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C.J. froze when she saw the camera aiming at her as she and Matt sat in a cramped shed that doubled as some sort of webcast studio. Who would have ever guessed that such technology existed? She surfed the web as much as anyone but she stuck mostly to research and okay, every once in a while she checked out the dating sites because with her frenetic schedule, it just was difficult to meet men who weren't insane or on their way to prison.
And maybe if she had used those sites, she never would have wound up with Elliot in the first place. But anyway, she felt so self-conscious in front of the camera right now, it definitely didn't look like a friend.
Matt looked even more ill at ease than she did and he had done some of these live talk shows before when they had been interested occasionally in an investigation he had handled or more often the latest woman on his arm.
Xian just had spent the past hour or so setting them up with lapel mics and had a woman named Chloe who looked like she had dropped out of the Sixties powder their faces up with makeup so their features wouldn't "disappear" in the lighting, she explained. Joey had actually dropped by and they had been surprised to see how different he looked from his days as a video game programmer. The case that Matt and C.J. had solved had sworn him off of robotics forever which made the police department at L.A. breathe a sigh of relief because his Joey models had turned out to be somewhat…homicidal. And if that weren't bad enough, one of his forays into artificial intelligence had nearly led to the annihilation of a gaming conference in Las Vegas. C.J. and Matt hadn't been involved in dealing with that caper but it had been all over the news.
Joey had woven his new found celebrity at stopping the killer computer into a contract with the State Department and on the side, a gig producing a morning talk show in L.A. After catching up on each other's lives, he had barked orders to Xian who took them willingly and at Chloe who just smiled at him indulgently.
So now Matt and C.J. sat in front of the camera with spotlights on them feeling very much under the gun so to speak.
Joey put up his hand with all five fingers to do the countdown to air time.
"Five…four…three…two…"
Everyone listened to some female talking head miles away in L.A. give the intro to how the viewing audience would be listening to an exclusive statement from the runaway bride and the man she was hiding out with.
"Kidnapper or partner in crime, you decide…."
Matt and C.J. just looked at each other.
"Okay, now this is where you come in," Joey instructed.
"And in the remote undisclosed location, our two guests are taking some time off from their adventure or…crime if you aren't sure what to call it to provide some insight into exactly what happened at the wedding that wasn't…okay so Matt…C.J…are you both there?"
They answered him in the affirmative, not sure what they had just gotten themselves into but it was too late to back out now.
"So what do you think of this runaway bride business, Ms Parsons?"
C.J. looked at the camera like a deer caught in headlights.
"What….?"
"Why did you jilt your fiancé at the altar…at the very last possible moment?"
Something inside C.J. her courtroom persona perhaps took control then.
"It wasn't the last possible minute…It was several hours before and I was preparing to put on my wedding dress…and I found these photos..Well let's just say I had second thoughts about marrying him then."
The talking head they couldn't see appeared to digest that news.
"What photos? Who were they of, were they of other women?"
C.J. just sat there as the talking head jabbered on.
"Were they of his mistresses; was he in them in compromising positions with them?"
She paused, wondering how to put what she had to say in words that dealt with a somewhat delicate topic of what Elliot did for a living.
"They were pictures of men…."
A pin dropping silence greeted her then from some point in L.A.
"Men that are now either missing or dead," C.J. said slowly, "It didn't make any sense at first but it did give me second thoughts about my wedding."
The talking head took a minute to recover from her shock.
"Dead men...What are you trying to tell the viewing audience?"
C.J. bit the bullet.
"My fiancé…Elliot is a hired hit man for the five families back East."
The silence that met that revelation lasted longer and the connection between the two studios had been broken. But then the talking head apparently recovered to ask more questions.
"Are you serious?"
"I've never been more so," C.J. said, "When Houston…he showed up he told me just as much."
"This is just so shocking…we're going to have to get a response from our other two guests on this allegation."
Matt frowned.
"Other two guests…?"
"Elliot and his sister Delilah who are sitting her in our studio right now, "was the cheerful answer from the talking head.
C.J. tried to keep herself composed while on the air but her hand went to her chest.
"Oh…"
"And now viewing audience we'll go to our other guests in our local studio for their responses to these allegations."
C.J. and Matt braced themselves.
"Lies…all lies…how can someone like that (beep) make up such (beeping) lies about my brother and what he does for a living? Ellliot's a well respected businessman not a remorseless killer…to say otherwise is just (beeping) ridiculous and it's slanderous but what can you expect from a (beeping) (beep)…(beep)…"
That sounded an awful lot like Delilah, C.J. guessed and she sounded rather irate.
"And what about you Elliot," the talking head said, moving on.
