2

Back to the present...

Matt sat outside on the patio of the penthouse as he thought back to that day a little over a year ago when C.J. got so ill and he cooked for her. He smiled as he remembered how easy it was to get her to comply with doctor's orders when he first got her to the beach house, but how difficult she became with each passing day as her health and attitude returned. Thinking back to all those memories he would ask himself over and over, 'How did I not realize I was in love with her?' Even the decision to buy the beach house included her and her feelings about it, not to mention a room just for her. He had always included her in his life.

He got up to go refresh his orange juice. It was only mid morning, he had just enough time for a quick workout because he knew they would be meeting with a client soon. Uncle Roy was on his way and C.J. would be along soon as well. His plan, the one he came up with while in the hospital a few months ago after being shot was going fairly well. All that time stuck in that stupid hospital room had paid off for him, he thought to himself. He had wisely used the time to draw up a plan to make C.J. slow down and take it easier. She was none the wiser...or so he thought.

C.J. closed the car door after arriving at the day spa. She went in, gave her name and sat down waiting to be called back. Matt had given her a special assignment right after wrapping up the Aleman case 2 months ago. He said he was interested in investing in day spas and needed her to do some research. So far, she had "researched" every chain facility in town. She knew what he was up to though given that he never did any research on Baby and never seemed interested in the financial or legal status of the spa. "Funny..." she told him after visiting the second one, "you don't seem to want me to look into the financials or anything, you just want me to check out the massages or the all day long treatments."

He had just put his arms around her waist and told her that day, "Most women would probably love it if their husband told them he needed them to go out and get a massage or two every week and spend the whole day just pampering themselves."

She had smiled back at him and told him, "Oh no, I do love going out. Don't get me wrong. I just want to make sure you aren't trying to get me to stop investigating or anything like that. I can always reschedule these appointments so I can work more with you and Uncle Roy."

Matt leaned over and kissed her softly on the mouth that day and told her, "These two cases we have right now aren't that complicated and we should have them wrapped up soon. I'm not trying to push you away from the agency, I'm not. I really do want to invest and I need someone to give me that customer's perspective."

She asked him, "So, when we determine which one to invest in, the research will be over?" C.J. asked him that knowing that if this was all just research, that would end once he made his final decision. If not, he would come up with another excuse to keep her going.

"Well, I will probably want to make sure we do some quality control checks. You know, just to make sure everything is being run the way we want it to be and customers are happy." He told her.

C.J. just smiled and told him as she patted his chest, "Uh huh, quality control...so I guess that means you will be wanting me to 'check' on the massage therapist weekly or something like that?"

Matt nodded his head, "That should work out perfectly." As he said that he thought to himself, 'Yes, you will be taking each Friday and slowing down and relaxing. It will be good for you. Especially when we start our family and you need a lot of extra rest and relaxation.'

She had walked away thinking, 'Uh huh, just research, right...' Not that she really minded though. The Aleman case had left her physically exhausted and between that and the Roy Turner parole hearing that had come up again now a year later, she was mentally exhausted as well.

Roy Turner had confessed to killing 4 teenagers in Lake Etah two years ago. C.J.'s mentor, F. Lee Bailey had asked her to handle the arraignment as he dealt with another case out of state. C.J. had accepted the case willingly, she could never say no to her mentor after all, and found out that the social climate in Lake Etah would prove just as difficult to manage as her client. She had to stand strong for her client and go up against not only the public there in the small town, but also against a judge set to rule against her. Given the uncooperative nature of her client, wanting it seemed to be found guilty, she knew she needed to do some background and called Matt to ask for some help on his end.

She didn't want him to drop everything and come running so she asked him to have Murray handle it. Matt already knew that the case had shaken her though. She had unknowingly perhaps dropped her guard when she heard his voice on the phone. He had asked her, "Are you sure you don't want me to come up there and give you a hand?" She had reminded him who the lawyer was of the two and then went back to her hotel determined to focus on the case and prepare her briefs as the professional she is.

The Molotov cocktail that came through her window though scared her and she almost instinctively called out to Matt. He had just finished relaxing in the hot tub after packing to discretely visit the town of Lake Etah and keep a watchful eye on her from a distance. He didn't like the sound of her voice earlier and after watching the news that night, didn't like the looks of the crowds around her at the courthouse.

Her call to him alarmed him all the more. Someone had essentially attacked her. Had the bottle landed on the bed with her or if she had been closer to where it came through the window, or worse yet, what if it had actually hit her before hitting anything else in the room or if the room became engulfed in flames and she couldn't escape...his mind didn't want to go down that road. Otherwise peaceful, law abiding citizens will sometimes react violently if someone poses a threat, which C.J. did. So he had rushed to her side and found out quickly that she needed him probably more than she thought.

