This one is a little shorter than previous chapters, but it ends at a logical place. Enjoy.

Lula's POV

I was running into so many dead ends that I was beginning to lose faith in my fishy factor. Something was bothering it but I didn't know what. I couldn't see anything or find anything that could explain my feelings.

I looked up and noticed that Stephanie walked around and sent a few of the guys to the meeting room. Hopefully this meant that Ranger had listened to Tank and more men would be promoted or given a pay rise to take on the evenings and weekend shifts. I was getting used to spending time with Tank and his work schedule was getting in the way.

I smiled to myself and turned my attention back to my monitor. I ran a basic property search in Miami for Paradis' alias. I found a rental agreement that has since lapsed, but nothing more. The annoying thing was that my fishy factor knew that I was missing something. Normally, I'd discuss my findings with Brett, but he was on the phone with the Miami office. He was coordinating a visit to the Benjamin. Classes were over for the summer and Brett was trying to get the Miami guys to visit the principal at home. It didn't sound like things were going well.

Brett's POV

I know it is summer, but how hard is it to locate a man while he is on vacation? The guys in Miami had no idea where the principal from the Benjamin School was at the present time. They were frustrated, I was frustrated and I was about to blow up at them when I suggested locating one of the other teachers.

I looked at the school website and suggested that they try to contact the vice principal. If that didn't work, make their way through the rest of the teaching roster until somebody could identify a photo of Henry Paradis as Rogers. We need confirmation. The Miami guys were on board and promised to call as soon as they had some information.

I got off the phone and looked around. It seemed that the room was empty, all except Lula and me. I looked over at Lula and could tell by the way she was fidgeting that something was wrong. "Lula, what's up?"

Lula looked at me with wide eyes and said, "Nothing. My fishy factor is driving me insane but I can't find anything."

I frowned and asked, "What are you working on there?"

She held up a bunch of pages and said, "I ran a property search on Paradis' alias. I found where he was renting while he was a teacher, but that was over 3 years ago. I can' find anything else under his name. I think I'm going mad or my fishy factor has failed."

I took the printouts from her and looked at the first page for a few moments. I then flipped through the rest of the pages and then handed one page back to her and said "I think your fishy factor was spot on. You were just trying too hard."

Lula looked at the page I handed her. She read it three times before she looked up and grinned. "How did I miss this?"

I smiled and said, "You're tired, stressed and feeling a little overwhelmed, or at least that's my best guess."

Lula smiled and hugged me before dragging my chair beside her and starting a new search.

Lula's POV

I missed a vital piece of information. I think I read that page a dozen or more times. My fishy factor knew something was there, but I missed it. I'm exhausted and a little stressed out by all the pressure. I hope I don't let anyone down. I pulled Brett beside me because I didn't trust myself at the moment. I plugged in a new search and while it was running, I thanked Brett for his help.

"Lula, you knew that there was something there. You couldn't see it so you asked for help. That's what partners do. You didn't fail. You knew enough to show me and to trust your instincts. While the search runs, I think we need to take a break."

I agreed. I needed a break and ever since we started this investigation, I've been shortening my morning workouts. I needed to relieve some tension so I said, "Let's go for a run and then hit the gym. I feel like I need to burn some nervous energy. I might as well take advantage of a partner with some mad martial art teaching skills."

Brett smiled and nodded. "I'll meet you out front in 10 minutes. I'm going to give Tank a head's up on where we're going just in case something comes up."

I nodded and headed to the ladies room. I ran into Stephanie and explained what was going on. She promised to keep an eye on the search and let us know as soon as it was finished. She also volunteered to read through the results to see if anything stood out to her. At first, I was a bit afraid that she'd get the credit if anything was found, but then I realised that glory didn't matter to me at all. I just wanted to solve this particular mystery and get on with my training and my life.

I left Stephanie on the floor and headed downstairs. Brett was dressed in shorts and was waiting for me when I emerged. I was wearing a comfortable pair of shorts and a loose fitting t-shirt. When I first put the t-shirt on, I thought I got it wrong. Then I realised that it was mine and that I'd obviously lost a bit of weight. The t-shirt used to be quite tight around the middle. Now it was a bit loose. This made me smile and Brett must have noticed too because he said, "Da-mn Lula, you're looking good."

I grinned at Brett and left him in my dust. It only took him a few seconds to catch up with me, but I was able to keep up with him for the entire 5 mile run. We went to the gym and went over all of the moves Brett had taught me in the past. He then went on to teach me a few more and then we did a bit of sparring. I wasn't great but Brett did comment a few times on various improvements I made.

Finally, we cooled down by running back to the RangeMan offices. It was a mile from the gym and there were 2 showers in the old decrepit building we were currently using. Less than 15 minutes after we returned from the gym, Brett and I were back at our desks.

