The intercom buzzed at 7:45 at Sarah’s apartment. She immediately pressed the button to open the security door downstairs and then unlocked her apartment door. As she was brushing her hair, she heard the knock and yelled, "Come in!" As she rounded the corner to the living room she was about to say, "You’re early," but she stopped in her tracks. She quickly regrouped. "Carlos, what are you doing here?"

"I have to talk to you, Sarah. Let me guess; Vince is on his way."

"Yes. That’s why you have to leave." Sarah started moving towards the door.

"Sarah, I did something today that I shouldn’t have," Carlos said, staring at the car keys in his hands. "But now that I have, I have to tell you."

"Carlos.."

"Sarah, I ran his name through the computers."

"Stop right there!" Sarah said, her anger rising. "You had no right to do that."

"I know, Sarah, but you aren’t the only one with instincts," Carlos told her, trying to defend the action he knew was wrong.

"I don’t want to know. If he has something to tell me, he will."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because our relationship is built on trust."

"Relationship? Trust?" Carlos was incredulous. "You’ve known him for two weeks, Sarah."

"You are just jealous, Carlos. It galls you that I’ve found someone else." Sarah’s voice was rising.

"No one wants you to be happier than I do. If that includes me, then great. If it doesn’t than I can deal with that, too."

"Yeah, by checking everyone out. I don’t know why I ever trusted you. I know you went for drinks with other women, I can only imagine what you were doing when I was still in Canada." Sarah regretted the words as soon as she spoke them. Carlos stood silent, unbelieving what he had just heard. Finally, Sarah spoke. "I think you should just leave, Carlos."

"Yes, I think you should, too." They both turned to see Vince standing in the doorway. "Sarah promised me that she would stay away from you two. Now, if I can just get you to say away from her." Vince’s voice was like ice.

Carlos turned to Sarah, barely able to control his voice. "Did you promise to say away from us, or should I say me, since it is going to be pretty hard to avoid Trent, isn’t it?"

"Why’s that?" Vince asked.

"You figure it out, Sherlock," Carlos spat. Turning back to Sarah, he spoke softly. "After everything we’ve been through…."

"Maybe because of it," Sarah said, her voice barely above a whisper. She couldn’t look at Carlos.

"Yeah, well you don’t seem to hesitate to call me when you need help." His voice grew hard and he never took his eyes off Sarah "From now on, you better find some other lackey." Carlos turned to leave.

"She doesn’t need your help, Starsky. She needs a real man."

In a split second Carlos had Vince pinned against the wall by his throat. "My name is Sandoval. San-do-val. Get it? And you wouldn’t know a real man if he walked up and kicked your ass."

"Carlos, put him down!"

"And if you hurt her, I will break every bone in your body."

"Is that a threat?" Vince managed to croak."

"Consider it a promise." Turning to look Sarah right in the eye, Carlos told both of them, "She may not care about me but I still care about her." Carlos dropped Vince to the floor and started out the door.

"My father is powerful in this city! You won’t get away with this!" Vince yelled as Carlos walked down the hall and into the waiting elevator.

***

"Hello?"

"Uh, hi Trent. It’s Butch."

"Hi Butch. What’s up?"

"Are you busy right now?"

"Sam and I are just watching a movie. Why?" Sam looked up at Trent, perplexed at only hearing half of the conversation.

"Well, it’s Carlos."

"Is he okay?" Trent was beginning to get concerned, as was Sam.

"Yeah, for now. He’s down here and he’s drinking. Alone. I think it’s a Sarah thing. You might want to come and collect him."

"Okay, Butch. I’ll be right down." As Trent hung up the phone, he relayed the other half of the conversation to Sam. "Carlos is getting drunk at Uppercuts. Butch thinks it’s about Sarah."

Sam shook her head. "I’ll drive you down there and you can drive him home. Besides, if something has happened, I’m bound to get a call from the other half."

***

Half an hour later, Trent walked into Uppercuts. A bleary eyed Carlos looked up at him.

