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 16:
Lucy knocked on the door. It was only a minute when the door opened and Darryl greeted Lucy with a smile. "Morning, partner," he said as he held out a cup of coffee.
She accepted the coffee with a grateful nod as she entered the Sun's house, and headed into the kitchen. The kitchen was clean and had an assortment of jars with a variety of spices, herbs and other ingredients that Malha would make into assorted teas or some mixture on a roast. At the windows were herbs growing in little pots and Lucy knew that outside was a garden filled with various plants and flowers that Malha used as well.
There were vases brimming with bright and colorful flowers placed here and there without making it look like it was random placement. A few pictures that Malha had drawn and even some that she painted hung on the walls.
Taking a seat at the breakfast nook, she took a sip of the aromatic coffee, thinking about the case and looked over the rim of her cup at her partner.
Her partner must have noticed something in her eyes since he gave her an encouraging smile and said, "Let me grab my things."
When he left the room, she set the cup down and looked into the half-full cup, the dark liquid made her instantly think of Carlos and it caused an annoyed frown to appear on her lips
Malha walked into the room and smiled at her. "Good morning, Lucy," she greeted warmly.
Lucy greeted Malha as she watched her partner's wife open one of the cabinets, and pulling out a covered jar. Opening the jar, she pulled out a pouch that she opened into a teapot. She put fresh water into the electric teakettle.
"How are you?" Malha asked, once she had turned around.
"Good," Lucy responded abruptly, and then added, "Thanks for the advice about the cucumbers and the tea."
"You are most welcome," she responded with a generous smile as her warm eyes studied Lucy's face. "Do you want to talk about the man that is on your mind?"
Lucy wasn't surprised because even though she hadn't known her partner's wife long, she knew that Malha was good at reading people. She sometimes believed that Malha could read minds.
She focused on clearing her mind of Carlos, just in case it was true. "Malha, all I have on my mind is this case."
Malha chuckled softly as she shook her head. "I know that you are thinking about someone. You have that look in your eyes that I see in my husband's eyes when he looks at me."
She went to the electric tea kettle since it had finished heating up the water. "I understand if you don't want to talk about it now, but you can talk with me anytime."
Malha poured the hot water into the ceramic teapot over the homemade tea while Lucy placed her hands on her cup.
She didn't know what she would say to Malha about Carlos because she didn't know how she felt about the irritating and sometimes charming man. She decided to focus on the case so she clamped down her emotions.
Malha had poured herself a cup of tea and leaned against the counter. Silently waiting, being merely a presence and not pushing Lucy into talking, which the detective was grateful.
Lucy heard the footsteps of her partner coming down the stairs, drained her coffee, and said good-bye to Malha before she left the kitchen.
As she entered the entryway, she saw Darryl standing at the bottom of the stairs, holding his cell up to his ear.
Lucy watched as Darryl's usual smile became a grim line. He ended the call and looked over at his partner. "I have some bad news. Daisy is missing."
She nodded but she saw a mixture of sadness and concern in Darryl's eyes. "That's not the only news you received this morning." What is it, Darryl?" She questioned softly, beginning to feel something swirling around in her gut.
"Carlos is also missing," he answered.
She slowly let out a breath, trying to stop the pounding in her ears and the pain that had taken a firm grasp on her heart. She put a stop to images that had begun to appear within her mind. She stood up straighter and pushed her emotions aside as she looked at her partner. "Let's go find them."
Jake looked at his board. He had made the connections between the three murdered victims, Pilar Hernandez, Tony Cruz and Joe Smith. He knew that Eli Parker was involved as well as Donny Oswald. Oswald may have had a squeaky clean record, but people said things.
As he sipped his coffee, his thoughts went to a strawberry-blonde haired detective with haunted green eyes. He felt terrible having brought up her past to her, but he was an investigative reporter and he tended to do deep dives into the lives of the people he came across in his line of work.
Jake was surprised how quickly his mind had gone from the case to Detective Silver. When he had first met the detective, she had been straightforward, telling him that he had better leave the case alone. She had also threatened to arrest him, which had had been threatened with before, but she had had that tone and the look that proved it wasn't a bluff.
He had been displeased with himself when he had been spotted tailing the detective. The displeasure had faded into pleasure when he had seen the beautiful detective up close and had been impressed when she had confronted him right off.
When he had discovered that Carlos Sandoval and Trent Malloy were working on the joint case, he had been surprised. Once he had determined that Malloy and Sandoval were old friends of Ranger Walker, it had made sense. He still couldn't believe that Detective Silver had gone along with allowing the two private investigators to work the case.
He had been following the case on Eli Parker for some time. It was when a bullet had linked the murder of Tony Cruz with the murder of Joe Smith that had brought the two investigations together. It had intrigued him as well been a pleasure to discover that it hadn't been the first time.
He hadn't been in town when the bank had been taken hostage with Lucy Silver inside. He had read about the case, actually a close friend had written the articles pertaining to the case. His friend had focused on the victims and the criminals than on the detectives and the Rangers. Jake had always enjoyed his friend's writing but he personally liked to go deeper.
Shaking his head and focused on the three murders connected to Eli Parker. Even though he didn't have any evidence, he felt that something bad was coming and he had learned a long time ago to trust his instincts.
"Snyder," he answered and listened to his friend. Once his friend had finished, he asked him to e-mail him the details. He thanked his friend for the information, promising to get him some tickets for a Cowboys game and then ended the call.
He went over to his laptop, booted it up and opened the e-mail. He scanned its contents quickly once before reading it again more slowly, connections popping off in his brain. He wrote down his thoughts on a legal pad that he kept next to his laptop for such a purpose.
Leaning back in his chair, he thought about everything he had just learned. He leaned forward, looking through his files on the massive table that he had been collecting for a long time. Finding the one he wanted, he flipped it open and read its contents, absorbing it without missing any important information.
When he look up at his boards that he had set up, something caught his eye and it was the name, Daisy O'Mara a.k.a. Blanch Rose Fletcher being friends with the murdered victim Pilar Hernandez. Both of them had also worked for Eli Parker as escorts.
Jake thought back to the time that he had spent an entire summer with his grandmother when she had broken her leg. She had loved watching the Golden Girls and he had watched it with her.
He looked at the board and then at the name that he written on his legal pad. He looked at his e-mail then at the picture of the girl that had been connected to the college escort service. His eyes went to the board that had a picture of Blanch Rose smiling sweetly.