DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters, except for Matthew and Moxie. The rest of them belong to James Duff and the Major Crimes franchise.
Chapter 7
As Ricky drove Matthew home, they stopped at a little restaurant for some Mexican take-out. Ricky placed the order after Matthew told him what he wanted. Matthew then handed over the $20 bill to pay the cashier and he received change from it. He placed the change in his pocket and walked over to the pick-up counter with Ricky.
"So, what's new little brother?" Ricky asked him as they waited for their food. Matthew shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing really," he responded. "How's school going?" Ricky asked. "It's okay," Matthew muttered. The guy behind the counter called their number and Ricky moved forward picking up the white paper bag with their food.
"Ready?" Ricky smiled as he handed the bag to Matthew for him to carry and they made their way out of the building and back to Ricky's car. Matthew got in the back seat and closed his door. Ricky got in the driver's side and started the car again.
"Did kids bully kids in your class when you went to school?" Matthew asked Ricky as they drove home. "Uh, yeah sometimes, why?" Ricky asked as he turned down the street where the house was located. "Some kids in my class started sending a letter around to everyone about another kid in my class," Matthew explained.
"Did you read it?" Ricky wondered as he pulled his car into the driveway and parked along the side so that when his mom and Andy came home, they would be able to pull their car into the garage. "No, I didn't see the letter but I heard about it," Matthew answered him as he got out of the car.
They both walked towards the back door and Ricky opened it, following Matthew inside the house. Moxie was waiting for them by the back door and followed Matthew into the kitchen. "I'm going to take him out," Matthew told Ricky as he placed the white paper bag with the food on the kitchen table and placed his backpack on the floor.
"Okay," Ricky said and he started to unpack the food bag.
Matthew took Moxie out into the backyard and the dog ran around the yard, sniffing everything and barking occasionally. Matthew heard other dogs in the neighborhood barking as well. Moxie did his business and Matthew brought him back inside the house.
Ricky was sitting down at the kitchen table, and placed Matthew's tacos on the plate. "Matthew?" Ricky called out to him as he heard the back door open and close. "Yeah?" he heard Matthew say and moved to the hallway to the kitchen.
Ricky looked at him. "Your tacos," he pointed out. Matthew nodded. "I'm just feeding Moxie," the kid smiled and went back to that task. Moxie was sitting while Matthew prepared his food. Placing the dry food in the bowl and adding some water to it, Matthew placed the bowl on the floor. Moxie looked at Matthew, waiting. "Okay," Matthew said and Moxie started to devour his food.
Matthew walked into the kitchen and sat down. "How long are you staying?" he asked Ricky as he started to eat. "Two weeks," Ricky said, chewing his food. "I'm off for two weeks too!" Matthew excitedly said.
"That means you'll be here for my birthday!" Matthew continued as they ate. "Have you thought about what you're getting Mom and Andy, uh your dad, for Christmas?" Ricky asked him. "Uh, I don't know?" Matthew hesitated before answering.
Meanwhile, back at the PAB, the team was gathered at their desks. Mike's program was still searching the fingerprint in the database. He sat at his desk, eating a piece of pizza that they ordered earlier.
Andy was at his desk, searching cold storage facilities on his computer as he took a few bites from his salad. The pizza they had ordered smelled really good. Andy glanced over his shoulder to see where Sharon was but he didn't see her in her office. He looked over to the pizza box on the empty desk.
'One piece won't hurt, right?' he thought to himself as he stood up from his desk and walked over to the box. He lifted the lid and looked inside. The first box lid he lifted was a meat lovers pizza. "I thought you don't eat meat?" Provenza stated from his chair.
"Not this stuff," Andy hissed back, closing the lid and moved over to the other pizza box. He lifted that lid and found a veggie lovers pizza, sitting there, waiting for him to eat a piece. He was just about to take a small piece when Sharon walked back into the room and saw him.
"Finished your salad?" she said standing right behind him which startled him and he dropped the piece of pizza back in the box. "I just wanted to see what types of pizzas were ordered," he smiled at her. She raised her eyebrows at him. "Oh, is that what you were doing?" she chuckled and smirked at the same time.
"I wanted to let you know that there are 20 different cold storage facilities in the Los Angeles area, 10 of them are near LAX, 2 are in the Valley, and the rest are near the Warehouse District, scattered around train tracks and the trucking areas," Andy informed her as she walked with him back towards his desk.
