"THE WRITING ON THE WALL"
**Immediately follows "Dead in the Water"
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus."
Mark Twain
CHAPTER 1
"Would you just look at this mess?!" Lt. Michael Hoyt of the LAPD stood with his arms crossed looking at the wall of a building that had been tagged overnight. Turning to look at his friend, he pointed at the writing and the images that now covered the wall. "I swear I don't understand why they do this."
Private investigator Matt Houston raised up the LAPD ball cap on top of his head and scratched before settling the cap back into place as he yawned. He had been called out of his bed at 1:00AM by Hoyt who needed help with the murder of a young Hispanic mother and her infant daughter. As soon as the Chief of Police had been informed of the murder the night before, he had called Hoyt in to take control of the investigation from Det. John Oxford and told the lieutenant to call in Houston. Matt suspected that the chief's concern wasn't so much for the victims as it was about the bad press that was sure to come from the media. There had been a spike in the murder rate in the Hispanic community in the last several weeks and Chief Whittaker was taking a beating in each edition of the newspapers as well as on television. It was even being reported on the national news.
"It's actually some good artwork, Michael." Matt was looking at the detail in not only the rose that the tagger had painted on the wall but the dagger that was also there. "Look at the shading and the detail. Pretty amazing when you stop and think about it. They did all this with spray paint."
Hoyt turned to fully face the PI that he now considered a brother. "I'm sooooo glad that you like the artist's style. How would you feel if this was on the side of the Houston Industries Building?"
"It wouldn't be my problem – it would be Murray's – remember?" Matt grinned, knowing that his answer and expression would aggravate the cop. A few years earlier Matt had turned over all control of Houston Industries to Murray Chase and directed that all profits from the multi-million-dollar conglomerate go to charity. The now-billionaire concentrated solely on his work as a private investigator with two exceptions: he worked with Derwin Dunlap on surveillance equipment and video games, and was the owner of two cattle ranches.
With his eyes snapping as much as his voice, Michael replied. "You'd hate to be a smart ass."
"Better than a dumb one any day." The PI smiled at the cop and they walked toward their vehicles. "How about we go grab some breakfast and go over what we've got?" He clapped Hoyt on the back.
"Yeah, I could go for that. Waffle Hut?"
"Alright. See you there." Matt pulled out his phone as he got in the truck and started to call CJ but then thought better of it. He didn't want to wake her if she was asleep. Grinning as he dropped the truck into gear, Matt thought back to New Year's Eve about an hour and a half into the new year when he and CJ had made love. She told him she was ready to try for another baby and it looked like they were about to get some news. She was a week late and had been battling morning sickness for the last five days.
Their daughter Catey Rose was now nine months old and quite a personality already. She loved to laugh and did so quite often while playing with Matt and CJ as well as her nanny, Sheila Wentworth. One of her favorite companions was Chantilly, affectionately known as Tilly. The half Blue Heeler /half Husky mix was not only a great playmate for Catey but also a great protector. She had started out as Sheila's puppy, but when the former nurse had taken the job of nanny after the murder of her Marine husband, Tilly had adopted everyone on the Houston ranch as hers. Any stranger that came on the property wasn't trusted unless Matt, Sheila, or CJ told the loyal dog that it was okay. She was also good at herding the cows, for which Matt and his two ranch hands Lamar Pettybone and Bo Harper were grateful.
The PI pulled into the parking lot of the Waffle Hut right behind Hoyt and slid down out of his truck, stretching as he closed the door and stepped up onto the sidewalk. They found a booth at the far corner of the restaurant and had a seat.
After the waitress came, set two cups of coffee in front of them, and took their orders, Michael looked across at Matt who was staring out the window. "I would offer a penny for your thoughts but with you being a billionaire…" The cop grinned as he waited for a response and was surprised when he didn't get one. He watched the private eye. The last time Matt had been so distracted was when he was secretly working to take down a Middle-Eastern terrorist. "Oh my God, not again."
That pulled Matt out of his near-trance. "Huh?" He turned and looked at Michael.
The cop leaned forward and whispered. "You're not going after another terrorist are you?"
"No. Why?" Matt looked completely surprised by the question.
"Because your head is in outer space or something. You didn't hear a word I said."
"Oh, sorry. What was it?" Houston picked up the cup of coffee and took a sip before looking back up at the cop.
