Matt had left after being briefed by the investigators about what had happened to poor old Bruno. He'd been killed most likely a couple hours or so being found dead near the tide line in Venice Beach. A couple fingers had been broken and the nails ripped out…which meant that someone had tortured him before death. Matt knew that the reasons for torture were few; to either inflect pain on a person in exchange for pleasure or to elicit information out of someone otherwise reluctant to give it up.

He was guessing if Duval had anything to do with it, his motive was the latter. He believed the bodyguard held information that he badly wanted or needed. Matt wondered how much Bruno had told him and what secrets he divulged before he was wasted. What had Duval asked him and what had he answered? Matt knew it had to do with Clover and now he wondered more than ever what Duval wanted with her. If he just wanted to ice her he had the chance to do it without needing to go torture and then kill her bodyguard. So what did he want?

Matt didn't have a clue but maybe the answer was in the book about his father in his own words. He'd been reading about Duval Sr.'s relationship with Clover and he knew it hadn't lasted that long but had seemed at least on Duval's end, fairly intense. Likely a distant second behind his fervent political beliefs and his desire to manipulate others with them to make money but still strong enough to factor into his life…but how did his son play into it?

Hoyt had briefed him too.

"Houston…the medical examiner's going to do an autopsy but we know he was shot…execution style after being tortured…Look at the bruises on his body…"

Matt had winced when he saw some of them. Duval or someone associated with him had really whaled on this guy and it didn't look like he'd put up much of a fight. Had he been ambushed or merely surprised, lured to Duval under false pretenses? Matt left Hoyt and went to join C.J. where she stood with Clover who still shivered from the news of Bruno's murder.

Clover sighed wiping a strand of hair off of her face.

"The police…they want me to go down to the station," she said, "Said they'll give me a ride back when they're done. Poor Bruno…he was a good guy Matlock…the best and he had my back."

Matt placed his hand on her shoulder in consolation.

"I'm going to find out what happened and why Duval's after you."

Clover didn't look too comforted and Matt knew that it took a lot to rattle her. But Duval had done just that already without showing his face and he wanted to know why. She must have seen his concern because she braved a smile.

"I'll be okay Matlock," she said, "and I know you'll find out what the hell's going on here."

Matt left and met up with C.J. who had been talking to one of the perimeter cops. She fell into step with him as they walked to his car.

"What'd you find out?"

He sighed.

"Just that Bruno was tortured and murdered probably to give information out of him about one or more of his clients."

"You mean Clover right?"

He nodded.

"Why were you at Clover's anyway?"

He had figured as much when he saw the two women together.

"She called me to come to her place," C.J. said, "Duval's been contacting her. Left a note under her door to come and meet him tomorrow by the pier."

Matt's eyes widened.

"Why didn't she call me?"

C.J. snorted.

"I don't know Houston…you'll have to ask her. But when I arrived, she got a phone call from him."

"Duval?"

"Of course Duval and I don't know what he said to her but it scared her Houston. There's something going on here she's not telling us."

He paused as they crossed the bike path up to the pathway that lead to the alley where Matt had parked his car. It was a couple of blocks away from Clover's bungalow.

"I'm guessing that but I don't know what it could be," Matt said, "If he's trying to kill her, I think she'd tell us why so we could help her."

C.J. furrowed her brow.

"Maybe it's something personal…maybe it has to do with her affair with his father," she said, "Maybe the son took issue with it for some reason."

Matt considered that as they reached his car.

"I'll give you a lift to your car."

"It's just a couple of blocks Houston…I'll be fine."

"C.J. it's late and you shouldn't…now don't look at me like that, I know you can take care of yourself…"

"And you too Houston…don't forget the many times I had to save your ass," she said, "Okay if it'll make you feel better."

"It will…besides you can tell me how the rest of your night went."

She sighed as she sat next to him in his car and he started it up, pulling out of the alley.

"Not much to tell," She said, "I was already to relax with some wine in the tub and that's when I got the call."

He turned onto another side street.

"I was reading Courtney's book on Duval," he said, "He really had something going with Clover back when they were younger but it didn't last long."

She looked out the window.

"I just started reading it," she said, "I can't get into it myself. I don't care much about learning why he believes he was right to kill and hurt people."

"Me neither unless it'll help me stop his son from doing the same…"

She glanced back at him as they reached Clover's street.

"We don't know that'll do that," she said, "It could all lead to a dead end, most of what he did in his life isn't relevant anyway."

"Maybe not…but I'll keep reading."

She sighed as he parked his car right behind hers.

"You and most everyone else in America," she said, "It's going to make Courtney a very rich woman."

She got out of his car and he joined her and they both stood there a long moment. Both of them tried to process how their lives had so quickly moved from a nice dinner spent together as friends towards having to deal with a man being brutally murdered by someone after one of their friends.

"That book could hurt people," she said, "His victims, the media's going to go after every one of them for a follow up on what it meant to be targeted by him and his band of terrorists. Just because his book's on all the best sellers' lists."

Matt didn't think it fair either that people's whose lives had been irrevocably altered and tragically so by Duval and his ilk. The media coverage so far had treated him as some hot flavor of the month, some enigma who couldn't possibly be all bad. A badly misunderstood and colorful character to be dressed up into something much different than what he'd been in reality, Matt knew the drill and he guessed C.J. did as well.

"It's just what they do C.J. and the attention won't last long," he said, "The media will move onto some other subject soon enough."

