McCall arrived home late that Wednesday. It had been a busy day - being
wrapped up in a big case, she and Hunter had to deal with the press and
face too many meetings with Chief Stanmore, who was hitting the ceiling,
since the investigation wasn't coming along well. It had already passed
almost 4 weeks since Austin Smith and Colin Adams, two big shots of the
chemical industry, were killed. They both had been to Mexico on the weekend
before the crime, where, coincidentally, met the same persons and went to
the same places (including hotel and restaurants). A very intriguing case,
which was driving not only Hunter and McCall but also the entire police
department crazy.
McCall looked for something to eat. She wasn't very hungry, but as she hadn't eaten anything all day, she thought it would be good to have a snack. While preparing a ham sandwich, Hunter came to mind. Her partner was really unbearable that week. All he did was whine and complain about everybody and everything. That wasn't Hunter's normal behavior. He always was in a good mood, teasing her and playing it cool. But not that week; he was acting so strange that McCall considered the possibility of him to have been replaced by a twin brother or even a robot. Tired of trying to figure it out, McCall blamed Hunter's behavior on the proximity to his 40th birthday. After finishing her snack, she prepared herself for turning in. It always reminded her what Hunter said once:
"I like the way you're right now."
Hunter wasn't at home. After leaving the precinct, he headed for Rick's, a bar molded as the one from the movie Casablanca. He did have invited McCall, but she turned it down. There, after several beers, he started flirting with a tall brunette, who, although pretty, seemed to have coming from the outer space - what odd clothes she was wearing! The heavy make-up helped to complete the character. But, strangely enough, the woman wasn't interested in the strapping cop, at all. Her target was an ugly and fat tipsy man, sit behind him, which made Hunter say to himself:
"A woman with such a bad taste doesn't deserve my attention."
Thus, he turned his mind to the double murder case and, although being under the influence, he figured out something that might be very important to the development of the investigation. Without thinking, he stood up and rushed to the nearest pay phone. Obviously, it didn't occurred to him that it wouldn't be a good idea to make a phone call to McCall at 3 a.m. (Well, even if it did, it wouldn't keep him from making the call).
"McCall! Listen to me: I have good news for you!"
"Who's it?" replied McCall, rubbing her eyes, without recognizing Hunter's voice because he was drunk.
"Who's it???!!! It's me, Hunter, Rick Hunter, your good looking partner!"
"For goodness' sake, Hunter! It's 3:14 in the morning!!! Who's dead?" said McCall, already enraged.
"Nobody! Are you by yourself, McCall? Neeeed to talk to you, now!"
"Yeah, I'm alone and I'm -- or rather -- I was s-l-e-e-p-i-n-g!!! I hate you, Hunter! Besides, you're completely drunk!"
"Nope! I just drank a few beers... And you should have coming with me... we could have had a good time... You're such a fox, Deedee! There's no foxes in this place... Look, I'm gonna tell you something important about our case... "
"It has to be something REALLY important, Hunter; on the contrary, you're soooooo dead!!!" said DeeDee, yet surprised about the fox comment.
"I've figured something out about our double murder case, McCall. A connection between the two dead guys!"
"Oh, please Hunter! Go to hell! What we DON'T need in this case is one more connection between those two!" replied McCall, hitting the ceiling.
"Yeah, but..."
"Good night!"
McCall hung up on him and Hunter didn't get happy with that at all.
The next morning, McCall arrived before Hunter in the precinct. She was a little annoyed by the fact she had hung up on Hunter without listening to what he wanted to say. Maybe it was something really important or urgent. The case had to be solved by the end of that week or they would be in trouble: Chief Stanmore would take the case from them and it wouldn't be good at all. Charlie was yelling at them more than usual and part of the press didn't stop criticizing the police department by saying that they weren't doing their best. With these thoughts in mind, McCall didn't notice Hunter entering the room. Besides having a splitting headache, he was embarrassed of his previous behavior. He sit down and looked at McCall. She looked at him as well. And, at the same time, they said: "I'm so sorry!" They laughed and Hunter told her what he had figured out.
Several magazines were found in both victims' houses; any peculiar one. They were subscriptions and Hunter remembered seeing marks on their labels, on all of them, as if they had been scratched. The cops made phone calls to the publishers of those magazines and asked if they knew something about the labels, if they would be part of some sort of promotion "scratch and win"; they weren't. How come the men scratched the labels? Probably, they were looking for something written under the first layer. But what? Hunter and McCall returned to the crime scenes and checked all the mags out. They noticed that the number 234 of two different mags were missing: one on science fiction, in Austin's house, and other on gardening, in Colin's. Hunter's hunch turned out to be correct.
