Chapter Three: "Fugitive"
The room suddenly became a flurry of activity after Sam's announcement as the team gathered up their things in preparation to leave while Sam looked on impatiently, several minutes later, the team were in the Suburban heading towards the scene of the crime, "what have we got on this guy Sam?" Cosmo asked as they sped through the streets, "not a lot, other than his name, Michael Taylor, 21 years old" Sam said, shuffling through the papers on his lap,"police got a tip that he'd been seen in the neighborhood where his dad lives, his dad hadn't been seen in a couple of days & when they made entry into the house they found his dad stabbed to death, they're meeting us at the scene." "Ok people, this is how it's going to go, Savannah, you get the computer up & see what else you can dig up on this guy, I wanna know everything, relatives, friends, addresses, the whole bit" Savannah nodded, "Noah, I want you to talk to the neighbors, see what they can tell you, Bobby, I want you to take the camera & get some pictures, take a look around & see what you can find, Cosmo, you & I will coordinate with the police, everyone got that?" Sam snapped, everyone nodded, "good" he said.
When they pulled up to the address, everyone got out & scattered in their respective directions, Savannah booted the laptop up & began searching for the information Sam had asked for, Bobby grabbed the camera & with an officer escort disappeared into the house to take a look around & take some snapshots of the scene & Newman started interviewing the neighbors while Cosmo & Sam spoke to the officers who had first responded to the scene. After about an hour, Sam called everyone together for an update, "ok, people, what do we have?" Sam asked, "well, Sam I found the information you were looking for," Savannah said, "ok, let's have it" Sam responded "Michael Taylor, 21 years old, parents are divorced his mother, an ex-police officer, eventually remarried, no job to speak of, was kicked out of his mother's house & he's got quite a record here, arrests for DUI's, drugs, you name it" She said, "what about his friends?" Sam asked, "well, at least one has been convicted on three felony charges, a Jimmy Porter, the only other thing we got on him is where he lives, LaPorte, TX" Savannah answered, "what's his other friends' names?" "David Smith, James Delgado & Marc Johnson, none of them had any hits though" Savannah said, "where do they live?" Cosmo asked, "same town, LaPorte TX" Savannah answered, "where is LaPorte anyway?" Bobby asked, "it's in TX Bob, just like the lady said" Cosmo said, " I know that, I'm not deaf, where in TX?" Bobby shot back "it's in Clear Lake," Cosmo snarled.
"Ok, ok, people, enough, Bobby, you find anything unusual in the house?" Sam asked massaging the bridge of his nose, Bobby glared at Cosmo before answering, "well, there was no sign of forced entry although the place is pretty messy, you can definitely tell a fight went on in there." Sam turned to Newman, "Noah, what'd you find out from the neighbors?" "The neighbors all say pretty much the same thing, they'd seen Michael in the area off & on, they reported hearing loud arguments coming from the house regularly, but they said it never became physical before now." Noah replied, "always a first time for everything huh?" Cosmo said sarcastically, Sam turned to Savannah, "there was nothing in his file explaining why he would kill his dad?" Sam asked, Savannah shook her head, "no, although the file did say his parents had gone through a nasty divorce so I'd suspect that had something to do with it." Sam nodded, "and you say his mother & step-dad are still living?" "Yeah, they still live in LaPorte" Savannah answered, Sam stood up & said "well then, what do you say we pay them a little visit & see if we can get some answers here", the rest of the team nodded & began to gather their things together, Cosmo got on his cellphone to secure them reservations on a flight to TX for that evening while Sam thanked the police for their cooperation & to bring them up to speed. Cosmo flipped his phone shut, "ok Sam, we got seats on the next plane out to TX" he said, "good" Sam answered, "let's get going", the team clambered back into the Suburban & headed back to the office before catching their flight.
Back at the office Sam retreated into his office for the second time that day & shut the door the team all exchanged glances, "how much longer is he gonna keep doing that?" Bobby asked, Savannah threw him a dirty look, "Bobby would you lay off?" she exclaimed, "how do you think you'd feel if you lost Mary?" Bobby didn't answer he knew he'd feel just as lost as Sam was feeling, but he also knew that pushing people away didn't help "he can't run & hide forever 'Vannah, sooner or later he's gonna have to face it" Bobby said, "I know, but we're just gonna have to let him grieve in his own time" Savannah said, she started to say more but at that moment, Sam's office door opened & he strode across the room briskly, "ok, people let's move it, we've got a plane to catch" he snapped. They all piled into the Suburban & headed for the airport.