Chapter 3

"So..." Emily smiled self-consciously, wearing her yellow sundress from the night before and looking beautiful in the morning light.

The sun was streaming through the diner's plate glass windows and the place was busy serving coffee and breakfast to the locals. Emily was oblivious to the stares she and her attractive companion were getting, but Tina had taken note of who was watching, cataloging the faces and their expressions. Some people in this town, the Ranger knew, wouldn't be happy to see her at all, not when they found out why she was there. Hopefully, she thought, they wouldn't find out until she was finished.

"Here we are again." Tina tilted her head, reaching up to pull a lock of thick black hair from her eyes. "Are you going to be in town long?"

"I wasn't planning on it," Emily held her menu open, but she hardly glanced at it. What she wanted was sitting across from her. "You?"

"Maybe," Tina shrugged in the linen suit she wore, a blazer and barely modest skirt in a pleasing shade of mustard yellow. It was a color that went well with her caramel skin, Emily decided and she'd woken up next to the woman decidedly content. Now they finally had a chance to talk.

"Are you on a big case?" Emily lowered her voice playfully.

"Maybe," Tina said with a straight face and then smiled. "I'm not sure. I'm just here to back up a local investigation."

"Really?" Emily nodded and she didn't know what that meant exactly, but she had a sudden idea. "That wouldn't be Barbara Welch's death, would it?"

"What do you know about that?" Tina picked up her own menu to mask her interest, but her piercing green eyes never left Emily's face.

"It is, isn't it?" Emily blinked and bit her lip. "I was told she drowned. It was an accident."

"Okay," Tina forced herself to set aside her feelings for the woman as her police instincts came alive. She sensed immediately that Emily wasn't just repeating gossip. "Do you want to start at the beginning?"

"The beginning?" Emily almost smiled at the cliché, but then she caught the Ranger's serious tone and nodded. "Yeah, I'll start at the beginning."

"Emily?"

"Lisa? Hi, where are you?" Emily smiled into the phone.

"Still in Bumfuck, I mean West Abilene," the nineteen year old college freshman laughed and that wasn't a sound her sister expected.

"Are you drunk?" Emily asked, only half teasing as she lay in her bed. She'd been reading and waiting to fall asleep. She was alone as usual but for her cat, The Enigmatic Mr. Smith, as Lisa had named him several years before. Emily just called him Egg.

"No!" Lisa laughed again and then sighed. "Better than that."

"Okay," Emily said slowly. "Tell me about her."

"Oh! You spoil sport!" Lisa pouted across six hundred miles of Texas. "How did you know? Never mind. She's beautiful."

"They always are," Emily laughed. "Come on, Lisa. Don't tease me."

"Her name's Barbara and she's my new swim coach," Lisa explained happily. "She's wonderful. She's just ... We connected, you know? I wasn't even looking for it, I swear. It just happened."

"Your swim coach?" Emily wondered. "Since when do you know how to swim?"

"What? Go away! I'm a great swimmer, I just ... Barb says I could be really good with practice," Lisa said. "But anyway, I wish you could meet her."

"I wish I could too," Emily laughed, putting more than a touch of deliberate interest in her voice.

"Heh!" Lisa snorted. "No, she loves me. She asked me to move in, that's why I'm calling."

"Why?"

"Because I'm going to have a new phone number, silly!" Lisa giggled. "She's got a little house and a little kitchen and..."

"A little bedroom," Emily teased her sister. "Yeah, yeah. You sound happy, Lisa."

"I am so happy," Lisa agreed with a sigh. "God! I can't believe I had to come all the way out here just to fall in love."

"I thought you wanted to get away from everything," Emily said, not meaning to bring up the memory of their parents, but as soon as the words were out of her mouth...

"Yeah," Lisa said softly. "I did."

"They'd want you to be happy, Lisa." Emily changed the phone to her other ear and reached out to stroke Egg who was sprawled on top of the blanket between her thighs.

"I know," the girl replied. "I miss them."

"Me too, kiddo," Emily agreed and then cleared her throat. "So, anyway. This is the real deal, huh? How old is she?"

"Maybe thirty..." Lisa paused, " ... seven."

"Thirty-seven?" Emily made a little face at her cat, but let it go. "Okay, so she knows what she's doing. That's good."

"I know, she's older than me," Lisa sighed. "But if you saw her, Em. She gives me what I need, you know?"

"Yeah," Emily said. "I know. Send me a picture or something, okay? Use that fancy camera of yours for something."

"I will, yeah," Lisa agreed. "I'll email you."

"Okay."

"Okay," Lisa said and the two sisters were quiet for a moment. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"

"Me?" Emily laughed. "As long as you're happy, Lisa. I'm very okay with it. I love you so much."

"I love you too."

"How's your grades?"

"What? Um ... I think ... Oh, we have a bad connection," Lisa made a static sound in her cupped hand.

"Lisa?"

"Oh, they're fine," the girl promised with a verbal roll of her eyes. "I'll send you a copy of my report card when it comes out."

"They better be," Emily said.

"Hey I gotta go. Barb's waiting for me. Check your email, okay?"

"Okay. I love you."

