Mesquite Police Department:
“Branston, could you come to my office please?” Captain Webster looks at their newest Detective.

“Sure chief, what’s up?” Detective Branston walks into Captain Webster’s office.

“I have a case for you. It involves that young transgender that was found out near Lincoln, county. I need for you to track down these suspects and interview them. According to what the Sheriff out at Crystal Springs resort said they were responsible for leaving a Belka Ann Karlen out in the desert to die. She uses to live at 2154 Black Circle Drive, Mesquite, Nevada. Her foster parents have disappeared and so far, we haven’t been able to locate her friends. So, I want you to see what luck you have.” Captain Webster couldn’t believe that they couldn’t find the kids or the foster parents.

“I’ll see what I can do, Chief.” Branston wonders why they left the girl out in the desert.

He heads back to his desk and look up all their address and look over the notes that had been sent from the Sheriff of Crystal Springs. He looks at the name of the club and will start there first to see if anyone noticed anything. He grabs his suit jacket and heads out to investigate the case.

The first place he was heading to, was the club called Desert Rose. He hopes someone there can tell him what they saw.

Desert Rose
Vicki comes in early to start her shift. She had a smile on her face from the great sex she had last night. She rode her boyfriend like a wild stallion and could have stayed home and ridden him some more. She cleans the bar top and got ready to open. She doesn’t know why she took the morning shift. Nothing ever happens.

As Vicki is fixing a drink for one of her patrons. She notices a man wearing a black cowboy hat and a charcoal gray western style suit walking up to the bar. He was rather tall and squarely built. She notices that he had on a pair of black cowboy boots.

As he approaches the bar “can I help you?” Vicki had a pleasant smile on her face.

“Yes, I would like to talk to whoever was working a couple of nights ago.”

“That would be me.” Vicki looks at him with a puzzled look on her face.

“Detective Sebastian Branston with the Mesquite Police department.” Sebastian smiles at the bartender.

She wasn’t too bad to look at. He figures she had to be in her mid-twenties, early thirties. She looked like she was part Latina and part European.

“I’m Vicki Clarkson, head bartender.”

“It’s nice to meet you, ma’am. I like to know if you saw this girl a couple of nights ago. She would have been with some friends around her age.” Sebastian shows the bartender a picture of Belka.

“I see so many people, its kind of hard to remember all their faces.” Vicki looks at the picture and after a few minutes of looking at the picture.
Vicki remembered her being supported by two guys that had come with her. She thinks they came with her. The rest of her group left at the same time as she did.

“All I remember of that night was here being carried out by two guys. I hadn’t seen them before and the group that was with her, seem to know them.” Vicki remembers one of the girls that Belka came with talking to the guy that helped carry Belka out of the club.

“Can you give me a description of the guys that carried her out?” Sebastian pulls his notepad out to take notes.

He really didn’t need to record the description, because he had a photographic memory. Sometimes it was helpful and sometimes it was a pain in the butt. He listens to Vicki as she describes the two men that carried Belka.

“They both had short black hair, one was taller than the other one and they both were dress rather nicely. Not expensive, but more like they bought their clothes at one of the local stores that cater to teenagers. One was African American and the other one was white. The African American was slightly taller and looked like he spent time lifting weights.” Vicki couldn’t remember anything else about them, except they were young.

“You wouldn’t have security video of them as they were leaving, would you?” Sebastian had spotted a few cameras around the place.

“Let me check and burn you a copy of that night.” Vicki heads back to the manager’s office and burns a copy of the security footage from that night.

A few minutes later, she comes back out with the DVD.

“Here you go, Detective. I hope this helps you with the case.” Vicki hands the disk over to Sebastian.

“Thank you, Ma’am.” He accepts it and tucks the disk into his jacket pocket.

“Here’s my card if you remember anything.” Sebastian digs his one of his old business cards out.

It still had his extension on it from when he was a cop in Austin, Texas. He marks through the number and write his cell number down and hand it to Vicki.

Vicki accepts it and glances at it. She noticed it had the Texas symbol on it and that the number had been scratched through. She looks up at him “so, you're originally from Texas?”

“Yes ma’am, I am. Born and bred in Dripping Springs, Texas.” Sebastian miss Texas, but there wasn’t a detective position available in the Austin Police department.

His Sergeant had a friend on the Mesquite Police Department and arranged for him to get on as a Detective if he wanted it. He was still adjusting to how things were done out here in Nevada. So, far things haven’t been that bad. This case will be his very first one since coming to Nevada.

“Well, Detective, I hope you get your person.” Vicki had heard that Texas Rangers always got their man.

“Thanks.” As Sebastian leaves the bar and heads towards the address he had for the others.

He didn’t really understand why a bunch of kids would leave a young transgender girl out in the desert. There were quicker ways to kill a person. The first stop he makes is at the home of Sammy Timmons.

Sebastian pulls up in front of a cream color house with green trim and red shingles. It had a garage attached to the house capable of holding two cars. The front yard needed to be cut, but otherwise, the house looked well maintained.

He gets out of his truck and walks up to the front door and ring the doorbell. Sebastian waits a few minutes, looking through the front windows to see if there were any movement inside. He doesn’t see anyone inside. He walks around the house to see if there was an unlocked door but doesn’t find one.

When he gets back around to the front door, he pulls his lockpicks out and picks the lock. When it clicks open, he walks inside the place. He puts on a pair of rubber gloves on his hands. He shuts the door behind him as he searches the house. He finds pictures of who might be the boy he is looking for.

He searches the rooms and finds the boys room. The room was what you would expect a teenage boy room would look like. He walks over to the desktop computer in the room and tries to log on.

The computer was password protected. So, he walks out of the house and goes to the second address of the other person from that night.

Crystal Place:
Belka was helping Ginger in the kitchen. Ginger was showing her how to cook a whole pig and side of beef on the split. Ginger was from Ireland and loved cooking things the old fashion way. She had a bunch of recipes that fit Crystal’s old style of doing things.

“So, how do you like staying at the Palace?” Ginger wipes her hands on a wet towel.

“I like it. Do you know why Ms? Darkrose choose to go with an old west theme with eh hotel and town?” Belka was curious about that.

“You’ll have to ask Isa yourself for that information. All I do know, most of us are given second chances around here.” Ginger walks over to the small refrigerator and grabs some fruit juice for her and Belka.

Belka watches the meat as it cooks on the split. She does wonder what she will do now that she has turned seventeen and is only a year away from being aged out of foster care. As for this place, no one cared that she is transgender. If nothing else, they treat her as if she has always been a girl.

Ginger hands the bottle of juice she got for Belka to her.

“Thank you.” As Belka accepts it.

“So, what are your favorite things to do?” Ginger sits on a stool and looks towards Belka.

“I really don’t know. I’m pretty good at drawing and painting. I was thinking about going to some sort of art school when I graduated from high school.” Belka mops on the drippings and spread on some spices that Ginger handed her.

“You still can. Did you have a plan on getting the money you needed to attend the art school?” Ginger figures Isa would allow her to work at the
Crystal Palace.

“I was going to try to get a scholarship or grant money. There’s a whole lot of possible grants I could qualify for that I was looking at.” Belka had picked out at least six she could apply for.

“Well, nothing is stopping you now from trying. Why don’t you sit down with Isa and tell her what you would like to do? She might know of a way to help you.” Ginger knew if anyone could help Belka’s dreams come true, it would be Isa.