Another update up, thanks for reading and the feedback!
Matt sat and watched Johnny perform during his show which as usual, attracted a crowd of people clapping and cheering as servers passed around drinks to lather up those in attendance to hit the casino afterward.
He didn't drink, having sworn off of it since he left L.A. because he could think about things better without scotch, bourbon and all their assorted friends. Johnny had certainly come a long way from the days when he boozed it up between shows and then blacked out in between them. He now worked out ate healthy and Matt noticed that he appeared to be enjoying life a lot more than he had in his days of fame and infamy. He still had a lot of fans and no longer needed the money; he could just focus on his talent and using it to make people happy.
They had been out hitting the golf course, where Johnny teased Matt about his putting skills which had gone rusty. Matt found his game coming back after they hit the ninth hole and the game resulted in a tie between the two of them before they went to the clubhouse to get something to eat.
Matt could never live in a city like Vegas that seemed to be based more on weaving fantasies to tourists than in anything approaching reality. But it had been a nice place to travel to get away from what had happened to get more clarity on his life. One more day and then he would phone the office for his messages and promise to return by the end of the week.
Several women approached him dressed in shimmering outfits but she politely told him he was just there to watch a friend. He sipped a club soda and lime as Johnny moved on from ballads to faster paced music and Matt knew that he had tapped into some of the more painful areas of his life. His way of working through them, Matt figured, even as he tried to navigate this own feelings about what the loss of Elizabeth and his own survival that had happened only because the wedding didn't.
That's what it broiled down to, the decision that had saved his life had been to walk away from Elizabeth and neither saw what followed coming because you couldn't see everything after all.
It hit him cold and hard like a sledge hammer when it was defined like that, but he had to accept it somehow and move forward which meant going back home.
The police officers lined up beside the front door before trying to break into the house. They had responded to a report by a neighbor of gunshots fired inside the residence that had disrupted the quietness of the street.
"It looks like it was double bolted," the officer said, "Send some officers around to try the back but be prepared for anything."
About a half dozen of them went through the side gate into the backyard. They put themselves in formation and braced for any type of violent response at their arrival.
"Police…open the door and keep your hands away from your body."
But nothing happened; the house remained darkened and quiet. One officer ran from behind.
"The French Doors are broken," he said, "but there's no sign of anyone."
The other officer, a sergeant sighed.
"No response here either…god I hope it's not a suicide or worse."
They proceeded to the double doors which were indeed broken, a window shattered while others covered the other doors. They put themselves in formation to go through the French doors taking care to protect themselves.
"No one in the bedroom…but it looks like there was a struggle of some kind…"
The furniture including the bed were in disarray and was that blood on the floor? An officer knelt to examine it more closely while others guns still drawn issued verbal orders to appear and surrender.
But nothing happened until they stepped out into the hallway which was dimly lit and they saw a man lying sprawled on the ground dead in a pool of blood.
"He looked deceased…gunshot wound it looks like…"
That put the officers on high alert because the gunman could still be around or hiding in the closet.
They proceeded into the living room and that's where they found her.
Matt didn't do much gambling after the show because that had never been his thing; well save for a business deal or two when he had been younger. Johnny had been signing autographs after the last show and would meet him there to find another floating poker game. Neither wagered major dollars but played mostly to relax with a congenial crowd some distance away from the more serious card games.
"Most of the folks are up top on the roof patio watching the lunar eclipse," Johnny said, joining them.
Matt just looked at him.
"The what…?"
"It happens once every 40 years," he said, "but poker's more relaxing than looking at the sky for stars and the moon in the middle of the Vegas strip."
True, Matt certainly thought because he'd grown up gazing up every night at the ranch at a sea of stars, where so many were amassed in the clear night sky, they seemed to touch one another.
"What's your hand," Johnny asked, getting some cards.
"Could be better, could be worse…want to trade cards?"
Johnny smiled at him.
"We'll see about later in the game…"
Matt actually won several hands including that one and accumulated another pile of cash to add to the previous day. He played the game well though not as well as C.J. did, who could do everything a player needed to win including bluff, though occasionally she failed at that if he looked at her a certain way.
Damn he should have called her by now, this was the longest they had gone without speaking in years, even when he had been on the run after being framed for murder he kept in touch with her. He reached to pick up his phone intending to sit the next hand out while he gave her a call.
"Matt, this guy here he's a football player," Johnny said, "He remembers your Cotton Bowl win."
