"When You Least Expect It"
**This story immediately follows "Deceived and Deceased"**
"At his best, man is the noblest of all animals;
separated from law and justice he is the worst."
Aristotle
CHAPTER 1
"Oh come on, Hoyt! Will you ever quit?" Matt Houston rolled his eyes and looked back at the traffic.
"No, not until you get that damn camera out of my office. Enough is enough. I'll arrest you if you don't get it out of there."
Matt laughed. "On what charge? Causing a paranoid cop to become more paranoid? Gees, bud, you need some counseling. There is no camera. Look, I know you're upset about the car, but really, you were just complaining about it this morning, remember? It's not your car and what happened wasn't your fault." He got quiet for a moment and could see that Michael was still seething. Although he tried his best, the private eye couldn't help but chuckle.
"I'm glad you find the destruction of a police vehicle so amusing." Hoyt shot him a dirty look.
"No, it's not the destruction that's funny…the expression on your face when the cement mixer just rolled right over the top of it…" He dissolved in laughter again. "Now that was funny. Come on, man – maybe the car gods heard you cussing a blue streak at it this morning."
"Car gods?! Seriously?!" The cop shook his head. The hand-held police radio beeped and came to life on the seat of Matt's truck.
"Attention all units in the vicinity of Griffith Park: 10-46 auto accident with injuries; northern hiking trail just off of Vista del Valle inside Griffith Park, respond code 3, children involved. Responding units please reply." The pair looked at each other.
"Michael, we're almost on top of it." Hoyt nodded and responded to the dispatcher as Matt turned right onto North Commonwealth, then right again on Vista del Valle. "Larry just replied, too. Looks like we'll be in good company." Matt was referring to longtime LAPD Sgt. Larry Carlisle, a friend of both Matt and Hoyt.
"From the sound of it he's just ahead of us." Michael braced himself as Matt took the curvy road a little faster than what he was comfortable with and glanced over at the man. The laughter and cutting up were gone from his face, replaced by concern. He slowed down slightly at the hairpin turn but was accelerating once again at the midpoint of the curve. Michael kept quiet, secretly impressed at how well his friend was executing the twisty roadway.
"See if you can get any other details on where they are, would you?" Matt was trying to move as fast as possible while keeping an eye out on the rugged terrain around them. Steeply sloping walls of the canyon dropped away on both sides of the road.
"Lieutenant, they say they're near the footbridge on the hiking trail as it heads north; the driver ran off the road right before the bridge."
"10-4." Hoyt nodded. "We're almost there." Within seconds they spotted Larry Carlisle who turned off onto the hiking trail followed immediately by Matt. Both vehicles skidded to a stop when they saw the scene. There in front of them was part of a day-camp group of what appeared to be between eight and twelve years old, some standing there crying while others tended to injured classmates. The three officers and Matt jumped out of their vehicles as one of the teachers approached them.
"We've got a teacher and three students over the side here and at least one person in the car. Two of them appear to be unconscious." She was doing her best to keep her cool under the circumstances but she was obviously shaken.
Matt looked over the edge of the canyon and saw two of the students trying to care for their injured classmate and the teacher. He turned back to his truck and quickly pulled the nose of it within three feet of the edge before opening up the tool box in the back to retrieve some rope. While Michael called to see what the fire department's ETA was, the former Army Special Forces captain began rigging up a harness with the rope and was about to attach it to the winch on the front of his truck. Larry and his partner were giving first aid to some of the students who seemed to be in the worst shape. "Houston, the fire department is about five minutes out. Maybe you should hold off."
Houston shook his head no. "We don't have that long…there's smoke coming out of the hood." He started on down the slope, the winch feeding out the cable to him. In a minute he had reached the injured hikers. After checking the two who appeared unconscious he pulled out his cell phone and called Michael. Turning his back to the two girls he quietly spoke. "We've got two dead down here. I'm going to go ahead and bring these girls up before I check on the driver…from what I can see I'd say anyone in the car is dead, too."
Turning to the two scared young girls he tried to stay as calm as possible. "What's your name, darlin'?" He looked at the smaller of the two.
"Marissa." She was doing her best not to cry.
"I'm Katrina." The older girl tried to give him a smile which he returned.
"Okay, my name is Matt. But all my friends call me Houston. Now here's what we're gonna do. Marissa, since you're the shorter person here, I want you to come over here and put your arms around my neck and then we're going to get Katrina to piggy back. Then I'm gonna wrap this rope around both of your waists."
Marissa squinted up at him. "Then what?"
