CHAPTER 7

After taking the Eliseo family home, Matt decided to try his luck finding Felipe at the apartment building next door. There was no answer at the door, so he decided to try again later. As he headed back down the stairs it occurred to him that Felipe – even if he was innocent of the murder of Lucho – might be on the run. If he had turned down the gang like his friend he could well be on their hit list. As he slid behind the wheel of the truck, Matt noticed that the sunshine that had made most of the day more tolerable was being overrun by dark clouds. He called the office and talked to Tomás, trying to figure out where he might be able to find Felipe. Although the boy gave him a couple of ideas, neither one panned out and Matt headed back to the office and picked the young man up to go to the police station with him to try to put a name with the faces of the gang members who had killed Edelmiro Dominguez.

On the way to the station, the teenager was very quiet. Matt looked at him. "Are you worried?"

"I'd be lying if I said no." He thought for a minute. "If I identify these guys…even if they go to jail, the others will try to kill me."

"They might…but if you aren't around here, they won't have much success will they?" The PI grinned.

"Where will I be?"

"I don't have it all worked out just yet, but I promise you that it'll be okay."

The boy was quiet again. "Mr. Houston, you don't know me. Why are you doing all of this?"

"Let's just say that I like to make things better for folks; and I'd say that you're overdue for things to be better."

Matt led the way in to the station, skipping the desk in the lobby in an effort to keep as few people as possible from seeing the boy. They took the stairs and went straight up to Hoyt's office. "Looks like he's still out on something, but…" Matt sat down behind the desk and started hitting keys on the keyboard. "Come on over here, bud. Have a seat." Standing, he turned the monitor a little bit so that Tomás could see better. "Okay, here is a bunch of ugly mugs." The boy cracked up. "See if you recognize any of them from the night Dominguez was killed. Just let me know, okay? Be right back." Matt went out to hit the coffee pot and talked to Sanchez for a minute, all the while getting the feeling that he was being watched. Lowering his voice, he asked the clerk, "Is Oxford staring at me?"

"Yep." Luis picked up a folder and began straightening the contents.

"You know, I don't remember pissing in his oaties but I guess at some point in time I did." Matt refilled the coffee cup and headed into the office as Sanchez did his best to quit laughing.

"Any luck?" He plopped down on the couch.

"I've got three of them…I wrote down the names and record numbers."

"Well, aren't you smart?" Matt stood up and walked back around the desk and looked at the list. "Good work."

Hoyt stepped off of the elevator and hit the coffee pot on his way into the office. He removed his jacket and hung it on the coat tree. "So how is it going?"

"He's found three so far." Matt stepped out of the way and pointed to the list.

"Good." Hoyt patted the kid on the back. "Let me know if you see anymore."

"Yes sir."

The cop looked over at Matt who stood at the window looking out over the traffic. He walked up beside the man. "So I take it CJ is okay with all of this?" He waited and didn't get a reply. Looking over at Matt he could tell the man's mind was a million miles away. "Hey…" Michael touched the man's shoulder causing him to jump.

"Huh?"

Lowering his voice, Michael looked his friend directly in the eye. "Houston, look I know you told me everything is okay, but…is CJ okay? She looked pale."

"Yeah, yeah, she's fine." He quickly took a drink of coffee and looked back out the window.

"Well something is going on…you're not sick are you?"

"No, everything's fine."

"Bull. What is going on?"

"Nothing."

"Don't lie to me, PI. I'm not stupid. Something is going on."

Matt finished off the coffee and slowly turned to his friend. "Okay…something is going on…but I won't tell you about it until Saturday."

"Saturday? What the…"

"I found two more of them, Lieutenant." Tomás was smiling. "I went through all of the gang members that Houston pulled up."

"Five out of seven isn't bad at all, bud." Matt grinned.

"Good job, son. Let me get over here and pull up their records." The cop sat back down behind the desk and as he began typing in the name of the first suspect, he looked back up at Matt. "If I find out you're not being completely truthful with me, Houston…"

"All will be revealed Saturday. I promise." The PI grinned and went back out to the coffee pot, coming back in a minute later on the phone with CJ. "Looks like I'm going to be late. Better call Lamar and get him to pick you up." He listened. "Yes ma'am, I promise. Love you, Babe. 'Bye." He hung up and looked up at the door as it opened. "Uh oh, here comes trouble."

"Watch your mouth, boy. I'll put a whoopin' on you." Roy Houston pretended to hit his nephew in the stomach. "Is this your replacement, Michael?" He looked at Tomás and winked.

"Not yet." Hoyt had just finished sending the names over to the waiting Assistant District Attorney.

Matt introduced Tomás, filled his uncle in on what was going on, and a short time later Sanchez came through the door with a stack of papers. "The warrants just came through, Lieutenant."

"Good. Thanks." He stood up and pulled his pistol out of his holster and checked the load.

"Uncle Roy, do you think you could hang out here with Tomás for a little bit?" Matt pulled his Glock out of the waistband of his jeans and checked the magazine.

"Sure thing."

"I'll be back as soon as we've rounded them up, bud. Then we'll go home, okay?"

"Home?" The boy looked shocked. "You're taking me to your house?"

"No…" Matt put the pistol back in his waistband. "I'll be taking you to the ranch. You've got a horse to feed, remember?" He grinned as he opened the door.

"Mattlock, be careful out there." Roy Houston couldn't help but worry about his nephew.