And so he spent some time answering questions from someone who turned out to be an alumna of Rice University who had attended a few years before his own arrival there. He had gone into engineering and watched the sports from the sidelines whereas Matt had gone to the business school and balanced that with playing first string quarterback by his junior year.
Another man stopped by to sit down at their table and took some cards.
"Thanks for telling me about the game Sal," he said, "It's good to sit back and relax with a Scotch and a good hand."
Johnny looked over at him.
"You work for the police department there in L.A.?"
"Yeah just flew in a couple of hours," he said, "so I'm officially off-duty for the next couple of days."
Matt couldn't argue with that having had friends who had been in law enforcement, some of his closest friends like Vince and Hoyt who were always flirting with stress which manifested in them in very different ways. Vince through ulcers and hypertension which ultimately pushed his retirement ahead several years and Hoyt had watched those he worked with die not long after beginning to collect pension checks.
"L.A.'s just running with violence as usual," the officer said, "Just when my plane landed I heard about another homicide."
Another man rolled his eyes.
"What else is new…who killed who this time?"
"Dead guy found in a woman's house…shot to death," the officer said, "Maybe domestic violence…prowler breaking in…no one knows."
"Was he there alone…like a burglar who got caught in the act," another person said, "or someone walking in on what their husband was doing?"
Matt just listened knowing that they could only guess what happened without more factual evidence, eye witness accounts, ballistics and forensics including patterns of blood splatter or stifling indicating the fatal shot came from close range. These investigations were more complicated than most people knew but he did because of his professional background.
"Was the woman there," he asked.
The officer shrugged.
"That's the part that wasn't clear," he said, "Who she was for that matter…whether she lived there or not but they found someone else there alive and with a gun."
Okay, Matt thought that both narrowed down and widened the possible scenarios of what could have taken place.
"Was the house broken into?"
The officer raised his brows at Matt.
"I see you know how to ask the questions," he said, "There were signs of damage to one of the entrances but it's not clear whether that was made coming or going…"
Now Matt frowned.
"What do you mean coming and going," he said, "Weren't all the people involved at the scene?"
The officer sighed.
"Maybe not…it's too early to tell," he said, "I don't have a lot of information on what happened and I'm sure they've learned more since the phone call…I picked the right time to leave now let's start dealing some good hands…"
Matt remained frozen on what had just been discussed. He had known his share of excellent homicide cases and in fact, Vince had supervised that unit for several years before he was moved into special assignments. But many of them had retired at the same time that Vince had and others had been transferred from other divisions to replace them.
"Probably some wife who caught her husband doing something…"
The officer looked at the man who made that comment.
"No way to know until we get all the facts…but it sure required a lot of units after the 911 call came of shots fired."
With that, they settled back into dealing cards and playing poker because there was no stopping the violence in the world.
She sat there without the gun which had been removed from the situation when she had been ordered by police officers who charged in the house with guns and had let them take it from her.
It had been in her lap while she had sat on the floor, her back resting against a sofa while waiting for them to arrive and take the dead man away. When they had the gun, they started asking her questions about him, while she wrapped her arms tighter around herself not really giving much in the way of answers.
Her body hurt once the adrenalin started wearing off but her mind just watched what went on around her.
"We need to take you to the station," one officer said.
She looked up at him and by his reaction, well she hadn't seen herself.
"Am I under arrest?"
He looked at her a moment and then shook his head.
"Just for questioning…we need to find out what went on here."
She just looked over where they were processing evidence in the hallway with the dead man.
"I think I killed him…the other…"
The officer frowned.
"The other...what do you mean?"
She looked down at her hands.
"He left…he got away."
So many feelings had rushed through her when she had pulled the trigger, she remembered but since then, the feeling of numbness, of lack of feeling which followed overwhelmed them. He reached over to touch her shoulder and she pulled away. He looked at his partner and then back at her.
"What happened to you…is there anything you need to tell us before we leave?"
But she just looked at him, her heart beating somewhere in her chest. She had just been fighting to get away, would they understand that? After…her head began to hurt along with everything else. Had she hit it, she couldn't remember.
"Come on…let's go…" an officer said.
She felt herself getting up, her muscles aching and following him.
"You need a jacket or anything?"
She just looked at him and then went to the closet to get a sweater. Her clothes didn't match she knew that but she figured they had other things to worry about and she hadn't cared what she put on.
They led her outside to the police car not far from where her neighbors had congregated to watch. Why had they done that, she wondered, some of them she had never seen before.