The first day he was there Turner tried to confess. Matt never liked the idea of her being in the same room with him, especially alone with him. So when he went in with her, he made sure to position himself between the two when Turner gave a graphic account of events. Matt was convinced he was guilty and simply hearing the confession upset him and made his breathing ragged. He had turned back to C.J. as she excused herself, also visibly shaken, wanting to reach out to her but seeing her almost flee the room. He caught up with her after running in to Murray who had information that could prove Turner's innocence.

What they discovered that day after they were threatened and attacked twice was that Turner was indeed innocent. The local coach had raped one of the students, the fiancee of one of the victims. The soon to be husband had quit the coach's team and threatened to expose him. That was when the coach set out to kill him with the other three stumbling upon the murder. He killed all four. Turner was only convicted of theft and lying under oath with his confession.

C.J. never told Matt that when he was being hauled away by officials, while Matt was checking them out of the hotel, Turner told C.J., "Why couldn't you just stay out of it? I'll get you for this! I will be remembered! I am the murder machine! Don't you forget that!" Those were the last words she heard from him as they drug him out of the building and into a squad car.

Last year she had prepared the psychological evaluation recommendation after explaining everything to F. Lee Bailey. He had simply looked over her list of reasons as to the necessity of such an evaluation and told her with a little smile, "You know, we are on the side of the defense, not the prosecution. Its our job to get him out of jail."

C.J. replied with, "We are here to look after the best interests of our client. I read over your meeting notes with him from the last couple of weeks and it seems as though he plans to be released and then pose a threat to others, saying he wants that title of monster. Its our job to make sure he doesn't get released and then go and harm someone else and wind up right back in jail, probably for much longer next time."

Bailey tilted his head and told her, "You do have a point Ms. Parsons. Think you can handle the parole hearing? I need to catch a flight to New York, there's an arraignment that just got sped up by the prosecution and I need to be there to represent my client. I hate to put this on you again, but you always were the best and most reliable student I ever had."

C.J. coughed once and then smiled as she looked at him and said, "I can handle it. So this is our plan." She said as she held up the recommendation.

Bailey replied, "Yes, I suppose it is. Ms. Parsons, you have convinced me, a defense lawyer to recommend my client submit to a psychological evaluation before his own release." He shook his head, "I think maybe I taught you too well." He said as he left her.

Now she sat waiting for her turn in the hot tub at this spa. She had signed up for the hot water "treatment" before the massage with hot rocks. Oh boy, she thought to herself, I'll be putty when I leave here.

She picked up an outdated newspaper to read while she waited and caught at the bottom of the page that Roy Turner had been released on parole just a week ago. She sighed as she thought back to the events of last week. She had filed her motion again after working for days on it, again with Bailey's approval. The initial evaluation last year had found that he had a disturbing lack of empathy for the families of the victims and that perhaps could indicate greater psychological problems. The psychologist who performed the evaluation had recommended that he remain in custody and receive treatment including anti psychotic medications. Turner had remained calm last year until discovering he was not being released when he began shouting at all the lawyers, but especially C.J. who he screamed at saying, "What the hell is your problem with me? Why do you keep doing this?" She had stood up as they drug him out again.

Last week she didn't appear before the parole board though. Bailey, feeling guilty perhaps, sent over a junior member to argue before the board, armed with the same evaluation essentially although a year had passed. As C.J. read the paper, she discovered that Turner had claimed to have changed, that the drugs were helping him and the therapy and he was ready and eager to rejoin society. The only disturbing point of the article was his quote that he wished to thank C.J. Parsons for keeping him in jail and his receiving the help he needed.

C.J. put the paper down, she had read enough. At about that time a woman approached and said, "Ms. Parsons-Houston?"

C.J. said, "Yes" standing up.

The woman told her, "Follow me," C.J. did and the woman explained where they were going down the hall. "There is a changing area behind this door that is private," she handed her a key with a huge key ring and said, "The hot tub is just behind this other door..." she pointed to the door opposite the changing room. "You need the key to get in. There is a locker in there to put your things. Someone will come in to get you in 30 minutes to take you to your massage. Any questions?"

C.J. shook her head and thanked her before changing into her bikini and then going into the hot tub room. As she went in, she put her clothes in a locker and noticed that there was only one other woman sitting in the tub with her eyes closed. She was blonde and young but awfully still. C.J. walked over and started to put her foot in, but stopped, She said softly, "Hi there, I hope you don't mind my joining you." The woman didn't move at all.

