"You know, I think I missed something, not going to college."

"What? The college girls?" Trent smiled at his friend.

"Yeah."

"Carlos, most of these girls haven’t even hit their twenties yet."

"So? What’s your point?" Carlos smiled at a few girls across the bar.

"Remember, Carlos, we are actually supposed to be working." Trent and Carlos were at a university pub on a very busy Thursday night. A series of murders had been occurring at the university, and they were there to find information.

"Yeah, I know. Now I am going to mingle," Carlos said with a large smile on his face. As Trent watched, Carlos maneuvered to the other side of the bar towards the girls he had smiled at. Trent just smiled and shook his head.

"Hi." Trent was surprised to hear a voice from right beside him. "Are you on the faculty?"

Trent turned to face a young girl of no more than 18. He smiled and responded, "no, just a mature student."

"My name is Gina and I just love older men," she smiled, putting her hands on his chest.

Trent blushed uncomfortably. "Thanks but…uhh." Just as he was about to finish, a guy ran to the bar and yelled to the bartender.

"Call and ambulance! Someone is having a seizure!" Trent immediately removed Gina’s hands and followed the guy back to the dance floor. On the floor was an unconscious blond with another girl administering CPR.

"I know CPR," Trent yelled to be heard above the music. "What do you want me to do?" He got down on his knees by the girl’s head.

"On the count of five, give here a breath," the girl told him. She counted her chest thrusts. "1..2..3..4..5..Breathe. 1..2..3..4..5..Breathe." After about 5 cycles, Trent checked for a pulse and her breathing.

"She’s got a pulse, and she’s breathing" he yelled. "Turn her over into the recovery position." As they did so, he asked the girl, "How much did she drink?"

"Not much," she answered frantically. "She had one and then a guy sent a drink over to her. When she finished it, she just collapsed."

The EMT’s arrived and took over. As Trent updated them on what happened, Carlos helped the girl to her feet. "What’s your name?" he asked.

"Sue," she responded. The gravity of the situation was beginning to hit her and she leaned on Carlos for support. "Is Claire going to be okay?" she asked meekly.

"Well, you certainly helped her. Come on, we’ll take you to the hospital." Carlos gently led her out of the pub as Trent joined them.

The ambulance pulled away with the siren wailing and the lights flashing. As Carlos helped Sue into the Durango, Trent stepped over to talk to the police officer. "We’ll take her to the hospital. You might want to talk to her there because I think someone slipped the victim something. Might just be the guy we’re looking for." The officer nodded and told Trent they would follow them. Trent went to join Carlos and Sue in the Durango.

As Carlos pulled away, Trent started to ask Sue questions. "Are you sure she only had two drinks?"

"Yes. She doesn’t drink very much."

"Did you see the guy who sent her the drink?"

"Yeah, from a distance. Why?"

"Well, Sue it’s possible he slipped something in her drink. It might have been something to knock her out but he gave her too much."

"You mean like the ‘Rape Drug’?"

‘Exactly. Never accept a drink form someone else. What did he look like?"

Sue thought for a moment then looked at Carlos. "He actually looked like you," she said.

"Like me?"

"Yes. He was tall and had dark curly hair like yours. I don’t think he was Hispanic though." Sue looked down at her hands. "Does this have anything to do with the murders around the campus," she asked quietly.

Carlos and Trent exchanged glances. "It might. How much do you know about those?" Carlos asked.

"Just rumours. There hasn’t been anything in the papers about them but word is going around campus."

"Well," Trent said, "there have been a couple and the university is trying to keep it quiet. WE are here to see if we can find anything. Unfortunately, this might be an unrelated case. The Rape Drug is being seen more and more. But you should know that you’ve helped your friend in more ways than one."

"I just hope she’ll be okay," Sue mumbled as tears began to run down her cheeks. Trent hugged her.