"Then the Dream Truck is going to pull us up this hill." He gave her another grin. "Okay, here we go." Both girls did what he had told them to do and he signaled Michael to hit the switch on the winch. Slowly they started up the hill and got to the top and the waiting arms of their teacher. As soon as he had the two girls untied, Matt took a fire extinguisher from Michael and went back down the slope to the car. Hitting the small fire that had started under the hood, the PI put out the flames. He could only see one person in the vehicle. After looking around the area and under the car he came to the conclusion that the young man driving the car, who was now deceased, had been alone. Matt looked around a little more before heading back up the hill.
"Houston, what about Miss Caroline?" Marissa tugged on his arm.
Matt looked at Hoyt and the teacher before kneeling down in front of the girl. "I'm sorry, hon. We need to leave them where they are right now. There's nothing we can do for them." She nodded and then the tears started and she flew into Matt's arms. "Easy now. What about you? We need to make sure you're okay, too, alright? Calm down for me now. You've got a pretty big goose egg coming up on your head. Let's get you two ladies over here with your friends so you can get checked when the paramedics get here." He carried Marissa and Katrina was holding his hand, now also crying.
After getting both of the girls calmed down Matt helped Larry and his new rookie partner Tim with bandaging some of the cuts and scrapes that the kids had gotten. Hoyt was interviewing the teacher and some of the students who hadn't been hurt. After finishing up with the first aid, he walked back over to his truck where Michael was taking statements.
"So we were just hiking up the trail and all of a sudden he comes tearing up the road. I guess he thought the trail was a road when he turned off. He veered to the right and the back end of the car got out of control and slid into Caroline, Katrina, Marissa, and poor little Isaiah." She started to cry and several of the students gathered around her trying to comfort her.
Matt tapped Michael on the arm and motioned to the front of the truck. "I didn't want to say anything in front of her or the kids, but there's another body down there."
Hoyt looked down toward the car but couldn't see anyone else. "In the car?"
"No." Matt shook his head. "From the looks of it it's been there a while. Looks like a woman."
"Alright." The detective pulled out his cell phone and called in the report, asking that another vehicle from the Coroner's office be sent out.
The EMT's had shown up and began transporting the injured to the hospital. Before they were loaded into the ambulance, Katrina and Marissa asked Larry to call Matt over so they could thank him, each giving the PI a big hug. Larry winked at Houston. "There ya go again. Guess I'm gonna have to have a talk with CJ. Got girls hanging all over you just like in the old days."
"You'd hate to be jealous, Larry." Matt grinned then got serious. "We've got another body down there – one that's been there for a while."
"Oh, gees. Like this wasn't bad enough." The veteran cop looked over the edge of the canyon.
Matt moved his truck so that they could tie off to one of the fire trucks and use the rappelling gear to go back down to look at the scene. After putting on one of the harnesses and helping Michael to get strapped in, he led the way down. "So I guess you get two batches of paperwork today, huh?"
"Don't you think my day has been bad enough? First my car gets flattened by a cement mixer, then we have to work this accident, and now you find another body. I knew I should have ridden back with Jenkins." He cursed as he tried to get the rope loose from the d-link.
"Hang on a minute before you strangle yourself." Trying hard not to chuckle, Matt helped his friend get loose from the climbing gear and then looked over at the broken body of Isaiah and sadly shook his head. "I hope that kid never knew what hit him."
"You were right, that other one has been here for a while. Don't guess she'll mind waiting a little longer."
"Look out below!" A familiar voice was heard from up above as Cheryl Crawford started down the hillside.
"You're pretty good at that." Matt helped her release the d-link and picked up her kit as he whispered to her, "Unlike Michael – he's still fussing about getting pinched." They both snickered and then got quiet as the irritable cop turned and shot them a dirty look. "Guess they told you we've got two scenes."
"Uh huh." She pulled out her camera and began taking pictures of the accident scene. "Poor little guy. I just hope he didn't know what hit him."
Matt had walked over to the car and was looking around. "Hey, Michael – there's a gun in here. Looks like a nine mil."
"Okay." He was taking down the plate number. "Can you see the VIN up there?"
The private investigator went down on his belly and looked through the windshield to find the plate on the dashboard and read out the number. He waited as Hoyt called Sanchez to get him to run the vehicle number and plate to see if it was stolen and who the owner was. When he hung up, Matt called out to him. "It looks like this guy was shot in the right side of his chest. There's a pretty good bit of blood in here."
"Great." The detective came over and squatted down next to Matt. "That looks like a bank bag."
"Yep." Moving around to the passenger side of the vehicle, Houston got a closer look. "Valley National." He looked through the car at Michael. "Have there been any bank robberies today?"
"Don't know, but I'm about to find out." Once again he pulled out his cell phone and called Sanchez. A few minutes later he hung up. "Yep. It was the Valley National in the 4500 block of Los Feliz."
