Mindy was awakened the next morning at around 6:30 by the ringing of her cell phone. She groped for the obnoxious thing on the bedside table, flipped it open and saw it was from Taylor, M. "Yeah, Pritchard" she mumbled, or at least that's what it sounded like to Mac. He grinned at having woken her up at such an un-Godly hour. Un-Godly for city-folks maybe, Min had spent the first 18 yrs. of her life on farms and cattle ranches in Lubbock. Four A.M. getting up to do the chores before heading to school, that was early.

"Amanda, I think you might want to see this." he said, trying to ignore his reaction to her soft sleepy drawl.

"Oh?" she asked, already putting on her brown wool slacks and white blouse.

“Another murder, vic was connected to Linda Roswell."

"I'm on my way" she got the address from him and hung up. The brown blazer she pulls on is
tailored and shows off her fit, trim body. Neat ankle boots, long chestnut hair braided and coiled on the nape of her neck and a slender "Black Hills Gold" necklace gave her a far more formal appearance then yesterday. She allowed herself a small smirk as she donned her "good" white hat, the one that all Rangers wear since they were the good guys. Danny was going to be disappointed again, still no spurs. But she'd see what she could do about that before she went back home.

Mindy made the 4 mile trek from her hotel to Central Park West in only 15 minutes; traffic being light for once. She payed the cab driver, bound up the stairs of the townhouse and opened her brightly colored tapestry coat to show her Ranger I.D. card to the officer at the door. "Det. Mac Taylor sent for me." she told him. "He's in there." he said, indicating a room on the left off the foyer. She thanked him and went inside.

"Whatcha got Mac?" she asked as she knelt down beside him next to the prone body of what she assumed had been the housekeeper. She had apparently been shot.

"This," he stopped his examination of the victim to hand her a folded piece of paper. It was a sales receipt – Sharp Shooters Gun and Knife Shop- along with an address in Lubbock.

"My gracious, I've been to this place myself, they've got some real nice stuff." Mac looked askance at her.

// Why am I not surprised. // he thought.

Mindy stood up, still looking at the receipt. "Now how do you suppose this poor creature got hold of this?"

Mac sighed as he stood up too. "It wasn't on her it was behind a waste basket in the bathroom, wedged between the bathtub and the vanity."

"Sure'nuff?" Her eyebrow went up at that. She went to the small downstairs bath Mac indicated off of the living room. She saw that the area had not yet been processed so she kept her brown leather gloves on and picked up the waist basket. "Well now, will you looky here." she said to herself. "Mac, can I have a bag, please?"

"Now, what have you got?" he asked, handing her a small plastic evidence bag.

"Beggar's Lice" she said, holding up a small clump of round, green, prickers on a long stem. "Pernicious stuff, I've pulled enough off my dog, my horse and myself to know."

"I've never seen it," Mac said. He decided he was glad for that, from the looks of it.

"Count yourself lucky." she said drily "Now all we have to do," she continued, catching site of some dark strands of thread clinging to them "- is figure out who's trousers this stuff was pulled from."

Three hours later, they began wrapping things up. Stella Bonasera had joined them. Mindy liked her a lot, they shared a lot of principles and opinions. She also met Det. Don Flack, who had been assigned to the N.Y. side of the case. And since he was a good looking young man and she was a red blooded Texas woman, she proceeded to flirt with him once they had finished interviewing the residents of the town
house. She stopped that though when she realized that Stella's attitude had changed from friendly to disapproving.

"Sorry about that," she told Stella; gesturing toward Don; after going to see what Mac wanted. (The botanical name for the "beggar's lice" she had found - Daucus Carota.)

"That's okay, you didn't know." Stella said, warming up to the newcomer as well as being impressed with her perception. She had grown up cowgirl same as everyone else and she shared Lindsey's fascination. The glimpse that Stella had gotten of Amanda from the previous night's robbery and shooting had been of a young woman who didn't put up with anything from anybody. Including Mac. What fun!

"So what do you make of this?" Stella asked her, meaning the crime scene and people involved.

Mindy laughed, "That some Yankee's don't like us Red Necks and never will." she laughed again at the look Stella gave her.

"I think it was more a matter of not liking anyone not from her social set." Stella said, meaning the owner of the townhouse that they had just finished interviewing.

The woman who had reported the db was a society matron who was extremely proud of her lineage and social standing. Her nose had lifted even higher in the air when she was introduced to Mindy and heard her Texas drawl.

"Ma'am, do you know anyone in Lubbock? Mindy asked.

"Certainly not." the older woman sniffed (her name was Clarice Channing).

That sniff earned her a raised eyebrow, but Mindy decided to let it pass - for the moment. "Well then, does anyone else in the house know anybody in Lubbock, or in Texas for that matter?"

The older woman turned hard grey eyes on her. Mindy was stunned by the anger being hidden in their depths. "I'm sure I don't know." Mrs. Channing said coldly and went to sit down on the sofa by the
fireplace.

//Well all righty then, // Mindy thought, grateful that the old biddy had left when she did or else she would *really* be in trouble with Mac. Though she had to smile to herself at that, since she never had been overly concerned with getting into trouble before!

Right now though, it was after ten o'clock and her stomach was complaining about not being fed yet. She was in the middle of relaying her conversation with Mrs. Channing to Stella when it rumbled again - loudly. "Here now," she scolded, looking down at the offending organ.

Stella laughed, "Mac dragged you out of bed before you could get some breakfast?" she asked.

Mindy looked up from her notes with a sour expression. "You don't sound too surprised." she
commented.

Stella sighed, "It's the Marine in him, sometimes I think he can't help it."

Mindy raised an eyebrow, "Do tell, was he in the Marine Corps?" Well, that raised her opinion of him a little bit anyway.

"He's still going to have to realize that just because he was trained to be able to go four, five days without eating, sleeping, bathing or going to the bathroom, doesn't mean everyone else can too.”

Mac had come behind them and heard that last remark. "If I had known that the Rangers were going to send me someone who didn't feel that way about doing our job I wouldn't have contacted Capt. Beckly to begin with."

Stella's eyes widened. She'd never heard Mac be so rude before.

Mindy's eyes narrowed at that. "Let me show you something, Mac." She unpinned her badge from her blazer and held it up for his inspection. "I didn't get this badge from no gum ball machine. There are currently only 127 other people who have the right to wear it and considering how big the state of Texas is, that's a pretty exclusive group." She paused to take a breathe, but dove back in before he had
a chance to answer. "The Texas State Legislature, Hart Beckley and the rest of my fellow Rangers in my Company considers me capable of doing my job so I really don't care jack dookie what your opinion of
me or my work ethic is.” she turned her back on him and spoke to Stella in a much calmer voice. "Let's get this evidence back to the lab so Danny and Lindsey can start processing it then you and me can go get us some chuck." she used the old cowboy term for food.

"Fine with me." Stella said, sending Mac a look that dared him to say anything to *her*. They loaded the SUV and drove off, leaving Mac to catch a ride back with Don.

He stood there on the sidewalk, fuming that any one as free wheeling and unorthodox as her could make him so easily loose his cool. Thankfully by the time Don came up to him and told him he was done
Mac had cooled down enough so that he wouldn't bite the poor guys head off as well.