CHAPTER 2

Matt and CJ walked into the police precinct and were greeted by Bob Peterson who was manning the front desk. "Houston! Good to see ya up and about! How much longer on the arm?"

"Hi, Bob. Thanks. They say a couple more weeks if everything goes good. We're supposed to be meeting Hoyt upstairs." He took the visitor badges that the sergeant handed to him and walked with CJ to the elevator. On the ride up the couple talked about Hoyt.

"He is sure stressed out. Poor guy. That budget mess is dragging him down." CJ said exactly what Matt had been thinking. "Not to mention these murders."

Getting off of the elevator and turning to the right heading toward the lieutenant's office, they heard him yelling before they even got there. "Sanchez, I've told you time after time, DO NOT move any of the papers on my desk. They are just exactly where I can find what I need. Now I've gotta dig through there to find the case files for Houston to look at!" The exasperated detective stormed back into his office. CJ and Matt exchanged a look with Sanchez, who said, "Good luck in there."

Matt knocked on the door and stuck his head inside. "It's just me, don't shoot." He gave Hoyt a goofy grin as he walked through.

"I'm tempted to shoot somebody. They come in and move stuff around all the time and I spend…"

Matt had reached over and grabbed a stack of folders. "Is this what you're looking for?" Hoyt sat down and shook his head yes.

"Michael, you need to calm down. This isn't good for you – or anyone else around here for that matter." CJ walked over and sat in the chair in front of his desk.

"It's all this budget mess, CJ. They expect me to do my regular work, which I rarely have enough time for, plus all of this mess." He picked up a handful of papers.

"May I?" CJ held out her hand and he passed them to her. She looked through them. "You know, I think I can help you out here. Would you like me to try?"

He gave her an incredulous look. "Really?"

"Sure. After all, I used to help run a Fortune 500 company. It's gotta be easier than that."

Matt took the stack of folders and wandered over to the couch, already poring through the first file. After thirty minutes he looked up to see CJ and Hoyt both working on the budget papers and Hoyt much calmer than he had been. He went back to studying the cases and by the time he had worked his way through them, CJ and Hoyt were chatting and drinking coffee. "All better now?" He stood up and walked back over to the detective's desk.

"Much, thanks to your wife here." Hoyt was actually smiling. "Do you think you can help me next year?"

"Sure, what are friends for?" CJ turned to Matt. "So what did you learn?"

"Well, all three of the previous victims were male, over-the-road drivers, in their 40's. One was white, one African-American, and one Hispanic. Two were married the other was divorced. The first victim, Roger Bell, was found just like the others except for one thing: there wasn't an ear on his keychain. But, his left ear was found at the scene of the second murder. That's where they came across Malcolm Patterson, whose ear was found with Arturo Montevideo. His ear is probably the one that was at this last scene. All were found in the sleeper in their trucks, in the same condition as this last one. The cause of death was exsanguination. Bleeding out, what a way to go." He looked out the window at the traffic below. "There was no mention of drugs in the report, Hoyt. Did they do a tox screen?"

"Yes, but…" he looked through the papers on his desk. "Wait, I do have it on the first one, Bell. Here you go." He handed the report to Matt who read through it.

"Uh huh. Well, that answers one question. The ME found GHB in his system. None of the truck drivers were big men, the tallest was 5' 10", but all were in fairly decent shape. There were no signs of struggle. The killer had to use something to subdue them." Matt sat back down on the couch. "Now the other question I have is this: did the drivers pick the killer up as a passenger, or something else? We know that there is a lot of prostitution at truck stops." He stopped for a minute. "But if we assume it was a female prostitute, how many women are likely to know how to skin someone like that?" He looked at CJ. "Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that a woman couldn't, because obviously she could. You know how to skin a deer, and do a darn good job of it, I might add." He smiled at his wife. "But not too many women out there know how to do it." The three sat in silence for a minute. "Of course, it could have been a man. Were there any indications that any of these drivers preferred men?"

"Not that I've been made aware of…but I haven't actually worked any of these cases myself up until now. The only reason I got landed with it today is because we're short three detectives at the moment. One is on his honeymoon, one is in the hospital, and one called out sick." Hoyt picked up his phone and began dialing. "I'm going to see if the ME has found GHB in the other two guys' systems." After a few minutes on hold, he was able to talk directly to the doctor that had performed the autopsies and asked him about the drug. "Uh huh, I see. Okay, thank you doctor. Oh, and a heads up: there's another one headed your way. I know. Thanks again." Michael hung up the phone. "Bingo. The other two guys also had GHB."

Matt nodded. "It could still be a man or a woman." He thought for a minute. "Who found the guy this morning?"

"The manager of the truck stop. All of the drivers who parked there in that section of the lot last night were told that they needed to move their rigs by 10 am. That section was going to be resurfaced today. He knocked on the door, didn't get an answer and opened it up, then saw the blood and called 911. The first officer on the scene climbed up in the rig and found him." He took a pad of paper and wrote the name of the manager on it as well as the officer's name and gave it to Matt. "The manager is off until 4pm today and Officer Rialto is off until Tuesday, but he's out of town at a wedding. And you can keep those files; I'll print out another copy for myself."

Matt nodded. "Okay, guess I'll start digging up information with BABY, and then go talk with the manager." He looked at CJ. "Are you two all done budgeting?"

She stood up smiling. "Yep, he's all set."

Hoyt stood up and came around the desk to give CJ a hug. "Thanks a lot, CJ; I'm just not any good at things like that." He shook Houston's hand. "Keep me in the loop."

"You know it." Matt opened the door for his wife and the pair left for their office.