CHAPTER 10

When the alarm went off the next morning at 7:00 am, Matt was pleasantly surprised that he hadn't received a phone call from Hoyt during the night. He didn't usually work on Saturdays, but this one was going to be an exception. He looked over at CJ: she had slept right through the alarm, which was unusual. Moving carefully, he slid out of the bed and went for a shower. When he got back to the bedroom, she was still sleeping peacefully and he decided that she was taking the day off. After dressing, he left her a note.

Morning Babe! You were sleeping good so I left you alone. Enjoy your Saturday.

Can't wait till tonight.

Love you!

Matt

He gave her a soft kiss on the cheek and headed out the door.

Once he was at the office, he made coffee and called to check with Hoyt. He knew he would be working as well. "You didn't call last night so I'm hoping that nothing else happened."

"Nope, nothing. Looks like we got an uninterrupted night for a change. I'm just wondering how long our luck will hold." The lieutenant took a sip of his coffee and propped his feet up on the desk.

"What time are you planning on interrogating Bettenhouse?" Matt kicked back on the couch.

"Oh, well, his attorney, the illustrious J. William Detwiler isn't an early riser on the weekend apparently. We won't have the pleasure of his company until 11:00."

"Well, hell, I coulda stayed in the bed for a while." Matt silently cursed the attorney. Neither detective spoke for a moment. "Guess I'll come on over there and we can sort through what we have so far and maybe come up with a few more questions for Bettenhouse."

"Works for me. I'll be here, but there won't be any doughnuts for you this time." Hoyt chuckled.

"You'd hate to be a sore loser, Hoyt. After all, I did give you bear claws. See you in a few." Matt hung up and started for the elevator as his phone rang. He looked at the caller ID: it was CJ.

"Good morning, sleepy head."

"Good morning yourself. What's the big idea of ditching me?" She was sipping on a cup of coffee at the kitchen table.

"Well you just looked so cute and angelic laying there snoring I just thought you might like to have the day off." He stepped onto the elevator and hit the button for the garage.

"So what have you got lined up for today?"

"Hoyt is going to question Bettenhouse about 11:00. His lawyer evidently doesn't like to get up early on the weekends."

"I might just have to come down there and watch the fun. There's nothing else to do today."

"I'm headed that way now. See you there. Love you."

"Love you, too. 'Bye." She hung up and looked at the note that he had left her, then got up and went back to the bedroom and pulled down a box from the top shelf of the closet. Matt had no idea, but she had kept every single card, letter, and note that he had ever given her. Everything from childhood Valentine's to Christmas cards to letters when he was in Iraq. She added his note from this morning to the box and smiled to herself. One day she would show their kids the collection.

As Matt stepped on the elevator at the police station he was joined by none other than J. William Detwiler, the attorney for Bettenhouse. The lawyer appeared to be trying to convince himself that Matt didn't exist: he was totally ignoring him, which was fine with Matt who exited the elevator on the fourth floor and headed on to Hoyt's office. He stuck his head in the door and found the lieutenant looking through the files that had been collected on the case. "Come on in. I've just been looking through some of the goods we've got on Bettenhouse so far."

"Well, I think I need to go back home and take another shower. I just shared the elevator with his attorney." Matt made a face, causing Hoyt to crack up.

"Did he say anything to you?"

"No, he was trying really hard to believe that I don't actually exist I think." He took a seat across the desk from Hoyt and picked up one of the folders and started looking through it. "Oh, CJ called me right after I talked to you. She's going to come down and watch the show."

"Good. Maybe she'll get here beforehand and help us with some questions that might rattle Bettenhouse." Hoyt looked down at the badge hanging from his belt. It was covered with a piece of black elastic – a symbol of mourning his fellow officers who had died at the hand of Bettenhouse. "Fuentes' and Anderson's wives decided to have a single funeral for them – tomorrow at 1:00." Matt nodded. Neither man really wanted to talk about what had happened.

"Have you made an actual list of questions or are you just going to remember them when you get in there?" Matt stood up and walked over to the window, looking out on another perfectly beautiful day. He knew two ladies who wouldn't be enjoying it and the thought of it kept flitting through his mind.

"I've been writing them down – I figure there will be a lot of them." Hoyt pulled out his notebook and wrote down another one as Matt's phone rang.

"Hey."

"Hay is for horses, Matt. You of all people should know that." Roy was in a good mood.

"I take it everything went okay?"

"Yep. I'm headed back with all the goodies in my briefcase."

