CHAPTER 4
Matt hung around the wedding chapel until Cheryl was finished and he had gotten everything he could out of her, which was what he had already figured out for himself. He stopped by the hospital to check on Charles Reuben and was told that he had indeed suffered a heart attack and was in the Coronary Care Unit. Matt wouldn't be allowed to see him until he was transferred to a private room.
On the way back out to the parking lot he ran into his favorite nurse, Sheila, who had taken care of him after he had been injured in a bomb blast the summer before. "Houston, what are you doing here?" She stopped and had both hands on her hips, her mocha-colored complexion all smiles.
"Well believe it or not I'm checking up on somebody else." He smiled and gave her a big hug. "And I've got something to show you, too." He pulled out his phone and pulled up all of the pictures he had of Catey Rose starting from the day she was born in the barn on the Houston ranch right up to the pink tutu photo.
"Oh my goodness, she's beautiful! Which doctor delivered her?"
Matt laughed and shook his head. "Dr. Dad. She was born in the barn during a tornado."
"Oh Lord, that is definitely your child." Sheila burst into laughter and gave the man another hug. "You tell CJ I said hello and I want to come see that baby. Right now I've got to get in here. I started in the Coronary Care Unit last week and my new boss is something else."
"Really? Well look, can you do me a favor?" Matt told her about Reuben. "I'm not asking for anything really personal, just you know, is he going to make it and such, okay?"
"I think I can swing that. I'll call you later on, okay hon?" They said their goodbyes and Matt headed on back to the office to do some research on his new client, his business, and his partner who so far was unreachable.
When he reached the office, it occurred to Matt that he should have gotten Theresa Olividad's phone number from Reuben's phone so he called Hoyt as he headed up in the elevator. "Hey bud, can I ask a favor?"
"Oh Lord, what is it?" Hoyt had just taken a swallow from the bottle of antacid that resided in the top right hand drawer of his desk. The day had not started out well and the fire marshal had made sure that it didn't improve.
"I just need a phone number out of Reuben's phone. Theresa Olividad?" He waited while Hoyt opened the phone and retrieved the number. "Alright thanks. I figured I better try to get hold of her and make sure…well, you know, that she wasn't the one in the chapel. Plus maybe she could tell me a little something about the owners."
"Okay, let me know what you get and I'll keep you in the loop from this end. Deal?" With Matt working on the case as well, it took a little pressure off of Michael.
"You know it. 'Bye." Matt hung up and stepped off of the elevator to find his secretary hard at work as if nothing had ever happened. "So how is the beautiful bride-to-be doing now?" He stopped and gave her a big smile.
"Just fine, thank you very much." She was all smiles. "Thanks again, Houston. I really do appreciate it. And Madre Rosa is happy, too – she said she had been getting bored around there."
"Well we can't have that, can we? She might get into trouble if she gets bored." He grinned and headed on into CJ's office. "Hey babe, whatcha doin'?" He walked up behind her chair and leaned over, giving her a hug and nuzzle on the neck.
"I've been helping Chris up until just a few minutes ago. How is our case looking?" She stood up and gave Matt a kiss – one that completely took his mind off of the case. When the pair came up for air, they were both breathless. Matt stood there looking at her and wishing that at that very moment they were home. CJ smiled at him. "The case, Matt?"
"Oh. Uh, yeah, I uh, well." He stopped and looked at her with a goofy expression on his face. "Oh yeah, uh Reuben is in the Coronary Care Unit. Had a heart attack. But guess who I ran into who is now working in the Coronary Care Unit?"
"Not Sheila?" CJ was surprised.
"Yup, she promised she would call me and give an update on his condition." Matt was still about halfway distracted by the kiss that CJ had given him and suddenly remembered that he had a surprise for her. "Oh, I almost forgot. Our day got off to such a weird start, but I've got a surprise for you. Or rather, your daughter and I have a surprise." He took her by the hand, checking to see Catey Rose was in her carrier sleeping soundly, and led his wife down stairs. "Okay, now close your eyes. Don't peek." He picked her up, walked to the middle of the room and put her back on her feet. "Open your eyes."
