Chapter Six
Sydney's Desk At Ranger Headquarters
"Gage will you look at this," Syd called out to him as he looked up at her. "Has Sam ever mentioned any of her family at all?"
"She spoke once briefly about an Aunt Caroline that she visited in the summers. She lived down Austin way," he replied going over behind her looking over her shoulder at the computer screen.
"This must be her then," Syd surmised looking at the information that had come up on Caroline Webb Frazier. "She is William Webb, Sam's father's, sister," she began to explain.
"Are you still on that," Gage began to say. "You know Walker and Trivette were questioning me on what was going on between you and Sam.
"Then it's your own fault," she chided him. "Will you please listen to me Gage," Syd insisted ignoring his comments. "Caroline Frazier although the car isn't plated has a green vintage charger registered to her name. The car used to be registered to William Webb."
Gage had remained silent and was now reading the information over that Sydney had brought up. "I guess we better find out what happened to that car," Gage mused to himself out loud as his partner reached for the phone. "Sam and Sumner should be back any time," he told her as she turned to look at him.
"Gage what is with you?" she quietly questioned letting the phone rest in the cradle as she waited for her husband to answer her.
"I just thought it would be better to question her face to face," he sheepishly answered.
"You still can," Syd replied, "because I'm calling her aunt to see what I can find out first."
Once again Syd picked up the phone and began to dial only to be stopped again. "I'll do it Syd."
"All right Gage," Syd reluctantly agreed handing the phone to her husband.
He sat on the corner of her desk while she punched in the rest of the numbers and then waited for the line to connect. "Hello is this the Frazier residence?" he inquired of the man at the other end of the line.
"Yes could I ask who is calling?" they questioned.
"Ranger Francis Gage," he filled in the information.
"This is Sheriff Joe Tilley ranger. We're out here on a murder investigation," he paused a moment letting Gage digest the information. "Caroline Frazier was found dead by the neighbours just this morning but by the looks of things I'd say she has been dead for three going on four days."
"Any idea what happened?" Gage asked his partner trying to piece together the one sided conversation. Listening for a moment Gage began to explain that he hadn't been calling because he suspected the woman to be dead but instead was interested in her car in connection with the Dallas serial murders.
"Okay my partner and I are our way we'll talk more when we get there," Gage told the sheriff hanging up to sit mutely.
"Well?" Syd stared at him waiting for him to speak.
Jumping to his feet he exclaimed, "Come on I'll explain on the way!"
Caroline Webb Frazier's Farm
Before they had left the office Gage had briefed Trivette to where they were going. The senior ranger was going about the task of calling Sam to have her and Sumner return to the office so that he could break the news about her aunt to her.
The Gages sat quietly in their own thoughts on the latest developments as Gage steered the car down the highway. They were almost there when Sydney's phone began to ring. "Cooke," she answered the same time being greeted with loud wails.
"Anna B, Anna B is that you?" Syd tried to call to her over the loud din.
"Oh Sydney," Anna B cried. "Do you know where Matt is I can't raise him on his cell. Katie is sick she's running a fever… I need Matt Sydney," she desperately cried again.
"Honey calm down I'll try to run him down in the meantime call Erica she'll help you with the baby for now," Syd instructed wishing she was close enough to go to the rescue.
"I know Anna B we'll find him… I promise Anna B," Syd broke the connection.
"What's up?" Gage questioned.
"Katie is sick and Sumner isn't answering his phone," Syd replied all ready dialing her phone getting no answer.
"What's Sam's number?" she asked dialing it as Gage repeated it to her. After two rings the voice mail kicked in. "That's odd," Syd murmured, "Sam isn't answering either."
Once again she broke the connection to begin dialing. "Trivette at least you're answering," she quickly said into the phone as she began explaining the situation.
"What did Trivette have to say?" Gage questioned Syd as they pulled into the lane at the Frazier farm.
"That he'd track them down. Alex had just come into the office and she was going to go to Anna B's rescue," she answered rolling her window down at the same time to speak with the approaching officer.