She got inside the front seat of the police car and they drove away from her house that no longer felt like hers.
Matt thought about after he had come home from his military stint, without his cousin who was believed to have been killed in action. A belief he had carried around for years while telling himself that he should have done more to prevent his cousin's death even though he had been stationed many miles away from him, in a totally different assignment. Really it was like blaming himself for living in L.A. while his cousin died in Chicago or something like that. But then he realized that he tended to blame himself for many things including those he couldn't be expected to control.
Elizabeth's death had been just like that. Johnny had told him over late night coffee that he had the same problem when his family died, or when his old singing partner got behind the wheel and was killed two blocks away from where he left Johnny by a drunk driver. Life delivered all kinds of surprises, they both know, good and bad and controlling most of them was a myth that people often carried around to feel less helpless about what it doled out.
He had actually called C.J. on her cell phone but hadn't received an answer the night before but then again the poker game had ended really late and she probably had turned in for the night…he hoped she would call him back but he knew he had hurt her feelings before he left. He hoped she would forgive him for that but he planned to apologize. She was his best friend who had always been there for him and he had no right to treat her like that…even in his own grief. He just needed to figure out a way to make up for it.
He had gone running with Johnny again earlier this morning and then had eaten breakfast with him back at the hotel and then read the newspaper. Not much going on except for a Senate vote on some communications bill that Murray had been following and tensions between two countries in South America erupting into a border squirmish.
And the homicide in L.A. where a man identified as Clyde Darwin was shot to death inside a woman's home, but she hadn't been identified for some reason. Clyde had been 35 years old and had been identified through fingerprints. Police were checking out leads that the man had escaped from a prison up state along with another man. Maybe a husband escaping from prison who broke inside a woman's house to rob it and then got shot for his efforts.
His cell phone rang and he discovered it was Murray.
"Hi there…this is Houston."
Murray seemed almost surprised he had answered the phone.
"Oh Houston…I hope I'm not disturbing you."
Matt's brows had to rise at that never having ever heard his corporate president say those words in all the years he knew him.
"No…actually I was going to call you…I know you're worried about the Senate's bill but my ex-girlfriend you remember her, Christina, her husband is pulling for a quick and favorable vote…so everything's going to be just fine there."
Murray breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh you can't understand how much better I feel now," he said, "That company we purchased last year is going to be making the product and it could be a financial boon…"
"Murray…that product is going to be made to help people…especially lower income people…not for profit."
"Yeah…I know…sure…whatever you say big guy…"
"Anything else," he asked.
"No…no…everything's fine…except it's just me and the secretaries…"
That didn't surprise Matt because Roy and C.J. were probably out handing cases out in the field for the investigative firm in his absence.
"Okay…well I'm going to be coming back to L.A. in a day or two," he said, "So I'll put in some extra time at the office to get everything caught up."
"Houston…you don't have to…I know you're going through a difficult time."
Matt sighed.
"Yes I am…but I'm not going to let the company or firm suffer over it," he said, "I'm coming back and I'll be ready to work."
"Well that's great then Houston…talk to you later."
Matt said goodbye and clicked off his phone.
Roy looked at Hoyt, as they sat in his office at the police station.
"How long are you holding her?"
Hoyt just sighed at him, wondering why the older man had to look at him like that. It wasn't his fault after all. They had certain legal procedures to follow when investigating homicides even those that might have been in self defense. He knew C.J. was no killer but she had just shot a guy to death and didn't seem to have much to say about it.
"Just for questioning…I hate doing it but it's procedural…we need to have a case to send to the DA and it's probably going to be justifiable homicide but we need a more detailed account than she's provided."
Roy tilted his head.
"Is she okay?"
Hoyt just looked back over at him, his eyes serious.
"No…she's not…in fact they should have done this over at the hospital…she's pretty banged up…maybe from struggling with the man."
Roy shook his head.
"It's just some random burglar that she caught in action?"
Hoyt seemed very uncertain to Roy but then they were probably in the process of getting more information. Cases like these often started slowly and then mushroomed as bits and pieces came in and they started getting put together.
"He's Clyde Darwin…he escaped from prison with another man…Dallas Royce…we don't know where he is…or if they were together…"
"Did you run their names," Roy said, "to see if there's any connection between them or her?"
Hoyt just sighed.
"We're in the process of doing that, it's still early," he said, "and believe it or not Roy, my men and women do know how to do their jobs."
Roy didn't doubt that but he knew that this wasn't a random burglary not with everything that had happened lately.
