Disclaimer: I do not own "Walker, Texas Ranger" or any

characters thereof. Lieutenant Graff, however, is of my own

imagination.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 2: "That's the LAW."

The yellow coroner's bag zipped up over Valentine's

bloody head and he was lifted onto the coroner's vehicle. It

was close to midnight when the body was wheeled away and

Walker, Trivettte, and Graff were still there.

Walker said, "I don't know. Could be anyone embezzling

the funds."

"Yeah, but who would want Valentine dead?" Trivette

asked.

Graff spoke, "We have to question each and every person

who has access to the bank accounts."

"You feel like taking care of that, Graff? Alex expects

me home," Walker said. No one was allowed to leave the bank

and the people were all irritable.

Graff smiled. "No, I don't mind. Trivette, want to stay

and help me?"

"Can't it wait until tomorrow?" Trivette said.

"You know, I could order you to," the lieutenant said.

"Point taken. I'll stay and help," Trivette said.

"Excellent. Walker, take care. Tell Alex I said hi."

Walker chuckled. "I'll do that." He turned and just as

he got to the exit he turned around, smiling. "Oh, Graff.

Don't be too hard on Trivette." Walker exited the bank.

Graff chuckled and turned back to Trivette. "Let's get

started. Everyone has access to the accounts including the

tellers. Leave no one out, question everyone. I'll start

with the higher-ups, you start with the tellers."

"Graff, we're going to be here until morning. It's

insane. We don't do things in the Rangers the way you did in

the FBI. Let's leave it until tomorrow. You shouldn't have

made them stay anyway."

Graff looked thoughtful. "Perhaps you are correct. I apologize." Graff turned to the people in the bank and told them

that they may go home, but they would still be expected to

report to work the next day. They all agreed and filed out

of the door one by one. The security guard followed Trivette

and Graff and he locked the door.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Graff had sold his Dodge Ram the week before the bank

incident and bought a nineteen-sixty-nine Dodge Charger with

a 440 Big Block Hemi and a racing transmission. He took a

day off and painted his badge on either door two days before

the bank predicament. Also he put on a whole new body that

was bulletproof like Walker's truck. It was the fastest car

in the Ranger's force and with the Ranger's work that could

be a good thing.

The Charger rumbled into Ranger Headquarters and Graff

parked in his parking spot, got out, and entered the

building.

In the office Graff sat at his desk and started his

paperwork after he got his coffee.

"Hey, Walker," Graff called.

"Yeah?"

"They always say about the glamour of the local law

enforcement sector, but they never tell you about the

paperwork," Graff said sourly.

"Local? Our jurisdiction is the state of Texas," Walker

said.

"My jurisdiction used to be all fifty states," Graff

reminded. The FBI had seemed like a good job to Graff, and

it was. He had seen all fifty states. Encountered things

that State and local law enforcement couldn't even handle

together. Graff had seen gruesome deaths that almost made

him vomit. He had seen more drugs than the Dallas Cowboys of

old. He didn't have any paperwork in his seven years in the

Federal Bureau of Investigation, but as soon as he came to

state law enforcement he had paperwork.

Trivette walked in with a sheet of paper in his hand

and said, urgently, "We have a problem. A hijacking turned

bad. Five armed men hijacked an armored car heading from the

Terrant County Bank."

Graff was grabbing his hat as he said, "That goes past

the lines of embezzlement." They rushed out of the door with

Rangers Sydney Cooke and Francis Gage following them.

"You lead, Walker. We'll follow you," Gage said as they

closed the Company B door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walker's Ram led the way followed by Graff's Charger and

then Gage in Trivette's Mustang. They were heading to the

highway where the armored car was speeding towards state

lines to go into Mexico.

Graff beeped at Walker and when Walker didn't speed up

Graff passed him and sped up to at least one-hundred fifty

miles per hour.

"Graff," Walker said through the CB radio.

"Yeah, Walker?" Graff said, pushing the accelerator

down more.

"Could you slow down a bit?"

Graff smiled. "Could you speed up a bit?"

Trivette laughed. "Yeah, Walker. This thing will go

that fast."

Walker floored the accelerator and caught up to Graff

and Trivette gave the instructions to Graff of where to go

so they would come up behind the car.

The armored car was loaded down with the bank's things

and was going as fast as it could and then suddenly it slid

to its side and so did its escorts. The three Ranger cars

stopped and stood in the crux of their opened doors to be

ready for the firefight that was coming.

It started with automatic fire from the robbers and

return fire from Graff's shot-gun. Then it mounted up to

defening proportions. When it was clear they were going to

lose one robber popped up with a LAW rocket launcher-"If I

can see you, I can kill you, that's the LAW"- and fired it.

It was so sudden that the Rangers didn't know what happened

until Trivette's Mustang blew up, and with it Gage and

Sydney. The robbers slipped into their cars and drove away

in the confusion, but they had Lieutenant Graff on their

tails and he stayed that way until the robbers made a fatal

mistake of letting Graff shoot out their tires.

"Walker, Walker, are you there?" Graff called on the CB

minutes later.

"Yeah, Graff, go ahead," Walker said solemnly.

"I've got the local police down here bringing the

robbers back up north. I'm on my way back now. Did you," he

paused, "find them?"

"No, they must've been," he let the thought trail off.

"I hear you," Graff said and set the mic down and drove

back up north. It was a solemn occasion. Gage and Sydney

didn't even know what hit them and they were both dead now.

Graff never particularly liked them. He was more worried

about the insurance on Trivette's car going through.

Forensics were called out once again and roads were blocked.

This time it was for Rangers death, and not a robber. That

didn't happen often.