"Love you. Kiss!"

"Kisses!" Emily smiled and sighed and hung up her phone, grateful for small miracles. It had been a long time since she'd heard her little sister laugh.

"What happened to your parents?" Tina asked, stirring creamer into her coffee. She had a small notepad and pen beside her now and had been taking brief notes while Emily spoke.

"Car accident," Emily shrugged. "About five years ago. I was still in college, Lisa had just turned fifteen. It hit her real hard."

"I'm sorry," Tina frowned and her eyes softened.

"Thanks," Emily smiled weakly. "So, after Lisa moved in with Barbara it was great. We talked almost every week and it just got better and better for them."

"Did she ever talk about anyone else? Anyone giving them a hard time about it or..."

"No," Emily shook her head. "She never mentioned anything like that. I don't think too many people knew, really. I suppose a small town like this, but ... I don't know. Lisa was happy."

"Was this your sister's first relationship? Did she have any other girlfriends?"

"Here?" Emily narrowed her eyes and Tina nodded. "No, she was just starting her first year. Lisa didn't know anyone. She picked the college because it was ... well, it was a long ways from home. A long ways from me."

"You two didn't get along?"

"We did," Emily said. "She stayed with me and I took care of her, but it was hard. I couldn't be mom, but I had to raise her. Lisa was such a ... kid. She just needed to be mad at someone, you know?"

"Yeah," Tina nodded and it was hard for her not to reach out for the woman's hand. "And the last time you talked to her was..."

"Right after Barbara died," Emily cleared her throat. "She called me, um ... That morning. Saturday, after she found out."

"Hello?" Emily said, wiping her face with a towel as she'd cut her shower short just to answer the phone.

"Barbara's dead," Lisa's voice was soft and Emily froze, trying to understand what her sister was saying. "Em?"

"I'm here, Lisa," Emily answered gently. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"No," Lisa's voice wavered with that one word and then she sobbed.

"Lisa? What happened, baby? Tell me." Emily felt her heart ready to burst as she forgot everything but the sound of her sister in pain.

"S-She drowned," Lisa managed to say. "They f-found her this morning. She ... I was looking for her."

"Drowned?" Emily sat on the floor of her bedroom, naked and wet, clutching the towel against her body and the phone to her ear.

"That's what they said," the girl replied, choking on the words as she struggled to regain her composure.

"I'm going to come down there," Emily decided. "I'll, um ... I'll drive down today, be there tonight and..."

"No," Lisa said. "Don't, I'm okay ... I just..."

"You're not okay," Emily licked her lips, trying to figure out how long the drive would be from Dallas.

"There's nothing ... No ... I just want to be alone," Lisa sniffled hard, drawing a ragged breath. "Just stay there, okay?"

"Lisa, no. You need me. I'll call work and drive down," Emily said. "I'll ... I'll bring you back home, okay?"

"I am home," Lisa sighed and hung up the phone.

"And that was the last time we talked," Emily cleared her throat, looking down at her coffee.

"Where's Lisa now?" Tina asked and she did reach for Emily's hand, taking it gently in her own across the table that separated them. She'd noted the woman referring to her sister in past tense and now the Ranger had to know why.

"I don't know," Emily looked up and her blue eyes were damp as they searched Tina's face. "I think..."

"What?" Tina asked softly.

"Lisa wasn't ... isn't like other people," Emily blinked hard. "She, uh ... After our parents died, she tried to kill herself."

"Emily..." Tina sighed.

"It was hard and it took a long time," Emily sucked her lips for a moment. "Barbara was what she needed. Without her..."

Emily picked up a napkin and wiped her eyes, struggling to keep herself together. She'd kept it all inside for the last three days, since she'd found out about Lisa's disappearance, but now, as she tried to explain to Tina what had happened ... So many bad memories. So much pain in her life and especially her sister's; it was all threatening to spill out of her at once.

"When did you learn that Lisa was missing?" Tina prompted the woman as gently as possible, her sympathy tempered with the need for information.

"I tried to call her, um ... Sunday night and Monday," Emily said slowly. "When she didn't answer, I called the college. They didn't know anything."

"Okay," Tina nodded, giving Emily's hand a little squeeze.

"I finally talked to Dr. Moore, the college president," Emily let out a ragged breath. "He told me Lisa was missing. That he'd been looking for her and..."

"Did he say why he was looking for her?"

"Um..." Emily nodded. "Funeral arrangements for Barbara. Lisa was ... Barbara didn't have anyone else and..."

"So this Dr. Moore, he was aware of Lisa's relationship," Tina nodded.

"Yeah, I guess so," Emily agreed. "I drove down that night, uh ... I got here Tuesday, after the service for Barbara. Lisa ... She wasn't there. Moore didn't know where she was."

Tina nodded, understanding that Lisa's absence from Barbara's memorial service was Emily's proof that her sister wouldn't be coming back. A girl with a history of depression and attempted suicide, losing someone she loved, perhaps the only person she loved other than Emily? It wasn't unlikely that Lisa would do something drastic and Tina knew it. She'd seen it before as sexual crimes often took a heavy toll on victims and their families.

