51---This is the latest chapter of this FF story. Thanks for reading and for the feedback! I have a new cross-fiction where Matt Houston meets Northern Exposure. Two shows that actually go together better than you'd think.
C.J. snuggled against him as the sunlight shone though their window where they were sleeping. She looked at him, with the sheet down to his bare waist and his leg intertwined with hers. He had come back to the cabin after a night of fishing with the guys and she had been waiting. Taking him into her arms as he trailed her neck with kisses, she had forgotten about the letter she had received on her doorstep. This morning, it came back to her.
Who had dropped it off without her finding out? What did it mean? After all, she had assumed that Nick had been responsible for all the threatening messages she had received and Nick was dead, at her hands.
She felt him stir beside her and saw that his eyes had opened.
"You're awake," she said, with a smile.
"Yeah I guess I am," he said, "What a night."
She raised a brow.
"Do you mean the fishing or what happened after?"
He smiled at her.
"What do you think?"
She kissed him and he drew her closer.
"You never told me if you caught anything," she said.
"Could you be more specific," he said, "So I can give you a more definitive answer."
She chuckled.
"I mean fish," she said, "Will we be having trout for breakfast?"
He sighed.
"Probably not," he said, "The only one who caught any was Dan and he's hardly ever gone fishing."
"Beginner's luck prevails," she said, "Good for him."
"So what's on tap today," he said, propping himself up on his elbow.
"I've got to head to town and meet with my source," she said, "I was hoping you'd go with me."
"Sure thing," he said, "We need to tie up some loose ends on this case."
She nodded.
"I think so too," she said, "As bad as Nick was, he was really only the muscle. People like Kilroy, Parker and Daniels, we need to go after them."
"Then that's what we'll do," he said, getting out of bed.
Later, they headed onto Silver Lode and parked the car by City Hall. C.J. looked up and saw Sydney walking towards her.
"What are you doing down here," Sydney asked, "Isn't the rehearsal for Jonathan's wedding tonight?"
C.J. nodded.
"We're here to pay a visit to some of the remaining cast of characters in this situation involving the crooked land developers," she said.
"Do you mind if I tag along?"
"Sure," C.J. said, "but you'd better have a strong stomach. Whatever happens isn't going to be feature page material."
Sydney folded her arms.
"After the past couple of days, I think I can handle a little action," she said, "as long as there's no running around in the wilderness and spending nights in caves."
C.J. looked at Matt.
"I think we can promise you that."
Sydney sighed.
"Good," she said, "Although at least I'm wearing flats today."
"I think we'd better drop in on Sheriff Daniels first," Matt said, "if he even showed up for work today."
"Oh he did," Sydney said, looking for her notepad, "He ate breakfast at the diner this morning."
"I would think the feds would be interested in him," Matt said.
Sydney nodded.
"I think they paid him a visit," she said, "but he's not talking."
"Does he have a lawyer yet," C.J. asked.
Sydney shrugged.
"I would imagine so," she said, "So are you two together or something?"
C.J. smiled.
"Let's just say that if I woke up and he were lying in my bed, I wouldn't kick him out."
Sydney's eyes widened.
"So you're the girlfriend," she said, nodding, "That actually makes sense."
"I heard you had dinner last night with Joe," C.J. said.
"That might be true," Sydney said, "We just hung out and caught some of the game on television."
"I bet you had a great time," C.J. said.
Sydney started to say something then nodded.
"That might be true."
They headed towards the small building that housed Daniels' office and walked inside. The woman at the desk frowned when she saw him.
"He's not talking to anyone," she said, seeing Sydney.
Sydney put her hands up.
"Relax, I'm just here as an observer," she said, "This can be totally off the record."
The woman looked uncertain.
"I can check if that's okay," she said, disappearing.
"He's probably sneaking out the back entrance about now," Matt said.
C.J. sighed.
"He's going to have to face the music sooner or later," she said, "If they search Nick's things and find anything tying him to Daniels, he's going to have a lot of explaining to do."
Matt scratched his head.
"You know C.J. for a while I thought Daniels was just incompetent," he said, "I didn't think he was really involved in all this mess."
"I didn't either Houston," she said, "but he's obstructed every investigation that should have been initiated when Nick hurt someone including trying to kill the legal team. I mean, Jason has a long road ahead of him."
"At least he's got Maggie at his side," Matt said.
C.J. nodded.
"That's the one good thing about what happened," she said, "It brought them together."
That's not the only good thing, Matt thought to himself.
They waited a couple more minutes and then looked at each other.
"We'd better check the back," Matt said.
Both of them got up and left the office and walked to the back of the building, with Sydney on their tail.
"What are you doing," she asked.
"Trying to catch Daniels before he leaves," Matt said.
As it turned out, they had just missed them but C.J. saw Tammy sitting at a table nearby, reading a book.
"Houston, I need to go talk to her," C.J. said.
He nodded.
"I'll be right here," he said.
Sydney looked from one to the other.
"What's going on here?"
"As a reporter, you should know about confidential sources," Matt explained, "Lawyers have them too."
"You stay here with Houston," C.J. said, "I'll be back."
She walked on over to talk with Tammy to find out what she had to say.
C.J. approached Tammy who looked up at her from her book and nodded. She then sat down.
"We were here to try to talk to Sheriff Daniels," C.J. said.
"You won't find him here," Tammy said, "He's hiding out from the feds. He wasn't there when they came looking earlier."
"Why is he doing that," C.J. said, "What is he hiding from?"
Tammy tilted her head.
"He got paid by Kilroy and his men to look the other way," she said, "The rest of him hated him for it. Too many people have been hurt because of what those men did for money."