C.J. thought that maybe she had fallen asleep which could be dangerous so she pulled her foot back and walked over to the woman to gently shake her to wake her up but when she reached for her shoulder she felt a shock. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a blue spark as her wedding rings came close to the water. She backed up, breathing ragged as she spoke up, "Ma'am! Ma'am! Can you hear me?"...nothing, the woman didn't move at all. C.J. carefully crawled back over and slowly picked up the woman's wrist as it laid outside the tub to feel for a pulse...nothing. C.J. gasped and took the wooden pole used to clean the tub and dipped it in the water to which more sparks came off it and she ended up dropping it. She looked up and saw the electrical box and ran over to switch it off. It turned off power to the hot tub and lights in the room but there were skylights in the ceiling so she could still see her way around. She got out the door and grabbed one of the people who worked there telling them to call the police and that she needed to see the manager.

Once the manager came in the room he asked, "What seems to be the problem, Ms. Parsons-Houston? Why on earth would you want the police to be called?"

C.J. looked back and motioned toward to the woman in the hot tub, "That woman died in your spa today and we need the police to come and investigate her death, but somehow the water is electrically charged."

The manager was clearly on the verge of panicking, "No...oh my...no...Ma'am! Ma'am!"

C.J. walked over and put her hand on his shoulder and told him, "I already tried that, and I checked for her pulse. She doesn't have one." The man started to reach down when C.J. stopped him and said, "You can't touch the water, it needs to be checked for other sources of electricity. I think I turned off the main power, but we need to let the professionals come in here and do their job. The police will need the scene secured and that means no one touches anything, understand?" They talked for another 20 minutes as she tried to keep him calm.

The manager stood up beside C.J. and said, "I can't believe anything like this could happen. We're so careful, about everything." At that point one of the workers came to the door and looked in to tell him that the police had arrived. The manager nodded his head and told him to bring them back.

"Sure thing Harvey," was what the worker told him.

C.J. reached out her hand to shake his and said, "So it's Harvey?"

He took her hand and said, "Yes, I'm sorry, its Harvey Gerard. I just took over last year and so far things have been great. That is...up until now," he said as he looked back over at the victim.

C.J. asked him, "Well you know who I am so you should also know that my husband and I are private investigators. I would like to work on this case with the police so if you could send me everything you send them, I would greatly appreciate it. The lady at the front desk has all my contact information." He nodded and Hoyt and a small number of his men came in.

When he saw C.J. he was surprised, "C.J.? What are you doing here? Tell me she wasn't a client of yours."

C.J. shook her head and said, "No Hoyt, I don't know who she is. I was just here to get in the hot tub. I tried to talk to her but she wouldn't respond. My rings here sparked when they got close to the water and I dropped that pole in there when it gave off sparks," she said as she pointed to it.

One of Hoyt's men, Det. Warren went over to the pump box. After a couple of minutes he called him over to look at the pump. He had on gloves and pointed to the wires and said, "Looks like someone crossed the wires and see there..." he pointed to further in the box, "the wires make contact with the water. She was electrocuted as soon as her big toe hit the water."

That caused C.J. to take a step back for a second, but no one noticed. She had come so close to doing just that and only half an hour ago.

Hoyt told him and two of the forensics team, "Ok, gather prints. Especially on the box here and the main box on the wall."

C.J. interjected, "Mine will be on the one on the wall. I turned the power off so no one else would get hurt."

Hoyt nodded and walked over to her, "Fine, fine. Your prints anywhere else I should be aware of?"

She looked back to her locker and pointed to it, "Well, that's my locker over there and I need to get into it to get my things."

Hoyt shook his head, "You can't be removing items from a crime scene!"

She looked up at him like she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Hoyt, I'm in a bikini here in case you haven't noticed and my purse, keys, everything is in that locker!"

He started shaking his head again and said, "I'm sorry C.J., this looks like a homicide investigation. I can't have you tampering with the evidence."

"Evidence?" she said exasperated, "What evidence? Those are my clothes and my belongings...my property." She said that last part sounding much more like a lawyer.

"You will get all your property back I can assure you, but for right now, it has to stay." Hoyt told her.

Warren walked over and looked at C.J., "You know there isn't a man on the force that would mind driving you back to the Houston Inc building. Especially in that bikini."

C.J. smiled back sarcastically, knowing he was just kidding around and told him, "Thanks but no thanks. I have a spare key under the car. I'll drive straight back to the office and pick up my property later."

She turned back to Harvey who was sitting by the door looking like he was going into shock and asked him, "I am hoping I can take one of the pairs of flip flops that you advertise and pay for them later." She looked back at Hoyt and said, "I can't get to my wallet right now."

He nodded and called out to another employee who was already canceling appointments and told him. She took the shoes and drove back to the office in her bikini.