Something didn't fit though and Tina frowned, unsure of what it was just then. She had the feeling that a piece was missing, or just slightly out of place perhaps, and that was curious. Tina had little doubt that Lisa's disappearance was more than just a sad footnote to Barbara Welch's death. There was a real connection, she thought, one that extended beyond the obvious. The Ranger just needed to find out what it was.

"What's that woman still doing here?" Floyd Peterson, a gaunt man of some fifty years frowned. "Who's she talking to?"

"Don't know," Owen Fiddler was frowning as well. He was large with a lazy posture and small eyes. "Looks like a lawyer maybe. Good lookin' for a 'can, ain't she?"

"You're the sheriff," Floyd ignored Fiddler's foolish question. "Go find out. We don't need anyone poking around."

"I'll find out soon enough," Fiddler nodded, cutting into his stack of hotcakes while he watched Emily and Tina from across the diner. "There ain't nothin' to poke anyways."

"There better not be," the county coroner leaned across the table, although the two men were already speaking softly. "You took care of it right?"

"The file?" Fiddler dragged his eyes off Tina's long legs. "Don't worry, I took care of it."

"Don't fuck this one up," Floyd's dark eyes stared at the sheriff until the florid lawman put his fork down. "You run that sister out of town, understand me? The other one too," Floyd's glanced at Tina. "She don't look right to me."

"She looks right to me," Fiddler chuckled and then scowled as Floyd gave him a hard look. "I'll take care of it."

"Good," Floyd stood up slowly and made his way out of the diner, smiling and nodding at a few people. Like most everyone in the diner that morning, he'd been born and raised in West Abilene, and strangers made him nervous.

"Prick," Fiddler said under his breath. He had that file locked up, the original sheriff's investigation and coroner's report, which were a far cry from the official findings in the case. Floyd had wanted it burned, but Fiddler knew a good thing when he saw it and having a little something, a little insurance, wasn't a bad thing at all. Floyd might be his brother-in-law, but Fiddler knew he was a sneaky son of a bitch too. Prick. He took another bite of his breakfast and turned his attention back on Emily and her friend.

They were a pair, the man thought. One white as snow, pretty as an angel; the other dark and beautiful as a Mexican sunset. A fuckin' lawyer, the sheriff snorted. A girl like that oughta be working on her back down in Juarez, she'd make good money spreadin' those long brown legs of hers. Might have to run the bitch in just to give her a little strip search, Fiddler thought. It wouldn't be the first time he'd put an uppity beaner back in her place.

"More coffee, Sheriff?" Mardi Ramirez offered the pot with a forced smile. Her full name was Mardi Gras because her father had been an Anglo from New Orleans, according to Mardi's mother, but no one knew for certain. That woman knew how to spread 'em and Fiddler himself had paid the woman twenty dollars to take his virginity, along with two of his high school friends.

"Why thank you, Mardi," Fiddler smiled big at the sixteen year old, both of them remembering the way he'd felt her body up the other night. "Your gramps get that light fixed like I told him?"

"Y-Yes sir." The teen nodded with a nervous blush and her hand was shaking as she refilled the Sheriff's cup slowly.

"Just remember, I'm keepin' a special eye on you." Fiddler's left hand brushed the girl's smooth thigh and she jerked away from it. "Careful now."

"S-Sorry, Sheriff," Mardi blinked rapidly at the small bit of coffee she'd spilled and the girl wiped it up quickly.

"And say hi to your mama for me," the man chuckled.

Fiddler watched her hurry away, admiring the girl's ass beneath the short white skirt of her waitress uniform. Stopping Mardi's grandfather for a busted taillight had been a good excuse to do a quick search of the half-breed's hot little body. Making Old Ramirez watch helplessly while the sheriff fingered his granddaughter had only made it better and the sheriff hadn't been surprised to find the girl wasn't a virgin; girls like Mardi never were. Fiddler wondered what that beaner lawyer was driving and decided he'd have to find out, cause all he needed was an excuse and being the sheriff, well ... The man didn't even need much of that, did he?

" ... missing girl, huh?" Captain Mahoney had just sat down at his desk when his phone rang. "You got anything more than that?"

"No sir," Tina admitted, leaning against her car in the motel parking lot. "It's just a feeling. I want to get somebody from Behavioral Sciences on this with me. She might just be taking some time..."

"But you don't think so. Who'd you have in mind?" Mahoney looked up with a smile as Rosie, his secretary put the man's morning coffee on his desk. "Thanks Rose."

"The forensics guy, Prescott," Tina suggested. "I've worked with him before. I just want an opinion."

"Okay," Mahoney agreed and this had been the real reason for Tina's call, not to report on what little progress she'd made, but to get more assets. "I'll cut through the tape. What else do you need?"

"I don't know yet," Tina looked around the parking lot, seeing the diner across the highway and the edge of town coming to life at 8am on a Thursday morning. "I'm going to the sheriff's office now, so you might get some phone calls. I'd hate to put you off your lunch, Boss."

"Heh," Mahoney grinned at that. "A little righteous indigestion might make me feel better. Raise some hell if you have to, Vasquez. If something happened to the other girl..."