A/N: Standard Disclaimer: I own nothing but the mistakes. Sorry Huntcedes was so brief but as children Hunt always like Cedes and was jealous that she liked Sam when they were teens. Hunt did not have his glow up until recently and still sees himself as inside as the geeky boy he was in high school. When women started throwing themselves at him, he got over his infatuation with Cedes. Then he met the ONE. She is not Cedes but he wishes she was. Cedes is right to think that Minnie is a cover. Hunt would have slept with Cedes but because she was definitely not into him, that stopped his plan of getting over the one woman he doesn't think he should have or doesn't think she wants him enough in return. They will get together at the end of part two. So see if you can guess who it is before.

Sunday's service will be a discussion of how the Bible explains how to turn water into wine.

Come early. Full house expected.

—SIGN AT LIMA SPRINGS CHURCH ON THE ROCKS

34

As soon as Cedes got back inside of the Charger, she texted Sam. Listen asshole, you can either text me back or call me. I don't care which, but if I don't hear from you within the hour, I swear to God I'm calling in the dogs and hunting your ass to the ends of the Earth. Gina is devastated and worried and heartbroken and you really suck for doing that to her.

She almost felt better and when her phone rang immediately afterwards, she thought she finally got through to him, but the caller ID let her know it wasn't Sam.

"Hey, Hunter," she answered the phone.

"Hey, boss. What are you doing right now?"

"Just dropped Gina off at school, and I am praying her attitude helps her become the CEO of a large company someday and not a shot caller in prison."

"Cool beans. Just wanted to let you know Ralphie escaped."

"Again."

"Yeah, also is everything okay?" The implications of that question were multifaceted, but now was not the time to go into their night of overindulging in wine and failing at having sex.

"I really wanted to wake up thinner and richer. Other than that, everything's perfect. I'm pulling up to the sheriff's office now."

"See you soon."

She walked into the building and headed straight into the bullpen. Besides Dani at the front office, only Martinez and Hunter were in.

"How are you doing?" she asked Martinez. He was sitting at his desk, going over the surveillance tape from the looks of his screen.

"Fine thanks for asking."

"On finding out new information on the case?"

"I haven't found anything yet, but I just got started on this tape."

"Have you heard anything from the state crime lab?"

"Not yet, but they said they probably wouldn't get started on it until this morning."

She nodded, then looked at Hunter. "Anything new on Chang?"

"They're going to try to wake him up today by lowering his medication."

"That sounds promising. Stay on that." She headed into her office to get settled.

Hunter followed her and whispered. "Are we okay, boss?"

"We are absolutely okay. I am doing so good that I had to put on my sunglasses just to open the microwave this morning." She swallowed a couple of Excedrin with water, then dropped the bottle into her bag.

"I mean, you know, concerning—"

"Last night was a drunken mistake for the both of us. We now know that we were always meant to be friends. No harm, no foul."

"I agree. And just for the record you look amazing half naked."

"So do you, friend, so do you. I just prefer not to see you that way ever again."

Dani walked in from the front followed by one of Sam's cousins.

"Adam Menkins is here to talk to you," Dani said.

He stepped forward to shake her hand.

Cedes ignored the man's hand and said, "No." Dani stopped stunned in surprise, but Cedes left Hunter to come face-to-face with Adam. "Not today, tomorrow, or ever."

"What is she talking about?" he asked.

"I am not wasting my time to hear anything you have to say."

"You don't have to listen to me at all; I wrote it all down for you." He handed her a note.

She didn't bother reading it all. "Go home."

"Sheriff, I would love to but I—"

"Listen, I am not reading this even though your handwriting is much better than mine."

"Um thanks," he said.

She ripped the note in pieces before handing all the confetti this produced back to him.

He tried to put the pieces together again but failed. "Sheriff, it's the law, you have to take my confession."

"I don't have to waste my time with another false confession from you Menkinses."

"But I am the one who actually killed him," he said, not giving up.

After he followed her into her office, she closed the door, pointed to a chair and said, "Sit," before sitting behind her desk.

He sat down and continued to stare at her, so she stared back at him.

"All I need to know is one thing. And that is why is everyone confessing to killing your uncle Sandy?"