When they were about to leave the second house (a big one, built on a hill), the rain started pouring. Hunter had parked his car far away the entrance (actually, the car had broken down, but Hunter didn't want to admit it. He told McCall:
"Let's walk. It's a beautiful day, we deserve to enjoy it."
McCall accepted it with good grace, because the day and the view were really beautiful). Due to the unexpected rain, and being with the flu, McCall preferred to stay in the house, till the rain stopped. Hunter liked the idea; it would help him put off telling her about the car for a couple of hours, at least. He sneaked out of the room and went to the library to call a mechanic, but the phone was mute. Soon, the lights were gone too. Hours went by and the rain just got worse.
Being stuck in the house, they relaxed and talked a lot about the case they were working on; Hunter seemed to avoid any question that wasn't about work. But at McCall's insistence, he started talking. She wanted to know what was happening to her partner and best friend. He wasn't being himself in the last week and she was really concerned about that. Hunter wasn't the type of guy who likes to talk about his feelings, but he knew he could count on McCall. He told her that he was being blackmailed. A guy had taken pics of him having sex with a girlfriend years before and now he was demanding 50G from Hunter, for not sending the pictures to the press - Hunter's former girlfriend had becoming an important person in the mayor's staff, besides having got married to the head of the most important hospital in LA. The scum also said he could harm a daughter Hunter had (and didn't know anything about) if he didn't give him the money. Hunter had been trying to solve this problem without paying the extortionist (he didn't have the money, anyway), which had turned out to be a hard task, since he had no idea about whom could be the daughter the guy mentioned and he didn't want to risk the life of this girl (or woman); it was because of that he was so nervous. After listening to Hunter carefully, McCall said:
"You should have told me this, Hunter!!! I could have helped you out through all this!"
"Yeah, I know I should. Sorry, McCall, but... I thought I would manage to catch the bad guy by myself... This whole thing about a daughter of mine made me forget how much you would be helpful. I don't know whether that is true or not; maybe the guy made up this story just to stop me from going after him... Just threatening to release the pics to the press wouldn't be enough for me."
"I understand... Look, don't worry partner. We'll find this guy and your daughter -- if she really exists. And you're not gonna pay anything, you're not gonna have to raise the money, OK?"
"Thanks, McCall. It's always good to talk to you. Now, I believe I -- we -- will do the right thing. Do you think I have a daughter, McCall?"
"Have no idea, Hunter. How could I know if even you aren't sure? If you weren't such a womanizer..." she said in a lower voice.
"What?" asked Hunter.
"Nothing!"
At night, they decided to look for something to eat. In the kitchen, they found just canned food; Hunter was less than enthusiastic about it, but as he was starving to death... After a candle-lit dinner, each one chose a bedroom and kissed goodnight.
In the middle of the night, Hunter heard McCall scream and rushed to her bedroom, with his gun in hands. McCall was at the door, waiting for him; she knew her partner would come quickly after her screaming. And she was laughing.
"What's this all about?" Hunter asked.
"I was fast asleep, when something fell on top of me, Hunter! I almost had a heart attack! See the trapdoor, right above my bed? It didn't sustain the weight of this cat... there, you see him, behind that chair?... and they fell onto my bed!"
"Oh, geez, stupid cat! Are you OK, Deedee?"
"Yeah! I just got an awful fright. Nobody noticed this trapdoor because it was disguised. And it was loose. Why it would be?"
"Well, that's not a new house. Maybe the screws were rusty. Let's go to bed, shall we? If you want, I can sleep with you..."
"No, no, funny guy. I want to see what we may find there, now. Do you come with me or not?"
They looked for a ladder, finding one in the half-bathroom. In the attic, they found something very interesting: lots of tiny colored glass bottles, sealed with corks. Inside of them, a stink thick liquid, that looked like honey. They hadn't been found by the police due to a fake wall built in order to hide the stuff, probably an illegal substance.
As soon as the sun rose, Hunter and McCall left the house (before, they had his car fixed). They took along some of those tiny bottles and sent it to be examined by the police's expert. It took several days to discover that that thick substance was a powerful brand-new drug, whose main constituent was an oil extracted from a plant which grew in Mexico. Its effects on the human brain were worse than those provoked by cocaine or heroine.
The two murdered men were developing the substance at the same time by coincidence, in their own companies. Although they weren't just employees, they wanted to be richer than they already were, by putting this powerful drug in the streets.