She smiled at him. "Good, hopefully we will either get the sketch from the sketch artist or Mike's fingerprint will come back soon," she cleared her throat, "so that we can have a name or at least some sort of identifiers when we call these places," she told him and he nodded.
"Well, the only problem is, some of these places are already closed for the evening, mostly they're open 7am to 7pm, and it's close to 7 now," Andy informed her as she glanced at her watch. Sharon wondered where the time had gone.
Sharon glanced over at Mike's desk and saw he was still sitting there waiting for a result from the fingerprint. "Hey Tao, are you sure that fingerprint program is up and working?" Julio asked him as he turned in his chair.
"I think so," Mike looked at his screen and still saw the progress bar moving. "I'm just saying it's been taking a long time," Julio added as he stood up from his desk and walked over to Mike.
Just then, the sketch artist came into the office and looked for Provenza. "Lieutenant, here is the sketch that I drew from what the witness had told me," she handed the paper over to him. "Thank you, Tracey, hopefully this helps," Provenza nodded and placed the paper on the Murder Board.
Provenza turned and waved Sharon over. She walked over to his desk and Andy followed her, joining them. "Here's our sketch," Provenza stated as they looked at the paper. Sharon folded her arms as she looked at the sketch.
"We'll run it through the DMV photos and see who matches up to it," Provenza told her as she stared into the eyes of the person. "Okay," Sharon nodded and turned her head to look at Andy. "What is it?" she asked him. "I don't know, I feel like I've seen this guy before," he answered as he looked at the picture.
"Where?" Provenza asked him. Andy shook his head. "I don't know," he stated and sighed as he scratched his head. The sketch artist drawing showed the guy wearing a baseball hat, light skin, with a stubby beard. The guy's ears pointed out from underneath the hat. They were staring at a sketch of Jeffrey, but they didn't know it yet.
"Dammit!" they all heard Mike and turned around to see what the matter was. He looked defeated as he sat, slumped in his chair. "No match in the database," Mike said as he took his glasses off and placed them on his desk. Julio looked at Sharon and walked back over to his desk, sitting down across from Amy, who was on the phone.
Sharon looked around at her team and she knew they needed to call it a night and start fresh in the morning. "Alright everyone, we're not getting any closer to this, so let's call it a night and return tomorrow, fresh and ready to go," she told them and walked back towards her office.
Andy stared at the sketch a little longer as everyone packed up. "Where have you seen him before?" mumbled Provenza as he watched his friend. "I don't know, but I know it was recent, I think," Andy shrugged his shoulders.
Provenza rolled his eyes at his friend as he patted him on his back. "Good night Flynn, take care of the Commander," Provenza told him in a lower voice so Sharon wouldn't hear the last part. Andy nodded at his friend and headed towards his desk.
"Andy?" Sharon startled him, again as he was deep in thought, when she walked out of her office with her things. "Sorry," he muttered as he looked at her. "Ready to go?" he asked and she nodded, taking his hand in hers and they walked out of the Murder Room.
As they made their way to the car, Andy had his arm around Sharon's waist. "What would you like when we get home?" he asked her as they walked. Sharon hummed as she thought about it. "I'd like to change into more comfortable clothing, my feet are killing me," she chuckled as they stopped and Andy opened her door for her.
As she sat down in the car, she slipped off her high-heeled shoes and placed them on the floor mat. "Perhaps a foot massage later?" Andy asked and she nodded in anticipation. He smiled and closed her door.
Making his way around the car, he couldn't help but wonder who that guy was in the sketch. He climbed in the driver's side and started the car. Sharon sought out his hand and she clasped it in hers, rubbing her thumb over his hand.
Andy took a deep breath as he drove the car out of the parking lot and onto the night streets of LA. The city was bustling with people as they pulled up to a red light before the entrance to the freeway.
"Where do you think you've seen him before?" Sharon said, breaking the somewhat silence since they left the parking garage. The light turned green and Andy started to drive onto the freeway. "I don't know," he sighed again, not knowing where he looked familiar from.
Sharon could tell this was going to bother him and the tension that she felt in his hand made her want to relax him when they got home. Oh, there were so many things she wanted to do when they finally got home after the long day.
