CHAPTER 4

"Well that's…a mess." Rich Holt was on his way back to his office. "So you waited until I left to find the good stuff, huh?"

"Sure." Matt chuckled. "Talk to you later." He hung up and yawned again as Hoyt cursed at the traffic on the way to Deerfield's house. "We may need some hazmat suits; if his office was that disgusting can you imagine what his house is like?"

"Tell me about it." The lieutenant pulled up in front of the house on Rangley Avenue. "Well I'm not impressed." Both men got out of the car.

"I'm not either." Matt looked at the tiny lawn in front of the garishly painted house and burst into laughter.

"What?"

"There." The PI pointed at a fountain.

"What about it?"

"Take a good look at the face." Matt was near tears, a condition that didn't improve when the sixteen year veteran of the LAPD started giggling.

Trying to regain his composure the cop spoke in a low voice. "Is that supposed to be him?!"

"It's either him or the ugliest rendition of Cupid I've ever seen." The PI lost it again and Hoyt snickered.

"Sure is a small fig leaf." The cop looked over at Matt who was wiping away tears after his friend's comment. "Can you make it to the door or do I need to carry you?"

"No, I'll make it." He straightened up and followed the cop up to the front door and the pair stood waiting as Hoyt rang the doorbell. "Too bad Rich isn't here." The PI started snickering again causing Michael to laugh.

"God, I hope there isn't anyone here. From what I've seen he didn't have anyone living with him." He knocked on the door and rang the bell again. "Okay, PI – do your stuff." Stepping back he watched as Matt donned a pair of gloves, knelt down and removed a set of lock picks from his left boot, squinted at the door and chose the pick needed before making quick work of the lock. They stepped inside. "LAPD – is anyone home?" The cop's voice echoed in the house. "Guess not." It was then that he heard a beep.

Matt turned to his left and found the security keypad. He pressed a few keys and it was silent. Kneeling back down he replaced the picks.

"How in the hell do you know what to push?"

"Ancient Chinese secret." The PI grinned as he started through the house. "Wu ting tu mush."

Hoyt stood dumbfounded. "What did the Ancient Chinese know about – oh!" He smacked Matt on the back of the head. The PI continued laughing.

"Looks like his home office." They walked into the room and began looking around, Matt going straight to the computer. As he went through the files Michael looked in the drawers and at the few books on the shelf.

The cop started for the door. "I'm going to check the den."

"Michael…" There was no humor in the PI's voice or his face. The cop joined him behind the desk. "The sick son of a bitch." Matt's voice had taken on the low gravelly tone.

"Damn." Hoyt shook his head. "Is it wrong that I really don't care who killed him?"

"I sure as hell don't." Matt turned and walked out from behind the desk. "Can you finish the computer?"

"Yeah, go ahead." Michel watched his friend walk out of the room. "Good thing he's already dead." He spoke low enough that Matt couldn't hear him. Knowing what the man had survived as a five year old kidnap victim he understood how upset he was to find child pornography on the computer. Cursing Ted Deerfield he finished looking at the files, not finding anything else.

The cop left the room and went into the den where Matt was squatted down looking at the baseboard. "Something interesting?"

"Uh huh." The PI stood up, running his gloved hands up the sides of the built in shelving and then across the top. There was a faint buzzing sound and then the shelves parted, revealing another room. Inside the ten foot by eight foot room were what looked to be thousands of DVDs. Matt looked at Hoyt. The cop shook his head and called the forensics lab.

"Bob, it's Michael Hoyt." He turned and walked back into the home office as he told the tech what they had found. "You're going to need some help."

"Okay Lieutenant – Cheryl just walked in. I'll let her know."

Hoyt came back to find a very angry Houston looking at the labels on some of the cases. "Everything I've seen so far is kids according to the titles." Matt walked out of the room and started going through the rest of the house.

Cheryl Crawford and Bob Wisnewski arrived and began processing the hidden room. Matt had been upstairs searching and walked right past the room and out onto the porch without saying a word to the two techs, who exchanged a puzzled look.

"Be back in a minute, Bob." Cheryl walked out on the front porch where Matt was sitting on the top step with his head on his arms. "Hey, Tex – you okay?" The tech took off her gloves and sat down next to him, patting him on the back.

"Yeah." Matt's voice sounded strangled.

"Liar. What is it?" She watched as Matt shook his head. "Is it the kids?" She lowered her voice as she put an arm around him. He slowly nodded his head. "Kinda makes you glad he's dead, doesn't it?"

Matt raised his head up and looked at her. "Yeah." Cheryl leaned over and gave him a hug before getting back up and going in to finish her job. Hoyt had been watching from the doorway. "I'm going to leave this to you and Bob. I think he needs to get out of here."