Colin and Austin used to buy the plant from the only source in Los Angeles, a small herbal store owned by a man named Pablo, who came from South America. The interest in such rare plant by two chemists drew Pablo's attention, whose character wasn't good at all; only women had demonstrated interest in that plant before, because its good effect on diminishing cramps. What helped a lot was that both guys were very talkative. Thus, Pablo figured out the two men had something interesting in their hands, something that could be very profitable, and made up a plan to steal the formula.
It wasn't his intention to kill the men at first. As a smooth-talking person, Pablo had made friends with the big shots, and ended up knowing a lot of things about their lives. Pablo was good at doing voices and, a week before the murders, called the victims pretending to be another person. He said to them he knew about the existence of the new drug and wanted the men to share the formula with him; he would turn them in if they refused to do what he demanded.
Pablo set a meeting with Austin and Colin in Mexico, where they would have not only to give the formula, but also teach how to prepare the drug, because he wasn't a chemist. They had no alternative than accept to go to Mexico. Pablo told them to go to certain places and talk to certain people (Pablo's fellows), in different hours, and give them the formula, besides teaching how to make the drug. They went there and did what was ordered by Pablo and returned to LA.
Another call made by Pablo advised them to gather all issues of 2 of their magazines (one on science fiction, to the first guy and other on gardening, to the second man) and scratch the labels. After scratching, they would find numbers of lockers in the airport with copies of proofs that would prove their involvement with the development of an illegal drug (Pablo had taken pics in Mexico and taped several phone calls). Colin and Austin got furious at the blackmailer. But any of them knew that the scum was Pablo, as they didn't know each other either.
Besides having the formula, Pablo had the two men in his hands. What he didn't expect was that one of the chemists, Austin, decided to go to the police and tell all the truth - he wanted neither to become a criminal nor to be blackmailed anymore. But, before going to the police, he dropped by Pablo's store, to talk to "a good friend". Austin inadvertently told everything to Pablo, who had to do something to prevent his going to the police: to kill his talkative customer. As he had murdered Austin, he decided that Colin should die as well and killed him on that same day.
With the results on the substance, Hunter and McCall headed for the only store where the Mexican plant could be found in LA (McCall had already used it for cramps). There, they met Pablo, who was scared, with a guilty face. It was easy for the cops realized that and they took Pablo to the precinct, to interrogate him. After that "good cop, bad cop" thing, Pablo confessed both crimes and told the whole story to the cops. The case was finished; Charlie was happy again, Chief Stanmore congratulated Hunter and McCall and the press had its headlines. The formula was destroyed by the police department and that terrible drug never reached the streets.
Afterwards, Hunter and McCall asked for a week off. It was time to focus on Hunter's problem.
McCall looked for something to eat. She wasn't very hungry, but as she hadn't eaten anything all day, she thought it would be good to have a snack. While preparing a ham sandwich, Hunter came to mind. Her partner was really unbearable that week. All he did was whine and complain about everybody and everything. That wasn't Hunter's normal behavior. He always was in a good mood, teasing her and playing it cool. But not that week; he was acting so strange that McCall considered the possibility of him to have been replaced by a twin brother or even a robot. Tired of trying to figure it out, McCall blamed Hunter's behavior on the proximity to his 40th birthday. After finishing her snack, she prepared herself for turning in. It always reminded her what Hunter said once:
"I like the way you're right now."
Hunter wasn't at home. After leaving the precinct, he headed for Rick's, a bar molded as the one from the movie Casablanca. He did have invited McCall, but she turned it down. There, after several beers, he started flirting with a tall brunette, who, although pretty, seemed to have coming from the outer space - what odd clothes she was wearing! The heavy make-up helped to complete the character. But, strangely enough, the woman wasn't interested in the strapping cop, at all. Her target was an ugly and fat tipsy man, sit behind him, which made Hunter say to himself:
"A woman with such a bad taste doesn't deserve my attention."
Thus, he turned his mind to the double murder case and, although being under the influence, he figured out something that might be very important to the development of the investigation. Without thinking, he stood up and rushed to the nearest pay phone. Obviously, it didn't occurred to him that it wouldn't be a good idea to make a phone call to McCall at 3 a.m. (Well, even if it did, it wouldn't keep him from making the call).
"McCall! Listen to me: I have good news for you!"
"Who's it?" replied McCall, rubbing her eyes, without recognizing Hunter's voice because he was drunk.
"Who's it???!!! It's me, Hunter, Rick Hunter, your good looking partner!"
"For goodness' sake, Hunter! It's 3:14 in the morning!!! Who's dead?" said McCall, already enraged.
"Nobody! Are you by yourself, McCall? Neeeed to talk to you, now!"