"Who else has confessed?"

"You didn't know you were like number fourteen in whole line of people who either work for Sam Menkins or are a part of the Menkins family to confess. Even Stevie came here to confess, and he was a little child at the time of the murder."

"I don't know why they came in because I am the one who actually killed my uncle."

"I don't know why you are lying to me, but if you killed him, how did you do it. Give me all the details or I might just save some time and just arrest you for making a false confession."

"Go ahead and arrest me for the right crime. I stabbed Uncle Sandy in the heart."

"What kind of knife did you use?"

"A Busse Team Gemini."

Okay, that was specific. And pretty much the exact knife Daryl Dixon used in The Walking Dead "What was your uncle wearing?"

"Oh!" He thought back. "Probably his jean jacket and that polyester shirt he wore all the time."

"What did you tie his hands with?"

"Rope."

"Okay, we're finished. Go home and don't ever come back."

"But you didn't finish reading my letter. It was self-defense."

"Adam, you think by claiming self-defense, you'll get off easy, but there is no evidence to convict you of a crime that too many people have already confessed to doing.

"I have to be arrested. The Menkins is the best thing to happen to not just this family but the whole town of Lima Springs in a long time, Sheriff." He wasn't lying. Sam's distillery employed dozens of Lima Springs's residents and Menkins family members who would be in jail or committing crimes if they didn't benefit from working for him.

"So, everybody including you are confessing to protect him?" She already knew the answer but wanted to hear it from him. She also wanted to know who was behind it. Sam would never put people up to doing something like this.

"You are wrong ma'am. I killed my Uncle Sandy."

"Sure you did. Goodbye, Adam." She got up and opened her office door, inviting him to leave. He left all the torn pieces of his confession on her desk before leaving.

She saw him out, then locked herself in her office to make a call that she had put off for too long.

It took forever, but finally she heard the greeting, "Fabray speaking."

Cedes lowering her voice said, "What are you wearing?"

Laughter rang through the phone. "Is it really Mercedes "I don't take the time to call or visit old friends" Porter?"

"It is if you're wearing what I think you are."

"How are you and the beautiful daughter of yours doing? Has she convinced you to leave the boonies and come back where you belong yet?"

Cedes laughed. "Not yet, but I think I'm wearing her down, and she might beg for civilization after she breaks up with her current boy toy."

"Well it's high school, those romances seldom last, it's really good to hear your voice."

Quinn Fabray was a hot mess who'd gotten Cedes into more trouble than she had a right to back in the day. She'd started working at the forensics lab at the California Department of Public Safety around the same time Cedes started with the Eureka Police Department. After a particularly brutal reaming they'd both received concerning a tainted blood sample—an incident that turned out to be neither of their faults—they'd bonded over a glass of wine and eating bacon.

Not slices but a whole pack.

And they'd been close ever since with Quinn giving her the secrets of the trade, so that Cedes wouldn't lose her breakfast, lunch, or dinner, whenever she was around decaying flesh.

"What did I do to finally be rewarded with a call from you and not your deputies? The last times I even heard from you were texts."

"Forgive me Quinn. I have been busy every single day since becoming a sheriff here unfortunately."

"I'm really proud of you, Cedes."

"Thanks, love. But you and I both know I didn't do a thing to deserve this position." Quinn was one of the few people Cedes had trusted enough to tell the truth about the election.

"It doesn't make it any less awesome when you are doing such an amazing job there. Oh!" she said before lowering her voice and asking, "Is this about the you-know-what?"

"Yes, it is. Have you had a chance—"

"Yes."

"And was there a match?"

"There was."

Cedes fought a wave of dizziness and chalked it up to her hangover when really it had more to do with the fact that Bryan Ryan Menkins was lying. He had to be. Somehow, he knew all—or most—of the sordid details of that night fifteen years ago, but the more Cedes thought about it, the less she believed him.

If he really did know Sander's accomplice, he could've gotten everything from him. And with Sam's ID bracelet clutched in Sander Menkins' hand, there was almost no way Sam was not involved. She just didn't know to what degree. Nor to what end.

Quinn went through some of her papers, then asked, "Are you ready for this?"

"Go ahead and tell me."

