PART 7

The shadowy figure crept closer and closer to the being crouched on the floor. Just then the being sprang upwards and landed a sharp right uppercut to the other figure's jaw sending that person to the floor. Tandi ran as fast as she could to the light switch on the wall on flicked it on at the same time she heard, "Freeze!" Carlos was standing right in front of her with a gun pointed in her direction!

"TANDI!" Carlos screamed. "What are you doing? What the...?"

"What am *I* doing? You just about gave me a heart attack!" She paused, "And please, don't point that thing at me!"

"I... Sorry," Carlos said as he lowered his gun and raised his hand to his forehead. "What are you doing up?"

"I was thirsty. I was going to get some water and I dropped the glass. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. Honest!" Tandi was almost in tears. Carlos had scared her more than she was permitting herself to show.

"Well, how about we go ahead and clean up this mess and then go back to bed," Carlos said in attempt to calm *everyone's* nerves down.

"Back to bed? I don't think I can sleep now. I don't think I am thirsty either."

"Just hand me the broom, okay?"

Trent awoke to a knock at the door.  **What the...?** He glanced over at the clock. 5:30.  **Surely it's not Walker coming to call this early! Doesn't that man ever sleep?**  "Just a minute," he called out to the visitor in the hall. Trent stumbled out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans and grabbed a tee-shirt and opened the door. Before he had time to react and before he knew what was going on, he was unconscious and carried out on his way to a waiting vehicle.

Meanwhile, back at the Sandoval residence, Tandi had never even went back to sleep and Carlos had watched the clock on the VCR blink "12:00" all night long.
**I have got to figure out how to reset that thing!** Finally, 8 am rolled around and Carlos picked himself up off the couch and sauntered into the kitchen. He paused for a moment, recalling the events of the past night, before reaching into a bottom cabinet and fumbled around in it in order to find a pan for bacon and eggs.

"Want some help?" Tandi asked as she entered in.

"Sure."

Tandi found a pack of bacon in the fridge as well as a few eggs. Carlos opened the package, laid a few strips of the meat in the pan, and began to crack open the eggs. Tandi searched through the cabinets for flour and, once finding some, started working on making biscuits. In about an hour, they had breakfast made and on the table. Ten minutes later, they had devoured their culinary accomplishments and embarked upon the task of cleaning their mess. It took about as long to clean up as it did to cook!

Trent woke up on a cold cement floor. He had no idea where he was or how he *managed* to get there.
Regaining consciousness, he noticed he had an extremely adverse headache. He felt of his head,  **No blood... That's a good sign.** And fumbled around in the darkness to find a door knob, light switch, or something that would let him know where he was.

After cleaning up the kitchen, Carlos followed Tandi into the living room. "Okay. I think it is time we talk."

"Talk? Talk about what?" Tandi asked, hoping to avoid the question. When Carlos pointed to one of her bruises, she sighed an uninterested, "Oh, yeah..."

"So, what happened?" He had a hunch she was not going to tell him the truth.

"I got into a fight," she replied.

**Just maybe... Maybe she'll tell me...** Carlos thought. He pressed, "With who?"

"With the bases on the softball field," Tandi replied.

"Hmm..." Carlos said while pondering. "That doesn't explain that phone call last night."

"Oh, that. It was just someone I didn't want to talk to. That's all."

"Really?"

"Look," Tandi said as she stood up from the sofa, "I don't know what you are trying to get at! So, quit ‘beating around the bush' or whatever and just tell me what it is that you are thinking."

**Here goes nothing...**  "It's just a hunch, okay. No need to get mad at me or  anything, but here's what I think." Tandi sat back down on the couch and Carlos continued. "I think you are in a bit of trouble here... I played a bit of baseball when I was your age and let me tell you, I never saw anyone have near the amount of bruises that you have. And the phone calls?
Well, something tells me that it just wasn't a wrong number or someone you didn't want to talk to. An ex-boyfriend maybe? That's what I think." Carlos stood from his seat and looked Tandi straight in the eye.
"May I see your arm?"

At first Tandi refused, but then she reluctantly agreed and gave Carlos her arm. "Want to know why I think it is a boyfriend or ex-boyfriend? Look here..." Carlos held her wrist with one hand and put the other hand on top of one of the bruises. "See? Same size.
And don't tell me I don't know what I am talking about either. When I was a Detective, I saw things like this all the time. I saw husbands who beat their wives constantly. We'd take them to a safe-house, but by the end of the week, they were back at their home and it was happening all over again. There is one case in particular that I would love to forget, but I can't."

By this time, Tandi was almost in tears, but she managed to ask, "What happened?"

Carlos began to pace the room. "There was this woman.
Her name was Kirsten. I think she would be in her early forties now. She told me she had been dating this guy ever since she was in high- school. They went off to college together and after graduation, they married. She told me that while they were dating, things could not have been more... perfect." Carlos looked at Tandi. She was staring at the floor.
"Anyway, she told me that he was the man of her dreams and everything was like a... I think a *story book romance* was what she called it. Well,  to make a long story short, after they got married, she found out he had a horrible temper. What ever happened around the home, at work, with her kids --"

"She had kids?" Tandi asked, shocked. This pulled her from her gaze at the floor.

"Yeah. They were really beautiful too. She had a set of twins. I can't remember their names, but one was a girl and one was a boy. I think the girl had blond hair and the other had either a dark brown or black hair color. I think that they would be a little bit older than you now. Come to think of it... I wonder what happened to them."

Tandi was beginning to take interest in this saga.
"So, what happened?"

"Well, like I said, she found out he had a horrid temper. He would beat her senseless and we would come in and take her and her children to a safe-house...
She refused to press charges, saying that what happened was her fault. She would end up being back at her house in a matter of days. This lasted for almost a year. Ten months, I think. He would beat her, we'd take her to the hospital and then take her and her kids to the safe-house and she'd go back home. Then one night we got a call about a homicide at her address. He killed her and ran. You want to know what the worst part was?"

"What?" Tandi  asked, almost wanting not to.

"He made their kids watch as he beat their mother...night after night. He even made them sit and watch as he killed their mother. When he ran, he told them that if they told anyone what happened, he would do the same thing to them and as far as I know, they still have yet to find him. I wish I knew what happened to the kids though... You know, like where they are now and all." He glanced at Tandi, who now was in tears, and added, "I am telling you the truth.
Now, do you want to tell me what is really going on?"

"I don't know where to start..." she sobbed.

"How did you meet him?"

"Did you find your accommodations to be satisfactory?" Trent heard as a door on the side of the room was opened.

"Yeah, fine," he answered as he covered his eyes from the blinding light.

"Why don't you come with me?" the man asked. "We need to talk."

Trent followed the stranger from the room, down the hall, and into a car outside. As the car sped down the road, the man began to speak.

"I checked on some things last night, called a few friends, and you know, nothing seemed to come up on your name."

Trent looked him squarely in the eye before answering, "Is that a bad thing?" In the back of his mind he was thinking, **What have I gotten myself into?**

"Not necessarily. Not for what we were looking for."

"And that was?"

"Someone matching your description who is  a cop, was a cop, that sort of thing. Fortunately, for you, we didn't find anything. In our sort of *profession* we have to be careful about who we let know what.  Now, we shall get down to business."

The car began to slow down as it approached the city limits. Just before entering, the chauffeur  pulled off onto a long driveway and drove up to the front of a French-doored mansion. The driver turned off the engine and stepped around the car and opened the door for the occupants. Trent was the first to get out and was followed by his soon to be *employer.*