"Yeah, I'm alone and I'm -- or rather -- I was s-l-e-e-p-i-n-g!!! I hate you, Hunter! Besides, you're completely drunk!"
"Nope! I just drank a few beers... And you should have coming with me... we could have had a good time... You're such a fox, Deedee! There's no foxes in this place... Look, I'm gonna tell you something important about our case... "
"It has to be something REALLY important, Hunter; on the contrary, you're soooooo dead!!!" said DeeDee, yet surprised about the fox comment.
"I've figured something out about our double murder case, McCall. A connection between the two dead guys!"
"Oh, please Hunter! Go to hell! What we DON'T need in this case is one more connection between those two!" replied McCall, hitting the ceiling.
"Yeah, but..."
"Good night!"
McCall hung up on him and Hunter didn't get happy with that at all.
The next morning, McCall arrived before Hunter in the precinct. She was a little annoyed by the fact she had hung up on Hunter without listening to what he wanted to say. Maybe it was something really important or urgent. The case had to be solved by the end of that week or they would be in trouble: Chief Stanmore would take the case from them and it wouldn't be good at all. Charlie was yelling at them more than usual and part of the press didn't stop criticizing the police department by saying that they weren't doing their best. With these thoughts in mind, McCall didn't notice Hunter entering the room. Besides having a splitting headache, he was embarrassed of his previous behavior. He sit down and looked at McCall. She looked at him as well. And, at the same time, they said: "I'm so sorry!" They laughed and Hunter told her what he had figured out.
Several magazines were found in both victims' houses; any peculiar one. They were subscriptions and Hunter remembered seeing marks on their labels, on all of them, as if they had been scratched. The cops made phone calls to the publishers of those magazines and asked if they knew something about the labels, if they would be part of some sort of promotion "scratch and win"; they weren't. How come the men scratched the labels? Probably, they were looking for something written under the first layer. But what? Hunter and McCall returned to the crime scenes and checked all the mags out. They noticed that the number 234 of two different mags were missing: one on science fiction, in Austin's house, and other on gardening, in Colin's. Hunter's hunch turned out to be correct.
When they were about to leave the second house (a big one, built on a hill), the rain started pouring. Hunter had parked his car far away the entrance (actually, the car had broken down, but Hunter didn't want to admit it. He told McCall:
"Let's walk. It's a beautiful day, we deserve to enjoy it."
McCall accepted it with good grace, because the day and the view were really beautiful). Due to the unexpected rain, and being with the flu, McCall preferred to stay in the house, till the rain stopped. Hunter liked the idea; it would help him put off telling her about the car for a couple of hours, at least. He sneaked out of the room and went to the library to call a mechanic, but the phone was mute. Soon, the lights were gone too. Hours went by and the rain just got worse.
Being stuck in the house, they relaxed and talked a lot about the case they were working on; Hunter seemed to avoid any question that wasn't about work. But at McCall's insistence, he started talking. She wanted to know what was happening to her partner and best friend. He wasn't being himself in the last week and she was really concerned about that. Hunter wasn't the type of guy who likes to talk about his feelings, but he knew he could count on McCall. He told her that he was being blackmailed. A guy had taken pics of him having sex with a girlfriend years before and now he was demanding 50G from Hunter, for not sending the pictures to the press - Hunter's former girlfriend had becoming an important person in the mayor's staff, besides having got married to the head of the most important hospital in LA. The scum also said he could harm a daughter Hunter had (and didn't know anything about) if he didn't give him the money. Hunter had been trying to solve this problem without paying the extortionist (he didn't have the money, anyway), which had turned out to be a hard task, since he had no idea about whom could be the daughter the guy mentioned and he didn't want to risk the life of this girl (or woman); it was because of that he was so nervous. After listening to Hunter carefully, McCall said:
"You should have told me this, Hunter!!! I could have helped you out through all this!"
"Yeah, I know I should. Sorry, McCall, but... I thought I would manage to catch the bad guy by myself... This whole thing about a daughter of mine made me forget how much you would be helpful. I don't know whether that is true or not; maybe the guy made up this story just to stop me from going after him... Just threatening to release the pics to the press wouldn't be enough for me."
"I understand... Look, don't worry partner. We'll find this guy and your daughter -- if she really exists. And you're not gonna pay anything, you're not gonna have to raise the money, OK?"
"Thanks, McCall. It's always good to talk to you. Now, I believe I -- we -- will do the right thing. Do you think I have a daughter, McCall?"
"Have no idea, Hunter. How could I know if even you aren't sure? If you weren't such a womanizer..." she said in a lower voice.
"What?" asked Hunter.