"Alright. What time will you be back?"

"About four more hours, give or take. We're going to have to study up on how to use this one – it's different than the ones that I'm used to – but maybe it's more like something that you've used before."

"Well, I guess there's one way to find out. You want to meet tomorrow afternoon and look it over?"

"Works for me. I'm going to take our "purchase" to the office and put it in the safe. Then I've got a date."

Matt chuckled and shook his head. "Alright then, but don't do anything I wouldn't do."

Roy laughed. "So I guess the possibilities are endless then. Talk to you later, Matt. 'Bye."

"'Bye." He hung up and put his phone back in his pocket and walked back over to pick up another folder off of Hoyt's desk and go through it. Then he remembered what he had wanted to ask the detective.

"Hey, did the lab ever get a match on the blood on that piece of black material that I found?" He sat back down in the chair.

"No, no match." Both men were silent for a moment.

"You know, it could be the accomplice." Matt looked at Michael. "I've been thinking about that. If our guy has been using the windows for an exit, is he going back up to the roof or is he lowering himself to the ground and slipping the rope out of the eye bolt once he reaches the ground?"

"Going back up to the roof could be pretty hard to do – it would take a good bit of upper body strength to do that – unless the accomplice is on the roof and is pulling. Not to mention the fact that it doesn't make sense. Why go on the roof in the first place?" He took a sip of coffee and leaned back in the desk chair. "Oh, and we got the blood work back on Chan-juan Chang. She wasn't HIV positive."

"What about Leticia Hollings?"

"She wasn't either."

Matt thought for a minute. "Do we know for sure that the Chang girl was a hooker? I mean, most ladies of the evening don't live at home with Mom and Dad, you know?"

"I wondered about that myself, so I called Lewiston down in Vice. He says she had never been arrested, but that they gave her a warning one time. They hadn't actually caught her with a john, so there was no real proof. But yes, she was."

The private investigator nodded. "So it would seem that not just HIV positive hookers were what our guy was after – but hookers in general." They both thought about that. "What about the cases up in San Francisco? Was it the same?"

Michael nodded. "Every one of them was a known hooker and they were all HIV positive." He stood up and started for the door. "Coffee?"

"Sure." Matt looked through another file as Hoyt went and poured a cup for both of them. When Hoyt got back, the private investigator was back over at the window looking out and appeared to be totally lost in thought. Hoyt started to hand him the cup of coffee and Matt hadn't even noticed that he was back in the room.

"Hey! PI! Snap out of it." The detective held out the cup of coffee when Matt finally came out of his reverie.

"Thanks." He took the cup and took a sip.

"Thinking about the project with Roy again, are you?"

"Yeah, sorry. We've just passed a major obstacle and now the reality of it is really starting to hit home." He crossed back over to the couch and had a seat.

Michael leaned back against his desk and studied the private investigator. "Matt, I know you're trying to do something good, but are you sure it's going to be worth it? I mean, you're really worrying about this deal, whatever it is, a lot."

Matt looked over at his friend and nodded. "It's a big risk, Hoyt. I've put up….well, $5,000,000 so far to get what we need to do the job. Now that we've got it, I'm just worried about actually making it pay off."

Hoyt almost dropped his cup of coffee. "Did you just say $5,000,000 dollars?" He was stunned.

Houston nodded and took a sip of coffee. "I did."

The detective was completely taken aback. "What in the hell are you trying to do, Houston? Look, I know it's none of my business, but damn man! I don't care if you are a millionaire, that's a hell of a lot of money to drop on something that may or may not pay off."

"I know." He looked over at Hoyt and laughed. "Too bad you can't see your face right now. That alone almost makes this deal worthwhile." Hoyt continued to look at him as if he'd lost his mind. "Well, it wasn't as much as it started out to be – originally the price was $10,000,000."

The police lieutenant slowly walked around to his chair behind the desk and eased down into it. "$10, 000,000?" He shook his head. "Now I know you're crazy. Look, I heard about what you did with Houston Industries right about the time we met. Turned it over to Murray to run to fund charities. And I know you took a big financial hit when you did that. And I know that you were still relatively well-off. But have you thought this thing through? Does CJ know?"

"She knows about the $5,000,000 – she got it together for me. She doesn't know what it's for – and I hope to keep it that way, at least until it's all over with." He sipped the coffee and looked up as the door to the office opened and CJ walked in. She looked between Hoyt and her husband. "Did I interrupt something?"