"Geez, I ask Butch to call me a cab and I get you."

"You want me to leave?" Trent asked as he sat at the table with Carlos.

"No. You probably wouldn’t anyway."

Trent smiled. "No, probably not. Want to talk about it?"

"Not much to say." Carlos tone grew serious as he stared off into space.

"Sarah?" Trent asked the obvious question.

"Yeah, can’t live with her, can’t shoot her."

"Well, they do frown on that." Trent knew his friend didn’t really mean what he said.

"Actually, I had Vince by the throat. Coulda killed him easily." Trent winced. Carlos continued. "That guy is all wrong, but she just thinks I’m jealous. I ran his name through the computer and you know what I found?" Trent shook his head. "Nothing. The guy doesn’t exist."

"May be it was the wrong name," Trent suggested.

"I tried every possible spelling and combination of Vince and Reid. Nothing." Carlos looked at his glass. "But after what she said, I should just let her sink on her own." Trent waited for the rest of the story that he knew would follow. He didn’t wait long. "Do you know she told that slime she wouldn’t see either of us?" Carlos said, pointing to both himself and Trent. "And she said that she couldn’t trust me. Man, I don’t even look at another woman for almost a year and she says she can’t trust me."

"He’s got her messed up, Carlos. She’ll figure it out." Trent at least hoped she would.

"Yeah, and in the mean time she expects me to be there to help her out when she needs it."

"C’mon, buddy. Let’s go home. Tomorrow, we’ll look more into this Vince guy, and if it comes down to it, I’ll let you have first shot at him," Trent said with a smile. He got to his feet and helped Carlos to his. Trent waved to Butch as he and Carlos headed out of Uppercuts.

***

"Look, Vince, I’m sorry but I’ve realized I’ve made a mistake. I need more time before I get involved in anything serious." Sarah was standing at her apartment door.

"It’s Starsky, isn’t it?" Vince was obviously upset.

"No, it’s me. I have to work out a few things. And it isn’t fair to you until I do. Maybe we can get back together in the future."

"Fine. Dump me for that bum." Vince’s voice was getting louder. "After all I’ve given you and all I’ve done for you. You just took my money and threw me away. Well, I hope you are happy with that criminal!" Vince turned and stalked down the hall as Sarah saw some of her neighbours peeking out their doors. She quickly went inside her apartment. Throwing her coat and purse on the couch she picked up the phone. She almost dialed Carlos’ number but she stopped. Instead, she dialed Sam’s.

"Hello?"

"Hi Sis."

"I’ve been expecting this," Sam told her.

"Then you’ve talked to Carlos?" Sarah’s voice sounded despondant,

"No, Trent went to drive him home from Uppercuts."

"Oh. Do you think we could meet at the coffee shop? I really screwed up, Sam."

"Alright. I’ll be there in 10." Sam hung up the phone. She didn’t really want to get involved in this but she couldn’t abandon her sister. She quickly grabbed her coat and purse and headed out the door. She would call Trent on the way.

When Sam walked into the coffee shop, she saw Sarah sitting by herself at a booth in the back. She went to the counter and ordered a tea before joining her sister.

"Hi." Sarah tried to smile.

"Hi," Sam said.

"Are you going to tell me how you knew this was going to happen?" Sarah asked.

"No, Sarah. Actually I was hoping things would work out between you two. I just don’t like either of you getting hurt. What happened?"

"I think I screwed everything up for good." Sarah quickly recapped her conversation with Carlos to her sister, leaving nothing out. Sam just shook her head.

"Did you really think you could get away with not seeing them, Sarah? Or why would you want to, just for Vince, after everything those two have done for you."

"Or done to me. Thanks, Sam." For a moment, Sarah was hurt. "I didn’t really plan to avoid them. I would just keep them and Vince apart. But you’re right. I broke up with Vince tonight. All night, all I could think about was the look on Carlos’ face and how much I had hurt him. The stupidest thing of all is it made me realize how much I am still in love with him. I want him back, Sam."

