"The Golden Years"
**Immediately follows "Unhappy Trails"**
"Old age is no place for sissies." Bette Davis
CHAPTER 1
"Nope...you wait right there." Private investigator Matt Houston quickly slid out from behind the wheel of his wife's SUV and hurried around to the passenger side to open the door for her. "Okay...easy now."
"Oh, for heaven's sake, Matt!" CJ got out of the vehicle as he steadied her. "I'm fine."
"Uh huh, and I'm gonna make sure you stay that way." He ignored her eye rolling.
Out of the house came their daughter Catey Rose, now almost twenty months old, holding the hand of her adopted brother Tomás and followed by nanny Sheila Wentworth. The teen spoke up. "How'd it go?"
"Carol said she needs to take it..."
"I'm fine, Tomás; thank you very much." Making her way over to one of the patio chairs she sat down.
"Here – prop up, Babe." Matt began fussing over her once again.
"Matt, please..." She looked to the nanny for help but only received a big smile.
"There ya go." He leaned over and kissed her, silencing her protests.
"They're here." Tomás nodded toward the drive where ranch hand Lamar Pettybone pulled up in Matt's truck and began helping his passengers unload their luggage.
"Hey, beautiful – how're ya doing?" Vince Novelli made his way over and gave his best friend's wife a peck on the cheek. "Heard you had a little excitement."
"Everything is fine. How was your trip?"
"Great. Are you sure this delinquent won't be in your way?" He punched his oldest son Paul in the arm.
"Of course he won't." CJ accepted a hug from the young man who was about to start college at USC.
"Might put him on diaper duty." Matt smirked as he patted the young man on the back.
"Not a problem." Paul and Tomás shook hands and then along with Lamar began carrying in luggage.
"There she is..." Roy Houston had arrived with the Novellis and now beamed down at his niece.
"Hard to miss a beached whale." CJ received a hug from Roy and then Vince's mother Rosa. "You look great, Mama."
"Pffft. I'm an old lady." She shook her head as she took a seat in the chair that Matt held for her.
"You mean sexy senior citizen." Roy gave her a devilish grin.
"Hush." She blushed as everyone cracked up.
"Think you'll be okay if I go down and check on Cricket?" Houston lightly rubbed his wife's shoulders.
Using the hen-pecked voice that they often teased each other with she responded, "Yes, dear."
Vince and Roy walked down to the barn with the cowboy to check on the mare who was near to foaling, both noticing the look of concern on his face. "So what did Carol say?" Roy watched as Cricket made her way over to the fence as soon as she saw her owner.
He shrugged. "False labor pains. We just have to keep an eye on her." Going into the pasture he began quietly talking to the horse, rubbing his hand down her side and gently patting her belly and receiving a nuzzle from her. "You seem to be doing just fine, don't you?" Laying his head on hers he scratched her jaw as Jasper approached and nickered at him. "Getting jealous?" The cowboy laughed as he began petting on the pair, the obvious calming effect that the animals had on him apparent to both his uncle and friend.
"You need to work on your timing, Ace." Vince winked at Roy.
"Oh?" Houston turned and walked back over to the fence where he climbed up and had a seat as all of the horses in the pasture came for attention.
"Yeah, you need to keep your horses from foaling the same time as CJ. Remember what happened last time?"
"Believe me – I'll never forget that." Houston chuckled as he thought back to the day that Catey Rose had been born in the barn just as one of his other horses had foaled – all of which had happened as storms ripped through the area, including a tornado.
Meanwhile...
"Young lady, could I take a look at that necklace?" The older man at the counter of Cynthia's Jewelers pointed at a small diamond necklace.
"Sure." Behind the counter a heavyset brunette opened the case with the key that was secured to her wrist and gently set the item on top of the glass display case for the man to see. As he pulled out his glasses and tried to get a better look leaning first closer and then farther away, her attention was drawn to an elderly lady at the other end of the counter.
"Miles, are you sure you're okay?" She gently patted him on the shoulder as he leaned heavily on his cane, his breathing somewhat labored.
"Excuse me." The young lady moved down to check on the other two customers, leaving the necklace on the counter and the case unlocked. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Maybe a glass of water?" The older lady thanked her as she nodded and headed back through the door, returning a moment later to find all three of the senior citizens gone as well as an empty display case where the first man had been looking at the necklace.
"Oh, my God! Mr. Kersakis!" She yelled for the store's owner who immediately came out to find a large part of his stock stolen.
"Who did this?!" He stared in disbelief.
"There was an older gentleman looking at a necklace and another man and his wife here..." She pointed and explained what had happened.
"Go see if they're outside...I'm calling the police." Kersakis picked up the phone and began dialing.
"Lieutenant, you've got a call on line three." Luis Sanchez put the call on hold as his boss stepped from the elevator and into the lobby.
