what was i made for, walker

049. in trouble

"How could you three be so reckless?" Liam scolds. 

"Look, it took us a while to figure it all out, all right? And that woman was threatening to kill us if we told anyone. What were we supposed to do?" August argues.

"You talk to your family." Liam sneers. "I'm an attorney. Your father's a Texas Ranger."

"Yeah, who gets buried in his work so much, he barely gives his kids the time of day." Janie coldly laughs.

"We could protect you." Liam states. 

"That's what complicates it, Uncle Liam." August says. "We didn't want to get you guys in trouble--"

"Yeah, but that's not for you to decide!" Liam yells. "And what you've done is so much worse."

"Okay." Geri tells Liam, giving him a look. "Augie, Janie, do you know where she might have gone?"

"I--" Janie shrugs, shaking her head.

"I-I-I don't-- I don't..." August stammers.

"See? You have to tell us where you think she could be right now." Liam orders. "Where? Is she out there hunting this thing by herself?"

"Probably." Janie says.

"Where?!" Liam asks.

"We don't know!" Janie yells back. "We didn't figure out where the necklace was, so, no, we don't know!"

"Hey, hey, listen, even if she's just upset, we need to know--"

"Hey!" Abilene's greeting cuts Geri off. "We could hear you three all the way out at the stables."

"What in the Sam Hill's all the fuss about?" Bonham questions.

"Go ahead, August, Janie. You two have the floor." Liam snarks.

The two siblings share small looks.

"Okay, look... the break in at Geri's last year wasn't random." August says. "Okay? The guy who broke in, he knew Sadie and he was sent there by Joanna Rawlins to find this necklace that belonged to their family or whatever."

"Joanna Rawlins?" Bonham asks.

"Hoyt's mother. Birth mother." Abilene states.

"She came after us and said that she'd kill us if we didn't give her the necklace." Janie informs.

"She what?!" Abilene questions.

"Well, I'm starting to understand the fuss." Bonham remarks.

"Who else knows about this?" Abilene asks.

"Just us, Stella, and Sadie." August says.

"All right, well, we need to call Cordell." Bonham states.

"I'm already on it." Geri says, getting on her phone.

"All right." He says.

"Hey, make sure you're as vague as possible. He's not in the best headspace." Liam tells her.

"Okay." Geri says. She waits for Cordell to pick up. "Hey, Cordi, um... something's going on with Stella. We think she might be in some kind of trouble." She tells him. "I don't think that this is the best conversation to have over the phone, so you need to get home, ASAP. Okay? She was just really upset and she took off. Do you have any idea where she might have gone?" She asks before listening to whatever he says. "Okay, all right, will do. Bye." She hangs up.

+++

The family are all in the living room, the two siblings on the couch.

Somebody knocks on the door and Liam answers it, Captain James and Trey walking in.

"Hey. Any word from Stella?" James asks.

"Still nothing." Geri says.

"Did you try tracking her phone?" Trey asks.

"Well, she stopped sharing her location about ten minutes after she left, but she was heading west." Liam says. "Lady Bird Lake might check out."

"All right, I'll get State Troopers on traffic cams, see if we can find the Mustang." Trey says. "Can I take a look at her last known location?"

"Yeah, this way." Liam leads him to the kitchen.

"Augie, Janie..." James sighs. "Why didn't you guys come to us in the first place?"

Bonham scoffs.

"Great question." He remarks.

Janie rolls her lips into her mouth, her hand clenching and unclenching.

"All right, can you show me Stella's web history?" James asks. "Maybe we can put together the same pieces she did."

"Yeah. Yeah, I-- let me-- let me go get the computer." August says.

"Me, too." Janie quickly gets up to follow him.

"I'll go with them." Geri says, the three heading to the house.

+++

"Okay, so, I just got off the phone with the State Troopers. They were able to track Stella's car out to a building in Rockingham, but there was no sign of her." Trey says.

"Wait. Rockingham isn't far from Patina, right?" Geri asks.

"Uh, it's about, what, 20 minutes? Why?" Trey asks.

"Because Hoyt grew up in Patina before he came to Austin back when he lived with his mother." Geri informs.

"Yeah. There was something in Hoyt's letter about orange wine. There's this winery up in Patina that does this baller orange wine." August says. Janie smacks him in the stomach. "Or so I've heard."

"Hold on a minute. The sheriff's sale that we talked about before." Liam says, Geri nodding. "That was in Patina around that time. Do you think that Stella is there?" He looks at her siblings.

"I-I don't-- I don't know." August says.

"I don't know." Janie says.

"Okay, Trey, text Walker and Cassie that address. Before you even think about it, I need all you Walkers to stay put until we know the location's secure." James orders.

"Wait. Where's Abby?" Bonham asks, looking around. "Oh, hell." He groans. "Abilene?!" He yells. He sighs.

"What is it?" James asks.

"Oh. Abby knows where that house is. I think she might have gone out there to kill that woman." Bonham states.

They hear tires screech outside.

"Go, Mawline." Janie mutters. Everybody but August glares at her. "I-I mean, murder's super wrong. Bad Mawline."

"I get it." August whispers.

"Think she could go murder somebody else for me?" Janie whispers.

"Somebody should." August scoffs. Janie raises her eyebrows. "No-not you." He quickly adds.

==================

i don't know if/how i would write episode 11, so in the meantime while i attempt to decide, here's a short little chapter for ep10