CHAPTER 2

"What do you want?" Henry Belieu was sitting at the desk in his oak-paneled office.

"I'm here to collect." The man had a baseball cap pulled low on his head and was wearing a pair of very large, very dark glasses.

"I don't know who you are, but we're closed for the day. You need to leave." The plastic surgeon stood up behind his desk and leaned over with his hands on the mahogany desk.

"No, not until I get what I came for." The man reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small pistol, a .22 Beretta not even as big as the stapler on the surgeon's desk.

Belieu laughed. "I'm supposed to be afraid of…" Those were his last words. The man in the baseball cap pulled the trigger and a hole suddenly appeared in the doctor's forehead. He tumbled over the desk, a surprised look on his face, his now unseeing eyes seemingly looking at the shooter's shoes.

At 7:15 am the next morning, Dr. Henry Belieu's office manager unlocked the office door and started making coffee, just as she always did. She noticed that the door to the doctor's private office was open and there was light coming from inside.

"Dr. Belieu you sure are here early this morning. I thought you were going to be late today?" She walked down the hallway and when she reached the door, there was the doctor, sprawled across his desk, a puddle of dried blood on the carpet under his head.

At 7:45, Lt. Michael Hoyt arrived on the scene. He walked in with Cheryl Crawford, one of the CSI techs. They looked at each other. "Looks just like what happened to that other doc. What was his name – Siler?" Cheryl looked over at the lieutenant.

"Yes it does – exactly." Hoyt took a couple of steps into the office and looked around, not seeing a weapon anywhere. He knelt down and got a closer look at the wound. "Looks small – a .22 probably." Standing back up, he stepped back as Cheryl started her job – beginning with taking photos of the scene.

"That's what was used on the other guy." Cheryl looked at Hoyt. "Think it's the same killer?"

Hoyt shrugged his shoulders. "It's too bad the slug from the other scene was so damaged. But a .22 does tend to bounce around inside a skull." He was thinking back to the other murder that had occurred three days ago. The doctor in that case had also been a plastic surgeon. Coincidence? he wondered. Maybe, but he didn't much care for coincidences.

Walking back out into the hallway, Hoyt pulled out his cell phone and called Houston, who picked it up on the fourth ring. "Houston."

"Hey, are you okay? Sound a little out of breath, PI." As soon as he said it, he realized that he probably shouldn't have.

"Uhhhh, yeah, I'm fine." Matt looked over at CJ who was doing her best not to laugh too loud. Hoyt heard it anyway.

"Sorry to call you so early but it looks like we might have a two-time murderer on the loose. Think you can come take a look?"

"Sure, where is it?" Matt picked up the notepad that he kept on the bedside table and wrote down the address. "Be there in about thirty minutes or so. Alright?"

"I'll be here." He heard more laughter in the background, then hung up the phone. Newlyweds! he thought to himself.

Sure enough, Houston showed up thirty minutes later. Hoyt noticed that he seemed a lot happier than he had been in recent weeks. "Good morning." The smiling private detective sauntered into the hallway after being cleared into the office by a patrolman.

"Maybe good for you and me, but not for this guy." Hoyt jerked his head in the direction of the doctor's private office.

Houston walked in and squatted down to get a look at the head wound. "Ouch. Looks like a .22. Bet there's a mess inside his skull." He moved around the desk and looked behind and underneath it. "Don't see a weapon anywhere."

"We haven't seen one. Looks just like the scene from Dr. Ernest Siler's office three days ago. Right down to the location of the wound." The weary lieutenant stifled a yawn.

"I take it you haven't found anything else suspicious?" Matt walked back over to stand by Hoyt.

"Nope, just like the other scene. Nothing appears to be missing."

"What about security cameras?" Matt looked around the office and then stepped out into the hallway and looked around the rest of the area.

"There are none. The alarm wasn't turned on either. Looks like the good doctor was working late and somebody got in."

"Who found him?" Matt stood with his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

"The office manager – one Shawna Farris. She's in the kitchen." Hoyt led the way down the hall and into the small kitchen area. The office manager was sitting at the table with a cup of coffee, a shocked expression on her face and faint black lines running down her cheeks where her mascara had run along with tears.

"Miss Farris, this is Matt Houston. He's a private investigator who consults with the department. Houston, this is Miss Shawna Farris, Dr. Belieu's office manager."

