PART 6

Trent was vaguely aware of a friendly commotion downstairs involving a doorbell and laughter and feet making their way up their steps and down the hall to Tandi's room.

"Hey buddy, ready to go?" A voice asked from the doorway.

"What?" Trent asked as he turned to see who was there.
"Carlos? Go where?"

"Oh, now, come on, don't tell me you forgot about that ‘stake-out' you arranged for us to do tonight?" Carlos retorted.

"Sorry," Trent replied. He sighed heavily as he looked toward Carlos and back to Tandi. "Carlos, will you excuse us for a minute?"

"Sure." Carlos stepped out into the hall. He did not intend on eavesdropping, but somehow he just couldn't seem to avoid it.

Trent turned back to Tandi. "We are not finished talking about this and it is going to be late before I will be back in. I will pick you up from school tomorrow and we will continue this discussion then.
Okay?"

"Trent this is not your problem, okay? Who do you think you are and what are you trying to prove?  You are not my Dad!"

**Ouch!** Carlos thought. Those words stung him and he was not even ‘in' the conversation.  **I hate to think what Trent must be feeling right now!**
 

Trent sighed once more before leaving her for the night. He hated to do it, but he had already made commitments to be elsewhere. His mind was convulsing with thoughts of dread for his sister, feelings of hurt, and trying to maintain a level of sanity for work tonight. He raised himself up off the bed and walked out into the hall. As he closed the door to Tandi's bedroom, he looked at his friend and said, "Come on, Carlos. Let's go." Then escorting his friend downstairs and out the door, they walked to the Durango.

"Wanna talk about it?" Carlos  asked his friend on the way over to Thunder Investigations. He could not help but to have noticed the growing animosity between Trent and Tandi back at the house.

"Carlos, I --" Trent paused to think. "You know how, well, back when you were working with the police force and you saw things happen to people and think ‘That will never happen to me' or ‘to my family'?"

"Yeah?" Carlos replied more as a question than an answer. As they slowed down for the red-light, he asked, "And?"

"One of the main reasons I left the Army was so I could be closer to my family. Closer with my family, actually. I didn't expect Tommy, Tyler, or Tandi to think I was trying to take over Thunder's role. I didn't want them to. Sometimes, it just seems --"

Carlos cut him off right there. "Trent, look, whatever is wrong with Tandi --"

Trent, who had been staring off into space, suddenly turned to Carlos and said, "I know she is going to hate me for this, but I am going to anyway. Is Kim going to be at the office?"

"She?" Carlos asked rater confused. "Kim or Tandi?"

"Tandi."

"Oh," Carlos said. "Yeah, I think Kim was gonna be there. Yeah, she already is," he stated as they pulled up in front of Thunder Investigations. "There's her car."

"Good!"

"He - HEY!" Carlos shouted. He had not even stopped yet, much less turned off the engine, before Trent jumped out of the Durango and bounded up the outside steps to Thunder Investigations.  **I don't know what he is thinking, but it had better be good!** Carlos thought.

"Kim, I need you to do something for me, please,"Trent said as he burst through the door.

"What? No ‘Hi, how are you?'!" Kim joked.

"Sorry," Trent said sheepishly. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Sure. What do you need?"

Trent had Kim contact the phone company and acquire a copy of his phone records for that night.  "May I ask why?" Kim wondered.

"I think Tandi is in a bit of trouble. As a matter of fact, I know she *IS* in trouble. Tommy said Tyler told his someone kept trying to get a hold of Tandi while the two of us were out shopping.  Well, anyway, when she and I came home, I assume that was who called again and got her all upset.  I want to find out a name to go with the number."

"Sure, Trent. I'll work on that first thing in the morning. You tow have fun now!" she said, turning to Carlos who was carrying a small, black duffel bag into the room.

"Got any film?" he asked.

"If there wasn't any in the back, I guess we don't have any."

"Well, I guess we had better get going so we can stop and get some then." Carlos averted his attention to Trent. "I've got the camera. Ready?"

"Yes." Before both guys headed out the door, Trent looked back at the office manager and said, "Thanks Kim."

"No problem. Good luck you guys."

"Ya know, this is looking too familiar..." Carlos whispered.

"Shhh!" Trent whispered back and grinned.

"Oh, no. Don't you even go there!" Carlos stated.
There they were again. Two private investigators scoping out a deserted warehouse. Well, almost deserted. "Here they are!" Carlos said.

"I know. I see them. You go the camera?"

"Right here." Carlos reached into the duffel bag and pulled out the camera he packed. "You're a better picture taker than I am," he said as he shoved the camera in Trent's direction.

"Thank you, I think."

"Shhh!" Carlos said rather mischievously.