"Well, Sarah the truth of it is you may not get him back. You need to do a hell of a lot of growing up before you will."

"What?" Sarah was perplexed. "I’m a grown woman, working as a veterinarian…."

Sam cut her off. "Yes and when it comes to relationships, you act like a child. When Carlos really needed you, you left. Now you accuse him of being unfaithful and untrustworthy when you know better. He had to deal with the guilt of that woman being murdered because of him and every time you bring it up it opens the wound. Just because you were upset that he had a drink with another woman." Sam knew this was hard for her sister to hear but it was necessary.

Sarah stood up. "I should have figured you would be on his side."

"I’m not on anyone’s side, Sarah"

"Yeah right," Sarah said as she turned and walked out of the coffee shop.

***

"Okay, the tranquilizer has taken affect. Load it up." Two men entered the cage where the sedated tiger lay. They struggled under the weight as they lifted the animal on to a stretcher and carried it over to the waiting truck. The man who had given the order walked down the row of pens until he got to the one he wanted. Inside, a panther paced nervously, growling. The man pulled out a gun and fired. The panther went down in a heap. As he walked back to the truck one of the other man turned to him.

"What was that for?"

"Spite," he was told.

***

Sarah has slept poorly, thinking about what her sister had said. In her heart, she knew Sam was right but she didn’t want to admit it. "At least I can have some peace at the sanctuary," she thought. But as she pulled up she knew something was wrong. She hurried into the office, and was startled to find the tranquilizer gun lying on her desk as if it had been placed there. She ran out to the pens. The tiger cage was empty but what horrified her more was the site in her panther’s cage. Oscar was still alive but barely. He was bleeding badly. Sarah ran back to the office and called the police. Then she grabbed a hypodermic and a small vial. Crying, she went back to the cage, knowing what she had to do next.

***

"Hello?"

"Hi Carlos, is Trent there?" Sam’s voice showed her urgency. Trent had stayed at Carlos’ place after bringing him home.

"Yeah, just a minute. What’s wrong?"

"Someone broke into the sanctuary and took Sheba and shot Oscar. Can Trent meet me there?"

"Is Sarah okay?" Carlos asked.

"Yes. She said she would like your help, Carlos but if you don’t she’ll understand." There was silence on the line. "Carlos?"

"I’ll bring Trent over to the sanctuary."

"Thanks, Carlos."

***

Police cars were already at the sanctuary when Trent and Carlos pulled up. Sarah was sitting on the porch, staring off into space. She tried to smile as Trent and Carlos approached the porch.

"Thanks for coming. I guess I should have listened to you yesterday, huh?" It was obvious that Sarah had been crying.

"You couldn’t have known, Sarah," Trent told her as he went to sit beside her. Carlos remained at the bottom of the porch steps. "What happened?"

"They took Sheba."

"Have the police found anything?" Carlos asked.

"Tire tracks. And they left the tranquilizer gun sitting on my desk like they were bragging about it. They are going to take it but they don’t think they will find any prints. What I don’t understand is Oscar. They shot him and left him to die. It was like it was done for fun." Tears started to roll down her cheeks. "I had to put him down. Why would they do that?" Trent and Carlos just looked at each other, not knowing what to say.

Sam pulled up and joined them on the porch as a detective and Sarah’s boss, Tony Capri walked back from the pens.

"So what you are telling me is that the Dallas PD won’t do anything about this?" Tony said, angrily.

"We’ll work on it but I have to be honest. Human crimes take precedence and we don’t have much to go on. We can autopsy the panther but because she gave it the shot, it’s not going to help much."

"I wasn’t going to let him suffer any more that he had," Sarah told them.

"Whatever," the detective said, dismissively. "I’m just telling you."

"Fine." Tony said, turning to Trent and Carlos. "Guys? I want to hire you to find the monster that killed my panther and stole my tiger. Will you do it?"

Trent looked at Carlos for an answer. He got it. "For you, Tony, sure we’ll do it."

"Great. You can get all the particulars from Sarah."

Go to Part 4

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