Batter Up!

**This story immediately follows "Reconstructing the Future"**

CHAPTER 1

Matt was watching the video from the satellite feed. He had put $5 million of his own money into buying a used Russian spy satellite and was trying to track down the terrorist who was behind the bombings of England, France, Germany, and Australia, as well as several US consulate bombings. He was relatively certain that he had found his hideout, but needed absolute proof – and that was extremely hard to get, not to mention time consuming. He paused the recording and rubbed his eyes. At least since he had located what he thought was the hideout, he hadn't been staying late every night. But the strain on his eyes and his nerves was a whole different matter.

Houston got up and moved around his office to stretch. Up until he had started looking for "Enemy Number One" as he and Uncle Roy referred to the terrorist (that was the polite name: Matt had come up with quite a few more that wouldn't be socially acceptable), he had spent very little time in this room. He preferred to work in the main part of the office. BABY, the computer that he, CJ, and Uncle Roy used in their investigations, was installed right in front of the couch. That was where most of the investigating that happened in the office took place: right there on the couch.

He decided to get another cup of coffee. When he came out of his office he stuck his head around the corner to check on CJ. She appeared to be hard at work with a stack of papers in front of her. Matt stepped into her office. "Hi. Can I get you a cup of coffee?" He walked over behind her chair and leaned over, giving her a hug.

"Sure. Whatcha been up to?" She handed him her coffee cup.

"Oh, working on the project." That was what he and Uncle Roy called their little enterprise.

"Aha. Well, I've been going through some paperwork for Carol. She has to fill out certain reports and forms to get the grant money for her clinic and she needed another set of eyes." Carol was Carol LeMasters, an old friend and sorority sister of CJ's, and now the personal physician of the couple. She ran a reduced rate clinic in downtown Los Angeles. Matt had helped Carol out quite a bit with the clinic. And with the economy like it was, every dime counted.

"I'll be right back." He went out and poured two cups of coffee and went back to CJ's office. He handed her coffee over and went to sit down on the loveseat in the corner. "So, what have you got planned for tonight?"

"Nothing, how about you?" She leaned back in her chair and took a sip.

"Nothing. What's for supper?"

"Hmmm…good question. I really hadn't thought about it too much. What would you like to have?"

Matt set down his coffee cup and walked over to his wife, putting his hands on the arms of her desk chair and leaning in close. "I think I'll take my beautiful wife out wherever she would like to go." He leaned forward and planted a kiss on her…and the phone rang. A minute later, while Matt and CJ were still kissing, Chris walked in.

"Uh, excuse me. Houston, there's a guy named Michael Patrillo on line one. He says he went to school with you?"

"Mike Patrillo? Good Lord, I haven't heard that name since graduation day…except on Sports Network." He picked up the phone. "Mike?"

"Hey, Houston, how're ya doing?" The voice sounded exactly the same.

"Good man, how about you?" Matt sat down on the corner of CJ's desk.

"Well, pretty good but I've got a little bit of a problem and after asking around, I was told that you were the man to help me. I didn't know you were a private eye – thought you went into business with your dad."

"I did…for a few years until I got into this. What seems to be the problem?"

"Uh, I don't really want to talk about it over the phone. Can we meet somewhere? How about dinner tonight?"

"Okay, I was just telling my wife that I wanted to take her out tonight so I guess I can do both."

"Wife?! When in the hell did you get married?!"

"Almost eight months ago. And boy you should see the babe I married!" He winked at CJ who rolled her eyes. "But I guess you will get to see her tonight. Where do you want to meet?"

"Well, no offense to your wife, but I would like to keep this kind of quiet."

"She also happens to be my partner in the detective agency, Mike. It will be quiet."

"Oh, okay, that's cool then. Where do you want to go?"

"How about Ricardo's? It's a little Mexican restaurant around the corner here. They've got the best chimichangas you've ever put in your mouth."

"Works for me. What time?"

"I don't know, about 6:00?" Matt looked at CJ, who nodded.

"Alright, I'll see you then. Can't wait to see who this chick is that you married."

"Oh, believe me; she'll knock your socks off. See you at six." Matt hung up the phone. "Boy is he gonna be surprised."

"I'll knock his socks off, huh?" CJ smiled up at Matt.

"Why not? You knock my socks off every time I look at you." He leaned over, kissed her again and then went back to watching the satellite video.

Matt and CJ walked around the corner to Ricardo's just a few minutes before 6:00. They were regulars at the little restaurant and the waiter told Matt that his guest was there waiting for him. They walked back through the restaurant to a booth at the back that the staff knew Matt liked as well as he liked the chimichangas. When they were halfway there, Mike looked up and saw him and burst into laughter. As he stood up, he shook Matt's hand. "I always knew there was something going on between you two! Congratulations!" He gave CJ a kiss on the cheek and she slid into the seat opposite Mike, and Matt slid in next to her. "So how's the married life treating you two?"

