Chapter 40

It seemed the most logical thing to do. Go back to where this had all started. I sat up to see Ranger putting his phone back into his pocket and was then lifted to my feet. He never said a word as he led me back into the conference room but I was surprised that Xander wasn't there. He made me sit down while he stood in front of the board and began scanning through all of the information that we had collected together. Maybe he was looking for something that he could use to argue against me with? As he picked up the papers that were still next to the computer from this morning's work, I was beginning to feel nervous. I just knew that I was right so I was worried that he'd find something that he would use to talk me out of what I knew. The silence was becoming unbearable until eventually he came over to me and squatted down in front of me.

"Okay. But we do this my way or not at all"

I'm sure my eyebrows shot up into my hairline because I never expected him to say that.

"I have two teams on their way to watch the place. We give them two hours to ensure that the place is deserted. You will be fully dressed, trackers, mic and gun. No negotiation with that, and you stay right next to me at all times"

I nearly made a snide remark back at him but from how serious he was looking at me and the tone of his voice I refrained. I was just happy that he'd agreed for me to go at all, so I'd do as he told me. I flung myself at him, holding him tightly to me, surprised really that I didn't knock him over.

"Thank you"

Because it meant so much to me that he would consider that I was right and then agree for me to go with him. Now I needed to get ready and do a little more prep work before we set off.

I'd never considered what the effect would be of looking at the scorched ground where my car had been. Yes, an immense sadness flooded through me knowing that the spot was where grandma had died, some guilt because I just couldn't get to her in time but there was another unexpected feeling. A feeling of closure, because I was sure that being here now, we'd discover exactly what had happened to her.

Looking around the area looked different to how I remembered it, probably because someone had been here and cleared away the wrecks of cars that had been here before. I was grateful for the time to reflect on being here but when Ranger took my hand, I was ready to walk over toward the building that had caught my attention. It seemed so much bigger than I expected as we approached it, longer, but then again it was at the end of the railway side tracks and did house some large railway relics. The building looked to be made from concrete at the base with a wooden section above it before leading to a roof that looked to made from corrugated metal.

It seemed solid enough to me, well, not as dilapidated as I'd imagined it to have been. Tank was stood by the side of a wooden door, and he seemed to have dealt with the padlock that had kept it locked.

"All clear. We haven't seen anyone come in or leave"

Ranger nodded his head as he carefully pushed open the door and stepped inside, with me close behind him. It was surprisingly light inside, the gaps between the wood and sections where the roof was missing allowing sunlight to stream down into the interior. The scene in front of me though had me stopping and looking. Railway engines, lines of them closely packed together like they were waiting in formation ready to move. I was scanning down the engines looking at the numbers that adorned their sides surprised at the variety of machines here. Some looked quite old while others seemed quite modern to me.

I'd taken a look at the website for a local train museum and could honestly say that some of these engines had a similar look to what I'd seen. Okay they weren't as clean, but the colors were evident underneath the dust and dirt that had been allowed to collect over time. Turquoise, black, dark blue machines that towered above me with their rounded noses and lights. The two windows set back giving the impression of faces.

I could actually appreciate the beauty of these monster engines and wondered what would be happening to them. Surely, they'd be moved out before the building was demolished because it would be such a shame for them to be destroyed. Ranger moving had me suddenly rushing to keep up with him as he kept looking at the paper in his hand and then at the engines. I knew he was looking for those numbers that we'd found on the tie pin. The first long row came up blank so now we were walking back down between the tightly packed trains, a feeling of claustrophobia engulfing me as the engines towered above me.

"Ranger, down here"

I followed Ranger to where Tank was stood looking at the number 4083. It was a dirty green and from the writing on the front I assumed that it had originally been in service in New York. Tank stood guard while Ranger used the now rusted metal ladder to climb up toward the cabin. The door swung open easily which to me suggested that someone had maybe greased the hinges. I was soon following grateful for the hand up from him and we were soon stood inside the heart of the beast. It was basic with sets of dials now covered in cracked glass and switches and levers. Ranger must have spotted something unusual because he'd bent down and was looking at a metal panel that was an oval shape and kept in place with screws. While he investigated that I stood at the door and looked out over the trains, the height giving me a different perspective of the view around me.

A noise above me had me flinching until I saw a couple of birds flying around inside the roof, no doubt they were living here, in the rafters of the roof. Tank was still stood below me watching up and down when I noticed him tense. He was obviously listening to someone through his ear bud because the explanation soon came from him.

"We got company"

That was when I spied a small man dressed in blue overalls appear at the end of the row and start to walk toward us. Automatically I turned and with my feet on the ladder pulled the door to the cab closed and then dropped down onto the ground.