"At least that explains his hurry." Matt stood up. They couldn't do much more without Cheryl and the person from the Coroner's office. He looked around and down toward the body that was lying near the floor of the canyon as he pulled out his cell phone. "Hey Babe. Just thought I'd let you know…"
"That you're helping Michael at an accident scene. I know…I can see you on TV." She was looking at the small set in her office and cracked up as her husband looked up at the news helicopter and waved.
"All right then, hello Lil Mama." He chuckled.
"So what's the story there?" She got up and went to the bar for a cup of coffee.
"Well, some guy robbed a bank and was heading up through the park. He ran off the road and onto the hiking trail. Hit four people. Two girls are okay, just shook up and have bumps and bruises. But one little boy and one of the teachers were killed. The guy in the car is dead, too – he's been shot and there's a nine mil in there with him as well as a bank bag. But I also found another body when I came down to get the girls." He turned and looked at the body. "Looks like a woman and she's been here for a while."
"So how is Michael? I also saw what happened to his car on the news." She snickered.
"He's kinda touchy about that." Matt turned away where Hoyt couldn't hear him.
"I don't know why – he was always fussing about it." She laughed.
"I tried to point that out to him. He wasn't having any part of it." He heard someone else coming down the hill. "Guess I better go. The guy from the Coroner's office is here. Love you, Babe."
"You too, Cowboy. 'Bye." She hung up and continued to watch what was happening on the TV.
Matt waited while Cheryl began processing the car and Hoyt walked over to join him. The Coroner's assistant removed the dead man's wallet and opened it up. "Jeremy Anderson." He handed it to Cheryl who bagged it.
"Well, that's his car then." Michael looked at his notebook. "Jeremy Lee Anderson, 29, lived in the 4000 block of Garden Avenue, just east of here. Works on the maintenance crew at the zoo."
"So he was going to work after robbing a bank?" Matt looked at the body of the man as they pulled him out of the car. He and Hoyt stepped over and knelt down to get a closer look at the wound.
"The bank guard took a shot at him but wasn't sure if he hit him or not." Hoyt stood back up.
Matt grunted and stood back up. "So if the ballistics from the guard's gun match up, we know what happened to him. But I wonder about her?" They stepped closer to the edge of the bluff that they were on. There was a drop of about seven feet down to where the other body lay. "Guess we can go on down here now." The PI walked to the edge of the bluff and lowered himself down facing the bluff. As soon as he landed he froze. Very calmly he spoke to Hoyt. "Michael…" He slowly reached behind him. "Don't be alarmed…I'm about to fire a shot, okay?" Slowly, he stepped back a couple of steps as he drew out his Glock.
"What?!" It was then that the detective heard the sound of a rattlesnake. "Oh, my God. Okay. Everybody step back." As soon as the words left his mouth there was a gunshot. He walked back over to the edge.
"Not yet, Pard. Step back." Matt had the pistol leveled again and the rattling sound could still be heard.
"Oh, Jesus." The cop quietly stepped back as the crew of firemen, reporters, and cops up at the top of the slope were getting alarmed. Three more shots rang out. Hoyt held his breath. He could just see the top of his friend's head moving slowly as he searched the rocks for more snakes.
"Okay, we're good." Matt replaced the gun in the waistband of his jeans.
"Are you sure?" Hoyt looked downward.
"Yep." Matt continued to look around the area as Michael eased himself down the bluff.
Cheryl stuck her head over the side. "I don't do snakes, Houston. Please make sure there aren't any more down there."
"No, I think that took care of them. Hand me your case." He reached up as she lowered it to him. "Alright, now look about three feet below you. See that rock jutting out there? Use it for a step." He stood by while the CSI tech lowered herself down but then her foot slipped and she started to fall. Matt caught her and set her on her feet.
"Phew! Thanks! I thought I was gonna bust my butt for sure." She took a deep breath and steadied herself before squatting down and removing her camera from the case. "As long as she's been down here I doubt if we're going to find any footprints – other than our own." Cheryl started snapping pictures of the body and the area, carefully looking around as she did so.
The Coroner's assistant came to the edge of the bluff looking slightly nervous. "Are they gone?"
"Nope, they're still here but they've sure got hangovers." Matt looked up at the bespectacled young man who gave a nervous laugh as he began climbing down. Once he stood back up straight and saw the snakes he started to pale.
"Ever had snake steak?" Matt clapped him on the back.
"No, and I don't think I ever will." He turned to look at the body and as soon as Cheryl was done photographing the scene, he stepped over and began examining it. "Well I can't be sure at this point but she's got injuries that look consistent with a fall. And there is a good bit of blood on the clothing…I'd say it's possible that she was thrown down here and died from her injuries." After they had worked the scene and the body was placed in a body bag and hauled up to the top, Matt and Michael got back into the truck and took off, with reporters trailing after them.