Taken Away

**This story immediately follows "Flash Mob"**

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them."

Desmond Tutu

CHAPTER ONE

Houston, Texas: Tuesday, 7:00AM

He saddled up the horse – something that he had done so many times in his life that he could, and often had, done it in his sleep. Mounting up, he swung away from the barn and went out through the gate to the pasture and beyond, the sights and sounds of early morning on the ranch that were usually comforting to him now only bringing sadness to his heart. After all those years of not really having a family he had finally gotten his wish and was happier now than he could ever remember. But the years and the miles seemed to have finally caught up to him and the conversation at the doctor's office the day before echoed through his mind.

"It's cancer."

"No, there's gotta be some kind of mistake."

"It's spread to your liver, lungs, and pancreas. There really isn't anything we can do. I can refer you to someone who can help you with the discomfort..." She had reached across and patted his hand.

"How long?"

"It's really hard to say. It could be weeks, maybe even months..."

"But it's pretty much a done deal, huh?"

"I'm so sorry."

He rode out to the spot that he loved, a place where he could look out over the herd of cattle and enjoy the breeze that usually blew in and watched as the sun shone on the drops of dew that were clinging to the grass. All those situations that he had been in over the years, all the close calls and near-misses he had dealt with as they happened; but now something that he couldn't even see except on the damn x-rays and ultra sound pictures, something that didn't even seem real to him had accomplished something that all those wild times hadn't been able to do. He was scared. For years he had tempted Death and now, when he least expected it, Death was there knocking on his door saying, "Surprise – I'm really coming for you this time." No way out, no way to cheat it. People complained that life wasn't fair. He spoke outloud. "Neither is Death." The phone in his pocket rang and he answered and listened. "Yeah, I'll be there in a few minutes."

Hanging up he turned the horse back toward the barn but stopped and turned back to look out over the land that he loved again. How many more times would he get the chance? But they needed him now; he gently nudged the mare and went back to the barn. There were a lot of things that he needed to take care of now. Best not to put it off any longer.

Thursday, 8:20AM

"Damn it!" Matt hit the button on the cell phone for what seemed like the tenth time that morning, not even checking the caller ID. "Houston."

"She's gone again."

"Brian?" The PI snapped out of the brooding mood that he had been in, his mind instantly coming to bear on the sixteen year old boy on the phone. "What happened?"

"I don't know." It was obvious that Brian was doing his best not to lose control. "She called me yesterday afternoon and said she would be late getting home – they wanted her to work over. When I got up this morning she still wasn't here." He stood in the doorway to his mom Lisa's bedroom and looked at the bed that hadn't been touched. "I checked my phone; she had texted me about 2:00AM. It didn't make sense."

"What did it say?" He pulled into the parking lot of a home improvement store.

"I love you. Call Houston." Brian's voice cracked as he recited the message. "I know she wouldn't start doing drugs again. She promised."

Matt was at a loss for words. He had met Brian while CJ was pregnant with Catey. The boy had turned up in his barn after being homeless for a month when his mother had disappeared while buying drugs. The PI had tracked her down, put her through a rehab program, and she had been doing great ever since. "Are you still at home?"

"Yeah."

Houston snuck a look at his watch. "You're supposed to be in class right now, aren't you?"

"Yeah, but..." He heard the catch in the boy's voice.

"I'm going to come get you. You need to get to school and I'll..." He shook his head. "I'll see about trying to find her."

"I can't go to school now! What if...?"

"If she was there she would tell you to get to school, Bri. You know that. Be waiting for me outside, okay?"

"You're in town?"

"Yeah."

"Houston..."

"Do it, bud. I'll see you as quick as I can get there."

"Okay."

Matt hit the speed dial on his phone and in a minute heard the voice of his childhood friend Chuck Wylie on the line. "Where the hell are you, man? The bailiff just came out and said you'll be getting called to testify in about..."

"Brian just called: Lisa's missing again."

"I'll call the office and get somebody looking for her. You better get here."

"I've gotta take him to school." God, his head was pounding!

"Use the siren."

"Yeah, right."

"No, I mean it. Judge Krenzky will pitch a fit and find you in contempt if you aren't here when you're supposed to testify." There was a string of curses on the other end of the line. "I'll call Sheriff Martinez and let her know, man. Come on."

"Okay. See ya." He hit the siren and headed through the traffic to the apartment complex where the Landers family lived.

