10
CJ sat behind the desk in the study and thought about what they knew about Yvon Perrier. Or Pierre Philippe LaSalle. Or whatever he was calling himself. She thought back to the case that Matt had worked for Ben and Marcy Devereaux searching for their daughter who had gone missing around the time of Hurricane Katrina. He had nearly been run off the road by one of the employees of a strip club that was owned by Margo Perrier - the sister of Yvon. The investigation had come to a halt after Matt and Chuck had found Rachel Devereaux's body near property owned by one of the other owners of the club. Because of the damage that had been wrought by the hurricane plus the fact that it wasn't on his property, there was very little evidence to point to who had actually strangled her and no charges could be filed.
Taking a deep breath, she began looking through databases for Margo. She was still an owner of the club and apparently still lived in New Orleans. Digging a little deeper, the lawyer got into the records of the club. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary. Next she delved into the bank records of both the club and Margot Perrier. Once again, all looked normal.
She bit her lip, considered it for a moment, and then hacked into the woman's phone records as well as those of the club and copied all of the calls going back for a year. Settling herself a little more comfortably she began researching each number. It was going to take a while.
Back in Los Angeles, there were a slew of officers on scene at Barkowski's house and the surrounding neighborhood. K-9 units had been called in and a search was underway. A BOLO had been issued for him and the public information officer was gearing up to have the man's face plastered all over the news.
Michael and Matt were working with the first canine that had arrived on scene. The PI had tracked shoe prints from the crawl space opening under Barkowski's house to the edge of the property. They were now trailing the dog as he followed the scent of the shirt that had been collected from the man's hamper. Going north, the trail led them under I-10. The dog stopped, turned in a circle sniffing the ground and then sat, looking up at his partner. "That's as far as it goes, sir." The uniformed officer looked to Hoyt.
Matt ran a hand through his hair. "So he probably got in a car."
"I'd say that's it." The handler patted on the dog.
The PI turned in a circle looking for surveillance cameras on the property of the high school. "We need to get their video." He pointed and Michael nodded, pulling out his phone and arranging to get access to whatever the cameras may have recorded.
Matt walked up and down the street a little ways, his mind swirling in a dozen different directions. They caught a ride back to the precinct and he pulled his laptop from the truck before going upstairs with Hoyt. The video from the school was being brought to them by a patrol officer.
"I'd like to know how in the hell he got tipped off. Even with us busting Kostandin he stayed at the club last night then went home like usual. Lee and the others were careful, Michael. I don't think they tipped our hand. But someone did." He accepted a cup of coffee from the lieutenant and sat down on the couch, his expression changing as a thought occurred to him. "I wonder…" Pulling out the laptop, he began accessing the phone records of Barkowski and began sorting through the numbers. "That bitch."
Michael had been looking out the window. He now turned and moved across the office to Matt's side. "Who?"
"Placer…" He pointed to the screen. "She called him around two in the morning."
"We've already got a court order for his phone records so now we have her for obstructing." Michael stared at the screen in disbelief. "Why in the hell would she do that?"
"Why does the bitch do anything?!" Houston's voice shook with anger.
"I'm calling Garnett." The cop went to his desk and placed a call to the ADA's cell phone, explaining to her what had transpired that morning and what had been found in the phone records. He angrily hung up. "We can't prove that they didn't chat about pizza or hockey according to Garnett." A string of curses flowed from his mouth.
"But now that she's in communication with him…" The PI stood up and began pacing. "Maybe she's part of the investigation now?" He stopped and looked at the cop, who after pausing for a few seconds snatched the phone up again and called the lawyer back explaining Matt's thought. A smile crossed his face and he nodded at the PI who drew in a deep breath and seemed to relax.
Hanging up the phone, he swiveled in his chair. "She's going to be picked up for questioning." He watched as Matt nodded. "But you won't be anywhere near her. Garnett's orders."
"Oh, I won't be." He sat down on the couch with a new look look of thoughtfulness on his face.
"What?"
"I won't be here when she gets here."
"Where will you be?"
"Oh, I don't know...maybe taking a look through her apartment."
"No."
"Yes."
"No. You could screw up any chance we have of prosecuting her for this crap."
"And do you really think you're going to get anything out of her? No. She won't say a word without her lawyer and he's not going to let her say anything either. You're not going to get jackshit out of her and you damn well know it."
"No." Michael approached him. "Listen to me: there is too much at stake for you to go off half cocked on this thing, Matt. You know it deep down."
"I'm doing it."
Hoyt removed his cell phone and dialed, then spoke to the person on the other end telling them what was going on. "Hang on while I put it on speaker." He punched the phone. "Go ahead."
"Matt?" CJ's voice came across the line.
"Yeah, Babe." He gave Hoyt an angry look.
"I completely understand why you want to go through her apartment. She's a bitch and she more than likely tipped off Barkowski about the warrant. But think about it: if she gets brought in for questioning it will make her look bad. What you need to do while they have her in interrogation is find out who tipped her off: most likely the source will crumble before she will. Keep it all above board and you can take her down in the process of eliminating Barkowski. Are you with me?"
He was quiet for a moment. "Yeah."
"Promise me?" She waited, knowing that he would never make a promise that he didn't fully intend to keep.
"Yeah, I promise."
"Now, I've got some other news for you that might just cheer you up." She leaned back in the chair in the study. "Guess who is no longer in Japan?"
"You're kidding." Matt and Hoyt exchanged a surprised look.
"Nope. He's in New Orleans. I cracked into Margot Perrier's phone records and found a number that is registered to him."
"How in the hell did he get back in the country?" Michael plopped down on the couch next to the PI.
"Think about it, Michael: we have a lot of folks in the country who aren't supposed to be here. They get in every single day."
"So he might have come in through Mexico."
Matt spoke up. "And he might have had some help from my wonderful cousin Diego."