Her Texas Ranger Hero by Rebecca Winters Page A

about his former wife, the last thing Ally wanted was to come off as being needy. She’d be seeing him tomorrow and that had to be enough for now.
    * * *
    A N EARLY S UNDAY morning phone call from Jakarta woke Luckey up. The man on the other end spoke passable English.
    â€œMr. Davis? My name is Rahmat Teguh, and I’m manager of Gema. I understand you called yesterday about a police matter. I’ve been instructed by the authorities to assist you.”
    â€œThank you. I’m with the Texas Rangers in Austin, Texas. How long has your company been manufacturing DMSO cream?”
    â€œThree years.”
    â€œI need the names and addresses of any people who’ve been ordering that cream over those three years from any location in Texas. This is a very urgent matter. When you can, please fax me that information and let me know which international express carriers were used. I’ll give you the fax number.” Luckey relayed the number slowly.
    â€œI’ll take care of it as soon as I can.”
    â€œThank you very much.”
    Following that call, his mother phoned and told him the family was planning a barbecue for the next Saturday to celebrate his dad’s birthday. Luckey promised he’d be there unless his latest case prevented him from making it. Once they hung up, he fixed breakfast before going out to the barn to exercise Persey. Riding his horse gave him time to think.
    He couldn’t expect TJ to get a warrant before Monday morning. As for Mr. Guan, he would need time to find a silk merchant from Chengdu who might be able to help Luckey. For the moment it was a waiting game.
    Until he went to Ally’s house, Luckey intended to research the personnel working for the International Junior Olympic Committee. He was intent on finding out what had happened to Yu Tan. Her disappearance had become personal to him. Someone on the committee could help him get in touch with gymnastic organizations within China that prepared young girls like Yu Tan to enter Olympic competition. If there was a tie-in to the murdered girl—who was also suspected to have been a gymnast—he wanted to find it.
    Sundays were hard on Luckey because he couldn’t conduct business as usual. For one thing, he wanted to get a surveillance team over to the orphanage to watch the comings and goings of Shan, the young Chinese woman he’d met who worked with the children. That would have to wait until tomorrow. If she was a trafficking victim, any testimony she could give would be helpful in hunting down predators like the ones dumping girls’ bodies in the streets.
    For another, he needed help from the passport office finding a person or persons who traveled between Texas and China and Indonesia on a regular basis over the last few years. But the official he needed to talk to, Mr. Jesse, wouldn’t be available until tomorrow.
    Luckey was glad when four o’clock finally approached. After a shower and shave, he dressed in jeans and a pullover before leaving the house to drive to the Duncan ranch. Ally came to the door wearing jeans and a pale yellow sweater that provided a stunning contrast to her black hair, which she’d left long today. Her eyes lit up. “ Ni hao ,Luckey.”
    That’s right. She’d taught him that word at the orphanage. “Ni hao.”
    â€œGood.”
    â€œHow do I say ‘Doctor’?”
    â€œI’m not a medical doctor. You can say Laoshi hao , which means ‘Hello, teacher.’ Let’s do it again. Ni hao , Luckey.”
    â€œLaoshi hao.”
    Her smile widened. “Perfect. You’ve just had your first lesson in Mandarin Chinese. Come on into the dining room. We can work at the table.” He supposed it was too much to ask that they get comfortable somewhere in the house on a couch.
    When he’d come before, he’d noticed a Western motif dominated Ally’s family home. She led him through a hallway lined with