"You were right. The blood on Sander Menkins' jacket belonged to another Menkins."

"His brother. Bryan Ryan Menkins."

Cedes sat silent for a solid minute; it was not Sam's blood but Bryan Ryan's blood. The man hadn't been lying.

When she didn't respond, Quinn continued. "Seems he's an inmate in the Nevada State Pen. Do you know him?"

"I have just recently met him."

"Well, there's about a lot of blood that places him at that crime scene."

"Are you positive?" Cedes asked.

"Admittedly, DNA evidence is not as exact a science as the public would like to believe, but yeah. He's your guy, Cedes. I have no doubt."

"Wow."

"I'll get this report faxed to you today. Now when are you coming to see me?"

"Call me when you're ready to tell me exactly what you are wearing gorgeous."

Quinn giggled and hung up.

Cedes headed straight to Hunter to give him the news.

Both McCarthy and Jay had come in while she was on the phone. Jay gave her and Hunter both a knowing grin, as though she knew something no one else did.

"Boss?" Hunter asked waiting for her to talk.

"They got a DNA match on the blood found on Sander Menkins."

"Menkins?" Hunter asked.

"Yes, but Bryan Ryan not Sam.

"So, the lying bastard was telling the truth. I would have bet everything that I own that he was lying."

"The evidence is suggesting that he was telling the truth."

"He was probably in on your abduction with Sander, too."

"I don't know, about that. None of this is making sense, and there is a part of him that seems too good to harm children. I can believe he would harm adults, but I just think he is too honorable for kidnapping minors."

"I don't know why you would believe that, because nobody in that family can ever really be good."

A knock on the front window got her attention. Cedes and Hunter looked over to see Tank waving and pointing to his phone.

Cedes read his most recent text inviting her out to lunch. She groaned in frustration.

Hunter being his nosy self read the text from over her shoulder. "He's too needy and persistent. He's definitely giving stalker vibes."

She typed back asking him for a rain check because she was busy with a case then waved back at him.

He read it and after texting her a thumbs-up, he waved goodbye looking like a sad, rejected thing.

Martinez walked up. "Do you want me to take him out for you?"

"Someone needs to," Hunter said. "He clearly hasn't gone out with anyone before sweating you like this after an interrupted coffee date."

"What's going on, Martinez?" she asked David when he continued to stand beside her.

"I've gone over the footage from the Quick-Mart and it's impossible to get an ID on the man our victim was arguing with.

"But there was definitely an argument?"

"Oh, yeah. A pretty heated one."

Jay walked up, holding a black-and-white printout of a screenshot from the altercation. She handed it to Cedes and pointed. "That baseball cap? That's a Seattle Seahawks hat."

Cedes looked at Hunter. "That's the same cap Sam had at the scene. I'm sure of it."

"Then he stole evidence from a crime scene. Can I arrest him already?"

"If you can find him, please feel free. Did any of the employees at the store hear anything?"

Martinez pointed to the store owner, who couldn't have been more than ten feet away from what looked like a very volatile argument. "Wes Fahey swears he didn't hear a thing, and he is definitely lying. He also said Chang was a semi-regular customer who was always nice and paid in cash. But somehow he didn't have a clue as to what the argument was about."

"But somehow he remembers that Chang always paid in cash?" Hunter asked rhetorically.

"I'm guessing Chang was living off the grid, especially if he never used a credit card."

Cedes studied Chang's handsome profile. "Interesting. I want to see this footage."

"You got it, boss." Jay went back to her desk to cue-up the video, but Martinez stayed put.

"What else do you need to tell me?" s

"This may be nothing."

"And?"

"There are some guys hanging out in town."

"Well, this is a tourist town. Strangers do come here and do touristy things."

"Yeah, but they're not touring."

"Interesting. Are they locals?"

"No."

"You haven't been in Lima Springs long."

"I know a local when I see one. And at least two of these men have been to prison."

That got her attention. "You can tell that by looking at them?"

"I can."

She didn't doubt him. "What do you think they're doing here?"

"Waiting."

"For?"

"Us."

That surprised both her and Hunter, who didn't seem to be questioning Martinez's judgment in the matter, either.

"For us to do what?" he asked him.

