CHAPTER 10

Matt and Hoyt talked on for a little while and CJ called her husband back to let him know that she had left the message for Michelle Cosgrove. "Thanks a lot, Babe. 'Bye." He grinned over at Hoyt once again. "Mission accomplished. Now all we have to do is wait for her to take the bait." As he thought it over, he called CJ back. "Hey, did you by any chance tell Cosgrove where you would meet her?" Matt could hear Catey Rose fussing in the background.

"No, I thought that it would be better if it was set up when we talk." CJ picked up her daughter and took her down to the nursery to change her diaper.

"What's my girl fussing about?"

"As you like to put it, "wet drawers"." CJ had already begun the diaper change and the baby calmed down.

"Ah hah. Well I'll be back in just a little bit. Love you. 'Bye." He disconnected the call and stood up stretching. Hoyt was grinning at him. "What?"

"Nothing, just thinking about how much you've changed since we met." The police detective laughed.

"Most folks think I've changed for the better." Matt started out of the office and stuck his head back in the door. "I know it's for the better." He grinned and walked on toward the elevator.

Back at the office, Houston stepped over the back of the couch and pulled BABY back up and started back to work on the fire investigation files that Hoyt had sent over earlier. CJ and Catey Rose came and sat down next to him. "Hello, ladies." Matt leaned over and gave Catey a kiss on the forehead as she drank her bottle, then gave CJ a peck on the cheek. "I take it you haven't heard back from Cosgrove yet?"

"Not yet." They were both reading through the file that Matt had pulled up. "I ran across another interesting file earlier and have been doing some more research on it. Do you remember the fire at a funeral home where three bodies were destroyed, one of them was involved in a car accident and the ME reopened the case?"

"Yeah, I do." He stopped what he was doing.

"Fields said that the cause of the fire was electrical but the captain of the station that was the first to arrive on the scene, Withers, claimed that he and his firefighters could smell gasoline when they first got there." She put Catey up on her shoulder for a burp.

"Uh huh. More fuel for the fire, pardon the pun. Good work. We'll filter through the rest of these and see what else turns up." Just then CJ's cell phone began to ring and she handed the baby to Matt and went into her office to answer it. Matt continued to burp the baby as CJ walked back into the room.

"Yes, Mrs. Cosgrove. Uh huh, I just need to meet with you and get you to sign the claim release papers. Oh and you'll need your driver's license. Where would you like to meet?" She winked at Matt. "Right, I know exactly where that is. Tomorrow morning at 9:30 would work great for me. Alright, see you then." She hung up. "9:30 tomorrow at the Comet Coffee shop on Wilshire."

Matt nodded and smiled as Catey let loose with a big burp. "She approves, too." He picked up the phone and dialed Hoyt. "Hey, 9:30 tomorrow morning at Comet Coffee." Catey let out with another big burp. "No I didn't, that was Catey. Yes I'm sure." He rolled his eyes. "Because if it was me you would be deaf. Talk to you later." He hung up the phone.

"Hon, you might want to go change your shirt." CJ came and took her daughter as Matt looked over at his shoulder.

"Thanks, kiddo, I appreciate that." He shook his head at Catey, who just cooed innocently. Going down into the gym to change his shirt, Matt started laughing.

"What's so funny?" CJ and Catey were at the top of the stairs.

"I've been slimed!" Matt started in on another round of laughter.

"At least he's a good sport, Catey." She took her daughter back into her office and the two of them went back to working on the files.

After changing into a t-shirt, Matt came back through and made his way to the bar for a cup of coffee and went back to BABY to work on the files. After going through three more, he ran across another suspicious case in which a sign shop had been destroyed. Once again, Fields called it accidental and the captain in charge of the station that had responded disagreed. Matt got up and went to the door of CJ's office. "Hey Babe, what was the name of the fire captain in the funeral home case?"

"Uh, hang on." She flipped back through her notes. "Withers, Frank Withers. Why?"

"I think we need to talk to him. I just ran across another case where he and Fields locked horns." He looked down in CJ's lap where their daughter had dozed off. "Want me to put her down for you?"

"Sure." Matt walked in and very carefully picked up his daughter and started down the stairs with her. Hoyt stepped off of the elevator and came into CJ's office. About the time Matt got to the bottom of the stairs, Catey woke up and started fussing.

"Uh oh, the native is restless." Hoyt grinned.

CJ pointed to the baby monitor on her desk. "Listen." Matt had started singing to the baby and she began cooing then got quiet, and he came back up the stairs a minute later.

"Awwwww, that's sweet." Hoyt loved to tease Matt every chance he got and the private investigator stuck out his tongue at him. "You've actually got a good voice, Houston. I'm impressed."

"As long as Catey is impressed I'm okay." He grinned as he sat down on the loveseat in CJ's office. "Tell him about the funeral home deal."

CJ told the lieutenant what she had told her husband earlier and Matt told him about the sign shop. "I want to talk to this Withers guy. He might be able to help us out."

"He might at that. I've got a cousin that works for the fire department as a dispatcher." He pulled out his phone and dialed. "Lisa, it's Michael. Can I get you to give me a phone number for a Frank Withers, fire captain? Yeah." There was a pause. "Uh huh." He wrote the number down on a piece of paper that CJ gave him. "Alright thanks a lot. Yeah, it's got to do with a case. Okay, tell Pat hello for me. 'Bye." He hung up and looked at his watch. "Want to talk to him tomorrow?"

"Yeah, that's…wait a minute; we're going to be dealing with Michelle Cosgrove in the morning. Maybe we better try to talk to him tonight." Matt looked at CJ.

"True. Okay, I'll try to get him. It's his cell phone number." Hoyt dialed and got the captain and explained what was going on. "Right, yeah, I know where it is. Okay, see you then. Goodbye." He hung up and turned to Matt. "He's on duty at Station 16 and said for us to swing on by there. Seems eager to talk about it, too."

"Alright." Matt stood up and walked over to CJ. "I guess you ladies will be heading home before too much longer, won't you?"

"Yeah, I think I'll head that way. I can look over these at the house." She pulled Matt into a kiss.

Hoyt waited…and waited…and cleared his throat. Matt gave him a rude gesture. "Nope, I don't fly like that, PI."

Matt broke the kiss and looked at CJ smiling. "I'll call you when I head that way. Love you, Babe." He gave her one more short kiss and then started out with Hoyt following. "Wanna go in the "Dream Truck"?"

"Oh sure, why not? I was on my way home when I stopped here so why not."

"You boys be careful. Love you." CJ shook her head and laughed at the pair, then sat back down to finish the case file that she was working on before heading home.