"Timeline of a Stalker"

**This story takes place immediately after "When You Least Expect It"**

"Every man's life ends the same way.

It is only the details of how he lived

and how he died that distinguish one man from another."

― Ernest Hemingway

CHAPTER 1

"Hey, Uncle Roy. How's it going?" Matt was riding up in the elevator to his office in the penthouse suite of the Houston Industries building. As he stepped off, he smiled at his secretary, the former Chris Atwater, now the new Mrs. Murray Chase. She had married the CEO of Houston Industries about a month previously and had enjoyed a three week honeymoon at the Tahitian resort that Matt and CJ Houston owned. Matt had bought it as a wedding present to CJ when they had been married seventeen months earlier.

"It's going really good, Mattlock. We got into Houston last night about 6:00 and Madre Rosa was waiting on us with some of her famous tamales. It's a wonder Will and Vince can move at all this morning – they had a contest to see who could eat the most last night." Roy sounded like he was in a good mood. He had been enjoying the jobs that he had been doing along with his son Will and Matt's best friend Vince Novelli. They had won a bid to install security systems in a chain of jewelry stores across the country. This was their fourth city so far and they had managed to get done ahead of schedule on each job. Since they were working in Houston that week, they were staying at Matt's ranch there. He had lived there from the time he was five years old until he moved to Los Angeles several years earlier. Madre Rosa, the housekeeper who had helped Bill Houston raise Matt was still living and working there and was tickled to have guests in the house. Although Matt and CJ had spent a good deal of her pregnancy at the ranch, they were back in LA now and back to running the detective agency. "So how are things going there, are you managing without the old coot as these boys like to call me?"

"We're muddling through somehow." Matt walked into CJ's office and gave his wife a kiss. "How is life on the road?"

"Real good. We've managed to keep out of jail so far, so I'll take that as a win." He looked over at his son who just rolled his eyes at his dad. "What about you? Had any interesting cases?"

"Oh, nothing major. But I did just get back from registering for school." Matt knew Roy would have a field day with that.

"School? Aren't you a little OLD for that?" Both Vince and Will were now listening and Roy put his phone on speaker.

"No, evidently not. They didn't seem to think there was anything too unusual about it. Most of the folks taking the classes already work for the fire department or are headed that way. They start next month so I've got a little bit before I have to worry about it too much."

"What's he doing – trying to become Smokey the Bear?" Vince and Will high-fived each other.

"Howdy Vince. No, I've been asked to be a consultant to the Fire Marshal's office with investigations, just like with the LAPD."

"Wow, seriously? That's great man. So what kind of classes do you have to take?" He was impressed.

"Well, let's see here. Let me pull out my list. Okay, I've gotFIRE 110 Introduction to Fire Technology, FIRE 112 Fundamentals of Fire Behavior and Control, FIRE 124 Applied Chemistry, and FIRE 146 Fire Investigation. I'm only going to be taking one at a time – my schedule is a little too full for all of 'em at once."

"Chemistry, huh? That one will probably be the toughest for you." Roy was thinking back to a case that Matt had worked right before Chris and Murray's wedding in which he had found some chemical formulas for making illegal drugs.

"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I'll get through it, though." Matt was actually looking forward to going to the classes. "It should be interesting."

"So will you be playing football again, Cuz?" Will couldn't resist teasing his cousin about his days as a college football star.

"Nope, I'm gonna leave that to the younger folks." Matt winked at CJ as he picked up his four month old daughter Catey Rose who was excited to see him. She squealed and began giving him kisses on his chin, causing him to laugh.

"I hear a happy little girl there." Roy had really been enjoying Catey's company at the office.

"Yeah, CJ's really happy to see me." Matt laughed as his wife rolled her eyes at him. "And she's slobbering on my chin, too." He could hear laughter from all the men on the other end of the call.

"Alright, well you two try to keep it under control at the office and tell Catey that I said she's in charge while I'm gone." Roy was proud of how well Matt and CJ were doing raising their daughter and was looking forward to more great nieces and nephews.

"Okay, you boys stay out of trouble and tell Madre Rosa I said hello. Talk to you later." He hung up his cell phone and started talking to his daughter. "How's my girl doing this morning? Are you keeping Mama out of trouble?" Catey gurgled and squealed, thrilled to have her dad paying attention to her.

"She's been good as can be." CJ got up to pull a paper from the printer and walked over to give her husband a kiss. "So I'm going to be married to a college student, huh?" She wiggled her eyebrows.

"It's only four classes, Babe." He pulled her down closer for another kiss and Catey decided to squeal loudly, driving her mother back covering her ears.

"I think she's jealous." CJ tickled her daughter's chin and walked back over to her desk just as the phone rang. She had gotten so used to Chris being gone that she almost reached over to answer it until Matt gave her the "NNNNNT!" buzzer sound and smiled at her. "Sorry, after three weeks it just kind of became automatic."

Chris came to the door. "Houston, line two. It's Michael."

Matt put his daughter back down in the playpen and gave her one of her stuffed teddy bears to occupy her. He walked out to the couch and sat down, picking up the phone. "Hey Hoyt – what's up?"

"Nothing good. Are you in the middle of something?" The veteran detective sounded like he was almost too tired to talk.

"No, as a matter of fact I'm not. Whatcha got?"

"Have you heard about the murders that were discovered overnight?"

"Actually I haven't. I had to go register for my classes and I was listening to CD's on the way over there and back."

"Classes? Oh yeah, the fire marshal deal. Do you think you can come take a look?" Michael Hoyt was standing in the midst of a bloody crime scene.

"Sure. Where is it?" Matt picked up a pad of paper and wrote down the address that Hoyt gave him. "Okay, I'll be there ASAP. 'Bye." He got up to let CJ know that he would be out with Hoyt and gave her and Catey a kiss goodbye as his daughter was busy drinking a bottle. "Love you, Babe."

"Love you, too. Be careful." She picked up Catey's right hand and waved it at Matt. "'Bye, Daddy!"

Matt gave both of his ladies a big smile and headed back out to the elevator, stopping long enough to give Chris a little hug.

"What caused that?" The secretary was surprised by the hug.

"I'm glad you're back." He pushed the button for the elevator and stepped onboard singing one of his favorite songs, and surprising his secretary even further.