"Texas Rangers we're here in an official capacity," Syd began to speak showing her official credentials at the same time.
"Go ahead Rangers," the officer replied motioning them ahead.
Parking the car it took the partners only a few minutes to find the sheriff. "Rangers," the sheriff greeted them. "I'm afraid that you've come down here on a wild goose chase," he told them offering his hand to them both.
"How so?" Gage inquired.
"That green charger that you're looking for just isn't here. I'd all but forgot about it until you mentioned it," the sheriff replied. "Old Bill Webb bought it for his wife before the incident. I think that Caroline eventually gave it to Sammy," he added saying no more.
"You can believe that if you want Tilley but you know darn well that Sam made her aunt give her that car," one of the neighbours who had been standing around and overheard them butted into the conversation.
"Amos you don't know what you're talking about," the sheriff tried to silence the old man.
"That's right you law men you all stick together. Now that Sammy is a big Texas Ranger her word is gold and the rest of us be damned!" he spit out fire in his eye.
"That's not how this works," Syd piped up.
"That's right if you have something to tell us about Ranger Webb and this situation we want to hear it," Gage joined the conversation.
Both Sydney and Gage faced the man the sheriff had called Amos waiting for him to speak. Amos eyed Sheriff Tilley for a moment then looked back to the rangers still not speaking.
"Lets start with your name and how you knew Caroline Frazier and Samantha Webb," Syd prodded the wiry old man.
Again his eyes darted from Tilley to the Gages before he began to speak. "My name is Amos Bentley my place is just across the road there. I knew Caroline and her late husband Tom for years. I was here when Caroline took in Sammy, it was just after her daddy killed her momma."
"Amos I'm sure all of us here knows what happened to Sammy," Sheriff Tilley butted back in.
Gage frowned slightly at the sheriff saying to Bentley, "Please continue."
Feeling he had become the center of things Amos smugly looked at Tilley before going on. "Sammy was an odd one, no wonder considering," he sighed slightly as if recollecting the whole thing. "Caroline used to dote on the child I think trying to make up for what her brother had done. Sammy being a smart little thing it didn't take her long to learn how to run her aunt to get her own way."
"You're making her sound like a monster Amos," Tilley jumped in again.
"That's cause in a lot of ways she was," Amos stuck to his guns glaring at Tilley before facing Gage and Sydney again. "I seen her one time the old mother cat scratch her so just to get even she drowned all the kittens in the rain barrel."
Both Syd and Gage flashed a quick glance at each other before looking back to Amos.
"She was out here a couple of months ago, she left with that green car of her Daddy's. I was over here with my wife Betty that very same day; Caroline had a big bruise on the side of her face. She said she tripped but Betty and I know better then that we'd seen this before. And then there was the car… Caroline never drove it but she kept it in tiptop shape. Always said Bill was going to need it when he got out. She told us Caroline had wanted the car so she had just given it to her."
Amos paused a moment waiting to drop what he considered the big bombshell. "Monday morning Sammy was here right early. I know cause I seen her pull in I was down checking the mailbox. I waved to her but she acted like she didn't even see me. I should have went and checked on Caroline when she left but my son dropped in and well I didn't get to it until today…" Amos let his voice drop off a pang of regret shadowing it.
Sydney's phone rang excusing herself she pulled it from her jacket pocket and moved a few steps away to answer it while Gage finished the interview with Amos. "Mr. Bentley we appreciate your coming forward with this information. My partner Ranger Cooke and I are and will be looking into this until we get to the bottom of things no matter what the out come. If you can think of anything else please give us a call," Gage explained to the man giving him his card.
"I'll do that Ranger," Amos agreed taking the card in his shaky hand and turning to leave.
As he moved out of earshot Sheriff Tilley stepped in front of Gage to voice his opinion. "I wouldn't put much stock in anything old Amos has to say. He's for ever conjuring up these weird notions and he tells them so many times that he gets to believing them himself."
"He sounded pretty convincing to me," Gage answered.
