C.J. worried about Matt as she hadn't heard from him since earlier that morning when he'd left the house.

He'd got a tip on Bartholomew the man who'd kidnapped him when he was a little boy. The bogeyman who'd never been caught, disappearing without a trace. Roy had gone with him to keep him from getting into too much trouble.

The Nightmare Man.

She'd first learned of the faceless man who'd grabbed Matt one night and terrorized him for some time before Matt's rescue years ago. She had seen him live with the memories since even as the man had eluded justice.

Until another boy had been kidnapped out of state and the details…they'd brought Matt's own experience back…along with some emotions raw and fierce that hadn't been exorcised by time and lots of therapy.

So Matt of course had leapt right to it, not wanting another young boy to experience what he had at his age.

He'd gotten the phone call on the lead from an FBI agent friend of his who told him not to reveal his source not long after she'd woken up to the clatter of him trying to cook some breakfast for them in the kitchen. Not that Matt wasn't a great cook, but sometimes the kitchen looked like it'd been hit by a tornado afterward.

Another clang of something metal got her out of bed to go check to see if he was okay. She grabbed a robe and padded down the hallway. He stood there whipping some eggs into a froth and other ingredients lay nearby to cook up some omelets.

She smiled at him and folded her arms in the doorway.

"Need any help?"

He grinned back and that's when she noticed some flour on his face. Were hotcakes on the menu as well? She arched a brow while he casually moved over to the skillet with his bowl.

"I'm doing just fine here," he said, "Thought you'd need a big breakfast after last night."

Her skin flushed a little as she remembered last night and she ran a hand through her hair.

"Well yeah…that's really sweet of you Houston," she said, "I'll get some juice out of the frig while you…you do the omelets."

They had barely made it to the table when the phone rang and Matt answered it. Within a few seconds, his face changed and she knew he'd received the major lead he'd been looking for since Patrick Denton's kidnapping.

He hung up and looked at her almost apologetically.

"C.J. I got to…"

She nodded needing no explanation.

"I know…I'll clean up here and you go and pack."

He went to do that after calling Roy who'd meet him at the office. C.J. ran the water in the sink to wash the dishes and after rinsing them, she went back to the bedroom where Matt stood on his phone having already showered and changed. He glanced up at her while clearly talking to Hoyt who no doubt was telling him to stand back and allow the feds to handle it.

Lot of good that would do, C.J. thought, Hoyt should have learned a long time ago that there was no stopping Matt. She went to check her own phone for calls and messages. Her brows knit as she saw the Caller ID for the LAPD light up and she listened to the message. The already familiar voice of Det. Stone telling her he needed to interview her about the ongoing non-investigation into a rash of deaths that surrounded her and the cases she and Matt had solved. The deaths had involved mostly those who had been on the wrong side of the law and sometimes, the reward for crime was a violent end. She had no idea why Stone or the LAPD for that matter was so interested in what had happened to some of the men she and Matt had apprehended for everything from murder to operating prostitution rings to drug trafficking.

All the men who had died suddenly in prison or out of it had either killed innocent people or caused great harm to them. The world was better and certainly safer without these lowlifes in it…wasn't it? She rolled her eyes at his announcement that he'd be dropping by again to ask more questions…unofficial like. She glanced at Matt still on his phone and knew he'd be well on his way by then to where he needed to be. No need to concern or worry him over Stone's visit…anything that distracted Matt could prove dangerous after all. She put her phone down and smiled at him as he clicked off his own phone.

He looked at her for a moment then walked over to slide his arms easily around her waist pulling her close to him. She inhaled his cologne and closed her eyes, content to stay in his embrace.

"I won't be gone long," he said, "This lead might not pan out."

She pulled away enough to look directly into his eyes. What she saw there…she wanted, no she needed him to find the man who had victimized him. She brushed a lock of his hair out of his face.

"You just be careful. I mean real careful and come back home in one piece."

He kissed her in answer and then went to get his jacket before leaving the house.


Det. Stone and his partner Diego showed up an hour later while she was working in her office. She allowed them inside and they all sat in the living room. They glanced at each other before Stone cleared his throat. Diego shuffled through his note pad.

"So what did you come out here to ask me?"