"Great. Smartest thing I ever did." Matt looked over at CJ and put an arm around her.

"And what about you, CJ? Is he hard to put up with as a husband?"

"No, he's the same old Matt." She leaned over into Matt.

The waiter came over just then and brought two more menus. "Now Manuel, you know I don't need that. I'll have the usual." Matt handed the menu back to the smiling waiter. CJ chimed in, "Me too!"

"And you, señor?" Manuel knew what he was going to hear.

"I'll have what they're having. Chimichangas, right?" Mike smiled at the couple.

"Always. 'Course no matter what you order here, it's good." Matt spent almost as much time at Ricardo's as he used to at Mama Novelli's before the Novelli clan moved to Hawaii. After his best friend, police lieutenant Vince Novelli had been shot in the line of duty while working a case with Houston, the family had moved to Hawaii and started over. Now their restaurant was one of the most popular in the islands.

Manuel headed toward the kitchen and Mike and Matt began talking about the old days of college baseball, pizza, beer, girls, pizza, baseball….it continued on in that line. CJ had a lot of laughs. She had been at Rice as well when Mike and Matt were there and already knew about most of what the two talked about.

When the waiter came back with their dinners, Matt moved the conversation around to the cause of Mike's phone call. The baseball player looked a little uncomfortable. He looked over at CJ and then down at his plate. "First off, I want you two to know that I'm ashamed of the reason that I had to call you. But if this doesn't end soon, I'm going to be sunk."

"Well, just spit it out, Mike. We deal with all kinds of things – confidentiality is a given." Matt started in on his dinner.

"Well…" Mike took a deep breath. "I did something stupid, I'll admit that. Last year when we were on the road, I cheated on Joanie. It happened twice, with the same woman in Honolulu." He took a bite of the chimichangas. "Oh, man you were right, these are good!" He swallowed. "Anyway, about three months ago I decided to retire from baseball – the old knees aren't what they used to be and the shoulder is about shot." Mike had played second base.

"Yeah, I saw the press conference on the Sports Network." Matt took a sip of his beer.

"Well, I got an offer from them – the Sports Network – as a baseball commentator – which is what I was hoping for. It's an easy job, good money, a lot of perks. Well, as soon as the word got out, I got an email from the woman saying she wants $175,000 or she's going to talk about our affair. Obviously the network wouldn't be too happy about that. I could lose the job. So now I need some help dealing with this. I'm afraid if I pay her, she'll just keep coming back for more. But if I don't I can kiss the network job goodbye." Mike took a long drink from his beer.

"Have you told Joanie?" CJ looked across at Mike.

"Yes I did, as soon as I got the email. She was upset at first, but now we're working through it. It's going to take some time, but I think we'll make it okay." He looked down at his plate and then back over at CJ. "I'm not proud of it – not at all. It was the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life. Joanie is a great lady and she deserves better."

Matt nodded. "Well, it's better that she knows what's going on. Do you have a way of contacting this woman?"

"I've got an email address." He pulled a piece of paper out of his shirt pocket and slid it across to Matt who looked at it and then put it in his pocket.

"Alright. We've basically got two choices: try talking to her and see if we can reason with her, or catch her in the act. But I've gotta tell you something; this is not the first case like this that we've handled. It usually gets nasty. I can't guarantee you that the news of this won't get out to the network. Blackmailers are greedy folks and they usually want more than what they initially ask for up front." Matt leaned back in the booth.

"Well I guess that's the price I pay for being stupid. But I've got to try." Mike shook his head. "It was really, really stupid. I don't know why I did it – it was just kind of one of those things that you do and then wonder why in the hell you did it."

"Yeah, I've been in a situation like that myself." Matt looked over at CJ. She knew he was referring to Elizabeth, the Irish heiress that he had been engaged to at one time who later tried to have him killed with a bomb. "Look, I know a couple of guys in Honolulu – state cops actually, they have a task force that they call 5-0. Really good guys. I might be able to get some help from them. But obviously I would have to explain the situation. Is that alright with you?"

Mike looked at the bottle of beer. "Are you sure you can trust them?"

"Absolutely. They're top notch." He looked over at CJ, who nodded her agreement.

"Okay, but the fewer people who know about this the better – otherwise…" He shook his head.

"Alright. I'll call my connection over there after I do some checking on this woman." He pulled the slip of paper back out of his pocket. "Is this her name in the email address?"

"Yeah."

"Do you have an address for her? That could save us a little time."

"No, we met at my hotel. I don't have any idea where she lives." He looked around the restaurant making sure that no one heard them.

"Alright, we'll get started on this tomorrow morning then. Is there a number where I can reach you?" Matt took down Mike's cell number and gave him one of his business cards. "I'll call you sometime tomorrow after I talk to my friends. Now, let's have a good time and talk about the old days, whadaya say?"