Sighing, the overworked cop took the phone from him. "Hoyt..." He listened. "You're kidding me... Good Lord. Okay, Larry. Thanks for the heads up." He hung up the phone and scanned the squad room. "Jennings..."
"Yes sir?" The young cop had just come back to work after recuperating from a gunshot wound.
"Looks like we've got an interesting robber on our hands. Come on. I'll explain on the way." Turning back toward the elevator he told about the phone call that he had just received. "This makes the fourth one this month."
"Older guy, huh?" Jennings nodded. "That's kind of unusual."
Together they rode out to the jewelry store located at the corner of Sawtelle Boulevard and West Pico. Sergeant Larry Carlisle was finishing up his report as they pulled up to the scene. Inside the store, CSI tech Bob Wisnewski was dusting for fingerprints without much success. "Are you sure he touched the counter here?"
"Yes. He was standing right where you are and put his right hand right about there."
Shaking his head, Wisnewski looked at the lieutenant. "Nothing but smudges."
"Same as the other four." Hoyt looked around. "Was he wearing gloves?"
"No sir." The clerk was distraught.
"What about the other two – you said husband and wife?" The lieutenant moved down to where she motioned.
"They were standing about there, but I don't know if they touched anything. If they did I didn't see them."
"Mr. Kersakis, do you have any security cameras?"
"Yes, I've pulled up the footage." He motioned the three men back to the office of the store where Wisnewski sat down at the computer and went through the video. They all watched as first the man came in alone and began browsing and then a few of minutes later the couple came in and began looking at the opposite end of the counter. They saw as the second man seemed to be having trouble breathing right before the first man asked to see the necklace. As soon as the clerk had gone through the door to the back, the first man picked up a tray of jewelry from the case, removed it, and headed out the door immediately followed by the couple.
"Looks like they're working together." Lee jotted down a description of all three of the senior citizens.
As they left and headed back to the station, Michael was thinking out loud. "They've made a pretty good haul over the last month."
"So you think all of the jobs are related?"
"Uh huh. We need to check the pawn shops, known fences...the usual. I just wonder how much they're actually making off it. Whoever they're selling it to isn't going to be paying top dollar."
"True."
Hoyt's phone rang again and he began grumbling until he checked the caller ID. "Well – if it isn't the Prodigal PI. Are you still in Texas?"
"Nope. We're in town. Just thought I'd call and check up on you."
"I've been having a wonderful time. As a matter of fact, does Roy have an alibi for the last month?"
"An alibi?" Matt put down the stack of buckets that he had been carrying through the barn.
"Uh huh – we've had a string of jewelry store robberies carried out by senior citizens."
"In that case he's been in Hawaii." The PI laughed.
"Sure about that?"
"Yep, he and Mama just flew in with Vince and Paul."
"I almost forgot about that. How's Mama doing?"
"Pretty good. Better than she was but with the trial getting closer you can tell it's weighing on her mind." He looked up toward the patio where the petite Italian lady was sitting with CJ talking.
"What about CJ?"
"So you're calling her a senior citizen? Although she is older than me by about six months or so..." He gave a chuckle. "No, she's okay. Kinda gave me a scare earlier with some false labor pains." The concern in his voice came through loud and clear to his friend. "Carol just said to make sure she takes it easy. And that ain't gonna be easy."
"Not as stubborn as she is."
"Nope. And Derwin is pretty pissed at me right now." Houston sat down on the stack of buckets.
"What in the world about?"
"We were supposed to go to Washington in a couple of weeks. I'm not leaving CJ – I don't care who I'm supposed to be going to see."
"Washington? As in DC?"
"Yeah." Matt couldn't tell anyone about the project that he and Derwin had undertaken for the Defense Department. "They can meet us here. I talked to one of the folks in charge this morning while CJ was seeing Carol. It doesn't seem to be an issue for them – just Derwin."
"He can just get over it."
"That's pretty much what I told him. Either get over it or forget the whole deal. I'm not leaving her."
"You do what you need to, Houston. Guess I better get off of here and see what we can find on the jewelry store heists."
"Okay – hey, I almost forgot. Why don't y'all come over tonight for supper? And ask Lee if he and Bridgette can come, too." He could hear Michael speaking to someone else.
"Lee says they'll be there. I'll check with Anne but as far as I know we can. I'll have her call CJ."
"No – have her call me. If CJ finds out she'll be up and moving. I just wanted to surprise her. Mama and Sheila already know and are helping me out with it."
"Not a problem. See you later." Hoyt hung up, thinking about what Houston had just told him. He and Derwin had worked on a lot of projects together: the BugBytes systems and the Alien Armory series of video games of which there were now four. If Derwin thought that the PI was going to leave CJ if there was even a hint of a problem with the twins he was sadly mistaken. Family came first with the Texan and anyone who couldn't understand that was sure to be set straight on the matter in short order.