"Nothing!"
At night, they decided to look for something to eat. In the kitchen, they found just canned food; Hunter was less than enthusiastic about it, but as he was starving to death... After a candle-lit dinner, each one chose a bedroom and kissed goodnight.
In the middle of the night, Hunter heard McCall scream and rushed to her bedroom, with his gun in hands. McCall was at the door, waiting for him; she knew her partner would come quickly after her screaming. And she was laughing.
"What's this all about?" Hunter asked.
"I was fast asleep, when something fell on top of me, Hunter! I almost had a heart attack! See the trapdoor, right above my bed? It didn't sustain the weight of this cat... there, you see him, behind that chair?... and they fell onto my bed!"
"Oh, geez, stupid cat! Are you OK, Deedee?"
"Yeah! I just got an awful fright. Nobody noticed this trapdoor because it was disguised. And it was loose. Why it would be?"
"Well, that's not a new house. Maybe the screws were rusty. Let's go to bed, shall we? If you want, I can sleep with you..."
"No, no, funny guy. I want to see what we may find there, now. Do you come with me or not?"
They looked for a ladder, finding one in the half-bathroom. In the attic, they found something very interesting: lots of tiny colored glass bottles, sealed with corks. Inside of them, a stink thick liquid, that looked like honey. They hadn't been found by the police due to a fake wall built in order to hide the stuff, probably an illegal substance.
As soon as the sun rose, Hunter and McCall left the house (before, they had his car fixed). They took along some of those tiny bottles and sent it to be examined by the police's expert. It took several days to discover that that thick substance was a powerful brand-new drug, whose main constituent was an oil extracted from a plant which grew in Mexico. Its effects on the human brain were worse than those provoked by cocaine or heroine.
The two murdered men were developing the substance at the same time by coincidence, in their own companies. Although they weren't just employees, they wanted to be richer than they already were, by putting this powerful drug in the streets.
Colin and Austin used to buy the plant from the only source in Los Angeles, a small herbal store owned by a man named Pablo, who came from South America. The interest in such rare plant by two chemists drew Pablo's attention, whose character wasn't good at all; only women had demonstrated interest in that plant before, because its good effect on diminishing cramps. What helped a lot was that both guys were very talkative. Thus, Pablo figured out the two men had something interesting in their hands, something that could be very profitable, and made up a plan to steal the formula.
It wasn't his intention to kill the men at first. As a smooth-talking person, Pablo had made friends with the big shots, and ended up knowing a lot of things about their lives. Pablo was good at doing voices and, a week before the murders, called the victims pretending to be another person. He said to them he knew about the existence of the new drug and wanted the men to share the formula with him; he would turn them in if they refused to do what he demanded.
Pablo set a meeting with Austin and Colin in Mexico, where they would have not only to give the formula, but also teach how to prepare the drug, because he wasn't a chemist. They had no alternative than accept to go to Mexico. Pablo told them to go to certain places and talk to certain people (Pablo's fellows), in different hours, and give them the formula, besides teaching how to make the drug. They went there and did what was ordered by Pablo and returned to LA.
Another call made by Pablo advised them to gather all issues of 2 of their magazines (one on science fiction, to the first guy and other on gardening, to the second man) and scratch the labels. After scratching, they would find numbers of lockers in the airport with copies of proofs that would prove their involvement with the development of an illegal drug (Pablo had taken pics in Mexico and taped several phone calls). Colin and Austin got furious at the blackmailer. But any of them knew that the scum was Pablo, as they didn't know each other either.
Besides having the formula, Pablo had the two men in his hands. What he didn't expect was that one of the chemists, Austin, decided to go to the police and tell all the truth - he wanted neither to become a criminal nor to be blackmailed anymore. But, before going to the police, he dropped by Pablo's store, to talk to "a good friend". Austin inadvertently told everything to Pablo, who had to do something to prevent his going to the police: to kill his talkative customer. As he had murdered Austin, he decided that Colin should die as well and killed him on that same day.
With the results on the substance, Hunter and McCall headed for the only store where the Mexican plant could be found in LA (McCall had already used it for cramps). There, they met Pablo, who was scared, with a guilty face. It was easy for the cops realized that and they took Pablo to the precinct, to interrogate him. After that "good cop, bad cop" thing, Pablo confessed both crimes and told the whole story to the cops. The case was finished; Charlie was happy again, Chief Stanmore congratulated Hunter and McCall and the press had its headlines. The formula was destroyed by the police department and that terrible drug never reached the streets.
Afterwards, Hunter and McCall asked for a week off. It was time to focus on Hunter's problem.