"Nope." Matt got up and gave her a big hug. "Not a thing. Hoyt wants to know if you have any questions to add to the list." Stepping behind his wife he gave Hoyt a look warning him not to talk about what they had been discussing.

Not missing a beat, Michael picked up his notebook and handed it to CJ. "Take a look and tell me if you have anything to add." She sat down on the couch next to Matt and looked through it. "Looks like you pretty well covered the bases."

"I thought you two might like to be in the adjoining room so you can observe through the one-way mirror. If you think of something that I should ask, call my cell. I'll have it on vibrate and I'll come out and talk to you. Sound like a plan?"

"Yep." Matt and CJ answered at the same time. Hoyt looked at his watch. "Well, looks like fifteen minutes to show time." The three of them started out of the office and went up the hallway. Matt and CJ went into the viewing room and Hoyt went into the interrogation room. Bettenhouse was due to be brought in at 11:00.

As they sat down in the chairs in the viewing room, Matt slipped his arm around his wife and gave her a hug. "Are you feeling all right?" He looked down at her and thought she looked a little pale.

"Yep, I'm fine. Why?" She leaned over and put her head on his shoulder.

"Well, you slept through the alarm this morning – I'm usually the one guilty of that." He smiled at her.

"Guess I just wanted a turn to be lazy." She looked up as Bettenhouse and his lawyer entered the interrogation room. "Looks like our show is about to come on. Dang it! I forgot the popcorn!" Both of them chuckled.

Detwiler was determined to try to run the questioning on his terms. As he rolled through a laundry list of conditions, Lt. Hoyt just sat there and gave him a look that would have made Goliath shiver. Bettenhouse looked like a blank slate: absolutely no expression.

As Hoyt began asking questions, the lawyer answered for his client every time. When Hoyt produced photos of some of the crime scenes, the suspect refused to look at them. Matt started getting a funny feeling as he sat and watched the events unfold. He leaned over and told CJ that he would be back in a minute and he headed back towards Hoyt's office.

"Sanchez, time to pay me for the doughnut." He clapped his hand on the young officer's shoulder. "I've got a little job for you to do." Matt leaned over and instructed him to take three cups of coffee to the interrogation room and gave him a message for Hoyt. Apparently he couldn't believe that was all that Houston wanted. "Yep, that's all. Now see, that was a cheap doughnut, wasn't it?" He walked back to rejoin CJ. As he sat down he quietly asked her if he had missed anything.

"No, not really. Detwiler is continuing his little game. Hoyt's not going to get anything out of this interrogation but another ulcer and a headache."

"Oh, I don't know, maybe some good will come of it." He put his arm around her again and sat back to watch as Sanchez knocked on the door. Hoyt was not happy for the interruption, but understood when the young officer told him that all of the doughnuts were gone and gave him the message from Matt. The coffee was placed on the table and all three men took a cup. Detwiler seemed to be particularly enjoying his as Hoyt sat down in a chair and loudly exhaled.

"Bettenhouse, I've got to give you credit. You certainly knew which lawyer to hire."

A smug look came over the attorney's face. "Yes, and I expect by Monday that my client will be a free man once again."

Hoyt raise his hands in a defeated motion. "Guess I should have stayed home today and cut the grass, huh? Oh what the hell, they were just hookers after all." He drank more of the coffee. Bettenhouse leaned over and whispered a question to his lawyer.

Detwiler nodded. "My client says that he would like to be returned to his cell now – unless you're prepared to go ahead and release him."

"No, they won't let me do that – just yet. Alright, gentlemen, you two have a good day." Hoyt walked to the door and called for an officer to return the prisoner to his cell, then walked back over and looked at the attorney. "Mr. Detwiler, I've got to admit, you're about the best I've ever seen." He stuck out his hand to shake with Detwiler and bumped the man's coffee cup, spilling the remaining contents all over the table and the floor.

"Damn! Sorry about that, counselor." Hoyt went back to the door. "Sanchez! Get one of the janitors up here; we've got a coffee spill." The prisoner was taken out of the room and his lawyer smugly swaggered out into the hall, then caught the elevator and went downstairs. When the coast was clear, Hoyt rapped on the mirror and Matt and CJ came into the interrogation room.

"Okay, PI. Mission accomplished. But why did you want me to do it?"

"Just a hunch, Hoyt. Call up one of the CSI's and get them to run DNA on both of the cups, will you?"

"Ooookay, any particular reason why?"

"Maybe you'll get the match for that piece of black cloth that I found." He took CJ by the hand and the two of them left together.