"Yes sir." With that, the two men headed out along with two other detectives from the squad room, Lee Jennings and Carl Trenton. John Oxford had already left a few minutes earlier, much to everyone's relief. Matt stopped by his truck on the way to meet up with the SWAT team and got his holster, vest, and LAPD cap. When he got to the area where everyone was meeting up he was greeted by Lt. Brad Langston. "Hey bud, how ya doin'?" The two men shook hands.

"Pretty good. Looks like you need a ride again."

"Sure. I always did like deluxe accommodations." The PI headed up into the truck with the six other men on the team.

Twenty minutes later they were about to enter the area where the gang members had their headquarters. All of the officers had their weapons at the ready and the moment the truck stopped, Matt and the others quickly jumped out and headed into the building as another truckload of SWAT members covered the back and sides along with uniformed officers. As Michael Hoyt exited his vehicle, he could see Matt going in the front door along with Lt. Langston. The moment he disappeared inside, shots rang out. As Hoyt and Jennings moved in, gunfire erupted from the back of the building as well. Once inside, the veteran cop was met with the sight of two gang members on the floor, one who appeared to already be dead and another who wasn't far behind him. As he looked around he spotted Matt running up the stairs and saw a cloud of dust erupt from the wall not two inches from the man's head. Houston fired and the body of one of the members fell down to the first floor, landing with a solid thud. Hoyt followed his friend up the stairs. As he reached the top, Matt was hunkered against the wall on the left hand side. The PI snuck a peek around the corner and was greeted by gunfire and moved over to the right hand side. Taking a big breath, he dove around the corner and down into the floor of the hallway, firing shots as he slid about four feet. Hoyt came around as his friend ejected the magazine from his pistol and reloaded, the cop taking out one of the members who popped out of another one of the rooms.

"Much appreciated, bud." Matt grinned and the pair headed on down the hall. At the room on the end where the first shots had come from, the PI looked in and saw the other boy that he had been searching for that day – Felipe. He was slouched against the wall in the back corner of the room bleeding profusely from what appeared to be a stab wound.

"Look out!" Hoyt spotted the gang member that had been edging around the end of a large crate and shot him just as another came around from another crate on the opposite side. Matt dove into the room, rolling to his right hand side as he shot and hitting the man squarely in the chest. As Hoyt removed the weapons from the reach of the two men, Matt went to Felipe's side.

"Easy there, bud." He looked around at Michael. "Give me your tie." Hoyt quickly slipped it off and handed it to Matt who had removed the knife from his pocket and cut a large piece of material from the teen's pants leg. He quickly folded it over and secured it around the boy's waist as Hoyt called for the paramedics.

"I didn't do it – I didn't kill Lucho." Tears fell from Felipe's eyes.

"I know you didn't. Don't try to talk, okay?" He and Hoyt eased the boy down, applied pressure on the wound, and propped his legs up.

"We stole stuff but…" The boy was having a hard time breathing.

"I know…you did it to help your families. Don't try to talk, okay?"

"What about Tomás? They said they were going to kill him for snitching…"

"He's safe. I found him earlier. Don't talk."

"I'm sorry. Please tell my mom…"

"Easy now." Matt knew in the pit of his stomach that the boy wasn't going to make it and his worst fears were confirmed a minute later when the paramedics showed up and began to work on him. In a couple more minutes the boy was lifeless and the two medics were doing everything they could to restore his heartbeat. Lt. Langston came through the door after the boy was carried out.

"You two okay?" He looked between Matt and Hoyt.

"Yeah." Hoyt put his pistol back in his holster as Matt turned and walked toward the door pulling back his left hand and punching a hole in the door, causing it to jar against the wall and shake violently. Hoyt and Langston caught back up with him as he went out the front door of the building. The remaining Los Diablos were being taken out to the sidewalk and loaded into vans. "Houston." Hoyt reached his friend's side and looked down at his hand: it was quickly swelling and bleeding. "Stop." The PI kept walking and Hoyt grabbed him by the shoulders. "I said stop!" He grabbed his friend by the shoulder and led him over to sit on the back of one of the SWAT trucks.

Matt was leaning over, shaking his head as Brad Langston spoke. "All five that we had the warrants for were here. Three of them are in custody and two of them are dead. I thought you might want to know."

"Okay." The PI looked up. "Thanks." Langston patted him on the shoulder and moved off to the ambulance that was sitting a few feet away, telling the paramedic inside that he had another customer on the back of the SWAT truck.

"Hey, you did what you could, Houston." Hoyt knew Matt was upset over the boy. "He might make it. You don't know."

"He's gone, Hoyt. You and I both know it – don't try to kid me." The detective's voice cracked with the emotion.

"We got here as fast as we could, man – you know that! There is absolutely no point in you sitting here beating yourself up."

"I should have found him this afternoon." Matt shook his head. The paramedic came over and began examining his hand.

"Has it occurred to you that he might have already been here when you were looking for him?"

Matt shook his head. The paramedic was kneeling by him. "Sir, this hand may be broken and you definitely need stitches. Come with me." The PI shook his head no.

"Get up off of your butt and go with the man, Houston. You did what you could do. Now go." Hoyt grabbed the man by the front of his shirt, hauled him to his feet and began dragging him toward the ambulance. Reluctantly, Matt climbed up in the back and relented as the medic began treating him.

"Would you call…?"

"I'm about to call Roy and then CJ. Go…" He turned around and started away. "I'll see you over there."

"Thanks, Michael."

"You're welcome. Why in the hell you're welcome I don't know. Lousy PI's are like lightning rods…" The lieutenant continued walking away, fussing the entire time.