Brian looked scared as his friend stopped at the curb. "Oh, my God! Is she okay?"

"I'm just trying to get you to school, pard. C'mon." He waited until the boy put his seatbelt on and then took off.

Looking over at him, the boy could tell something was wrong. "I'm sorry."

Houston shook his head and rubbed his left temple as he swung out into the lane of traffic while motorists edged over out of his way and the siren came to life once again. "You don't have anything to be sorry for, pard. Chuck is calling the sheriff and she's going to get the ball rolling looking for your mom."

"But I thought you were..."

"I've got to get to court. As soon as I get out of there I'll get on it." He looked over at the teen who stared at him in disbelief. "Brian, I don't have a choice right now. The sheriff will put somebody good on your mom's case."

"But..."

"I can't be everywhere at once!" His temper was getting the better of him. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that. The judge has already threatened me with contempt because I wasn't there yesterday. If I don't show up today, I'll be in jail and won't be able to find your mom." Now he felt like a complete ass. "I'm sorry. Just as soon as they cut me loose I'll be on it: I swear it."

"Okay." The boy looked over at him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah...I've just..." Matt paused. "I've got a lot going on right now. Sorry to be such a jerk." He cut the siren just as he got to the driveway of the school. "Tell the principal what's going on and that if he needs to, to call me – alright?" Putting a hand on the boy's shoulder he softened his tone. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I'll talk to you later."

"Okay." As soon as Brian reached the front door of the building, Matt dropped the SUV into gear and took off out of the parking lot, the siren coming to life once again as he got to the street. He didn't see the teen turn away from the door and begin walking back toward the road.

Thursday, 8:53AM

"Well, if it isn't Sergeant Houston..." The sarcasm practically dripped from every syllable as Matt hurried into the courtroom with the bailiff. "How nice that you could join us today." After being sworn in, he took the stand and began answering the questions from the assistant district attorney and then had to go through the defense attorney's cross-examination. After two hours he was finally excused along with Chuck. As they got outside of the courtroom, Matt turned his phone back on, the screen lighting up with call after missed call.

"Hey, you okay?" Chuck hustled out to the parking lot with his longtime friend.

"Yeah..." The tie that he had been wearing was removed and he unbuttoned the top two buttons on his shirt, the jacket coming off immediately following.

"Gotta say you aren't real convincing." He watched as Matt scanned the list of calls and hit the screen to return one of them.

"Hey, have y'all got anything yet?" He got behind the wheel of the SUV and hit the speaker button, Chuck standing in the open truck door next to him as the voice of his boss, Harris County Sheriff Francine Martinez came in loud and clear.

"I sent De la Cruz to talk to her boss. They confirm that she worked over until 1:00AM. The last time she was seen was when she got into her car. We've got an APB out for her and the car, but there haven't been any hits so far. But I've got some bad news."

"Great. Just what I need. What?"

"Young got out of jail last week." She waited for a reply.

Matt thought his head was going to explode. "How?" He tried to sound as calm as he could. Zachary Young had been the drug dealer who had held Lisa Landers prisoner for over a month; she had been prostituted out to "repay" him for the drugs that she had tried to steal from him.

"His lawyer got the conviction overturned when it was discovered that one of the jurors had lied on part of the pre-trial questionnaire."

"And did anybody bother to warn Lisa?"

"I didn't know anything about it, Houston. If I had..."

"Where is he?"

"De la Cruz is trying to track him down now. Here's his number." She rattled off the detective's phone number and Matt jotted it down in a notebook. "Whatever you need, you've got, Houston. You've already got De la Cruz and you can have Chuck, too." Although she hadn't known him for a long time, she sensed that there was more going on with him than just the news of Lisa Lander's disappearance and his near-jailing over the failure to appear in court the day before. She had explained to the judge herself that Houston had been grounded by bad weather while he was trying to fly into the city the night before his court appearance but the Honorable Judge Karol Krentzky had threatened to have him arrested the moment his plane landed anyway. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah...just peachy." The PI flipped open the console and reached in for a bottle, removing two capsules and popping them into his mouth followed by a swallow of cold coffee.

"Look, I'm sorry. I really had no idea. I just got back into town myself yesterday."

"I appreciate the help."

"Tell you what..." She got up and crossed her office, waving in her secretary. "I'm going to get to work on this myself. I feel kind of responsible."

"No need."

"I want to..." Covering the receiver she told the secretary to cancel all of her appointments. "Now: I'm sitting here in front of my computer. What does my ace detective need me to do?"