"Whatcha doing here? You shouldna be in here, it aint safe"

Was shouted to us as he approached. To me he looked like he was dressed in the apparel of a train worker, right down to the cap covering his head. As he approached it gave me a better look of him, the white hair sticking out from under the cap and the sagging worn skin of his face. An old guy with that thin physique from where muscles had deteriorated. His gaze was on Tank, well who could blame him, because Tank was a formidable sight for anyone.

"Hi, we just wanted a look at these beautiful machines before they were moved or destroyed"

Good one Tank, because even to me the man didn't seem to pose a threat and from the look that the man gave the locomotive it seemed he had an appreciation of them as well.

"Getting moved out, different museums, different places"

There was an edge of sadness to his voice, so I assumed that the man was a train enthusiast, maybe had even worked on the railways in his younger days.

"They'll be well looked after then"

I added as though trying to comfort him on the future of the locomotives"

That was when the man actually noticed me stood there but it was as he stared at me that I could swear that he paled. His eyes shifted to hid side and suddenly he was running. What the hell? Tank took off after him with me in pursuit because there was something about how he had reacted to me that was just plain weird. It was if seeing me had frightened him. Why would seeing me frighten him, I was sure that I didn't know him and even more sure that he hadn't been one of my FTAs.

That man was fast and wily and was dodging in between the locomotives with an agility that belied his age. As he squeezed in between two machines I could see that Tank would struggle to follow, his size just being too big, but it wasn't for me, and I was soon racing after him. I stopped at the other side confused with how he'd managed to lose me until I saw a flash of blue underneath a carriage. On my hands and knees on the ground I could see him rolling from his stomach onto his back as he navigated the pieces of metal that were hanging down on the underside.

He reminded me of the way some of the old men who had been FTAs would try to outmaneuver and outrun me in the past. Well not now, I was a lot fitter now and wasn't carrying that excess weight. I crawled after him, cursing as the grit scraped my hands and knees but eventually, I was pushing myself to my feet at the other side. A glance told me that Tank had found an alternative route, but he was a long way down the aisle of locomotives. The man, well he was running in the opposite direction, so that was where I was heading for.

I'm sure that I moaned out loud when I saw the wooden staircase ahead of us and sure enough that was where the man was heading for. I was hoping for some backup, you know Rangemen who were supposed to be around, but acknowledged that maybe they had no idea where the man had headed to. I pounded up those steps unaware of their condition until I heard a creaking sound. The steps seemed solid enough but that wasn't the problem and I was soon too aware of what the problem was. The whole staircase was moving and moving away from where it was secured to the wall.

I was in danger of being a victim along with the staircase and was determined for that not to happen. At a loud cracking sound and the swaying of the staircase I literally took a leap toward the floor that was now visible. Maybe me pushing off against the wood caused it, who knew, but suddenly the staircase was falling away from underneath me. I'd managed to land on the wooden floor with my elbows holding me up and my body swinging precariously over a fifty foot drop. Grunting, I inched myself up using my arms until I was laid flat on my stomach of the wooden floor. I could hear shouting below me but chose to ignore it and instead mumbled, I'm okay, hoping the mic would pick it up and give the message to whoever was listening. I was up and onto my feet now looking for where that man had gone.

It went eerily quiet so I knew that he must be hiding. I wanted to know why he had run. There were several rooms up here and I started the task of looking inside each one. They were dusty and dirty with old wooden crates and rotting wood strewn over the floor but no sign of the man. It was the last door that I came to that I knew I'd cornered him. The door wouldn't open easily so I assumed that he'd tried to block it closed. My shoulder and a few good pushes had it suddenly moving. I continued to push against the weight hearing the scraping of wood behind the door. When there was enough room to push myself through the gap, I was suddenly inside a vast room with the wind howling around. The man was stood next to the opening in the wall, his hat gone and his white hair blowing around his head.

He actually looked scared to death, which had me frowning, confused with why he would be scared.

"It weren't my fault"

I took a step forward and continued to look at the man hoping that he would be intimidated enough to explain what he was talking about. What the hell did he mean, what wasn't his fault.

"I know who you are"

Was this man actually FTA and he recognized me as a bounty hunter? Typical. I almost sighed at the irony of that, but it seemed now that I'd cornered him, he wanted to continue talking. How many times had I had to listen to petty excuses from people who just couldn't accept that they'd been caught and charged so needed to just deal with it?

"She were noseying around. She even went down to the yard to talk to some of the old folk down there. They knew who she was, hell, her old man used to be their friend. When old Frankie told me what she were asking, well I just knew that I had to sidetrack her. She'd left her number with him and said she was heading down here because she remembered Harry bringing her here years ago"

I was totally shocked as I realized that he was probably talking about my grandma. It had never occurred to me that grandma would have recognized what those numbers could mean. Of course she would know some of the old guys who had worked with grandpa, so she'd started to try and find information out about those numbers that would be assigned to locomotives.