"I’m sure she will. The police are going to ask you about this. Tell them everything you can. And if you see us around the university, just smile and say ‘hi’." They had arrived at the hospital. Trent got out and walked Sue in, meeting the police officers in the lobby. Trent introduced her to them and then took his leave. As he was leaving he stopped at the desk and was told Claire was doing well.

**

"Butch, can I ask you a question?" Jessie was standing behind the bar at Uppercuts. It was a quiet Friday afternoon and there were only a few patrons in the bar.

"Sure Jess. What is it?"

"You can tell me it is none of my business if you want," Butch raised an eyebrow as Jessie continued. "What happened to Trent and Carlos? I mean they both seem to be in such .…" Jess searched for the right word . "Pain."

Butch hung his head. "C’mon, Jess. Let’s take a seat." Butch led her to a table and motioned for her to have a seat. "It began a few years ago," he started. "Trent had witnessed a mob killing and went on to testify about it. His testimony put the man away. Maurice Foley. His son took exception to that and tried to get back at Trent. He did it by killing his wife and trying to kill Carlos. He hired someone to plant a bomb at Trent and Sam’s house. Sam survived but they got to her in the hospital. Trent was devastated. They had been together for awhile but they had only been married for a matter of days." Butch breathed deeply and continued. "Next was Carlos. They kidnapped him and kept him so Trent could watch him die. As Trent was trying to get Carlos out, they shot him. Foley not only wanted to kill Trent, he wanted him to suffer. Trent almost killed Foley with his bare hands and would have if Carlos hadn’t talked him out of it. Now, Trent is trying to deal with the guilt. Sam died simply because she was married to Trent."

Jess was stunned by what she had heard. She had no idea of the tragedy and said so. "Is there anything I can do to help him?" she asked.

"Just give him some space, Jess. He needs time to get over it. He still hasn’t been back to their apartment. It didn’t help that Sam’s sister blamed both Trent and Carlos for Sam’s death. Carlos and Sam were very close, too and I think he is also trying to deal with the loss while trying to be strong for Trent."

"She sounds like she was greatly loved."

"She was, Jess. She was a hell of a person." A sadness came into Butch’s eyes.

"Thanks, Butch, for helping me to understand. I appreciate it."

"No problem, Jess."

**

"We think he may look a bit like Carlos," Trent told Walker. "The only problem is we don’t know if this was related or not."

"All the victims had traces of the drug in their system. Claire’s was positive, too. There is a chance that this guy might just be our guy." Walker sat down at his desk at Ranger headquarters. "I want you guys back there, finding out everything you can."

"Gotcha, Walker," Carlos said. The door opened and in walked Alex. "Hi Alex," Carlos said with a smile.

"Hi gentlemen. Trent, can I talk to you in private?" Alex motioned to a foyer, away from Walker’s desk.

"Sure Alex. What is it?"

Alex’ face took on a concerned look. "Trent, you know the trial starts tomorrow. I just had some disturbing news I thought you should know about." Alex breathed deeply. "Trent, they are going to attack Sam’s credibility and her character as part of their strategy." She keep her eyes on Trent, noticing his face turn white and his expression become hard.

"Her character? Why?" he asked, stunned.

"They seem to think by attacking her character they can prove that someone else might have tried to kill her. They’ll attack you too."

"He kills her, admits it to both me and Carlos and they are going to say it was someone else? Who would have wanted Sam dead?" Trent was getting angrier and his voice was rising.

"Yes but there was no independent witness. They know she was a suspect in the Louth murder and that she helped a student who was heavily involved in drugs. They will use those to point the finger away from Foley."

Trent’s voice became hard. "I should have killed him when I had the chance. I swear Alex if he gets out, I will."

"Trent, calm down. He won’t get off. I just thought you should be prepared for what might be said about Sam." Alex put a hand on his arm, trying to calm him down.

"There is no justice for her." Shaking his head, Trent stormed out of Ranger HQ.

**

Jessie looked around as she entered the karate dojo. A lesson was just ending and the students were passing her on their way out. Standing off to one side, with a clipboard was a young man.

As Jessie approached he spoke. "Can I help you?"