Martinez pointed at him. "That's the twenty-million-dollar question."

Cedes whistled. "Twenty million. Prices have gone up. Can you get some pictures?"

"Of course, boss."

"Thank you, and—"

Dani interrupted her. "The DA is on line two for you, boss. He sounds mad."

"Just what I needed to hear," She looked at her deputies. "Wish me luck."

"Luck," Hunter said, knowing she didn't get along with the DA.

Still, convincing the man to transport Bryan Ryan Menkins across state lines would not be the hardest thing she'd done that day. She'd had the talk with her daughter, after all.

After Cedes ended the frustrating call with the DA, she yelled, "Martinez!", even though he was only a few feet away from her. Her conversation with the angry DA had not gone well, but she finally convinced him to have Bryan Ryan Menkins transported to Eureka. The fact that she had to resort to blackmail did not sit well with either of them, but the married father of four shouldn't have asked her out on a date last year.

Jay had cued up the Quick-Mart video showing the argument between their victim, Mike Chang, and one of his assailants, but that could wait. She needed to know more about these strangers in town. And Jay wasn't at her desk anyway.

She suggested that she and Martinez go out to get everyone some coffee so they could walk and talk and she could hopefully get a glimpse of the men in person.

Before they left, Martinez handed his phone to her.

"What's this?" she asked.

"The guys casing us."

"You got pictures of them already?"

"I did. Do you recognize any of them?"

"How were you able to already get pictures of them?"

"While you were busy talking with the DA who seems to really like you." Martinez looked at her with a sarcastic expression on his face. "I went out and took their pictures and had Jay leave to go home and change to do a little snooping of our own."

"Good show of initiative and you are right about the DA," she said with a soft chuckle. "He obviously needs psychiatric help. I don't recognize any of the people in the photos. Are you sure you haven't seen them in town before?"

"I am sure."

"What about their tattoos?" She asked noticing some sleeves.

"That one with the tattoo of a scorpion on his hand is La Cosa de Noche.

"Really?"

He laughed. "I was just pulling your leg." He said as he opened the door to the Lima Bean.

"Martinez," she said, admonishing him while trying not to smile.

"None of their ink is local. A couple of their tattoos are exactly the same, so they're affiliated just not with anyone around here."

"Around here as in Lima Springs?" She told them the barista she was there to pick up the order placed by Dani from the Sheriff's station. And they continued to talk while the barista worked on their order.

"Around here as in the whole state of California. I doubt the entire west coast."

"Which ones have been to prison?"

He pointed out two of the three. The stocky one with the scorpion tattoo and a taller one wearing a black leather jacket from the seventies.

"The third one," he said, scrolling to an older gentleman with salt-and-pepper hair and a spray tan if Cedes ever saw one. "I'm just not sure about him. If he did do time, he did it well. Probably a higher-up of some kind. I can run facial recognition when we get back, but I doubt we'll get a hit. We need someone with access to a federal database."

"I can ask my contact in the FBI." She and Martinez took the drinks and headed out of the coffee shop. They looked and studied the two men she could see from her vantage point. "How do you know all of this? What's the giveaway?"

"It's in the eyes. The way they move. Their posture." He looked at her. "You ever notice how men in prison either hunch or stand ramrod straight with their chests puffed out?"

"I do actually. It always seems to be one or the other."

"And therein lies the tell. The differences in the prison pecking order."

"What about the ones that do neither?" she asked, thinking of Bryan Ryan Menkins. He didn't seem to feel the need to put on a show. As though he were just as relaxed in prison as Cedes was at the spa.

"Those are the ones with true power. Those are the ones to watch out for."

Maybe she was playing with fire by bringing Bryan Ryan back, but she wanted to know everything. Especially the son of a bitch who raped her. What she would do with that information, she didn't know, but at least she would have it.

"What about anyone else in town? Have you noticed—"

"Him."

"That was fast. Who?"

Martinez pointed to a man who just happened to be her father, Malcolm Jones as they neared the sheriff's office.

"Have you been joking with me this whole time?"

"No way, boss. Why?"

"That man has never even spent a day in jail, much less prison."

"Sorry, boss. That man has spent time inside, but from the looks of him, it was maybe a military prison? Or something similar?"