I sat down and Stephanie came out of a side office with a stack of paper. She handed it to me and I asked her to help. Brett returned a few phone calls and we started reading through the search results of the other name on the lease. Yup, you heard that right. When Paradis lived in Miami, he had a roommate that was listed on the lease. The name given was Veronica Fisher. That's ironic, because finding her name on the lease is what set off my fishy factor in the first place.

After reading through the search results on this person, it was clear to both Stephanie and I that this person did not exist. She had no credit history, no Social Security number, and no history whatsoever. It was a poor attempt at creating a false identity.

I looked up at Stephanie and we both shrugged. I sighed and said, "It looks like a dead end to me. Paradis had a roommate whose name is also an alias. Either that or they didn't exist at all. What do you think?"

Stephanie thought for a moment and then looked over the search results we had on Paradis' alias. "Well, the salary that he was getting when he was teaching in Miami wasn't enough to afford this apartment on his own. We also know that he had little to no savings when he left San Diego, so it stands to reason that he needed a roommate. The problem is that his bank account seems to have more money in it than his salary would have provided."

Stephanie handed me the banking details and I had to agree. "Where were these weekly payments coming from? His salary was being supplemented by at least $500 a month. That extra money would easily cover the additional rent for his apartment. Perhaps the roommate was just on paper to throw off suspicion?"

Stephanie nodded her agreement with this and said, "We need to find out where these payments came from. Let's send the banking details to the guys in Miami. They may have contacts in some of the banks there that will aid our search."

I quickly composed an email, CC'd Brett and sent the bank account details to the head of the Miami office. I asked him to look into the account to find out who was paying for Paradis' apartment. I sent the email, leaned back and took a deep breath.

A sharp slap at the other end of the table turned my eye towards Brett. He was smiling and thanking the person on the other end of the phone. He hung up, turned to me and grinned. "We have confirmation. Paradis was teaching at that school in Miami. Sanchez caught up with the vice principal and she identified Paradis' photo as Rogers."

I quickly filled Brett in about the apartment and the extra money. He then jumped back on the phone to hurry along the guys down in Miami. Less than 20 minutes later, we had our answer, and if I said I was mildly surprised, you'd have called me a liar.

Ranger's POV

There was a knock at the office door that I was currently sharing with Tank. We were trying to come up with a schedule that afforded the newly inflated core team adequate time off. I looked up as the door opened to show a nervous looking Lula. She was accompanied by Brett and Stephanie. Obviously they found something, so I ushered them into the tiny room.

Once inside, Lula didn't know where to start. She stuttered about three times and then looked at Stephanie for some help. Stephanie smiled and then said, "Lula, Brett and I, with the help of the Miami office have uncovered some very confusing information."

I raised an eyebrow so Stephanie continued. "Lula and Brett discovered that the paperwork for Paradis' apartment had a co-tenant on the lease. After a security search on the name provided, it was clear s that the name was a fake. There were no records for that woman anywhere.

"That is when we decided to look into the financials for Paradis' alias. There was a monthly influx of money coming into his account. We passed the bank and account details on to the Miami office and they just got back to us."

Stephanie handed me a piece of paper that I fumbled and dropped after reading. How on earth was this possible? Tank picked up the paper, read it and then said, "How is this possible? How could Ranger be the one paying Paradis this money every month?"

I looked around the room and then said, "I have a few bank accounts in Miami. One is for Julie's trust fund, one is for alimony payments to Rachel and another is for general savings as needed. Nobody but me has access to those accounts. I use them to keep my payments to my family separate from the RangeMan accounts. How is this possible?"

Stephanie looked around the room and said, "If you made payments to Rachel from these accounts, she would know the account numbers. Getting access to the account on the other hand, wouldn't be so easy. How do you access that account?"

"It's an online account. I can access it anywhere."

"Did you ever access it while at Rachel's?"

I thought for a moment and remembered using Julie's laptop a few years ago to access that account. Rachel needed to buy new uniforms for the kids and didn't really have the money. She asked for an advance in her alimony payments. I just gave her the money. I didn't really think about it."

Stephanie nodded and said, "I bet she trapped your password or something. That's the only reasonable explanation I can think of. Can you access that account to see if anything else was missing?"

I pulled my laptop out of my bag and took it out of hibernation. I logged on to my account and looked at the balance. The first thing that surprised me was that it was almost empty. The second thing was where the money had gone. It was transferred out to Rachel's account a little bit at a time over the past 2 years.

I looked up and said, "Rachel managed to steal over $2 million dollars from that account over the past 2 years."

Stephanie looked shocked and asked, "How come you didn't notice?"