Trent could not help but grin back at his partner. "I hope you packed the ‘non-auto-rewind' one."

"What? You don't trust me?"

Fortunately, for the guys, Carlos had packed the ‘non-auto-rewind' camera and the "surveillance" job was successful. The pictures being taken,  Carlos and Trent left the warehouse and headed two blocks down to the Durango. Trent had insisted they not park close by incase someone became suspicious. "Well, at least we now have the proof for Mr. Pierson he needed about his stolen VCR's."

"Yeah. Too bad it was his partner who was stealing them from the store," Carlos agreed.

"I know. If you can't trust your partner, who can you trust?" Trent said absentmindedly.

"Speaking of which..." Carlos paused as they reached the vehicle and stepped in.

"Speaking of what?" Trent asked.

"Wanna tell me what you plan on doing once you find out who it is that has been calling Tandi?"

"I'm not sure yet. I want to find out who this guy is first."

Morning had dawned upon the city of Dallas. It came all to early for the two private investigators.
"Morning Kim," Trent said sleepily.

"Hi ya guys! So, how'd it go last night? Good?" Kim inquired.

Carlos, quicker to respond than Trent, answered, "Yeah, pretty good. We got the pictures we needed."

"Correction, I got the pictures we needed, thank you!" Trent retorted. "Oh Kin, did you happen to get the phone records for me?"

"Yes, I did. Did Tyler tell you how often that guy called?"

"Not exactly. He said he called a lot though. That's all I know. Well, that and from what I talked to the guy on the phone. Why?" Trent asked as he came closer to Kim's desk.

"Well, in one hour, he called 38 times. That's more than once every two minutes!"

"What!?!"  **Good grief!**  "How many times did he call all together?"

"Well, let me see... 38... 42... 56... 45... 287 times all together within 4 hours. That's roughly one call per minute. Either this guy has got it bad, or I am inclined to agree with you that Tandi IS in trouble." Trent stared at Kim for a moment trying to find something to say.

Carlos asked, "Did you get a name?"

Kim shuffled through the papers lying on her desk.
"Yeah. Hold on a second. I have to hunt for it."  For a few seconds all that was heard in the office was the rustling of papers. "Got it!" Okay, here it is." She pulled out a separate document. "Dale Wilson."

"Dale Wilson?" Carlos asked, puzzled.

"Yeah. That's the name the phone company said." She turned to Trent and asked, "If you want, I can find an address to match that name," she paused. "Uh, Trent?"

"Does that name sound familiar?" Trent asked Carlos.

"Sort of. I'm not sure from where though. Oh, I don't know. Never mind."

Trent carefully eyed his friend before turning his attention back to Kim. "Kim, I need to ask a favor, again. And I really hate to impose, but I an not sure what I am going to do with Tandi."

"What do you mean?" she asked rather puzzled at what Trent was saying.

"Well, you know we were having Mom's birthday party at CD's tonight, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, her birthday is not until tomorrow, but she is leaving to be a chaperone for Tyler's freshman class trip to Austin next week. We decided to have her birthday party, surprise birthday party, before she leaves."

"And?" Carlos asked. Now, Trent had his attention as well as Kim's.

"Well, not only is Mom leaving, but so is Tommy. This was going to be his Spring Break and since they needed one more person, well, he decided to pitch in. I had planned to have Tandi stay with me all next week, but --" he was interrupted by Carlos.

"Does this have anything to do with the fight you two got into last night?" Carlos asked.

"No." Trent thought back to the incident... **"Trent this is not your problem, okay? Who do you think you are and what are you trying to prove?  You are not my Dad!"** He shuttered at recalling the words to his memory. "Walker called me last night and said he needed my help on a case. Something to do about going undercover and he needed someone he could trust who was not a police officer. He said he would stop by later today with more details." He turned back to Kim, "Well, what I was going to say was, I need someone to watch Tandi for two days, three at the most."

"Trent I would love to, but I can't. I have to leave tonight and go and check on Mom. My aunt called me early this morning to tell me Mom was in the hospital.
  I'm sorry." It hurt Kim to have to turn  Trent down, especially considering he really needed help.

Trent sighed, "I guess I need to call Walker and tell his I can't --"

"Trent, she could stay with me," Carlos interrupted.
"I can sleep on the couch."

"Carlos, I don't want to impose on you," Trent said as he shook his head.

"I don't mind. Besides, I think it will be fun, or at least, maybe, interesting?" Carlos replied, raising an eyebrow.

He could not help but laugh.  **Carlos and Tandi, that ought to work. Yeah right!**  "Tell you what, why don't you come by CD's tonight and we'll talk to Tandi. Okay?"