Diego spoke first.

"You know we're looking into the unsolved homicides of a number of men including several who've crossed paths with you and Mr. Houston."

She shrugged.

"That's not unusual. In our line of work, we often encounter dangerous felons and sometimes we help the police apprehend them and put them away."

Diego nodded slightly.

"That's all well and good but we've got five people dead including a suspicious looking suicide and another three in protective custody after attempts on their lives."

She pursed her lips, remembering the names of all the men in her head. She smiled at the two detectives.

"Well two of them were drug traffickers associated with the Chinatown Triad and another with a prostitution ring out of a jail facility in another state."

Diego tilted his head. Clearly he was taking on the role of lead interrogator today.

"What about your former lover Robert Tyler?"

C.J. flinched inwardly a bit but didn't reveal that to the men in front of her.

"That was a jail suicide wasn't it?"

The two men looked at each other then back at her.

"Wasn't it?"

Stone furrowed his brow.

"It appears to be…but we're not absolutely sure of that."

C.J. frowned, wondering what had led them to believe otherwise. Still she had difficulty believing Robert would kill himself. Must be the narcissist in him but she believed he would have been happy enough in jail as long as he could paint himself as the persecuted victim. She had learned a lot about her almost fiancé while he'd been sitting in jail. Reopened murder investigations and kidnapping cases from coast to coast. Robert had been quite busy while working his way up the ladder in first print journalism and then broadcasting.

She wondered why she hadn't seen that side of him earlier but she'd been too wrapped up in her infatuation…too busy trying to avoid dealing with her feelings for someone else that had gone unanswered.

"So then we have Semour Piser's unsolved homicide also inside the high security wing of a jail…"

She sighed.

"I thought a guard killed him…when he attacked her."

Diego shook his head.

"No…the story…hell not even the guard panned out," he said, "She'd been assigned to the jail only the day of Piser's murder. No one knows anything about her and there's no record of a guard by her name or badge number in the system."

C.J. bit her lip.

"Well, you do have a description don't you?"

Diego nodded.

"Pretty generic….except she had red curly hair and blue eyes," he said, "not the most common description but not the least either."

"I see…anything else?"

Diego paused.

"She had a faint accent, of some sort."

C.J.'s mind worked quickly then and her eyes widened. Could it be…?

"Ms. Parsons, what is it?"

Damn they must have noticed so she cleared her throat.

"Oh nothing, like you said, that description could fit a number of women out there…"


Matt and Roy were sitting in a car waiting their contact so they could move in on someone who might lead them to this Bartholomew who might be the Nightmare Man who'd eluded capture in the real world just as he had in Matt's dreams.

"You ready for this?"

Matt looked at his uncle who'd been looking for golden oldies on the radio while they waited.

"As ready as I'll ever be…I knew this day was coming…I just didn't know if I'd have to wait my whole life to see it."

"At least Patrick won't have to wait…if the two kidnappings are connected."

Matt narrowed his eyes.

"I know they're connected…as surely as I know anything and I don't want him ending up like me…I always felt like I put part of my life on hold…"

Roy adjusted the radio again, this time a news station.

"It helped shape what you've become Matlock and that's a man who's helped a lot of people and made a difference in their lives."

Matt digested that, knowing there was more to it…and not all of it good. Still, he'd come to terms with most of his demons years ago. The few that remained…maybe today would be the moment when they'd be put to rest at last.

"This is Kylie Graves with KZOC reporting on the bombing of the exchange in London that claimed a dozen lives…sources now tie it to a cell of a terrorist organization linked to the IRA…."

Roy sighed.

"So much violence in the world," he said, "Maybe it's the Sheridan brothers once again."

Matt didn't know about that though they'd been in the news a lot lately but so far hadn't been charged with any crimes for the acts of terrorism that had rocked Ireland and now London as well.

"So how's C.J. taking all this?"

"You mean about this case?"

Roy leaned back in his seat.

"It's more than a case…but she's been dealing with issues of her own lately."

Matt nodded. Roy reached for his water bottle.

"She told me she's looking for more information about her father," he said, "I told her I'd help her if I could but…I'm not sure how much more there is to find out."

Matt sighed.