I sighed and said, "I have a monthly standing order on that account to send a payment to Rachel. Other than that, I never use that account. The balance on the account was high enough that I didn't need to worry about it for a very long time. Rachel must have known this and she took advantage of that."

Lula spoke next and said, "Where is that money? It wasn't in Rachel's accounts when we did our searches on her recently."

I shook my head and said, "I'm sure Paradis somehow got his hands on it. He's living large somewhere with money that was supposed to be for Julie. Can we trace that money?"

Lula nodded and the three of them filed out of my office after I hastily thanked them for their efforts. As soon as the door closed, Tank looked at me and asked, "Are you OK man?"

I shook my head and said, "I can't believe what she did, now more than ever. If she wanted more money, why didn't she just ask? It makes no sense to me. First she conspires to have me killed, she steals from me and where did that get her? She had some of my money, but the rest was tied up in trust for Julie."

Tank thought for a moment and then asked, "Does you will state where the money went if something happened to Julie. My eyes went wide at what he was implying and said, "She wouldn't have killed her own daughter, would she?"

Tank shrugged and just let me sit in silence. After a few minutes, I stood and said, "I need to go for a run and then I need to go home." Tank nodded and let me leave. I headed for the elevator but decided it was too slow. I wasn't wearing the best clothes for running so I stopped by Lester's desk and asked if he had anything I could use.

Once changed, I headed away from the office. Two hours later, I returned none the wiser. I still couldn't understand the motives behind Rachel's deception. What did she hope to accomplish and what could I do about it now? She was dead, so there was no closure for me. I just had to accept that the money was gone and move on. I had a quick shower and went in search for Stephanie.

I found Steph, Lula and Brett in a meeting room. They had papers strewn all over the small table and they had a timeline that showed where the money went after it left my account. According to their findings, it went into a personal account that was set up by Rachel and then the money was transferred to an account in the Caymans. That's where we hit a dead end.

Brett explained that he contacted his brother at Interpol. He had a few contacts and promised to get back to him. They were in a holding pattern. It was Friday afternoon and it was unlikely that we'd find anything out over the weekend. I thanked them for their work and suggested that they take the weekend off. I then requested to speak to Brett in Tank's office. We filled him in on his promotion and he left the office with a huge grin on his face.

I thanked Tank and wished him a good weekend. He was off and he was looking forward to spending some time with Lula. I was off and Stephanie and my families were meeting tomorrow for a tour of the party and wedding venue. It was sure to be a long day, so an early night was on my mind.

I found Stephanie talking to Lester and dragged her away. She was hobbling trying to keep up. When we were in the elevator, she looked up at me and asked, "Are you OK Carlos?"

Steph's POV

How does someone not notice $2 million dollars go missing? I don't get it, but then again, that was more money than I've ever seen in my whole life. I always knew that Ranger was wealthy, but if he had that much money just sitting in an unmonitored account, how much more did he have? It scared me a little if I'm honest. I'm used to scraping by and fighting to make ends meet.

I ran into Lester and he was telling me about how he and Fiona were getting on. He told me that he was in love with her. He knew it was early, but he wanted to tell her about his feelings and maybe even ask her to marry him. I was happy for Lester. I could tell that he was serious and that he really wanted to settle down with Fiona.

The tingle on the back of my neck announced Ranger's presence. He nodded at Lester and then dragged me towards the elevators. I was hobbling as fast as I could, and once the doors were closed, I looked up at Carlos and asked, "Are you OK Carlos?"

He looked down at me and replied by taking me in his arms and hugging me tightly. "I'll be OK once I've had you in my arms long enough. Let's go home. We can pick something up to eat along the way and have an early night. Tomorrow is going to be a long day."

"That sounds wonderful Carlos. It's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster these past few days."

We picked up some Chinese food on the way home and discussed the following day while we ate. "I just hope Grandma Mazur is on her best behaviour. I don't want her to embarrass us in front of your family."

Carlos laughed and said, "I'm sure she'll be fine. If not, we'll just pass it off as senility. I'm sure my family will find her antics amusing more than anything."

I smiled at the thought and then let Carlos wrap his arms around me as he dragged me to bed for an early night. When we were cleaned up and ready for bed, Carlos helped me with my cast and then crawled into bed beside me, holding me close to him. I kissed his nose and said, "I love you Carlos. Get some sleep."

Carlos smiled and said, "I love you too Babe."

I closed my eyes and fell asleep in Carlos' strong arms. The last thoughts I had before I fell asleep was whether or not we should tell Ron about the missing money or not. Telling Ron would do little to alleviate his current dilemma, so I figured it was a waste of breath. Nobody would benefit from Ron learning yet another horrible thing about the woman he married.

Don't forget that this is fiction, just in case I made some errors about banks and rental agreements, etc. Thanks for the reviews and more to come.