"You called her"

It wasn't a question it was me realizing who had made that last call to her.

"Had to buy a cheap phone, I'm too old for using those things, have no use for them. So yeah, I called her. She was already on her way here and wouldn't take no notice of what I was saying to her. I got mad at her and told it were dangerous but she was adamant, so I told her I'd meet her here"

The circles that I'd gone in trying to work out who had called her would never have led me to this man, though I had no idea who he was or why he didn't want grandma to be here.

"I tried to talk to her, told her to just drive off but she weren't having none of that. It just happened. One minute I'm sat next to her in the car listening to her rant on and the next she's gasping for air. What was I supposed to do?"

Call for an ambulance was on the tip of my tongue as I realized that she was probably having a heart attack.

"One minute she's alive and then she were gone. It weren't my fault"

I momentarily closed my eyes as the realization hit me that she had probably died from a heart attack before the car was set fire to.

"Why set the car on fire?"

There was a moment when the man actually looked down at his feet as though ashamed for what he'd done.

"I didn't want folk thinking that it was me that had done anything. There were loads of wrecked and burnt out cars, one more wouldn't attract attention. I used a brick to smash the back window then found an old bottle which I threw inside. I only used a match through the window but then I thought it had gone out. When I heard the sound of a car engine I ran in here and hid"

I was sure there were tears in my eyes at the irony of grandma's fate. All that she'd wanted to do was to solve a puzzle and she ended up dead because of this, this pissant little old man. As I looked again at the man though I couldn't work out why he didn't want her here. Okay she might have gone inside this depot and looked around. So why would that have worried him so much? Unless he knew what was hidden here.

"You didn't want her to find it did you?"

"There was naught to find, it was cleared out years ago. An old man, he asked me to watch the place, paid me well, but when he didn't show up again, I took a look. I'd seen him go into one of the locomotives and come back out carrying something years ago. It were my job to watch over the locomotives"

So Chiconi had moved everything out, it was all gone. Whatever it had been he'd sold, spent it, whatever.

"I aint being done for nothing"

Brought me out of the trance that I'd fallen into and suddenly I was watching as the man turned and suddenly seemed to disappear from sight through the side of the building. I ran over to where he'd been stood and was staring down onto the river. Its muddy swirling depths below me and the man's arms flailing wildly as he tried to stay afloat.

"Shit. He is not going die on my watch"

He was going to be answerable for what he'd done. I didn't care if the courts ruled that it was an accidental death, I wanted some justice for what had happened to grandma. I needed for people to know exactly what had happened to grandma. I wasn't aware of undoing my jacket or of it falling onto the floor, nor of toeing off my boots until I was stood on the edge of the concrete, petering on the ledge ready to follow him into the water. The irony wasn't lost on me of the last time I'd looked down into these murky waters, but this was different. There was no voice calling me in, no notion that this was my destiny. I didn't want to die, I had Ranger and my whole life ahead of me. I wanted everyone to know that they'd been wrong.

I took a deep breath and was launching myself from that ledge, the feeling of flying that had engulfed me suddenly gone and replaced by the shock of hitting the cold deep water before I sank down. My ears were ringing from being under the water and my vision was impaired with mud floating like particles in the water but I was focused. Find that man and get us both out. I kicked my legs and pulled at the water with my arms, my head tilted up looking for the surface. Bursting through those last few inches had the air being pushed out of my lungs before dragging fresh air back in. I heard the splashing from the man and using the current began to swim toward him.

Several times he just seemed to disappear below the surface, and I panicked in case he really was drowning. By the time I reached him he was throwing his arms around and gasping for breaths, sheer panic on his face. As I came close to him, he must have seen me because his arms became more erratic which caused him to start sinking. Taking a deep breath I sank, grabbing out for his jacket and then struggled to pull him back up to the surface. I was tiring, gasping for breaths as well and his arm striking across my face nearly had me passing out.

He was not going to kill me as well went through my head as I my arms went underneath his and pulled him back. The only way that I could keep a hold on him and stop him from struggling was to lock my arms underneath his and behind his neck. It worked, he was on the surface but I was in danger of my head going underneath the water. That was when I felt someone behind me, unclasping my hands from around the man's neck. As I was secured in the arms of someone I watched as two men started to take charge of the man, so thankful for the help. I was feeling so weak and so cold as the bank of the river came into view then so thankful as I saw Les. He was up to his waist in water, but he lifted me as though I weighed nothing and soon had me sat on the bank with layers of blankets around me.

