you sure that you're ok, buddy?" Trent asked once the two detectives had started down the stairs.
Carlos slowly nodded his head, knowing that if he went too fast, it would cause it to begin throbbing again. "Yes, we need to nail these guys before someone else gets hurt."
Carlos led his friend to the door. He wasn't going to let what happened to Tony and Pilar happen to any of his friends. He couldn't get the image of Lucy being hurt out of his mind. His fist clenched as he walked, silently promising that he would keep Lucy safe.