"I know but I just can't wait until that happens," she said, "but you're right…if the book can help us figure out Duval Jr. and what he's up to, then I'll read up on it too."

He nodded and moved closer to her until he reached close enough to stroke her face with a thumb while resting some fingers on her neck.

"Goodnight…I'll see you tomorrow."

She just looked at him as he got into his car before getting into hers so they could both head on home for the night.

Matt kept reading through the book beginning with the passage where he broke it off with Clover on an island retreat that he had been staying at that had been owned by an Earl. Duval didn't elaborate on the cause of the fight just that Clover had started becoming too dependent on him, too clingy and he needed to focus his energy and time on some revolution. Most of which seemed to be inside his own head but needless to say, after the fight Clover had boarded a Lear Jet that belonged to one of her race car sponsors and flew off of the island off of Crete.

After she had left, Duval had met up with some of the men who would be prove to be great allies and mentors that would hone him into an important revolutionary as he called himself and a leader of great scope and vision. Matt noticed that Duval seemed quite enthusiastic in writing about his perceived strengths and showed no sign of his weaknesses. Whatever obstacles he faced were to be blamed on other less visionary people who tried to stop him from achieving his full potential. At times, he seemed overzealous in his views of himself and at others; he seemed to show a great deal of bitterness at the shortcomings he viewed in others.

His phone rang and he saw it was Roy. His uncle had gone out with his new girlfriend Lila who he'd met at the Hollywood Bowl at a concert.

"So I heard you were busy tonight at the beach," Roy said, "I ran into a captain at the movies and he'd gotten the call about it."

Matt sighed.

"Clover's bodyguard was tortured and killed," he said, "His body turned up on the beach."

"Duval right…?"

"I'm pretty sure but the police have to consider all suspects…they just won't find anyone else."

"Wonder what the body guard didn't want to tell him," Roy said, "Must have been something important."

"I'm not sure who won this standoff," Matt said, "Did Duval kill him after getting what he wanted or did the man take his secrets with him?"

"You'll have to find out. Duval's on his own schedule and he's here to take someone out…probably soon."

Matt felt a wave of frustration.

"Still have no idea who Uncle Roy," he said, "and how Clover factors into it."

Roy paused.

"Are you really that lost Matlock?"

"Why yes…I guess it should be obvious to me what he's after, staring me in the face but I can't figure it out."

"Take a step back away from what he does for a living," Roy said, "The planned hit might be professional but his plans for Clover might not be in that category."

Matt paused for a long moment.

"I thought maybe he was mad about his daddy's affair with her."

"I doubt it or at least for that reason," Roy said, "I think it's something else altogether…I've been reading that book your friend wrote on him."

"So have I…haven't gotten farther than his affair with Clover in Europe."

"It happened oh about 30 years ago didn't it?"

Matt considered that calculating backwards.

"Yeah I guess it did…Clover would have been about 20," he said, "That's when she started racing and got her first big sponsor in Monaco, a relative of the king himself."

Roy took a deep breath on his end.

"About how old would you consider Duval Jr. to be?"

Matt frowned on his side.

"Oh about late twenties, early thirties…"

Then it hit him at what his uncle was getting at, that the affair that Duval described in his book timed with another event that so far hadn't appeared in his book.

The birth of his son.

C.J. took her mug of tea to her bedroom and set it on her nightstand where she had kept Duval's book. Seriously she knew she should read it to do like Matt and glean clues from it that might help them better read Duval Jr. But she hadn't wanted to touch it let alone really read it. So she sipped her chamomile tea instead.

It sounded after all like Duval had spilled out details of his life in great detail if what was written about Clover was any indication. If that were so, then there might be many untold secrets suddenly revealed within its pages, brought to life in vivid detail. She thought about picking it up but instead drank her tea down closing her eyes to await the impact of its relaxing effects on her.

Her mind had been racing since she saw the bodyguard's corpse on the beach. No even earlier when she'd been called over by Clover to help her. Duval had been at the bungalow to leave the note…and she knew that he'd made the footprints by Clover's window. But she didn't know why he had gone to see her, why he wanted to meet her tomorrow.

She turned off the light and after sliding beneath the covers, she closed her eyes trying to sleep. Damn things had gotten so complicated, once she'd spotted Duval Jr. in the crowd at the parade. But she wasn't thinking about him in L.A., she was thinking back to her time spent as a hostage on the island. Duval had made absolutely sure that when he sent Matt back to L.A. to free his son, he had no idea where the island and thus C.J. were located.

That's how Duval had kept a tight hold on Matt to get his son back but of course Matt with the help of his buddy Vince Novelli had outsmarted the terrorist and his son. After breaking C.J. out of the compound, the two of them had escaped and overthrown Duval and his band of followers even before Vince arrived with the cavalry.

But she'd never forgotten what had happened to her when she'd been left alone there. Not because Matt had wanted to do that, as he'd had no choice. She'd watched helplessly as Duval shot him with what looked like a gun but turned out to be a tranquilizer. Matt had grabbed his shoulder and then when the drug overwhelmed him, he had fallen onto the ground. But in his last moments before losing consciousness, he had reached towards her, his mouth whispering her name before darkness hit him. As if he were trying to memorize everything he saw in case they tried to make him forget.

Then after they loaded an unconscious Matt on his own Lear Jet to take him back to complete his mission, she'd been left behind entirely on her own.

The struggle for survival only beginning.