guardianM3: This is the third story involving my main OC characters, Detectives Lucy Silver and Darryl Sun. This story is also occurring at the same time as the crossover story with NCIS and Sons of Thunder with the title "Moment of a Son of Thunder". The two stories are separate but there may be minor mentions of characters and/or actions related to the other story.

Chapter 1

Walker put his truck in park and glanced over at his partner Trivette who had a somber expression on his face.

"We have another one," Trivette stated, his eyes looking beyond the windshield of the Dodge Ram at the busy scene before them which consisted of four members of the forensics team and other police officers monitoring the perimeter to prevent unwanted civilians or the press from getting closer to the crime scene.

"Yes," Walker replied his face was hard but his eyes had sadness within them but there was also a flash of anger.

Trivette took a deep breath before he exited the truck and followed his partner walking towards the police officer that was standing guard.

"Hello, Officer Branch," Walker greeted the officer as he showed her his badge. Trivette did the same.

"Morning, Rangers," the officer replied with a nod of her head. She wrote their information on her clipboard and looked up at them and said, "Connie and Jasper are waiting for you."

Walker and Trivette both thanked the officer as she lifted the crime scene tape for them to duck under. Trivette followed his partner towards the tent that had been set up over the body to protect the scene. The tent was also a deterrent from the media that were prone to take pictures and video that may affect the case.

Trivette looked down at the young woman whose life had been stolen from her. Her hair was like a golden halo around her head and her eyes had once been a sapphire blue if the light of her young life hadn't been taken from her.

"Morning, Ranger Walker," Jasper Graham, the dark-haired medical examiner, greeted with a nod of his head and then looked at Trivette with somberness in his gray eyes and said, "morning, Ranger Trivette."

"Hello, Jasper," Trivette greeted with a nod of his head.

"I will give you a preliminary in a few minutes," he promised.

While Walker and Trivette watched Jasper kneel down to finish examine the body, Sydney and Gage entered the tent.

Greetings went around the group and it wasn't long before Jasper stood up, clipboard in hand as he looked over at the somber faced Rangers. "She was tortured like the others, beatings and knife wounds. It appears that the rope binding her wrists is the same as the other two victims."

"This is also not where she was killed," Walker pointed out.

Jasper nodded his head and sighed. "Yes, it is looking that way, Ranger Walker."

Jasper stepped aside to a corner of the tent, writing on his clipboard, while Walker knelt down next to the young woman.

Trivette squatted down alongside his partner, while Sydney and Gage went around the other side, so the victim had a circle of people studying her with intent on bringing her killer to justice.

Trivette focused on what he could learn about the victim and not about the terror that she had gone through. The victim was a woman in her early twenties and he estimated that her height was about five-foot-six. She had a small nose, plump lips and double piercing in both of her ears and he noted that the two small hoops on the bottom were still there as well as the studs that were small rubies.

He studied the multiple bruises and lacerations, wondering why the killer had committed such an atrocity.

"I will give you a call after the autopsy," Jasper said as he left the tent from the front of the tent, where the Rangers had entered.

"We need to stop this killer," Sydney said as she stood up.

Trivette stood up as well, but he went to the back of the tent and opened the flaps, stepping outside. He moved slightly away from the tent as the other Rangers followed him outside.

"You ok?" Sydney asked, standing next to Trivette.

He nodded. "I agree with you, Sydney, but I'm not sure how we are going to catch this guy."

"He will make a mistake," Walker answered.

Trivette turned to Walker. "How many more lives is he going to take before he makes a mistake so we can stop him?"

Walker sighed. "I don't know," he answered, honestly, but lifted his head and squared his shoulders. "I know that we will stop him and bring him to justice."

The Rangers stood for a few moments in silence before one of the people wearing a protective suit, boots, gloves and a cap. As the person approached, Trivette was able to make out unruly, curly hair underneath the cap. "Hello, Rangers," Connie greeted once she reached them, carrying a lime green clipboard in her right hand.

"Connie," Walker greeted while Trivette, Sydney and Gage greeted the forensic scientist with a nod of his or her head.

"My team and I have just finished with collecting evidence within a half of a mile of this spot. It does appear that she was killed somewhere else. We haven't found any footprints or tire tracks, but that is probably due to the rain that was in the area the day before," she remarked with a disappointed sigh.

"Can you expand that to a mile?" Walker asked.

Connie looked over her shoulder to the wooded area that her three assistants were standing, and conversing, looking at his or her own clipboards. "Of course, Walker. Let me go let my team know and we will get back to it."

Connie gave a small wave and walked away towards her team, carefully stepping in the footprints that she had traversed coming up to the Rangers.

Trivette looked at his partner. "Did you get a sense that there might be something beyond the normal grid search?"

"She was placed here for us to find rather quickly. This isn't the busiest road, but it gets a fair amount of traffic," Walker said, as he gazed around and added, "not to mention that he positions the body in a specific way."

Trivette agreed with a nod of his head as Walker said that it was time to return to the office and continue to work on the case.

Sydney and Gage left first, while Walker and Trivette looked around the site for a few more minutes before heading back to Office Branch and crossing the crime scene tape, only to see the reporter, Jake Snyder, standing next to Walker's truck.

"He arrived a few minutes after Rangers Cooke and Gage left," Officer Branch spoke, having seemed to notice the Rangers eyeing Snyder with an annoyed look.

As Walker and Trivette approached, Snyder straightened to his full height of six-foot-two.

"Snyder," Trivette greeted.

"You have another victim of the Blonde Killer," Snyder stated, before Walker could tell him, "no comment".

