Oooh.. the suspense. Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Stephanie's POV

I was working on the Tim West Search and Lula was working on the Black Scorpion search. Both were in progress so we both moved onto the other information Tank needed. I pulled up West's financials and printed them off so I could go over them on paper. There were about 50 pages to go through so I dug in and got started.

Lula made a few phone calls and after about 20 minutes of talking, she thanked the person she was talking to and returned to her search on Black Scorpion. A few minutes later, Lula's phone rang and she had a very short conversation. She checked her email, confirmed something to the person on the phone and smiled. Somehow, she ended up with a list of guests from the more popular hotels in Washington.

I looked at her and asked, "How did you get that? Most hotels quote guest privacy and all that other shit when you ask them for their guest lists."

Lula grinned and said, "I have a cousin who works for a senator. She happened to be at a conference in a hotel. During her break, she walked to the front desk and asked to use one of their computers to check an email from her boss. They all knew her boss could be a grumpy bastard so they pointed her to an unused computer in the corner. Most of the hotels are networked together so she just did a guest dump and emailed it to me."

I was shocked at her ingenuity and quick mind. Lula really did have a knack for this. I smiled at her and said, "Great job. Tank and Ranger will be impressed."

I returned to my printout and started scanning out-of-state purchases or charges. I ignored those from D.C., Maryland and Virginia because I wasn't sure where he lived yet and all were possible for a Washington job. That left me with charges from New York, Georgia and Florida. I looked again and saw that the charges in Atlanta matched the dates that Lester was kidnapped. Next, the dates in New York didn't match anything I could recall, except that they occurred while Ranger was last in the wind.

I moved on to the Florida charges and noticed a pattern. It looked like West travelled to Miami every 3-4 weeks and stayed for a few days at a time. He always stayed at the same hotel on the beach.

Lula jumped in her chair across from me and I looked up, thoughts of the warms sands on a Miami beach were lost as I listened to what Lula found. Before either of us had a chance, Zip was up and running for the control room. He and Tank returned in less than 2 minutes.

Lula looked up at them and said, "I reviewed a list of guests from hotels around D.C. and one name in particular stands out to me. I thought it a bit odd, so I went back and it turns out that this person has stayed at this hotel frequently over the last year and the bill was always paid by West."

Tank looked at Lula with a raised eyebrow. Instead of telling her who it was, she just handed him a piece of paper and he nodded. He looked around the room and said, "I want a search performed on this woman as soon as possible. Financials, the works. If she is behind all of this, Ranger is not going to be happy."

Tank looked directly at me and asked, "Have you found anything in West's financials?"

I handed him the page from his credit card with the highlighted hotel stays in Miami. I said, "West is separated from his wife. She moved to Miami a few months ago so perhaps his trips are to visit her."

Tank shook his head and said, "Please find me when the searches are done. I need to review them before calling the Boss."

Tank left and Lula and I continued to hurry the searches along. Two hours later, we walked out of the conference room via the printer and went looking for Tank. He was sitting in front of the monitors and jumped up when he saw us. He looked around for somebody to take over on the monitors when Lula volunteered. Tank thanked her and he motioned for me to follow him to his office.

Once inside, I handed the search results to Tank. He spent the next 20 minutes reading each of the searches. Lula joined us when he was just closing the last folder. He looked up at her and she said, "The next shift just arrived. I thought I might be able to help here."

Tank nodded and returned his focus to the papers in front of him. He looked up at me and asked, "If I put you in contact with RangeMan's lawyer, do you think you could explain the situation adequately? We need to get some advice on how to proceed with this."

I was confused and asked, "Isn't George with Ranger? Why not call him there?"

Tank's blank face remained and he said, "George specialises in criminal law. We have another lawyer, actually, a whole firm who deals with corporate law and anything else we need. I have their number in my office. I'll email it to you and you can contact them on Ranger's behalf."

"How can I talk to them on Ranger's behalf? Is that allowed?"

Tank smiled slightly and said, "Ranger has you listed as a medical and legal power of attorney. This means that you can make decisions for him when he's unable to do so. I am also listed, but I have a feeling that you will be able to convey the facts better than I could. You are a little closer to the situation and you have better people skills. As soon as you talk to the lawyer, I think we'll have enough information to inform Ranger."

I nodded and looked around at Lula and Zip. They were both watching me with looks of trepidation. Lula smiled at me and said, "Ranger trusts you Steph, he trusts that you will do what's best for him."

Zip nodded in agreement so I sat down and waited for the email from Tank.

The identity of the woman will be revealed in the next chapter.. updates soon. Let me know what you think about the story.