"Yeah, we've got it." She watched as Michael went out on the porch and put his hand on the PI's shoulder and jerked his head in the direction of the car. The two men got in and drove away.

"Feel like checking out Ramon Firenze's apartment?" Hoyt cut his eyes over at Matt who nodded his head. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have anything to apologize for. I can't say that I'm sorry that the sick son of a bitch is dead, though."

"I agree one hundred percent." They rode on in silence to the apartment that was about a mile away from the marina. Michael found the property manager, a middle-aged woman named Isadora Nonna with flame red hair and a Russian accent thick enough to cut with a knife. She opened the door to Firenze's apartment for them and then quickly left. "Guess feelings about the police from the old country still run deep."

"Sometimes that's a good thing."Matt had found the mechanic's laptop and sat down on the couch to go through it. Aside from information on marine engine repair there was really nothing else in the document section.

The pictures file was another matter. "I think things just got more complicated." He waved the cop over and together they went through picture after picture of Ramon and Tessa. "Looks like they've been seeing each other for a few months now." Pictures of the two showed them at restaurants, out on boats, and on the very couch where the two investigators were now seated.

Afterwards, Matt went to the video file but nothing of consequence was to be found there.

"Check the emails." It took the PI a couple of attempts to find the accounts. "He's got one address that's strictly messages between Tessa and himself. The other is just day-to-day business." He opened up the mailbox and together they read through the messages from the first to last. Michael stood and began looking around the apartment again. "Sounds like they loved each other."

"Yeah." Matt closed up the machine and set it on the coffee table, once again closing his eyes and rubbing his temples.

"She's got stuff in the bathroom and bedroom: toothbrush, makeup, clothes." Hoyt was looking in the closet as Matt leaned against the doorframe.

"We should probably talk to his boss at the marina." The PI looked around the room, his eyes landing on a picture of the two that was on the mirror above the dresser. They were on a boat at the marina. "Is it just me or does she seem not to have been worried about being seen with this guy?"

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Michael closed up the drawer that he had been looking through. "I'm done here – you?"

"Yeah." The PI picked up the laptop and followed Hoyt out to the car where the machine was bagged and labeled. The two got in and went to the marina and found Firenze's boss, Jody Kelly, up to his elbows in an engine.

After showing his badge Michael began by asking about Firenze's work habits.

"Do you mind if I work while we talk? Ramon usually handles the…" Kelly stopped, clearly upset. "Damn it." He sat down on a stool and grabbed a clean grease rag and swiped at tears.

"Could you tell us about him? Did he have any enemies, get into any arguments lately?" Matt leaned against a small boat sitting on a trailer.

"No enemies that I know of, but he was arguing with somebody on the phone a few days ago. Don't know who it was but I can tell you it was a guy – he was yelling."

"What do you know about his relationship with Tessa Holmes?"

"You know about that, huh?" Kelly shrugged his shoulders. "She was married but she sure didn't try to hide Ramon. They went everywhere together. I guess she didn't care if anyone found out about the affair."

"Did you ever hear the two of them arguing?"

"Never." The mechanic got a sad smile on his face. "Those two were absolutely head over heels in love. I asked her about a month ago why she didn't just get a divorce. She said it was complicated."

Hoyt spoke up then. "What about Yvon Perrier – do you know anything about him?"

"He owns that boat that they were on. Never laid eyes on him before. He had some tall bald-headed dude that handled everything. Hang on – there's an invoice in here that he signed a few days ago." He walked into the office and rifled through a stack of papers. "Here."

Michael took it. "Something LaSalle. What do you think?" He passed it to Matt.

"Philippe maybe? There's a credit card number here."

"We need to take this." Hoyt looked at Kelly.

"Can I make a copy of it?"

"Sure."

Matt looked around the office. "What did you know about Ted Deerfield?"

"Mmph. He was a slimy bastard. Felt like I needed a shower whenever I had the misfortune of being around him. Smug, cheap, trashy…"

"Do you know if he ever argued with Tessa or Ramon?"

"Uh huh. He and Tessa were on Perrier's boat about a week ago and he hauled off and slapped her. Ramon saw it and decked him. Tessa got off the boat and left with Ramon."

"Did Ramon tell you what it was about?" Michael was writing it all down.

"Nope. That was the last time I saw Tessa. Deerfield, too. He left a few minutes later."

"Mr. Kelly, thanks for your help. If you should happen to see Perrier or LaSalle please call." Hoyt handed the mechanic a card as did Matt. "You can call either one of us."

"I'll do it."