When she did, CJ was amazed. Matt had turned part of the gym into a nursery for Catey Rose. "Oh Matt, it's wonderful! I was just thinking earlier that I should have – oh, thank you!" She gave him another kiss, this one even more involved than the one that they had shared upstairs a couple of minutes before. Matt pulled away, breathless.
"Uh, CJ, I think we better cool it." He turned away from her and walked over toward the crib that he had put in for his daughter. CJ followed and wrapped her arms around him. "Babe, that's really not a good idea right now." Matt's voice had taken on that familiar husky tone and CJ then knew why he had walked away from her. She started giggling. "It isn't funny, CJ." He still had that tone.
"I'm sorry, hon. Look, how about tonight we have a little date, what do you say?" She leaned over and kissed his earlobe.
"Babe, that's not helping me any right now, you know that." Matt was staring up at the ceiling.
"So how about it, Cowboy?" She blew into his ear, something else that really got to him.
"If you keep on it won't wait until tonight." He continued to stare at the ceiling. "But yeah, tonight would be great." Matt laughed. "Why do I feel like a high school kid all over again – just like before the wedding?"
"Because it's been a little over six weeks without - you know."
"Oh believe me, I know, CJ. Really." He turned to look at his wife, pulling her into his arms and planting a kiss on her that put the two previous kisses to shame. Then they both heard Catey Rose begin to cry.
"I'll get her – I think you need to relax a little bit." She glanced down and then back up at Matt.
"It's all your fault you know, CJ." He grinned. "Love you, Babe."
"Love you, too." She blew a kiss at him and took off up the stairs to tend to their daughter.
Matt took a few minutes in the gym to calm down before heading upstairs and pulling up BABY the computer to begin researching the owners of the Faithfully Yours Wedding Chapel but first he tried to call Theresa Olividad, but didn't receive an answer. He then tried calling Michelle Cosgrove and her cell phone went straight to voice mail.
After considering his options, Matt got up to get a cup of coffee, then sat back down in front of the computer and began digging up what he could on Reuben, Cosgrove, and Olividad. Reuben and Cosgrove had been partners in the business for six years and had been doing pretty well until the economy tanked. It had hit them pretty hard and Reuben was up to his ears in bank loans, but had been maintaining and was starting to make progress on repayment. Cosgrove had just been through a nasty divorce in which her husband had been awarded a pretty hefty sum of alimony. Olividad had worked at the chapel for the last three years, had been married to her husband David for seven years and was the mother of a six year old and a one year old.
Matt picked up the phone and called Hoyt. "Hey, how's it going on that end?"
"Nowhere fast. I've been dealing with other cases. Did you get anything?" Hoyt had just opened the top on the antacid bottle when the phone rang and now took a long swig out of it.
"Did you remember your yogurt today?" Matt knew exactly what Hoyt was doing.
"Look, how in the hell do you know what I'm doing? I've looked all over this damn office for one of your surveillance critters and haven't found one. Please, just tell me how you know?" The detective sounded like he was at the end of his rope. "And yes, I had my yogurt earlier." Matt had finally talked him into trying yogurt to calm his ulcers about a year ago, but there were some days when it just didn't work.
"Stay focused, Hoyt." Matt then explained to him what he had found out about Reuben, Cosgrove, and Olividad and told him about not being able to contact either woman on her cell phone or at home. "Do you think you could do a GPS check on them? I've got a bad feeling that one or the other of them is the person that was in the chapel."
"Okay, I'll get to it. Talk to you later." He hung up then realized that Matt had never told him how he knew about the antacids. After spending a minute to look around the office once more for one of Houston's little surveillance cameras, Hoyt went about doing the paperwork to get a GPS track placed on the phones of the two women.
