Blinded by Hate
**Immediately follows "The Writing on the Wall"**
"Courage is being scared to death...
and saddling up anyway."
John Wayne
CHAPTER 1
LAPD Det. John Oxford came to with a pounding headache and the taste of blood in his mouth. When he opened his eyes a bright spotlight was aimed at his face, causing ripples of pain to course through his skull. "What in the hell is going on?!" Struggling against the handcuffs and leg irons that had him locked in the chair got him nowhere, nor did his attempts to move the chair. "If this is a joke it's a bad one." There was no response. "Come on – get these damn things off of me!" He yelled as loudly as he could.
"SILENCE!" The loud voice seemingly surrounded him and he complied. Suddenly a computer monitor off to his right came alive. A moment later a video began playing. It was of Oxford and a woman he had picked up at a bar.
"How in the hell did you get that? Who are you?"
That monitor turned off and one on his left came on, showing the woman tied up and looking terrified.
"Look – I don't know what this is about but it isn't funny. Now turn that crap off and let me go. I'll forget that it ever happened."
He heard the electronically altered voice again. "You might forget, but I won't." Another spotlight came on directly over the detective's head and shone down on the floor, illuminating the body of the woman from the video. She appeared to have been strangled - her eyes cloudy with death, her face frozen in an expression of terror.
"No, oh God, no! I didn't do it!" The monitor on the right flashed on again showing a naked Oxford strangling the woman with a cord. "No, that isn't me! It isn't!" He began to sob.
"It is you, Detective."
"Please! Whatever you want I'll give it to you! Please!" He wailed.
"You only need to complete one job and all of this will disappear."
"Sure. Whatever you want." Oxford shuddered as he tried to regain his composure.
"You will assist me in taking out a common enemy that we have."
"Sure. Who is it?" He continued to look around the room.
"Matt Houston."
"This is a joke, right?"
"The woman that you killed doesn't believe it's a joke."
"Come on – are you nuts? Look, I hate his guts but really: he's got connections all over the place - LAPD, the feds, everywhere."
"So you want me to deliver this evidence to the Chief of Police?"
"No, I just – the man is practically untouchable."
"But it isn't impossible. You'll find that weak link and use it to take him out."
"Please – he's…"
"He's your ticket out of life in prison; a long and miserable life behind bars."
"Pick somebody else. The guy is…he's got nine lives like a cat."
"You mean you want to go to prison?"
"No! Just please – make it someone else!"
"You have one week to eliminate him – or the video goes to the chief. It's your choice."
One by one the monitors and lights turned off and Oxford was left in the dark. He screamed.
"Your answer?"
"I'll do it." He was crying again as he felt the air move by his head and then once again he was unconscious.
TWO DAYS LATER…
"Yeah Babe, I'm fine. Not sure what happened with the brakes, though." Private investigator Mattlock William Houston stood nearby as the tow truck driver prepared his pickup for transport.
"Okay, do you want me to come pick you up?" CJ Parsons-Houston was finishing up some invoices at her desk.
"No, Hoyt's here. I'm going to get him to bring me over there. Do you mind if I borrow your Navigator? I've still got to get my fire gear out of there."
"Not at all. I'm just glad you're okay and no one got hurt."
"Me, too – but it looks like I owe Loco Taco some landscaping." He chuckled. "See you in a little bit."
"Love you, Cowboy."
"Love you, Babe. 'Bye." He hung up and watched as the rollback wrecker left with "The Dream Truck" as he liked to refer to it.
"Alright, PI. Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah." Matt followed his friend over to his car and got into it. "Thanks by the way."
"No problem. I have to expect this type of behavior from you – lightning rod." The lieutenant smiled.
"I'm glad you're enjoying this. Don't laugh too hard – you might get a hernia."
After a little more verbal sparring and laughter, Michael dropped the PI off at his office. Matt put his bullet proof vest into CJ's Navigator as well as his holster, but tucked the Glock into the back of his jeans. Without any real reason, the PI had felt all day that something was off. Better safe than sorry he thought to himself. He rode up in the elevator to his penthouse office to check on CJ who was now about six weeks pregnant with twins. As he exited the car and started past the desk of his secretary Chris Chase, he stopped. The secretary was also pregnant and her belly was becoming more defined. "That baby bump is coming right along, Chris."
"Why, thank you!" She was beaming.
CJ stuck her head into the outer office. "Well, well...if it isn't Old Crash." She stuck her tongue out at her husband.
"Not you, too? Michael's been razzing me enough. Besides, I came up here to check on you."
"Me? I'm fine – haven't torn up anything today – have I Chris?"
"Nope."
"Shut up and kiss me, woman." Matt pulled her into his arms and planted a kiss on her guaranteed to make her weak in the knees. After a minute it had the desired effect.
"And to think I don't have any popcorn to go with the show." Chris rolled her eyes.
"Now, Mrs. Houston – I'm going to Ernie's to get my gear and then I'll be back."
"Will there be more kissing when you get back? If so I'll make a run to the drug store for popcorn while you're gone." Chris snickered again.
"Is that all you pregnant women think about – food?" Matt headed for the elevator.
CJ spoke up. "No – actually we think about sex – a lot." She wiggled her eyebrows at him.
"In that case it will be a speedy trip." He boarded the elevator and headed back down to the garage. Crossing over his parking space to CJ's Navigator, Matt noticed something on the floor. He dipped his index finger into the drop that was about the size of a quarter and rubbed it against his thumb before smelling it. Brake fluid. Standing back up he looked at the puddle for a minute then got into the SUV and headed for Ernie Olsen's repair shop.
Matt's truck had already been unloaded from the wrecker and was sitting outside the shop. As he got out of the Navigator, Ernie walked out to greet the private eye. "Hey look here, guys – it's Sam Spade." He squinted at Matt. "Haven't seen you in a while. Thought maybe CJ had taught you how to drive." Ernie grinned as he and Matt shook hands.
"Nice to see you, too. I'm not real sure what happened. I was driving along and everything was normal. The light up ahead changed to yellow and I tried to slow down – but no dice. Figured Loco Taco needed some new shrubbery so I let it stop the truck."
"I'm sure they're happy about new landscaping."
"Well – let me add this." Matt told the mechanic about the brake fluid on the floor of the parking garage.
"Hmm... have you been chasing cows in this thing?" He got a creeper out of the shop and rolled underneath.
"Not in quite a while. It hasn't been off-road since the week before Thanksgiving."
"Uh huh..." Ernie rolled around under the truck to the driver's side. "Come over here." Matt walked around as Ernie rolled out. "Take a look back here." The mechanic had a puzzled look on his face as the PI got on the creeper and went under to take a look.
"Kinda ragged." He came back out.
"It could be something got thrown underneath there and nicked it..." Ernie pulled off his glasses and wiped them with a bandana. He lowered his voice. "...but it could be somebody messed with it."
Matt nodded. "I'll keep an eye out." He went to unlock the Navigator and began unloading his fire gear then left headed for the office. As he drove along he thought about who he had pissed off recently that might have messed with the brake lines and came up empty.
He was sitting in the right lane of traffic at a red light when he looked up in the rear view mirror – only to see a cement mixer coming right at him – and not slowing down at all.
