The table was set-up very nicely on the balcony, as usual C.J. had gone to great lengths in putting it all together with all of Matt' favorite things on the table ,the colors, very manly colors such as gold and green plates and napkins, and the silverware set out in a basket at the end of the table along with champagne glasses, the presents, aligned each side of the massive cake 3-D actually, which was in the shape of Texas, since this is where Matt was from, and at times knew he missed it more than he would let on. Chocolate on the inside of course with white butter cream icing on the outside, all trimmed out in green and gold frosting. C.J. had gotten everyone's attention to gather around the table for it was time to sing "Happy Birthday". What happened next stunned them all and could have killed any one of them had they been standing any closer to the cake. As they finished the last chorus, the cake exploded everywhere. Everyone ducked and some even dropped to the ground, thankfully cake and icing where the only things that went flying and not people. But the most troubling thing that appeared from the explosion out of the middle of the cake popped out what looked to be a Human Heart!!!
Matt went over to C.J. "Are you ok?" he asked her concern all over his face.
"I'll let you know as soon as my heart starts beating again." she had said in disbelief at what just happened.
"Who would do this?" she asked.
"I don't know, but you can believe I will find out." Matt said with determination and anger.
After canceling the party for that day obviously, Matt and C.J. went straight to work on who might have done this most wretched explosion.
After working on Baby for a while and going thru old files and trying to come up with who's M.O. this most sounded like, they kept coming up with the same man.
"You know I keep going thru this over and over and I keep coming up with the same man C.J." Matt said heading to the bar to poor himself another drink.
"Who?" she asked bewildered.
"Castanos" Matt said with anger in his voice.
"But he's been dead for a few years now." C.J. said with a questioning tone in her voice.
"But just maybe he has someone out there that is mad at me for what happened to him, like a close friend or family member". Matt said as he sipped his scotch.
"And obviously, whoever this person is, they are just as ruthless as he was." He said concern in his voice.
"That's what worries me, after all whoever did it, managed to get a human heart stuck in that cake, it does sound like Castanos' M.O." C.J. said fear creeping in her voice.
"I need you to get on Baby and dig into Castanos' family history and see who or what you can dig up." Matt said as he was heading toward the elevator.
"Ok, but where are you going?" C.J. asked
"I'm going to check in with Hoyt at the station and see what he has come up with and tell him our suspicions." He said matter of fact.
"Just be careful, if this is a relative this person could be even more crazy than Castanos." C.J. said full of concern.
"Always," winking at her as he got on the elevator.
Matt went down to the station but only to come up empty handed. Hoyt had the lab looking at the heart that exploded from the cake. Hoping to come up with some kind of DNA to point them in a direction, any direction of who could have done this. Matt told him of his suspicions and Hoyt thought a minute, and then agreed they needed to find out if there was any relatives out there that they were not aware of that might be out for revenge. Matt told Hoyt he had C.J. looking into it back at the office.
"You know, from what I heard about last time, Castanos took C.J. hostage to get to you, you might not want to let the lady to far out of your sight for the time being." Hoyt said directly.
"I know, she won't be trust me, I could see the fear creep across her face earlier when I told her I thought whoever did this was tied to Castanos." Matt said
"Ok, speaking of her I better get back to the office, she's there alone and it's getting late." Matt said heading towards the door.
Hoyt said he'd call if and when the lab found anything out. So Matt headed back to the office to see what if anything C.J. had dug up.
Matt came up the elevator and went into the office, he expected C.J. to be within eye's sight and she wasn't. He looked around and didn't see her. He did however see a manila envelope on the bar, it must have come while he was gone he had thought.