Chapter 11

The next day Andie was discharged from the hospital to head home with her family.

Everybody seemed busy. Matt helped Andie from the car and into the house, sitting her down on his favorite recliner. CJ looked over the bottles of medication and patient instructions. Wade brought the wheelchair and crutches in from the car and searched for a blanket and pillows.

The phone rang and Matt answered.

"Houston..."

"Hi, how's Andie doing?" asked Tony.

"We just got her home from the hospital. I think she'll be fine in time."

"That's a relief. Hey, we found something at the scene … not sure if it's important but police protocol says we need to turn it over to the victim or the victim's family. I was wondering if you could come down to the station and take a look?"

Matt checked CJ's expression. "Yeah, we can do that. Be there in about twenty … thanks."

Matt motioned for Wade and CJ to come closer so he could whisper.

"Tony Novelli … he needs to show us something he found at the scene of the accident. Maybe it's nothing but I thought your Mom and I would take a look. Can you stay here and help your sister?"

"Of course," said Wade.

Matt noticed the worry on his wife's face. "CJ, you up to coming with me?"

CJ looked towards her daughter for a second with concern, but then smiled when she heard her snoring in the chair.

"Yeah, I think it'll be alright. Let's go."


Tony and Vince met Matt and CJ at the police station and took them to a private room.

"What cha got guys?" Matt asked as Tony closed the door behind him.

"Andie's cell phone. I found it at the scene after she was taken away in the ambulance. She told me she tried to get some photos while being pursued," Vince explained as he handed the phone to Matt.

Matt took the phone and started scrolling. He saw dozens of college friends, her horse and several obscure shots taken today.

Out of all the blurry photos, Matt found one that was clear: the corner of a sedan. It was, in fact, a blue sedan. A portion of the license plate was in view. "Here's something."

Tony took a look and wrote down the partial plate number.

Matt kept scrolling. He found one capturing the face of the sedan's driver!

"This must be the hit man," said Matt as he showed Tony, Vince and CJ. "Can you use this to do a search for known offenders?"

Before Tony could answer, CJ interrupted. "Wait, scroll back to the college shots."

"What is it CJ?"

"Wait, stop at that one. That's looks like the same man."

They stared at the screen, shifting back and forth between the two photos. The face in both photos certainly looked like the same man.

"Is there a way you can enlarge these?" asked Matt.

"Sure," said Tony. He went over to the computer and connected Andie's phone to it.

"Now can you bring up the two photos side by side?"

After a few clicks, Tony had two photos next to each other on the screen.

It was indeed the same man.

"Oh, my God!" said CJ. "I can't believe this!"

"What is it CJ?' inquired Matt.

"This man … this was the man Andie was seeing back at school!"

"What? Are you positive?"

"Yes."

"Do you know his name?" asked Vince.

"Mark … Mark Alexander."

"What do you know about this Mark Alexander?" Tony asked CJ.

"I don't know much other than she was seeing him for about a month near the end of the semester. Things were going great until the last two weeks. She said he became distant and mysterious, suddenly stopped going to classes and returning messages."

Matt paced.

Tony changed screens on his computer and did an arrest record search for Alexander. He tried the names Mark and Alexander as last names, first names and middle names. He stopped when he saw the name Alexander as a middle name. "Here's a match. Does this name mean anything to you?"

Matt, CJ and Vince all stared at the screen and couldn't believe what they were seeing.

Marquis Alexandre Duval III?

CJ's heart sank. Memories of Duval and that island "adventure" all came flooding back. "I just ordered to have you killed ... "She could her Duval's voice so vividly in her head.

Matt remembered the voice, too. "I will not hesitate to harm your Ms. Parsons if you do not fulfill your end of the bargain… "

"This name means a lot to all of us," said Vince. "This man's grandfather held CJ hostage once in order to get Houston to change his testimony about witnessing his son's attempt at assassinating a Senator."

CJ's mind was racing. Not only did this terrorist's name from the past resurface and hurt their daughter, but CJ knew that Andie would be heartbroken and confused when she found out that it was Mark! And CJ knew this feeling all too well - she had felt the same way once when a certain Robert Tyler was in her life.

"We can't tell her, Houston, we can't. Not in her state. Not yet anyway. She has to take the bar in a couple of weeks. It'll be hard enough to get healthy in time for that let alone to know that this Mark is her hit man and related to the Duvals."

Matt ran his hand through his hair and paced.

Vince offered, "We won't say anything if that's what the two of you want."

"Yeah, at least for now. Give us a little time before you issue a warrant for his arrest. In the meantime, CJ and I will check Baby."


CJ and Matt came home to a quiet house. It was late and Wade and Andie had obviously gone to bed since the lights were out in their wings of the house.

Sitting down at the computer together, they went about searching for information on the Duvals.

"CJ, any chance we could tap into Harvard's database and check student records? If he was enrolled and attending classes there, their admissions office should have some records on him."

"Harvard's computers? Surely you jest, Houston!"

"It's worth a try…"

CJ thought about it for a minute and then went about typing. After a few minutes, she and Matt magically had access to student files. They typed in Mark's name and found a last known address and a cell phone number.

"Okay, well I'll call Tony first thing tomorrow. This information is different than what they have in their files. This should give us an edge on locating him. They should be able to issue a warrant for his arrest based solely on Andie's cell phone pictures."

CJ narrowed her eyes. "Houston, when you and Tony do find this Mark and go to arrest him, I want to be there."

Matt took his wife's hand and looked her eyes.

"Okay. If that's you want."

"It's what I need. I want to see handcuffs on the creep who tried to kill our baby girl!"

"Okay. Don't forget we have the Moskovitz funeral tomorrow. Might be a good idea to see who shows up at the funeral. Since Andie was investigating the Moskovitz murder when she was stalked, there could be a connection."

CJ nodded. She sat at the computer quietly staring at the screen for a minute. Matt noticed how tired CJ looked. He logged off Baby and sat back on the couch and put his arm around her.

"You look like you could use a nice long rest. You ready for bed?" he asked.

CJ rested her head on Matt's shoulder as he drew her closer and stroked her hair.

"Uh huh," she quietly mumbled as she closed her eyes.

CJ was back in her safe place: her children were under one roof, Matt was by her side. It was to finally time to relax after a very long day.

"Come on," Matt said as he led her to their bedroom.