"I believe it's like I told you earlier, my fiancée is very overwrought and emotionally disturbed by the lies that this kidnapper, this wealthy playboy has fed to her in an attempt to brainwash her and turn her against me…she knows not what she says…"
"Okay…that's pretty straight to the point," the talking head said, "Would you like to comment to that Mr. Houston?"
Matt nodded.
"Yes I would…these aren't just allegations about the real Elliot, there's photographs in our possession that prove that they are true."
C.J. looked at Matt suddenly and arched a brow at him, and then she realized what he was doing.
"Yes…he's telling the truth…there are several photos which are in a very safe place."
The talking head digested that.
"Okay…could we get copies of them?"
Matt nodded.
"Of course, when the time is right," he said, "We'll send you instructions on how to receive them," he said, "You will find that everything that is said about Elliot being a professional assassin is true and so will everyone else."
Matt and C.J. thought they heard gasps from the other studio back in L.A.
"This interview is over," Matt said, and Xian nodded, cutting off the connection.
Joey smiled broadly at the two of them.
"Boy, you two haven't changed a bit," he said, "You do know that you've just gotten a very dangerous man angry with you."
Matt knew that but it had been a calculated risk and he knew he could keep the two of them safe. C.J. knew that too but of course she had worried more about him.
"Houston…I don't want anything to happen to you."
He stroked her hair off her face.
"Nothing's going to happen…We might not have the goods on Elliot and his crimes yet but we will…Roy can help us with information we got from the five families."
She nodded and then impulsively, she leaned towards him and kissed him softly on the mouth. Not longer than a couple of seconds but it didn't take even that long for the tingling sensation to fill either one of them.
Joey just chuckled, folding his arms at him.
"So when did this development take place?"
Matt and C.J. drove back in the Ferrari to the beach house and she let him drive this time content to gaze at the scenery as it flew on by. They always checked to make sure they weren't being tailed by Elliot's men or anyone else for that matter. She looked over at him as he appeared to be lost in thought while looking out onto the road.
"Houston…are you okay with this," she said, "I mean you've got a life back in L.A…"
He smiled at her.
"Murray's handling everything just fine along with Chris and Roy's helping us out," he said, "Everything's going to be just fine, and they probably don't even miss us."
She chuckled, thinking that might be true.
"I missed you…you know when you and Roy were out handling the field work," she said, "I understood why but it wasn't the same."
"I missed you too and when we do get back to L.A., we've got to…work on some aspects of our partnership."
The thought warmed her insides because she knew he didn't just mean their professional lives. He meant the more personal aspects as well, and she definitely looked forward to that even though she wondered how long it would last. Because even his engagements didn't last that long before going kaput.
But some things were important enough to chance risking.
They parked the Ferrari and headed into the house to change to head on down to the beach. She put on another bikini that she had picked up at the boutique and a wrap over it then her towel, before heading into the kitchen to get some snacks to take with her.
It hadn't taken Matt long to decide to do the same thing.
"I'm thinking of taking a swim today," he said, "I might be getting out of shape."
She suppressed a chuckle at that while looking at his gorgeous physique.
"I don't think you'll ever have that problem Houston," she said, "but it's a nice day for it."
"What about you," he said, "Would you like to join me?"
She appeared to think about it.
"No, I might go on a light jog," she said, "and then I'm kicking back with a good book."
He sighed as he grabbed them both some sodas from the frig.
"We're going to have to be really careful now," he said, "Elliot's got no reason to sue for slander but every reason to come after us."
She nodded.
"I think the false trail we left will hold up for a while," she said, "but we're going to have to make some definite plans of what to do next."
"I put in a call to Roy to look some stuff up for us," Matt said, "I think we'll hear from him later this afternoon."
"Okay that sounds like a plan," she said, grabbing her things and they left to go down to the beach.
Matt did what he said he would do and went into the ocean to take a swim. She knew at this time of year it was about as warm as it would ever get but still quite cool but Matt moved through the waves with sure, swift strokes while she left their towels to go off on a run. Her muscles tightened a bit at first because it had been a while but once she started breaking out into a light sweat, she felt better. She ran on the densely packed sand with dunes blocking her view of some of the other houses that lined their same street. She could easily see why people lived here, or retreated to these homes to escape busier lives in the city. Doing that, made so much sense and she thought that maybe when they returned to L.A…she would seriously consider doing the same.
So much awaited her back there including figuring out what to do about Matt, because she knew she wanted what he did but it just all appeared so complicated. Their friendship had tightened so much over the years, it had been the one constant in her life and she knew that sometimes friendships between men and women didn't survive hitting the sheets.
And if that happened to them, great sex just wouldn't make up for that.
She focused on the path through the sand dunes ahead not aware that someone had followed her.