I watched as my savior was helped from the water and as he sat next to me, cocooned in blankets as well. I knew that I was cold from how every muscle in my body was shaking. How the hell he managed to turn me around I have no idea, but I was soon being held so tightly, so gently by Ranger. I felt a hand on my cheek before his mouth crushed down over mine. The warmth flowing through me and the shaking from my body diminishing.

As the kiss came to a finish his lips were still close to mine, but it was what he said that had my eyes suddenly shooting open.

"Marry me Babe"

Did I hear right? I backed away slightly and looked into those eyes of his trying to work out if he'd said what I thought he had.

"I never ever want to lose you again. You mean so much to me, my light, my hope, my future and my soulmate. So yes, marry me, Babe?"

I had never envisaged Ranger ever asking me that one question so had never thought of what I might say. The only thing that came into my head were the words, no regrets, and I had no regrets at how much I loved and needed this man.

"Yes, I'll marry you. Are you sure, I mean I thought you said that you didn't do rings?"

A kiss on the end of my nose was the response and then being held closely to him.

"A symbol of our everlasting love for each other. I don't see a problem with that"

I almost laughed at how he could find the right thing to say. As I rested my head on his shoulder, I started to see what was happening around me. The man, who I really needed to have a name for, had a blanket around him and was being bundled into the back of a police car. An ambulance was parked further over, to the side of the building and there were men in suits going in and out of the building. Les looked to have changed into dry clothes and was stood talking to Tank while Xander was with Miguel holding my jacket and boots. Which reminded me.

"Did we get a recording through my mic?"

Because everything that the man had said was so important.

"Yes. You certainly scared Tank when you disappeared up those stairs and then they collapsed. It was hearing you through your mic that we knew that you were okay"

I expected a lecture for jumping into the water, but it never came and instead it was Bobby who was suddenly pulling me away from Ranger and up onto my feet.

"We need to get you dry and warm Steph"

As Bobby led me past the side of the building another ambulance was sat there waiting with its doors open. No way was I going to hospital and Bobby obviously was aware of me stopping and looking at it.

"Just for you to dry and change in. It's not going anywhere with you in it"

As Bobby closed the doors behind me, I started to shrug off the layers of blankets and then to peel the wet cargos down my legs, taking my socks off with them. I was soon rubbing my legs dry and with the towel wrapped around my waist started on my top layer. I could feel the warm air coming through the vents so was grateful as I started to pull dry panties and joggers up my legs.

I still had a towel around my top when I was aware of a cool draught coming in from the door as it opened. I had a smile on my face because I assumed that it was Ranger so when Joe Morelli stepped onto the back board that really pissed me off.

"Cupcake, what the hell have you done now? That poor man nearly drowned. I'm here to help, to take you home"

I couldn't believe what a pompous arse he was being especially as he seemed to be talking to me fairly quietly.

"I'm sorry how I shouted at you before but sometimes I find it hard to contain my temper with some of the things that you do"

Even when he was apologizing, he was still blaming me, who the hell did he think he was? I plastered a smile on my face and walked over to the open doors seeing him smile back at me and relax slightly. I suppose he never saw it coming until he had landed flat on his back on the ground and the doors to the ambulance closed. I rubbed the knuckles on my right hand deciding the pain I'd inflicted had been so worth it.

I was bundled up in several layers and feeling much warmer when I opened the doors again. I was surprised to see Les and Tank stood on either side of the doors wondering why they were stood there.

"Hell of a punch Beautiful. Does Bobby need to check your hand out?"

Now once upon a time I would have nearly died of embarrassment knowing that someone had witnessed me hitting a person. Now, I decided what the hell, Morelli deserved it for what he'd said and trying to barge inside when I was changing. I smiled back at Les instead and held my head up, mainly looking for Ranger.

"Nah. Maybe I need to add knuckledusters to my arsenal next time"

Still looking around my eyes caught Ranger looking at me as he was stood with some other men. So taking Les's hand as he helped me down the steps I was soon walking in his direction. Of course I only had thick socks on so was careful as I walked but soon enough I was pulled into his side as he turned back to the men.

"How about we meet at Rangeman in the morning and then we can catch up with what's been happening?"

A quick nod from the man and he soon disappeared, taking the others with him.

"Annie"

I turned to see Xander walking toward me with my jacket and boots, but it seemed that I wasn't going to need them. I was whisked off my feet by Ranger as a black SUV pulled up next to us and deposited into the back seat.

I had so many questions that I didn't know where to start and when I did make to open my mouth, I felt Ranger's fingers across them. That earned him a dirty look but all that I got in return was a smile. It seemed that Ranger had other more important things on his mind and as he carried me, yet again, into his apartment those became very obvious to me.