Brothers in Arms

**This story immediately follows "Winds of Change"**

"But I'm strong

Strong enough to carry him

He ain't heavy, he's my brother

So on we go." Bobby Scott & Bob Russell

CHAPTER 1

A call came over the radio in the undercover car. "Attention all units: 417K at the William Hartsfeld Elementary School, on the playground, 4736 Independence." Hoyt looked at Matt. "Go ahead." The private eye popped the light on the dash for him while Hoyt hit the switch and radioed his response. When they arrived two minutes later there was one patrol car already there. Matt knew both of the officers: Chris Simpson and Larry Carlisle. Both had their guns drawn and pointed at a man who was holding a knife in one hand and the arm of a little girl about eight years old in the other. Hoyt ran up to the scene, weapon drawn. "Drop the knife, NOW!" The man with the knife appeared to be on drugs. His eyes were wild looking and the fact that he was almost seven feet tall didn't help any either.

Matt knew none of the cops wanted to fire a gun on the crowded playground. He eased over to one of the teachers who was standing wide-eyed and told her to get the kids inside. When she didn't respond, he took her by the arms and shook her. "Take the kids inside, now, understand?" She nodded, turned, and started herding the children toward the school. Matt turned back around. The man had started moving toward the back of the playground, dragging the little girl with him. All three officers kept shouting for him to put the knife down. Instead, he picked up the girl and held her in front of him and walked at an angle toward the fence that enclosed the back of the playground. The officers followed, but didn't dare risk a shot for fear of hitting the girl. Matt edged around behind the man who seemed unaware that he was there. Hoyt did his best not to react to Houston's movements and give him away. As the man neared the fence he moved the girl over and put her on his left hip. Matt was about ten feet away from him. He started running full tilt toward the man and jumped onto his back, maneuvering around and getting his legs locked around the man's chest and his arms around his neck, causing him to loosen his grip on the girl. She ran toward the officers as Matt tucked his head and rolled the man to the ground. He raised the knife up toward Houston, who kicked him in the stomach with the heel of his boot, causing him to drop the knife. Then Matt performed an arm-bar maneuver breaking his arm. Hoyt and the other two officers moved in and cuffed the suspect. The private investigator rolled over and got up off of the ground.

Hoyt holstered his gun and looked at Matt and shook his head. "You really can't help it, can you, PI? Just like a lightning rod." Houston just shrugged his shoulders and walked back toward the car. An ambulance could be heard in the distance. As he leaned against the car he thought about a conversation that he and CJ had a few months earlier. She had said, "Do you ever think about what it would be like without all this excitement? No gun toting, no bad guys. Just peace and quiet?" He had replied, "All the time, CJ, all the time. But we just keep getting dragged into it, don't we?" Matt looked down at his boots. The ambulance arrived and the paramedics went to collect their patient. Three other patrol cars had also arrived on the scene.

Just then he heard a familiar voice. "You know he's gonna make you help with the paperwork now, don't you?" Houston looked up to see Sgt. Larry Carlisle walking toward him smiling broadly. "Why didn't you become a cop, Houston? You would've made a good one."

From behind Carlisle came the lieutenant's voice. "Because he doesn't play by the rules, that's why." Carlisle turned and looked at Hoyt who was actually smiling.

"Quick, Carlisle, take a picture, you may never see that again." Matt zinged Hoyt right back.

"You're a real comedian, aren't you, PI? Well, let's see how much you're laughing while you're helping me fill out the paperwork on this little adventure." Hoyt walked around the front of the car and climbed into the driver's side.

Carlisle punched Matt in the arm. "Told ya so." He kept laughing as he walked back to his patrol car.

As the fifteen year LAPD veteran pulled away from the curb he cut a sideways glance at Houston and grinned. "What?" Matt had seen the look.

"Oh nothing, just thinking." Hoyt chuckled to himself.

"That's what that smell was." Houston smirked.

"Funny, PI, very funny. I was just thinking that your time off didn't leave you rusty." Although he was reluctant to admit it, Hoyt had missed having Houston around to help him. Matt had taken some time off during CJ's pregnancy. He had helped out with a couple of cases in Texas while he was spending time there getting the Houston ranch back up and running cattle again, and had helped Hoyt with one case - one that involved Homeland Security.

"So how is my niece doing?" Hoyt claimed Matt's four week old daughter as his niece, just like his other best friend Vince Novelli.

"She's fat and sassy." Matt grinned. "I've got some pictures I'll show you when we get back to your office." Hoyt rolled his eyes and sighed. "Oh shut up, you did the same thing when Kathy was born I bet."

"True, I did." Kathy was Michael Hoyt's sixteen year old daughter. Hoyt had Matt to thank for her still being alive after she had been kidnapped a few years back. Matt had tracked down the child molester who had taken her and had been stabbed in the chest with a butcher knife by the crazed murderer.

"How do you like having to get up and change diapers and feed Miss Catey Rose in the middle of the night?" Michael Hoyt had a feeling he knew what the answer would be.

"It doesn't bother me at all. She usually only wakes up about 2:00am so it's no big deal."

"You're lucky – Kathy used to wake up every three hours for the first three months. Talk about zombie – Anne and I were both zombies for a while." He grinned thinking back to those days. "Hard to believe she's almost grown."

They pulled into the parking garage of the police station and Matt hit the button for the elevator, then took out his phone and pulled up the pictures of his daughter. "Here ya go, Uncle Michael." He handed it over to his friend.