Trivette winced. He despised it when serial killers were given names especially since Snyder was right on the mark. All three of the victims had been blonde.

"You will have to wait for the press conference, just like everyone else," Trivette responded dryly.

"The people have a right to know. There are young women with targets on their backs and they need to be warned."

"Yes, they do," Walker agreed.

Trivette looked over at his partner with slight surprise. He knew that keeping certain details of the case under wraps was paramount to prevent copycats or false confessions.

Snyder's eyes had widened slightly at Walker's agreement but the reporter collected himself. "What can you tell me?"

Walker sighed. "We will be having a news conference this afternoon."

A look of disappointment crossed the reporter's face but he nodded his head in understanding. He leveled his dark brown eyes and stated, "I will be there."

Walker and Trivette arrived back at Ranger headquarters, greeting Sydney and Gage, who were both sitting at his or her desk, working on gathering more information abut the first two victims.

Walker went to his office while Trivette went to his desk, took his had off, sat down and booted up his computer. On the ride back to headquarters, Jasper had sent Trivette a picture of the murdered woman.

Trivette sent the picture to his computer and started a comparative image search with those of missing persons. He got a match and when he compared the two images, he had no doubts that the victim was Mary Steeple.

He put the name Mary Steeple into the search to see what he could learn about the young woman.

Trivette ran a hand over his tired face. He would always have that underlying sense of determination to bring this killer to justice no matter how exhausted he felt. He got up and went to Walker's office.

"I have the name and address for the next of kin for Mary Steeple; Beth Steeple, an older sister who is also pilot. She had filed a missing persons report about a few hours ago."

Walker stood up, grabbed his hat and put it on his head. "We should inform Ms. Steeple about her sister."

Walker pulled his truck into the driveway of a modest sized house located in a tree-lined street where the houses had a surprisingly three acre lots. The house at 249 Marigold Street was yellow with a small porch blossoming with hanging baskets of flowers as well as two matching flowerbeds on either side of the steps of the porch.

After exiting the truck, they walked up to the front door and Trivette rang the doorbell, since he was on that side of the door.

The door opened and a red-haired woman in her late twenties stood before them, worry lines on her face evident and her hazel eyes zoning in on the badges pinned to their shirts.

"Good morning, Ma'am. I am Ranger Walker and this is my partner Ranger Trivette. Are you Beth Steeple?"

The woman's eyes widened slightly and her breath seemed to catch in her throat. "Yes, I'm Beth. Have you found Mary?"

She studied their faces and then the color drained from her face. The woman's knees gave out, but Walker grabbed the woman by the waist, preventing her from falling to the floor. Trivette came up and helped Walker bring the woman into the house and into the living room that was just to the right of the entrance.

Trivette went to the kitchen and brought back a glass of water while Walker had set the woman down on a loveseat and was sitting next to her.

The woman accepted the glass from Trivette, her hand shaking. She grabbed it with her other hand, controlling it just enough to take a long, slow sip of water.

The woman handed the glass to Trivette who promptly set it down on a coaster on the coffee table. He saw a box of tissues on a table and brought the box of tissues over to Ms. Steeple.

"Thank you," she said as she dabbed at her eyes and took a deep breath. "Beth was all I had. Our parents were killed in a car crash three years ago."

"You reported Mary missing a few hours ago?" Trivette asked, after giving the woman a moment.

"I was in LA for a four day conference and we have both been so busy that we haven't called or texted each other. I got back last night, but I wasn't worried until this morning when I went into the kitchen to make coffee when I noticed that there were no dirty dishes in the sink."

"No dirty dishes?" Trivette questioned.

A small smile appeared on her lips. "Beth doesn't like to wash dishes, so normally they would tend to pile up." The smile vanished. "I called her and her friends, but they hadn't seen or heard from her for several days."

"We will want the contact information for everyone she interacted with, friends, co-workers, and anyone else that comes to mind," said Walker.

She nodded her head and took a deep breath. "I can print out a list for you." She got to her feet, Walker watching her carefully. She got to the doorway and then turned to look at them and asked, "it was the one that killed those other women, wasn't it?"

Trivette nodded his head. "We believe it may be the same perpetrator."

She nodded her head and went to retrieve the information that Walker had asked for and she returned promptly, handing the paper to Trivette. "I told Mary to be careful. She promised me that she would never go out at night or be alone. She was working so hard on her engineering degree at the university."

"Did she tell you about anyone bothering her in the past few weeks? Have you seen anyone or anything strange around? Like an unfamiliar vehicle?" Trivette asked, having pulled out his notebook.

Beth took a seat before she answered. "No, but I have been working a lot lately." Her eyes watered slightly as she added, "I am a pilot and I fly back and forth from LA a lot. We were planning to take a vacation together this summer."

"Is there anyone we can call for you?" Walker asked.

Beth shook her head. "No."

"If you need anything," Trivette started as he opened his wallet and pulled out a card, "give us a call."

She took the card in her trembling hand as she sniffled. "Thank you, but all I need from you is to get the bastard that killed my sister."

Trivette nodded and put a hand on the woman's shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze. "We intend to do just that," he promised. "You will need to come in and officially confirm that it is your sister."

"All right," she said as she rose to her feet again. "Let me just grab my purse."

When she ascended the stairs, Walker turned to Trivette. "If she is all alone, I will talk to Alex. She will have someone from the HOPE center contact her."

Trivette nodded, glad that she would get the help that she needed from having her younger sister ripped out of her life. He vowed that all of the victims and their families would get the closure they deserved, even though what each one of them truly wanted was to have his or her loved one back.