"This is very important to her. It's like she's felt this piece of her missing most of her life and she wants closure of some form."

Roy sipped from his bottle.

"That can be elusive in a case where a man's brutally murdered like that," he said, "but if it's what she needs, then we need to help her…"

Suddenly a man appeared in front of them and that's when both Matt and Roy realized they had just hit pay dirt.


C.J. sat in her office in front of her computer doing research. The two detectives had left after realizing they wouldn't get much more out of her. Of course they promised to return with more questions at a future date.

She stared at the face of the woman in front of her. It had been taken some time ago when her curly hair had been even curlier and worn shorter framing her face

Kate Mahoney stared back at her. C.J. doubted at that point the down on her luck woman named Rhonda that she'd met at the bar in a tumbleweed type of town even existed in a woman's imagination.

No denying it…Rhonda…or Kate rather fit the description of the female guard that had taken out Piser. But Kate had represented herself as law enforcement of a different kind. Only when she'd near collided with her at that airport months ago, she hadn't been a cop anymore.

She'd been a decorated homicide detective working in Chicago, who'd followed a father and brother into the profession, only they'd both died in the line of duty. Kate had fallen in love with a fellow officer who'd also been killed wearing his badge, as C.J. caught an archived article on line documenting his funeral. The dead officer had been married so there'd been a bit of a scandal and another article popped up with Kate possibly facing indictment for beating up a suspected crack dealer. Perhaps she'd gone into some downhill spiral afterward that ended her career as a cop.

C.J. looked up hearing rain rattle like pebbles on the roof and went to the kitchen to heat up some of the leftover pasta for dinner. She hadn't heard from Matt since he left but that just meant he was very busy following the lead.

She brought her dinner back to her computer and ate, while she kept reading. Her mind struggled with the thought that the Rhonda she'd shared a cell with in jail had been the type of woman to kill Piser. Not that C.J. hadn't entertained that fantasy herself, it'd taken a long time for her body to forget what he'd tried to do to her. If it hadn't been for Matt…she shook off the chill that threatened to overwhelm her. Well she still hadn't completely put it behind her.

But it was one thing to fantasize or even wish a man dead, another to actually pull the trigger after a lot of planning. Had that been Kate in the jail that day or had it been someone else who fit the description?

C.J. realized she'd probably never get an answer to her questions. Piser was dead and buried, the prosecution of the prostitution ring had ended with that announcement and life had moved onward for those who had survived it.

Still…lingering questions remained.


Matt sat in another interrogation room at the LAPD drinking another cup of bad coffee. Hoyt looked at him and shook his head.

"No matter what I tell you…"

Matt crumpled his paper cup and looked at the senior officer.

"The man's caught and he'll be locked up," he said, "He'll never terrorize another child again. There will be fewer people walking around like me out there."

Hoyt sighed, his face softening.

"Houston, you've built a great life for yourself…"

"I know but I'm hoping he goes away for good this time," he said, "and he's locked up nice and tight in a maximum security prison."

"He will be…though he'll be extradited up to Oregon and Washington before he'll wind up in Texas…"

Matt nodded.

"I know…but now I feel like I can move forward…and I didn't realize what that meant until I finally confronted him."

Hoyt squeezed his shoulder.

"That's great…so you heading on home after this?"

Matt nodded again.

"You know if it hadn't been for C.J….it'd been a lot tougher to come to terms with what happened," he said, "I owe her an awful lot for that."

"You two make a great team…"

Matt couldn't wait to get home and see her again, wrap his arms around her and hold her tightly, to fall asleep with her soft breath against his cheek.

"Yeah I know…."

He glanced at the doorway and saw Det. Stone standing there. The man gestured Hoyt to join him in the hallway as Matt watched, wondering what that was about, knowing that the detective had taken a lot of interest as of late in C.J.


Later that night, Matt had entered the house shaking off the rain that still fell in torrents outside. C.J. had been on the couch, wrapped in a comforter reading a magazine. She glanced up at him and when she saw the expression on his face, she got up to hug him tightly, while he processed the events that washed right over him.

"I've waited so long for this…"

His voice rasped with emotion and she stroked his back.

"I know…"

The rest could wait.