Disclaimer: The characters of, "Sons of Thunder" and "Walker Texas Ranger", are owned by Chuck Norris, Aaron Norris, CBS and whoever else was involved with the creation and production of these two shows. Any new characters and story lines that come into play are of my own creation. No copyright infringement is intended. This is a fan fiction intended for entertainment purposes only and no money is being made off of it.
guardianM3: I'm sorry it has taken so long to update. I've been busy and I was away from my computer for a while. To make up for the time, I've decided to give you guys' two chapters. I hope you all enjoy them.
Chapter 7: Seeking Information
Once Kim had parked her car in the parking garage of Ranger Headquarters, her and Jimmy got out of the car and headed into Company B's office. When they walked through the door, they saw Sydney at her desk. She was working on finding out any new information about Miller and any of his associates.
"Hey, Sydney. This is Kim Sutter. Kim, this is Ranger Sydney Cooke." Jimmy introduced the two women as they shook hands.
"Nice to meet you, Miss Sutter." Sydney said as they finished shaking hands.
"You too, Ranger Cooke." Kim replied with a slight bob of her head.
"You can call me Sydney." She told Kim with a kind smile.
"Ok and you can call me Kim." She replied, returning Sydney's smile. Sydney agreed with a nod of her head.
Satisfied, Jimmy rubbed his hands together in anticipation. "Okay, Kim. Let's get to work. You can work at Gage's desk." Jimmy pointed to a desk that had three large piles of folders, an assortment of pens and pads that were cluttered around a computer.
Kim nodded and went to sit down at the desk. She dropped her shoulder bag onto the floor, since there was no room on the desk and pulled out the case files so she could reference the names and have them go through the police databases. Jimmy came over and punched in the passwords, so Kim could access the databases without having to hack them.
Jimmy and Kim worked on their computers for over two hours but there hadn't been anyone released from prison in the past year that Trent and Carlos had put away. Kim, her stomach ready for a snack, searched in her bag for a candy bar but instead of the chocolate treat, she found several photographs that had been hiding at the bottom of her bag. Kim almost slapped herself for forgetting about the pictures.
"Hey, Jimmy. Where is your scanner?" Kim asked as she waved the photographs in the air.
"It's right here on my desk. Why?" Jimmy asked his eyes never leaving the computer monitor.
Kim got up, walked over to Jimmy's desk, and placed the photos on the keyboard in front of him. "Carlos and Trent took these pictures of the thieves that were stealing from one of Miller's warehouses. We can scan the pictures into the computer and see if any of these guys is somehow connected to Trent and Carlos' disappearance." She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I totally forgot that I had them."
"All right, don't worry about it. Here, I'll scan them right now." Jimmy said as he picked up the photos and began scanning them into his computer.
Gage and Hunter left the bar and since Walker hadn't given either of them an assignment to help find the two missing PIs, Hunter decided to find out who had fired the shot that had grazed Kendra.
"So, when did you meet Kendra?" Hunter asked Gage about five minutes after they had left the bar.
"We all met her in April. What Trivette told you is true but he didn't mention the fact that she tends to get into trouble or I guess I should say that she tends to cause it." Gage replied with a grin.
"Really? I didn't know that." Hunter replied with a slight grin of amusement.
Gage shrugged his shoulders. "Look, I barely know Kendra, maybe a little more than you do, but not by much. She's tough and she is a bit rash in certain circumstances, but she is a good person. So, if you two are going out, have fun." Gage said with a smirk.
"Thanks, Gage. I appreciate it." Hunter replied shaking his head. They rode the rest of the way in silence, each in their own thoughts about the women in their lives.
"Here we are." Gage declared as he drove up to the gate.
Hunter looked at the slate gray prison that had a tall metal fence that surrounded the perimeter with its sharp barbed wire on top that would tear through clothing to the soft skin underneath. Four towers were in each corner of the prison that housed two guards each. The prison was bare and depressing, just like every prison that Hunter and Gage had ever been to for various reasons, but mostly they had gone to a prison to question someone.
Gage pulled up to the security booth and showed the guard his badge while Hunter showed him his ID. The guard waved them through and they left the security checkpoint, drove into the parking lot, and parked the car. They got out of the car and headed into the prison.
Once they had gone through all of the security checks inside of the building and had placed any items that could be used as a weapon with a guard, they were led to a room that had a table with four plastic chairs. Hunter sat down at the table while Gage stood behind him with his arms crossed over his chest. A few minutes later, a guard brought a man, wearing an orange jumpsuit, into the room.