Had her own father been in jail and never told her?

Her father checked his phone, turned around, and headed back to his SUV down the street.

"Can you send those pics to me?" She asked when they entered the station.

"Already did when I set Jay up for surveillance."

She laughed. "Do you have any questions for me?"

"I have two. First, why do you call the yellow fire truck Scarlet the Great?"

"When the town ordered Scarlet the Great, they threw a naming party. They were really excited. They chose the name before she was delivered, and while they'd ordered a red hook-and-ladder, she showed up yellow. Unfortunately, they'd already ordered a nameplate for her, so Scarlet the Great she is."

"This town is so weird."

She couldn't argue with that kind of solid, fact-based logic. "Your next question?" She asked as he followed her to her office.

He waited as though contemplating if he should ask. "I know it's none of my business, boss, and please don't feel obligated to answer, but what happened to you?"

"You want the long detailed version or the CliffsNotes?"

"Whatever you're comfortable sharing?"

He sat down with his drink, and she told him what happened to her when she was seventeen. How she was abducted and held for five days while the kidnapper demanded every penny her father had, only for her to end up dropped off at an emergency room in Eureka with a severe head trauma and covered in blood, most of it her rescuer's.

Since her story was out in the Lima Springs anyway thanks to a few vindictive high school students. One only had to guess the sordid details, because nine months later, a baby with the lung capacity of a lion clawed her way out of Cedes' nether region and her world had never been the same.

She also skipped over the amnesia part. She only remembered bits and pieces of her ordeal and was missing almost an entire month before she was taken.

"Mercedes," Tank said, strolling up to their station, he'd obviously snuck past Dani, Hunter, and McCarthy who were eating pastries and drinking their orders from the Lima Bean.

"Hey, Tank. How did you get back here?"

In the four months Cedes had been back in Lima Springs, she never once remembered seeing Tank Williams. She could've just not noticed him, but for him to suddenly be there every time she turned around? Either he was stalking her or … Holy crap. She blinked up at him. He was stalking her. Even more reason to kill her parents.

"Just saw you come in here from the Lima Bean and thought I'd back to say hi."

"Hi."

"Of course," he said, growing serious. "I meant what I said in my texts. We have a lot in common, and I am here if you need a shoulder to cry on."

What the hell did he think she went through on a daily basis that she needed a man's shoulder to cry on? Had he been eavesdropping on her conversation with Martinez. If she ever needed a man's shoulder to cry own, she had Hunter for that and not an almost complete stranger she just met.

"I know you busy working on your big case," he continued. "How's that going?"

"I can't really discuss an ongoing investigation, Tank."

"Right." He shook his head. "But I'm here if you need me. I see a lot more in this town than most people."

"I'm sure you do."

"Well, I won't keep you." He stepped closer to her desk. "I'd love to see you again, though."

Was he really going to do this to her here in her office? In front of her deputy?

"I really don't have time for a social life right now, but if that ever changes …"

"That's what your mom said. She's a looker, right?" He elbowed Martinez's shoulder.

She rubbed her fingertips over her forehead, her hangover headache was returning full force.

Martinez watched him leave without saying anything to him, and if looks could kill …

"What's up with him? Has he been to prison, too?"

"No. He's too slick."

"Slick? Tank?"

"He's a sociopath, boss. Be careful.'

"He lacks some social intelligence, but—"

"He's a sociopath," he repeated.

"Okay, I believe you."

"And he gives me the creeps. Just be careful and don't let him near you or Gina," he said.

Not like she needed something new on her plate and with Tank very likely stalking her and the men who were casing the town, so to speak, and waiting for the sheriff's department to make a move, she had too much going on besides investigating her own cold case plus Sander Menkins cold case, transporting Bryan Ryan Menkins, and investigating the stabbing of Mike Chang.

Oh, and lest she forget, her father had possibly been to prison. And her parents never told her.

"I should probably relieve Jay," he said. "They're only going to buy into her book browsing for so long before they catch on."

"I'm going take a look at that surveillance footage and see if we can't get a ping on Sam Menkins' phone."

Though, by that point, Cedes had half a mind to kill the guy. If he wasn't already dead and lying in a ditch somewhere.