"Aww, she sure is a cutie. Good thing you married such a beautiful lady – otherwise this child would have been ugly as sin."

"Funny Hoyt." He took back the phone after Michael was done looking at the pictures. "Did you see this one?" Matt held the phone in front of the detective, showing him a picture of his wife CJ holding their daughter.

"She sure looks a lot like her mom." Hoyt grinned over at Matt. "You know, CJ is the best thing that ever happened to you."

"Yep, I just wish I had fessed up to how I felt about her sooner – we could have had several kids running around by now." Matt didn't often talk that way and Hoyt was somewhat surprised.

The elevator stopped on the fourth floor and the two men walked to Hoyt's office where he started in on the paperwork for the knife-wielding druggie and Matt began reading through the case files that he had been coming to look at in the first place. He got about halfway through the information when there was a sudden spike in the noise in the outer office and officers could be seen scrambling. "Hoyt – something's going on." Matt got up and headed out the door, running into Luis Sanchez who was on his way into the lieutenant's office. "What happened?"

Sanchez looked as though he were going to throw up. "Somebody just shot Chris Simpson." Hoyt had overheard the remark.

"No. Where?" He and Matt headed on out the door.

"Alvarado and Seventh – in front of the cleaners."

Matt and Hoyt hit the button for the elevator but it was obviously tied up with a lot of traffic so they hit the stairs running, making it down to the parking garage in just a minute. They hopped into Hoyt's car and took off in the direction of the shooting. Matt turned up the volume on the police radio and they could hear as other officers arrived on the scene. It didn't sound good.

As they pulled up to the scene, traffic was completely shut down. There on the ground in front of the cleaners was Chris Simpson – shot directly through the heart. His partner, Larry Carlisle was kneeling beside the young officer crying. Matt went over to him and knelt down. "Come on, Larry. I know, bud, but you're not going to do him any good like this. Come over here and talk to me." Matt maneuvered him over to his patrol car and opened the door for him so he could sit down.

Larry Carlisle had been a cop for almost twenty years and had told Matt almost a year ago that he was going to retire, but just as the private investigator had figured, he was still on the job. Another officer brought Larry a bottle of water which Matt opened for him and handed it over. With shaking hands, Larry took a swallow and seemed to calm down slightly until he looked back over at his partner – he lost it again. Kneeling in front of the man, Matt patted him on the shoulder. "Larry, come on bud, calm down a little okay?" The officer nodded and was doing his best to calm down. "Talk to me now, tell me exactly what happened."

"There was a complaint called in – 415 – a disturbance." He took a shaky breath. "I just put it in park and he stepped out of the car and POW!" The officer looked like he was in shock. "He fell right there. Houston, they shot him right through the heart!" He lost it again. Matt patted him on the shoulder.

"Did you see anybody, Larry? Come on, if we're gonna catch this bastard you've gotta talk to me." Matt grabbed the man by both shoulders. "Larry, do it for Chris, come on. Now did you see anybody or could you tell which direction the shot came from?"

He shook his head no. "Just a shot and he was gone."

Hoyt walked over, looking more upset than Matt could ever remember. "What did you get?"

Matt stood up and leaned against the patrol car. "He put the car in park, Chris got out to check on the 415 call they had, and …" He motioned toward the body of the young officer.

"Did he see the shooter?" Hoyt was looking all around the area.

"No, didn't see anybody and doesn't know which direction it came from." He walked over to the body and knelt down, looking at the wound. Hoyt was talking to Carlisle. From what Matt could tell the shot had come from a distance – and it was a clean shot. Simpson had never even known what hit him.

Another officer walked up just then, grabbing Matt by the arm and jerked him away from the body. "What in the hell do you think you're doing?! Get the hell out of the crime scene!" He pushed Matt backwards causing him to hit the hood of Larry's patrol car. Hoyt stepped between the two men as Matt regained his feet and started back toward the officer.

"Hold it! He's with us, Jenkins! Back off! He's one of us!" Hoyt pushed the patrolman back away from Matt and had his hand against the private investigator's chest.

Larry Carlisle sprung out of the car and launched himself at Jenkins. "You dumb bastard! Leave him alone!" He dissolved into tears again as Matt and Hoyt helped him up to his feet and over to the back of a waiting ambulance. Four other officers helped Jenkins to his feet. One of them, Tom Harker, took the man aside. "Look, he's a PI but he helps us out a lot – and I do mean a LOT. He's a good guy, okay?"

Jenkins straightened his uniform and glared at Harker and then Houston. "He's a civilian – he shouldn't even be on this crime scene!"

Harker pointed to Matt. "I tell you what – if anybody can figure out who shot Simpson, it will be that man right there. He's the best there is. If you don't believe me, ask around. Now leave him the hell alone."

The ambulance took off with Carlisle inside and Matt with him. He had completely broken down once he got inside. Hoyt went back and started working the scene with Cheryl Crawford, one of the CSI techs who had been called out. "Was that Houston in there with Carlisle?" She had her camera out and was about to start taking photos of the scene.

Hoyt nodded. "Yeah, Carlisle grabbed hold of his hand and wouldn't let go for anything…" Hoyt looked as though he himself wanted to cry.

"You okay?" Cheryl put a hand on his shoulder.

"No, not really. Simpson's dad was my first partner – my FTO when I joined up. He had a stroke a couple of years ago. This may well be the end of him."