"Well, well, if it isn't the counselor who helped put me here." The man said as he sat down placing his handcuffed hands on the table.
"I have some questions for you, Diego." Hunter said firmly.
"Really? All you seem to have are questions, counselor." Diego replied with a glare.
"I've always had an inquisitive mind." Hunter interlocked his fingers and stared intently at Diego. "Now, who did you hire to kill me?"
Diego leaned back in his chair. "You really believe I can hire someone to kill you from in here?"
"Don't play games with me Diego. A friend of mine got hurt." Hunter said his tone becoming fiercer.
Diego leaned forward and looked into Hunter's eyes. "It was a girl, wasn't it?" He noticed the flash through the counselor's eyes. "Ha! Can I call it or what?" When Hunter didn't reply, he continued. "Well, whoever she is, I hope she wasn't too badly injured." The cruel smile on Diego's lips wasn't needed because of the insincerity in his voice.
Instead of leaping across the table and placing his hands firmly around the man's throat as he imagined himself doing, Hunter stood up and walked toward the door. He turned around and looked at Diego with dark green eyes. "I hope you've decide to cancel your plans of trying to have me killed, Diego."
Diego's right eyebrow rose. "Is there a threat implied in there, counselor?"
"No, Diego, there isn't a threat. There is a vow that you will never have privacy again." Hunter remarked as he turned and banged on the door to let the guard know he was ready to go. When the door opened, he left the room with Gage right behind him.
"This guy is definitely the leader of this bunch." Jimmy remarked as he printed off the rap sheet.
"Who is he?" Kim asked taking a sip from a soda that she had gotten from an ancient vending machine out in the hall.
"His name is Kenny Slade. His career is being a criminal since he started in his early teens. He has been charged with breaking and entering, armed robbery and practically anything that has to deal with being a thief."
"Why isn't he in jail where he belongs?" She asked skimming over Slade's rap sheet that Jimmy had handed to her.
"Not enough evidence or he had an alibi. He probably had some slick lawyer that got him off." Jimmy said as he stood up and stretched.
"Hey, guys, I didn't find any new information on Miller." Sydney said as she walked up to Jimmy's desk. "What did you guys find out?"
"The guys had taken some pictures from one of their stakeouts and Jimmy got a hit. A man named Kenny Slade with a rather long rap sheet."
Sydney's eyebrows rose slightly. "Not surprising. I've heard a few stories about him. He tends to get away with his crimes because he has some connections."
"Why does it seem that these guys are always connected?" Jimmy said as he printed off the rap sheets for Slade's buddies.
"Remember, criminals are not the only ones with connections." Sydney said. "And, sometimes it helps us when we can get information out of those criminals who have connections to bring in even worse thugs."
"Right, like whoever Butch and Kendra has gone to speak to I'm certain that he is a thug, but a thug with connections that can give us the information we need to find Carlos and Trent." Kim pointed out.
"Okay. That's true." Jimmy said as he scanned through the printed rap sheets of Slade's fellow thieves. "But sometimes it hinders our investigation or they tend to get off because of those connections."
Sydney and Kim nodded their heads in agreement. "We should probably get to work on finding out more about this Kenny Slade." Sydney said as she scanned the rap sheet.
"All right. We should also find out more about his buddies and see if there is some connection to Trent or Carlos." Kim added.
"Okay, Ladies, let's get to it." Jimmy said as he divided the names up between the three of them and they went back to work on their computers.
"That was a waste of time." Hunter said as he and Gage headed toward the car.
"No, it wasn't. You had to find out whether he was the one or not." Gage pointed out.
Hunter opened the passenger door and looked over the roof of the car at Gage. "Yeah, except I allowed him to get to me, but I knew he wasn't going to admit to doing anything. I still believe he set it up."
"He probably did, but the only way we can get any proof is to find the person who shot at you and get him to give up Diego." Gage said as he looked at the prison and then back at Hunter. "But that doesn't mean that Diego isn't going to stop sending people after you."
"Yeah." Hunter said quietly as he got into the car and put on his seatbelt.
Gage got in the car, started the engine and headed to Ranger Headquarters. "Well we can see what everyone else found out about those two PIs."
Hunter just nodded his head absentmindedly because he was working through a plan in his mind.
guardianM3: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Thank you all for the reviews. Please continue to review.