CHAPTER 4

While he was stopped at a traffic light, Matt pulled out his notebook and looked at the home address that he had for Manzana: 601 South Record Avenue. The location was fairly close to Adolfo's house. As he looked up the light turned green and he headed on back to the office. Stepping off of the elevator, Matt looked at his watch: it was 11:00am. He walked on into CJ's office and sat down on the love seat to think.

"So how did it go?" She looked up from the papers that she was going over.

"She's not what I expected." Matt explained what he had learned about the real estate agent. "I think I'm going to be late tonight, Babe. I'm going to put out a couple of critters." He was referring to the surveillance system that he had helped computer mogul Derwin Dunlap create and test.

"Funny you should mention that. I was just going over your profit statement from Derwin on the critters." She smiled. "You two have really been mopping up." CJ handed the statement over to Matt.

"Wow." He knew that the critters would be a fairly big hit, but the sales had sky-rocketed in the last couple of months. Orders for police departments, other private investigators, as well as several government agencies were astounding. He smiled over at CJ. "Who knew?" Matt shook his head and laughed. "Guess I'm not the only one who thinks that they're handy, huh?"

"Evidently not - guess who one of the most recent customers was?"

"Who?" Matt could think of several individuals and agencies that might have ordered.

"Your friend and mine – Steve McGarrett and the Five-0 Task Force." They had met Steve when they had gone to Hawaii to announce their engagement to the Novelli family. After butting heads that first time, Matt had become good friends with McGarrett as well as Danny Williams, Chin Ho Kelly, and Kono Kalakaua.

"Did Derwin give them the discount like I asked him?" Matt knew that the Five-0 squad had been battling with the governor's office over their budget in recent months.

"Yep, he did." CJ thought a lot of Derwin. He, like Matt, tried to help out the good guys as much as possible.

"Good. Well, I'm going to plant a couple of critters on Manzana and Patrillo." He leaned back with his arm across the back of the love seat and was deep in thought about how and when he would get the bugs planted. Obviously, he would want to put one on each man's car, but he also wanted to put a camera or two in their homes. Manzana lived in a second story apartment and Patrillo still lived with his grandmother. He realized that CJ had said something to him. "Huh?"

"I asked what your plans were for the critters." CJ got up and came around the desk to sit down next to her husband.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out." He explained Manzana and Patrillo's living arrangements. "I really don't think I'll be able to get one in Patrillo's place – from what I understand his grandmother is really in bad shape and has a caregiver there all the time. And as far as Manzana's place, other members of the gang live in the downstairs apartment. It's going to be tough to get in there." Matt's hand strayed down to his wife's shoulder and he pulled her closer, kissing her. "Have you set up an appointment with Carol?"

She smiled. "No, but I did talk to her this morning. She agreed with me – surprisingly. But she thought we might want to think about it a little more." Laying her head over on his chest, she looked down at Catey Rose who was playing with one of her stuffed bears and cooing. "I'm sure some folks would think that we're rushing things a bit, but…" She shrugged. "We've got a lot of time to make up for in my opinion." Although she had always dreamed of having children, CJ was surprised herself at how much she really wanted another baby so soon.

Matt turned her face to his. "I just want to be sure that you're going to be okay, CJ. I don't want you to put yourself at risk." He kissed her again and stroked her cheek with his thumb, a habit that he had that CJ absolutely loved, not that he knew it. Catey picked that moment to blow a raspberry and both of her parents cracked up. "The kid has great timing." They smiled at each other and then looked at their daughter who had pulled herself up on the side of the playpen and was watching them.

He got up, walked over to the playpen and picked his daughter up and brought her back over to the loveseat. "So what do you think, Miss Catey Rose? Would you prefer a brother or a sister?" She just squealed at him and leaned forward to give him a slobbery kiss on the nose. "Either one is fine, huh?"

Matt sat the baby on his lap and kept thinking about how he could best plant the critters. "I think I better just stick with bugging the cars – trying to get their homes covered is just going to be too dangerous." CJ breathed a sigh of relief. Matt was very good at his job, but sometimes took too many risks. He noticed how she had relaxed after he said that and grinned. "They probably aren't home that much anyway."

She nodded. "So how are you going to get the cars?"

"Well, that's a good question. I guess they have to sleep sometime. I'll just have to get the cars then. Maybe about 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning would work." He picked up Catey and held her in the air over his head causing her to squeal. "So Daddy won't be working late tonight – he'll be up extra early in the morning." The baby blew another raspberry. "Yep, that's probably what I'll say when the clock goes off." He and CJ both laughed. "How about I take the two most beautiful girls in the world out to lunch at Ricardo's?"

"Works for me." CJ got up and picked up Catey's diaper bag and her purse and the family headed out to the elevator, meeting Murray Chase as the doors opened.

"Hey bud, how's it going?" Matt hadn't seen much of the CEO of Houston Industries lately.

"Good. Are you three headed out to lunch?" Murray was shaking Catey's hand.

"Yep. You two want to come along? We're headed to Ricardo's."

Murray looked at Chris who nodded. "Sounds like a good idea. So do I get to carry Miss Catey Rose?" He reached for the baby who squealed again.

"Since she seems to approve of the idea I guess so." CJ grinned as her daughter patted the balding CEO on top of his head.

After lunch, CJ decided to head on home with Catey who had become fussy while they were at lunch. She suspected that it was the teething that was causing the problem so she gave the baby some acetaminophen drops. By the time they reached the house, Catey was fast asleep. CJ spent the afternoon getting caught up on laundry and other housework.

Matt made it home a little after 4:00 and they had dinner, along with a fussing Catey. Matt took her down to see Cricket but even their nightly ride didn't take her mind off of her aching gums. He brought her back to the house and gave her a bath, then CJ gave her some more drops and her dad rocked her to sleep. After he put her in her crib, the couple stood watching her for a while before heading back into the den to watch movies.

With the alarm set for 3:00am, Matt got up and dressed quietly before going to check on Catey as he headed out of the house. He got to Manzana's apartment shortly before 4:00am and was relieved to see all of the lights off. Parking the truck down the street a couple of blocks, Matt walked back to the apartment and attached one of his tracking devices to the backside of the license plate on the gang member's car and quickly got back in his truck and headed to Patrillo's house and repeated the operation on his car. By the time he was finished it was 4:15. He headed on to the office and activated the critters before making a pot of coffee and stretching out on the couch for a nap. He awoke to his cell phone ringing about 7:00. "Hi Babe, how's it going?" He could hear Catey fussing in the background.

"I think we'll be staying home today, hon, she is really hurting." CJ had been up with her daughter since 5:00 am.

"Well give her a kiss for me and you two try to take it easy today." He hung up a couple of minutes later and decided to go grab some breakfast from one of the fast food restaurants after he checked on the two tracking devices. Neither man's car had moved at all.

Just as he pulled out onto the street from picking up a sausage biscuit from the Burger Nerd near the office, Matt's cell phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Luis Sanchez, Hoyt's assistant. "Hey Sanchez, how's it going?"

"Houston, somebody just shot the lieutenant."