C.J. nodded.
"I know," she said,
"I heard you killed Nick."
"It was either him or me," C.J. said.
"I understand," Tammy said, "Believe me, no one here is mourn his loss."
"So how do you know that he worked with Kilroy and Nick?"
Tammy paused.
"I heard him a couple times on the phone arguing with them," he said, "I think he was against their decision to target your legal team the way they did. I think he thought Nick's tactics were a little rough."
"Nick had free rein from someone to commit the violence he did," C.J. said.
"It doesn't take much to get him started," Tammy said, "He's always been a bully even before hooking up with Kilroy."
Matt watched C.J. and Tammy while Sydney shook her head.
"I wonder what they're saying."
"Hopefully, she knows something that will nail Daniels," Matt said.
"You really think he's involved in all this," Sydney asked.
"It would make a lot of sense," Matt said, "All these investigations started and none completed."
"And I thought this was a quiet and unassuming little town," Sydney said.
"Even the little towns have their bad apples," Matt said, "Silver Lode's got mostly good people and when these bad guys are all sitting in jail cells, things will probably go back to normal."
Sydney sighed.
"I never thought I'd be happy here," she said, "but I went out and worked the news in some of the big cities and none of them were all that."
"Living in cities presents its own challenges," Matt said, "Faster pace, more stress, it can wear you out."
She looked at him.
"Is that why you came here," she said, "or was that an excuse to help C.J. without her knowing that?"
He thought about it.
"I think it was both," he said, "I was buried in work but none of it meant very much. I really missed her since she moved to Texas."
"Is she going back there?"
He nodded.
"Everything she needs is there," he said, "Her job, her friends, the professionals who helped her. She's still recovering from what happened to her."
"What about you," Sydney asked, "You're not there with her. What are you going to do?"
He glanced at C.J. to see her still deep in conversation with Tammy.
"I don't know," Matt said, "We have to stop this whole thing before it goes any further."
"But C.J. won in court," Sydney said, "She got the injunction for the ranchers and now with Nick gone, I don't think the others will cause any more problems."
"Maybe so," Matt said, "But there's still the matter of them getting away with it and I'm never going to let that happen."
"Isn't there a wedding tomorrow," Sydney asked.
Matt looked at his watch.
"It will all be wrapped up by then," he said.
Tammy looked up at C.J. again.
"I hope you can find Daniels before he takes off," she said.
"Do you think that's what he's planning?"
Tammy nodded.
"He doesn't want to go to prison," she said, "No cop does and certainly not the county sheriff."
"He's not going to get away," C.J. said, "We're going to find him."
She thanked Tammy for the information and left her with her book. Matt looked up as she approached.
"So what did she say?"
C.J. took a deep breath.
"That Daniels is in on it and he might be trying to flee the area."
Matt's jaw set with determination.
"Then we'd better stop him."
They took off walking. Sydney followed, perplexed.
"Where are you running off to?"
C.J. looked at her.
"City Hall."
"Why?"
"To go find Mayor Parker."
They reached City Hall and entered the building, heading towards Parker's office. His secretary looked up from her computer.
"He's not in his office today," she said, before they could even ask.
"Where is he," C.J. said, looking around.
"He took a sick day," the secretary said, "You might want to try again tomorrow."
"When did he call in?"
The woman looked at her.
"This morning," she said, "There's something going around. He probably caught it."
Matt and C.J. looked at each other.
"I'll bet," he said.
They left the office and went outside, running into Bonnie.
"So how did it go," she asked.
"No one's at work today," C.J. said, "Guess it's some kind of furlough program in effect."
Bonnie laughed.
"You both are planning to make it to the rehearsal tonight?"
"We wouldn't miss it," C.J. said, "We're meeting with Jonathan and Jed later to see if we can put a plan in action to nail these guys before they take off."
"I hope you can do that but you're going to have to act fast," Bonnie said, "I heard Sheriff Daniels was in his office this morning and then got a phone call and took off."
"We checked in on him and he was already gone," Matt said.
"He's probably meeting with Parker," C.J. said, "They took Kilroy in for questioning yesterday and no one's seen him since."
Jed walked up to them.
"I just ran into some of the state police," he said, "They're getting a warrant signed by a judge to search Nick's place and his office. His wife's not too happy about that but there's nothing she can do."
"I wonder what they'll find," Matt said, "Hopefully he didn't destroy everything."
"I don't think he had the time," C.J. said, "but his accomplices might have done the job for him."
Matt's phone rang. He saw on the Caller ID that it was Brody.
"Hello Brody, what's up," he asked.
"I heard on the news that there's some action in your corner of Colorado."
"Yeah, we're cleaning up loose ends over here right now," Matt said, "C.J. had to kill Nick in self-defense."
"How's she doing?"
He looked over at her.
"She's doing okay," he said, "He was going to kill her for witnessing him murdering one of his employees."
"Fair enough," Brody said, "So when are you coming back?"
Matt hesitated.
"I'm still working on that," he said, "We're both trying to figure that part out."
Brody paused.
"You're moving to Texas," he said.
"I'm thinking about it," Matt said, "That's where her life is now."
"Then that's where you need to be," Brody said, "Roy and I can handle things fine on this end."
"But…"
"Matt, you won't be happy unless you're where she is," Brody said, "and I don't want to have you around me in a bad mood all the time."
Matt sighed.
"I'll get back to you, after we wrap up things here."
"Look forward to it," Brody said before hanging up.
Matt looked up and saw a group of men in suits approach them.
"What's up," he said.
"We just did a search of Nick's place," one of them said, "We need to talk to you. We found something interesting."