This case was taking a toll on her team, that's why she decided to call it a night and resume tomorrow morning. After all, it was now after 8 o'clock, and there wasn't much they could do until they talked with those cold storage facilities tomorrow, maybe bring copies of the sketch with and see if, perchance, their person had rented a unit.
She looked out the window at the night lights as Andy exited the freeway and back onto the streets that would lead to their house. Somewhere out there was a serial killer, and Sharon hoped that he wasn't choosing another victim at this moment.
Across town, Jeffrey was sitting in his basement, tinkering with his metal project. On the wall next to him were a bunch of pictures scattered across. They were mostly of him when he was a little boy. Some with him and his parents. His dad in his Naval uniform, standing next to his mom and him.
That brought back a painful memory for Jeffrey as he looked at the next picture of the Millers with his parents. He felt betrayed by Howard Miller. He was his dad's best friend and when he passed, the Millers didn't even say anything to him or his mom.
He had found them several months ago, on accident, and they remembered him. He told them both of his parents passing and they gave him condolences, and stroke up a friendship again, but it was too much for Jeffrey to handle. He had gone on a murderous rage, taking the bodies and freezing them so that the police wouldn't be searching for the bodies. And then, last weekend, he had gotten into an argument with Howard Miller, his wife walked in on them, and Jeffrey turned into rage again, killing them both.
Jeffrey blinked and that memory disappeared and he got back to his metal project. He couldn't focus anymore and threw the metal pieces against the wall, which broke them apart. He sat there looking at them for a minute before standing up and walking towards the stairs to go up to the first floor.
He passed a box that had some miscellaneous items in it. He stopped and looked through it, pulling out a toy and on the bottom of the toy had the name "William" on it. He then placed the toy back in the box and looked at the other things contained inside. He pulled out a wallet and saw there were loose pictures inside.
He looked at one of the pictures and saw Richard and Martha Gonzalez, standing with their son William, along with another girl he did not know. He had met Richard at an AA meeting in Central Alameda a year ago. They got to talking about their problems.
Richard had come over one night and Jeffrey had shown him his workbench in the basement. They had gotten into a heated discussion regarding something that Richard had found and he tried to get away. Jeffrey stopped him and killed him in the basement.
He had then gone over to Richard's house to tell his wife something had happened to him, and he killed her and their son there. Jeffrey shook his head and went up the stairs. He headed into the kitchen and pulled out a beer, taking a swig of it, he walked into the living room and sat in front of the television.
Meanwhile, Sharon and Andy had arrived home and she was now in the family room sitting on the couch talking with Ricky. "So, how come you came down early?" she asked him. "Well, I actually wanted to surprise you, and I see that I did but unfortunately, you have a case," Ricky sat there looking at his mom.
"So, instead of having Matthew go with you to work tomorrow, I was thinking about taking him to the Zoo. The weather is supposed to be nice and I figured you wouldn't have to worry about him then," he was serious as he told Sharon but she gave him a skeptical look.
"Ricky, that's very nice of you to offer, are you sure you don't mind hanging out with your little brother all day?" Sharon asked, wondering if there was another motive for Ricky. "Why are you doubting me? I mean, can't I hang out with the kid?" he asked.
"Ricky, I seem to remember not too long ago that you protested my adoption of Rusty," she started to say and he was going to interrupt her but she held up her hand and he stopped. "I know last year was his first Christmas with us and we were all new to the idea of him staying here," she continued.
"Yes, I know Mom, and we tried to make him feel welcomed last year. This year I want to be able to do that, more on a brother to little brother level," Ricky explained and Sharon listened. "And, no offense Mom, but Rusty back then was different, Dad was butting in and I just felt like I had to look out for you," he continued and Sharon laughed.
"But now, we are once again a happy family. You're happy, Mom, and everyone else, Andy, Matthew, Rusty, Emily, me, we are all happy as well," he told her and she quickly brushed a tear away from her face. "Oh Ricky," Sharon started to say and then hugged him.
"Hey, how did Andy get that bruise on his face?" Ricky asked and Sharon looked at him. "From your father," she sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "Really?" he was shocked. "Did it happen at Emily's performance?" he asked and she nodded. "After, when he went to pick up our coats," she told him the story of what happened.
TBC