"Hi," Jessie said with a smile. "I’m looking for Trent Malloy. Is he here?"

"Yep. He’s in the back. That thumping noise is him pounding the bag." He reached out his hand. "I’m his brother, Tommy Malloy."

"Hi Tommy. I’m Jessie, a friend of Trent’s. Kim told me he might be here."

"I can’t guarantee he is in a mood to talk. When he comes in and starts hitting the bag, I just leave him alone. But, feel free to try."

"Thanks, Tommy." Jessie made her way to the back of the dojo. As she moved around the corner, she saw Trent punching the bag with ferocity. She thought about taking Tommy’s advice but decided she had already come this far. She moved farther into the room. "Hi Trent," she called.

Looking up, Trent was surprised to see Jessie at the dojo. "Hi," he said, less than cheerfully. "What are you doing here?" he asked before going back to punching.

"Kim said you might be here. Do you want to talk about why you are hitting that bag so hard?"

"No," Trent said without looking up. "I said if I wanted to talk I would. But I’m not." His punches got harder and a silence fell over the room. Finally, Trent spoke again. "Is that what you came here for? To see if I wanted to talk?"

"No, but it seemed like an appropriate thing to ask. It’s pretty obvious that you are upset."

"Upset isn’t the half of it. Angry enough to kill is more like it."

The brutality of Trent’s statement caught Jessie off guard. The more she knew Trent the more she realized she didn’t really know him. She walked around the room and her eyes caught a picture on his desk. There was Trent, his arm around a smiling woman. It was obvious they were in love. Trent saw her looking at the picture. Almost impossibly, his punches got harder.

"This must be your wife, " Jessie said, stopping Trent from punching.

"Yes," he said. "Samantha." Jessie looked up at him and he knew she had been told.

"She’s beautiful."

"Yes, she was." Trent was staring at her now, deep sadness written all over his face.

"I’m sorry, Trent. I didn’t mean to….."

"That’s okay," he said walking over and taking the picture from his desk. "Most people don’t want to talk about her for fear that it will upset me. I mean it does but I don’t want people to forget her either."

"They don’t, Trent. Everyone just deals with grief in their own way. Right now their concern is with the living." Jessie put her hand on his arm. "What happened today?"

Trent put picture back down and headed back over to the bag. "Even though she’s gone I still can’t protect her."

"Why?"

"It doesn’t matter. What did you want?"

Jessie remembered why she originally went to find Trent. "You said to tell you if there was anything suspicious or out of the ordinary at the university, right?"

"Yes," Trent said. "Why? Do you know something?"

"Well, one of my teaching assistants told me about a guy who was in her seminar today. They were talking about abnormal sexual behaviour and he made some very inappropriate comments. Moreso to her after the seminar."

Trent was intrigued. "What did he look like? Did she say?"

"She said he was tall, with dark curly hair. I guess it wasn’t just what he said but how he said it."

Trent took off his gloves and moved to the phone. "Jessie, call this girl and tell her to be careful. This may be our guy. If she is willing I’d really like to talk to her."

The look in Trent’s eye scared her. "Is she in danger?"

"I don’t know. He may have tried to get someone yesterday and failed so he could be desperate. Call her now." Trent handed her the phone.

Jessie dialed the phone but got an answering machine. Quickly she left a message. When she was finished, she turned back to Trent. "I know where she lives. Should we drop by to make sure everything is okay?"

"Just let me change and we’ll go."

**

"Gina? Gina? Are you home?" Jessie tried the door to the apartment and it wasn’t locked. Cautiously she entered, followed by Trent. "Gina?" Jessie called again. She walked through the apartment and into the kitchen. On the floor was Gina. "Trent! She’s here." Trent came running into the kitchen. He quickly recognized the girl he had met at the pub the other night. He knelt beside her and felt for a pulse. It was there but weak.

"Call 911, Jessie. She’s been beaten pretty bad." As Jessie reached for the kitchen phone, Trent reached into this pocket and dialed Ranger HQ.