Dragon's Lair
**Immediately follows "Troubleshooter"**
"Fame changes a lot of things, but it can't change a lightbulb."
Gilda Radner
01
Matt parked the Chevy crew cab pickup and walked around to open the door for CJ, the heat of the west Texas town of Lubbock a slap in the face after the cool of the air conditioning. She handed him the urn containing his maternal grandmother Topsana Mendoza's ashes and they walked to the gravesite where they were joined by the funeral director and two of his employees as well as a priest.
It had taken over two months and miles of red tape for the ashes to be released to Houston. Thanks to Pablo Escamilla - Wade Mattlock's former business partner - Topsana's body had been identified and recovered from the grisly scene of Diego Mendoza's estate just outside of Nuevo Laredo in Tamaulipas. Pablo knew that it would be easier to have the ashes shipped to Matt than to keep the quickly decomposing body in suitable condition for a traditional burial. The Mexican government drug its heels as long as possible until there was public outcry over the situation, thanks in part to the efforts of reporter Giorgio Stavros. It was finally decided to release the ashes and avoid any further bad publicity
As the small group gathered at the gravesite CJ took Matt's hand after the urn was placed on a small table. The priest conducted the committal service and the urn was placed into a vault which was then sealed. After the service was over Matt went back to the truck and removed three bouquets of flowers and along with his wife, placed them on the graves of Topsana, Carmen Mendoza Mattlock, and finally Virgil Wade Mattlock. The couple stood silently for several minutes as Houston first thought of the short time he had shared with his grandmother. It had literally been a matter of minutes from the time they met until she was murdered by her other grandson Diego, but he had immediately felt a connection to her.
His thoughts then moved to his mother Carmen. She and Wade had met, fallen in love, and quickly married. It wasn't long before she got pregnant with Matt and then a month before her due date was severely injured by a drunk driver causing her to deliver the baby in the car. She had died an hour later and her son had never known her love.
Last but not least there was Wade who had blamed the baby for Carmen's death and gave the boy over to Bill Houston. Matt thought back to a few years earlier when he and Wade had been reunited when he learned of a plot to kill the young man. They had only known each other a few days before Wade took a bullet that was meant for Matt. Houston had seen to it that Wade was buried next to Carmen and now Topsana was also buried next to her.
CJ quietly watched him. The last two years had been fraught with worry, danger, and death. Matt had lost Topsana and his cousin Will on the same night and nearly died himself. A deep depression had overtaken him and he had spent two months recuperating both physically and mentally. He put his arm around her and pulled her close. "I think they would have loved you, Babe." Giving her a sad smile he turned away and they slowly went to the truck. After a change of clothes at the hotel they hooked up the horse trailer and hit the road.
The couple drove west on 380 and spent the night in Las Cruces, New Mexico, enjoying dinner at a small Mexican restaurant not far from the hotel. As they waited for the food, he reached across and took her hand. "Thanks for coming with me."
"I think we both needed a road trip. It can be good for the soul." She squeezed his hand and watched as he nodded. "Although I do miss the kids."
"Yeah, I do, too. But you know it's probably good for them to be away from us for a little bit." The music coming from the speakers changed and a beautiful guitar ballad floated through the room as they shared a kiss.
The next morning the couple headed out on I-10 towards Phoenix. After lunch they picked up some flowers and went to the cemetery where Will Houston had been buried a little over two months earlier. Matt had been in bad shape both mentally and physically when at the funeral for his cousin and although he remembered going, he couldn't remember much else about it other than the sound of the rifles firing during the military ceremony. They found the grave and put the flowers in the vase. Matt knelt down beside the headstone. "I'm sorry, Will. I did my best. And we made one hell of a team one last time, didn't we?" He stayed there several minutes thinking back to the last memories he had of his cousin: both men had been shot and had shrapnel wounds from the explosion of the pickup they had used to escape from the members of Las Serpientes after Matt had killed his Mexican cousin Diego in a gunfight. It was dark and he had no idea that Will had sustained a deadly cut to his neck from window glass. He had wrapped an arm around him and began swimming through the ripping currents of the Rio Grande. Had it not been for Chuck Wylie diving in to help him across and Harris County Sheriff Francine Martinez who also braved the river to protect her two detectives he would never have survived.
Standing up he wiped his eyes before wrapping an arm around CJ and heading back to the truck.