"Is everything okay? No problems with CJ or anything?" Michael knew something had his friend thinking about things other than the case they were now on.
"Fine. No problems." Matt gave him a big grin. "Now what about the case?"
Hoyt blew out a breath and shook his head. "I swear you're going to drive me completely insane one of these days."
"Nah, it's a short walk and I just know that you want to be environmentally responsible, doncha?" He gave Hoyt a big smile. "Okay, now down to business." Matt pulled his notebook out of his pocket and slipped out of the brown leather bomber jacket that had been a Christmas present from CJ. "We've got Alicia Torres-Vicente, a twenty three year old mother and her four month old baby Elena." He shook his head, clearly saddened.
That's what was bothering him. Michael had hated to call Matt in to a scene with a baby as one of the victims. As the father of a nine month old it hit the PI pretty hard.
"Okay, the father of the baby is Marco Albion, also 23. He's currently locked up in Lancaster for dealing dope." Matt continued. "No arrest record on Alicia. Both sets of grandparents are dead and her only living relatives are a brother, aunt, and uncle. So far we haven't been able to reach any of them." Putting the notebook down on the table, the PI sighed and took off the ball cap setting it on the seat next to him. He ran his right hand over his beard. "I don't know how many doors I've knocked on in the last few hours…but I didn't get a single piece of information from anybody."
"I didn't either." Hoyt took a sip of coffee. "Somebody knows something or heard something."
"But they won't talk. I don't know if it's because of hate or fear." Matt rubbed his eyes. He picked up his pen and began doodling in the margins of the notes that he had taken and thought back to the graffiti on the wall. Subconsciously he started drawing a rose like the one the tagger had left behind. As he started to shade the petals he stopped.
Michael looked at the notebook and then his friend. "What?"
"They were stabbed." Matt stared at the picture.
"Yeah…so?"
"There was a dagger – a knife on the wall…and it was dripping blood."
"Oh, that's just some kid's way of thumbing his nose at the world by messing up someone else's property."
"Wait now – hear me out." The waitress brought their orders over. Matt thanked her and put more pepper on his eggs. "It wasn't just the knife - there were also two roses."
"One rose wasn't' it?" Michael spoke around a bite of pancake.
"A blooming rose and a bud. Do you get it? A woman in the prime of life and a baby girl…the bud could represent the baby." He looked across at the cop.
"It's just spray paint on a wall." Hoyt shook his head no.
"I think it's more than that." Houston dug into his hash browns. Both men continued eating, Matt glancing at his watch. It was now almost 8:00AM.
Hoyt noticed his friend checking the time. "Do you have an appointment with a client?"
"No, just curious." The PI had actually been wondering how CJ was doing. She had made a mad dash to the bathroom and vomited right before he left the house when Michael called him. They had agreed not to mention the possibility that she might be pregnant to anyone until they knew for sure. CJ was going to try to get an appointment with Carol LeMaster, her sorority sister from Harvard, and now the personal physician to both her and Matt. "I might have one later, though." He took another bite of his eggs as his phone rang. The phone was quickly out of his pocket and answered. "Hey Babe. How's it going?"
Michael glanced up. He noticed a change in the tone of Matt's voice. There was worry in it.
"Uh huh. You did? Good…okay, do you…" He listened. "Are you sure? I can…okay then, I'll meet you at 9:00. Call me if you change your mind. Love you. 'Bye."
"Is everything okay?" Hoyt took another sip of coffee.
"Yeah, sure…fine." Matt dug back into the food in front of him. Although he was looking at the plate, Hoyt felt sure that his friend wasn't really seeing the food on it. "I really think there's something going on with the tagging." The PI swallowed a bite of sausage and drank down more coffee. "When we get done here I want to swing by your office and get a list of the murders in that area in the last month and where they took place."
Shrugging, Michael nodded as he swallowed more of the pancakes. "Okay…then what?"
"Then I'm going to an appointment at 9:00. When I'm done there…" Matt paused for a minute. "If it's where I can, I'll go look around the neighborhood at the graffiti near the other crime scenes."
"Houston, are you sure everything is okay?"
Matt took another drink of coffee and looked at the cup for a minute, smiling. "I believe everything is going to be just fine, Michael." He tossed some money down on the table, picked up his cap, and slid out of the booth, putting on the jacket. The cop followed and they headed out the door. "See ya in a few."