Although he didn't much feel like it, he couldn't help but smile. "Try to figure out who Young might be associating with now – where they live, work, whatever. Any vehicles or phone numbers that might be involved..."

"Yes sir, Sergeant."

"Thanks." He hung up, looking to Chuck. "Got any ideas?" He punched Pedro De la Cruz's number into his phone while his friend thought through the situation. "Hey, it's Houston. Have you got anything else?"

"Nothing except for the fact that his mother has no use for him – or anybody else for that matter. The edited version of her statement was that she has no idea where he is...and really doesn't care."

"Great. Okay, I'm going to call Lyons and see if he has any ideas. He helped me find her last time – maybe he'll be able to help this time, too."

"I'm going to try some of my CI's; maybe one of them has heard something."

"Thanks." Hanging up, he looked through his contacts for Mark Lyons. The call was answered after ringing twice. "Hey there – it's Houston. I need your help."

"Looking for Lisa Landers again? I heard the alert. What can I say? Sometimes they fall off the wagon when you least expect it."

"Her son doesn't seem to think so."

"Family members are blind to it a lot, Houston. Sometimes they see what they want to see." Eight years of dealing with drug dealers and users on the Narco Squad had left Lyons somewhat jaded.

"Still – it's a possibility that she was taken. Got any ideas?" He closed his eyes for a minute wishing that the pain in his head would just go away.

"Not really. I'll see what I can run down."

"I appreciate it." There was a click and Lyons was gone.

Worry crossed Chuck's face. "Something else is wrong besides this deal with Lisa. What is it?"

"I'll tell you later." Matt took another swallow of the cold coffee. "Right now we need to concentrate on finding her."

"What about Brian?" The cop knew that Matt and CJ had been granted temporary custody of the boy a couple of years earlier when he turned up in the barn. "You might want to call that caseworker at TFPS that helped y'all out last time."

"And while I'm doing that I'm not looking for Lisa."

"But I will be...believe it or not I'm a pretty damn good detective – I had a good teacher." He watched as his old friend nodded. "Now, where were you going to start?"

"Well...she texted Bri at about 2:00AM. Why don't you see who else she's been talking to lately and see if you can get a hit on her cell." He wrote down the number and handed it over.

"You got it." Wylie turned and started away.

"Chuck..." Houston watched as his oldest friend turned back to face him. "Thanks. For everything." He closed the door on the SUV and pulled out of the lot heading toward the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services builiding on 40th. Once inside he found the office he was looking for and after waiting impatiently in line for a couple of minutes made it up to the reception counter. Flashing his badge, he spoke. "I need to speak to Wanda Burton, please."

"I'll see if she's in..." Rolling over to a magnetic board, the receptionist adjusted her glasses and then rolled back to the sliding glass window. "I'm sorry, Sergeant. She's in a meeting in Judge Maynard's chambers." By the time she looked back up, all she saw was the tall man going out the door.

Matt went back down to the ground floor and ran across the street. The judge's secretary shook her head no before he even got out what he needed. "She's in a meeting..."

"With Wanda Burton, yes ma'am. I need to see both of them. It's an emergency." As the words left his mouth the door to the judge's office opened and Burton started out. "Miss Burton?" He approached.

"Mr. Houston? What on earth...?"

"I'm sorry, but I really need to talk to you and Judge Maynard – please." There was a slight rustle and the judge appeared in the doorway.

"Is there a problem?"

"Yes ma'am. Please – I need to talk to both of you. It's about Brian Landers."

"Come in." Maynard remembered what had happened two years before, but was somewhat surprised when she saw the badge on Matt's belt and the Glock in the shoulder holster that he now had on. "What's wrong?"

He explained what had happened. "Please – I know I'm not going about this the right way, but could you help me out here? I need to get temporary custody of Brian again."

"We..." Maynard looked into his eyes and saw the desperation there. "Wanda, can you expedite the paperwork for Mr. Houston?"

"I can."

"Look I really can't stick around right now; I've got to try to find her."

"That's okay." Maynard smiled, nodding at the badge. "We know exactly where to find you. Good luck and report back to Wanda tomorrow morning."

"Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Both of you." He turned on his heel and hurried back out of the office, his phone ringing as he got back to the truck.

"Houston."

"Lyons here. I've got a lead on Young. Meet me at St. Elmo's Street just north of the Sunrise Motel."