Matt leaned forward and shook the lady's hand. "Sorry to meet you under these circumstances, Miss Farris." He pulled out a chair and sat down. "Could you tell me a little bit about the doc?"

"Well, he's forty five years old, married to a wonderful lady named Grace. They married twenty two years ago." She started crying again. "Grace is just going to be so devastated."

"Yes ma'am, I'm sure she will be. Do you know if the doctor had been having any problems with anyone lately?"

"Oh no! He's absolutely wonderful! He's helped so many people. See, Dr. Belieu does a lot of pro bono work, you know, free. He's even traveled to other countries to help people who wouldn't otherwise get the surgery they need. Burn victims, accident victims, children and adults with deformities. He's helped a lot of folks."

"He sounds like a nice man. Can you think of anyone who might have had a grudge against him?"

"No, he's very well-liked and respected. Everyone just loved him." She started crying again.

"Alright, well, thanks for your time." Matt stood up and walked out of the kitchen and down the hallway. "I wonder if anyone has ever sued the man. That happens with just about any doctor."

"I don't know, but we can sure find out. I'm going to head back to the office. We can check for lawsuits there." Hoyt started out of the door and into the hallway followed by Matt.

"I'll need to see the file on the other doctor, too." He pushed the button for the elevator.

"It's in my office." Hoyt looked over at the man that he now considered his best friend. "Look, I'm sorry I called you so early."

"Aw, that's okay." Houston had a little grin on his face – something that Hoyt hadn't seen much in the last few weeks.

After making a stop at a nearby bakery, Matt showed up at Hoyt's office with a bag tucked under his arm. He walked inside, leaned back against the closed door behind him, and let out a big sigh of relief.

"What's up?" Hoyt looked up from the computer monitor.

"It's like running a gauntlet out there." He turned toward the window of the lieutenant's office that looked out into the outer office. Three cops were standing there looking at him. He walked over and closed the blinds. "Here." He pulled a box of doughnuts out of the bag and set them on the desk.

"So are you going to steal the last one again, PI?" Hoyt looked up at the smiling private investigator.

"Probably not – there's two dozen in there." He plopped down and picked up the folder that was laying on the front of the desk and started to read through it. "You know a cup of coffee would be nice."

"You know where the pot is." Hoyt went back to the computer screen.

"I could just keep these all to myself, ya know." Matt raised an eyebrow and looked at his friend. "And I did manage to get in here with all twenty four of 'em."

"Oh alright!" Hoyt got up from his desk and went toward the door to find two cops standing there looking longingly at the white box on his desk. "Get! Go! Now! Get to work, all of you!" He went to the coffee pot and poured two cups, then made his way back. As he closed the door, two more officers walked up and looked through the window on it. He closed the blind and turned the lock. "Like a pack of hounds!" He set the cup down on the desk in front of Matt who sat there snickering.

After reading through the details of the Siler case, Matt picked up one of the doughnuts and took a big bite, staring at the map on the wall behind Hoyt's desk. He got up and walked around to it, found the location of Siler's office, then the location of Belieu's office. They were about twenty miles apart. He sat back down, grabbed another doughnut and looked back into the Siler file. "It says here that Siler graduated from UCLA. Do we know where Belieu went to school?"

Hoyt thought about it. "I didn't ask". He called Cheryl Crawford's cell phone. "Are you still at the surgeon's office?"

"Yep, for another few minutes, why?" She was putting her gear back into the case that she had brought in with her.

"Could you look in his office and see where he went to school?"

"Sure, hang on a sec." She took three steps into the office. "Says on the diploma hanging here that he went to UCLA."

"What year did he graduate?" Hoyt looked up at Matt.

"1984." She waited and she heard him telling that to someone with him, probably Houston.

"Aha. Alright, thanks." Hoyt hung up. "1984."

Matt tapped the folder on his thigh. "So did Siler." He stood up and walked around. "So I'd say they probably knew each other. Think I'll go see the two widows and make a stop by the university to see what I can find out about them." He grabbed two more doughnuts out of the box and took a bite out of one.

"You better finish those before you walk out of here or you're liable to be attacked." The lieutenant looked back down at the monitor. "Oh, by the way, both doctors have been sued before. I'll send the information to CJ."

"Works for me." Matt finished the second doughnut and picked up the cup of coffee. "Talk to you later."

He unlocked the office door and walked out to the elevator. Hoyt scrambled up and turned the lock on the door just as two more officers tried to get inside to get to the doughnuts.