"He always does," Tilley mused, "But believe me I've known Sammy a long, long time we were kids together, our farm backed onto Caroline and Tom's place. She's worked hard all her life and over came a lot to get where she is. Her aunt and uncle supported her and helped her through everything, she owed them everything. To think that she would hurt Caroline in anyway…" The sheriff shook his head in disbelief that anyone could fabricate such a story.
Gage listened to Tilley nodding his head yet still not able to fully buy the story he was being told. "Sammy is a ranger and we will investigate if only to clear her name," he told the sheriff.
"Gage can I speak to you a moment?" Syd asked rejoining her husband and the sheriff.
"If you'll excuse us," Gage conveyed to Tilley following Syd as she walked a few feet away.
Turning to face her partner Syd spoke in a lowered voice. "Walker can't find either Sumner or Sammy. DPD found Sumner's truck abandoned in the parking lot of a deserted warehouse. Both Trivette and Walker are heading up the search but they don't have much to go on. He wants us to try and find out what ever we can here and get back to Dallas," she ended her report.
"Does Anna B know yet?" Gage asked his mind going to Sumner's wife knowing how much she loved and needed him.
"Walker hadn't talked to her yet she's at the hospital with Katie she has an ear infection. Alex is with her; David is at our place with our kids… Gage we…"
"Yeah and soon."
"You think that there is anything to Amos' story?" Syd questioned.
"It's not so much Amos' story as it is Sheriff Tilley's insistence that Sam had nothing to do with any of this. Let's make sure we get the autopsy report for Caroline Frazier and anything else that there might be on this case," Gage said thinking aloud.
"All taken care of," Syd informed him all ready having talked to one of the deputies and made the arrangements.
"Ranger Cooke," the young deputy she had spoken with was calling her. "I had the office put those files together that you wanted you just have to stop and pick them up," he reported to her.
"Thanks deputy," she answered him with a smile, Gage noticing but remaining silent trying to concentrate on the problem at hand.
"Deputy," Sheriff Tilley was calling the young man. Excusing himself he went to see what the sheriff wanted. The partners eyed them both suspiciously for a minute before Gage nudged Syd and they headed inside the house to look at the crime scene.
Another Farm Not That Far Away
"You know you aren't going to get away with this," Sumner warned as Sam jammed the barrel of her gun into his back.
"And just who do you think is going to stop me?" she questioned. "Sydney is going to become the next victim of the serial killer, Gage is going to turn to me in his hour of need. I'll be there for him and the kids, I've planned this for a long time and the likes of you aren't going to ruin it," Sam spit out at him.
"Gage would never turn to you. Anything happens to Sydney he'd never stop until he found out what happened and put the one responsible behind bars," Sumner shot back. "That's if he did extract revenge first," he chided her feeling her wrath as the butt of the gun came down on the back of his head. Slowly Sumner sank unconscious to the floor.
"Matt Sumner you just don't know when to shut up do you?" she questioned the still form that lay at her feet. She gave him a poke with her toe making sure he was out before holstering her gun to kneel down and slip the cuffs on him. Shoving a gag in his mouth Sam dragged him into the closet and locked the door.
The Pediatrics' Waiting Room At Memorial Hospital
Cordell Walker slowly made his way to the waiting room where he knew he would find his wife with Ranger Sumner's wife. He had absolutely nothing to report it was as if Sam and Sumner had just disappeared into thin air.
Alex caught sight of her husband first. "Walker," she called out to him Anna B's eyes going right to him.
"Walker where's Matt?" the young woman cried rushing past Alex to grab hold of Walker's hands.
"I'm sorry Anna B…" Walker's voice faded as he watched tears spring to her eyes. "We found Matt's truck abandoned and there is no sign of Matt or Sammy."
Anna B was crying in earnest now, Alex had her arm around the young woman not knowing how much more she could stand. They had been at the hospital for hours and still had no concrete word on little Katie and now they couldn't find her husband.
"They'll turn up. We'll find them…" Walker tried to comfort.
"I know… I know you will," she got out still grasping on to his hands.
"Mrs. Sumner."
All three turned to see Katie's doctor in the doorway.
TBC