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Date Posted: 02:42:16 12/17/02 Tue
Author: SoldierBlue
Subject: Re: Studs, Texas - Book Two - The Little Alamo 1
In reply to: dqfan 's message, "Re: Studs, Texas - Book Two - Sat Night goes on" on 08:49:28 12/16/02 Mon

*Empty spaces - what are we living for
Abandoned places - I guess we know the score
On and on, does anybody know what we are looking for...

Another hero, another mindless crime
Behind the curtain, in the pantomime
Hold the line, does anybody want to take it anymore

The show must go on
The show must go on, yeah
Inside my heart is breaking
My make-up may be flaking
But my smile still stays on*

Shane was sitting in the darkened office, staring at the sun going down beyond the buildings and the high plains outside the window. Andy and CeCe had gone out very concerned, inviting him out to dinner, to have a little talk, and he had refused. It had come as no surprise to Val and Nick’s immediate superiors that the two detectives were completely unmanageable together; actually they had long suspected that they were unmanageable even one at a time. They had fully sympathised with poor Sheriff Garnett’s plight – especially Nick’s boss; she had never met Shane, but on learning that he was a friend of Nick’s she had become maternal and flirtatious at the same time – and had not made him privy to which steps they would take against the two wayward officers.

*Whatever happens, I'll leave it all to chance
Another heartache, another failed romance
On and on, does anybody know what we are living for?

I guess I'm learning (I'm learning learning learning)
I must be warmer now
I'll soon be turning (turning turning turning)
Round the corner now
Outside the dawn is breaking
But inside in the dark I'm aching to be free

The show must go on
The show must go on, yeah yeah
Ooh, inside my heart is breaking
My make-up may be flaking
But my smile still stays on*

Shane felt rage, more than anything else. Rage at them, who had brought him to this measure with their continuous bickering; rage at himself for not having been able to control the situation. He knew perfectly well how much of his reaction was pure sexual frustration, exasperation at Val’s unreasonable secretiveness, and hatred towards himself for not having been able to be reasonable where she was not.

As long as he was angry, he was not frightened. Frightened that this was it, that his difficult, frail bond with Val would not withstand this latest shock. He knew he could still make things right. But not here, not like this, not while this damn inquiry was driving them all crazy. Let her get away for some time... meanwhile he’d try to solve things by himself, and then he’d be able to go back to her, no more as a troublesome colleague, only as her lover. With a little luck, with more easiness between them and around them, maybe even Nick would be able to re-enter the picture as the friend he had been.

Provided Shane did manage to solve the case. Provided that meanwhile Val’s feelings stayed the same. Provided that she decided to tell him what exactly was wrong between her and Nick. Provided that his heart didn’t shatter before then.

He was going crazy with pain and uncertainty. He couldn’t go on like that. He got up sharply from his desk and crossed the room.

He plopped down in front of Andy’s computer, a light of desperate determination in his eyes. He pressed the ON button, and in a voice that would have reduced most women to a quivering puddle, he whispered: “Now, Delilah... give me your all.”

Sure enough, the words “ENTER PASSWORD” began flashing on the screen.

Shane sagged back on the chair. Then he hissed a curse through his teeth and typed DELILAH.

“WRONG PASSWORD – TRY AGAIN.”

No, that was too easy, obviously. He typed Andy’s birth date, typed it backwards, typed CeCe’s, his own, their license plates, their telephone numbers, their addresses, their favourite teams, movies, actors, songs, singers, recipes, historical figures, breed of dogs, and finally random words such as KANGAROO, ENTERPRISE and VALERIE.

Still nothing.

He had a sudden flash. No, it couldn’t be. Andy could not be so transparent. Hell, he had tried anything...

He typed CECILIA.

The screen flashed. “PASSWORD CORRECT.”

“No!” Shane howled, as the operating system powered up with a whirr. “I can’t believe it! Andy! I’ll kill you, man. I’ve broken into your computer in less than twenty minutes, can you imagine what anybody else could do???”

He forced himself to concentrate. He had seen Andy do this countless times, he hoped he knew the procedure. As soon as the little hourglass had stopped spinning, he clicked on the X-OVER icon. He fumbled a bit because he didn’t know whether to click once or twice, but at last Andy’s powerful search program opened, automatically connecting to the Net.

Shane swallowed. He flexed his fingers and he typed VALERIE D’ANGELO in the first box. Then he moved the cursor to the second text box and wrote NICHOLAS HATHAWAY. At last he pressed “Enter”.

He settled back in the chair, prepared to wait for a while as Andy’s semi-legal program browsed all official records that mentioned both names. The list that appeared almost at once didn’t really surprise him: he was ready to discover that Val and Nick shared the same insurance company or had both made purchases on Amazon. He glanced at the very first record, and his blood froze.

He leaned slowly towards the screen, his eyes scanning the lines, his heart beginning to race. “Oh my God,” he whispered, and then, anguished, “No.”

He reached for the phone, dialled two numbers, got no answer from either and raced out, grabbing his sheriff’s jacket as he went.

* The show must go on (go on, go on, go on) yeah yeah
The show must go on (go on, go on, go on)
I'll face it with a grin
I'm never giving in
On - with the show

Ooh, I'll top the bill, I'll overkill
I have to find the will to carry on
On with the show
On with the show
The show - the show must go on
Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on...*

***

The meeting place was practically in the middle of the desert. Studs was only a distant bluish glow beyond the flat rim of the mesas. Sound carried perfectly out there. The highway was not distant, and cars passing in the night could have hidden their approach; however Nick and Valerie took a circuitous route, heading out in the desert then coming back beyond a rocky ridge that would shield the noise of the low-running engine, and they left the car far from the old fort and approached on foot.

They were walking towards another, closer glow, faintly orange against the sky. When the view opened in front of them, they saw an old stone building, partly ruined, lit from the ground with brilliant yellow lamps.

“There we are,” Nick said. “The Little Alamo.”

Valerie turned towards him. “You’re joking, right?”

“I’m not,” he said with a smirk. “Possibly, tourist guides are. This place is actually called Sancta Virgen or something. It was an old posada, briefly used as a garrison command during the Mexican War. And during those times...” he made a suspenseful pause, lowering his voice, narrowing his eyes. “...absolutely nothing of interest ever happened here.”

Valerie snorted. “Then why on earth do they call it like that?”

“Because it is one of the few historical landmarks Studs can boast of,” Nick said as they got closer to the building. “When you see it from the highway, it has a certain atmosphere. So why miss the occasion of some cheap publicity?”

Valerie realised they were actually chatting without going at each other’s throat. Could it be that everything would go well? Could it be that they would capture Cassidy, solve the case and go back to a normal life?

The small fort looked nothing like the Alamo. It was simpler and less preserved, though the Studlians had indeed done a good job of highlighting it with the lamps. The silence there was possibly even deeper. The noise of the highway in the distance had faded behind them.

“It will be teeming with teenagers making out,” Valerie said with some irony.

Nick shook his head. “Nope. Teenagers don’t come out here. They say it’s haunted.”

“But you said nothing happened here!”

“Yes... but nobody hangs around here at night. I don’t know why.”

Valerie looked at the fort. If she stared at it long enough, the collapsed side could look like some gigantic beast had gutted it with a stroke of its talons. She shrugged quickly, almost a shiver. It was absurd.

They walked around the ruins. The fort was empty inside, the roof had collapsed. Nick motioned to a pile of rubble. “If we hide there, nobody will see us.”

Valerie nodded. They disappeared among the rubble, found a sheltered place to sit and started their wait.

(Queen, "The Show Must Go On")

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