"You know she was being harassed by some unknown person…"
"Of course I do Roy," Hoyt said, "but that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with what happened in her house last night…that was online…they may not have even known where she lived."
"They knew her phone number and email information," Roy said, "You know how easy it is to get confidential information about someone online."
Hoyt put his hands together on the desk.
"Yes I do…but there's no evidence that's what happened here," he said, "though we will be looking into that as part of the investigation."
Ah, Roy thought now that there was a dead body in C.J.'s house dead by her hand, they would be taking a look at the harassment she had experienced. But he couldn't be too hard on Hoyt for the limitations of the handling of cyber harassment.
"Does Houston know?"
From the tone of Hoyt's voice, Roy knew he dreaded Matt even finding out about it and Roy knew there was good reason for that. Because once he did…the police would have to deal with him trying to take control of the investigation by doing his own. But if the man were dead anyway…
"I don't know…no one's called him," Roy said, "He's still back in Vegas and Elizabeth's death hit him very hard but I'm going to call him."
Hoyt nodded knowing that Matt was like a force of nature when his family and friends were endangered most especially C.J.
"We'll be ready for him," was all he could say to Roy.
C.J. sat inside the conference room while the detectives conferred outside. Both men had been parlaying back and forth with her, one being "nice" and the other not so much so, more aggressive. She recognized it from experience as a lawyer and working with Matt that they were engaging in "good cop/bad cop" behavior but she hadn't told them very much. She couldn't. She had shot the guy who broke in her house, end of story.
Her chest had been hurting very much, a dull aching pain which occasionally stabbed at her when she moved around and it became difficult to breathe. The detectives gave her water which she sipped at carefully because her mouth hurt too, it burned when the water passed over her lips, probably from when she bit her lip. Her wrists and arms were reddened earlier and now began to turn purplish. Her body had betrayed her with pain after her heart had resumed a more normal rhythm and her breathing had slowed down, muscular aches and bruising pains. She wished she could lie down somewhere and they would leave her alone.
That didn't seem to be on the itinerary as far as the men were concerned. Because they didn't like her account but what was there to say, she shot the man in her own home…and then she had asked why they didn't ask her about the other.
The two men had looked at each other.
The other, they each thought to ask remembering the memo that it had been two men who had escaped from prison. But only one of them had turned up in her house…dead…where was the other?
She looked up at them when they asked her about it, something hard welling up in her throat threatening to cut off her breathing so she just tried to slow herself down so she could think, but her mind kept racing, images filled it which she pushed away.
"I don't know…"
The "bad" detective sighed.
"Why don't you…why do you think they chose your house out of all the homes in your neighborhood…the city?"
The other detective smiled.
"What he's trying to ask not so gently is this doesn't look random…were you involved with either of these two men…you know jail house affair or something like that…I mean you are an attorney?"
Now neither of them seemed "nice" to her.
"Are you going to arrest me and put me in jail?"
They looked at each other after she had asked that question. A woman knocked on the door even though it was open and asked if it were okay to come in. The detectives looked at her and nodded. She appraised the woman they were questioning.
"Are you okay…do you need anything?"
C.J. just looked at her and didn't respond. The woman, Julie looked at the two detectives.
"Did you get her checked out at the hospital first?"
"No…," one of them said.
She sighed and folded her arms.
"Look at her…she's clearly been injured and she needs to be checked out…"
But they wouldn't budge.
"We need to find out what happened," one said, "Why she shot a guy dead in her house."
Julie shook her head.
"That can wait you know…come on, we're going to get one of these nice officers to get you to a doctor…as soon as I get the forms."
C.J. just shook her head.
"I don't need a doctor…I need to get out of here…"
Julie sighed.
"They're still processing evidence at your home…it's overcrowded with busy people and it's cordoned off."
C.J. shook her head again.
"I'm not ever going back there."
Julie just nodded in response to the vehemence in C.J.'s voice.
"Okay…we'll cross that bridge when we come to it," she said, "I'm Julie by the way, I'm a victim witness advocate."
C.J. tentatively took her hand and Julie saw the bruising and looked at the two men.
"Has she been examined?"
The two men looked at each other and back at her again.
"Oh you mean…no…why?"
Julie just shook her head at the two men and then helped C.J. up.
"I'm ending this interview…for now," she said, "You can call my boss at county D.A. We'll keep in touch."
And with that C.J. got up and left the room with her to go to the hospital, her legs feeling rubbery as part of her watched her leave with the woman from someplace else.
